The world did not end yesterday. It will not end today, nor will it end
tomorrow. And I'll tell you how I know--the Bible tells me so.
But just in case you don't want to do that much reading to find out the
answer, let me sum up.
In the last days, many will claim that they are the Christ, the Messiah, the
hope of the world. They will be lying, but so many will believe them. There
will be wars and rumors of wars, international and interpersonal conflicts of
every kind. A lot of it will be centered in the Middle East and focused on
Israel. There will be famine, disease, and earthquakes in various places. These
things signal the beginning of the end.
Christians will be persecuted, betrayed, imprisoned, hated, and martyred for
the Name of Jesus Christ. People will turn away from the truth to believe lies,
following after false prophets, teachers and christs. The world will become an
increasingly lawless and loveless place. But whoever endures in their faith
through all of this will be rescued from the worst that is still to come.
The last assignment Christ gave His disciples, the preaching of the Gospel
in all the world, will be complete.
And then the end will come.
One day, the world will wake up in the midst of global war, crisis, and
natural disaster to find that a portion of its population has disappeared.
Graves will have burst open, the sleeping who lay there gone without a trace.
An investigation will find that those troublesome meddling Christians who have
been so offensive to humanity are gone, vanished in the blink of an eye. And oh
the explanations that will follow, more lies to compound the lies that have
come before. And humanity will believe them.
Nations will be devastated--Russia, South Central Asia, Turkey, Iran, Syria,
Libya, Sudan--and their cities will lie in ruins after a failed attack on
Israel. Five-sixths of their citizens will die in the inferno. Israel will
overrun and occupy the Palestinian territories, plus Lebanon, Syria, Jordan,
and Egypt. The world will finally unite and cry out for peace in the Middle
East, peace at any cost, peace whatever the price may be.
And a world leader of Middle Eastern origin--Syrian or Iraqi--will take
charge of the peace initiative. The world will unite behind him, and he will
bring Israel to the table with its enemies and forge the peace. A seven year
treaty to ensure the safety and security of Israel as it rebuilds its temple on
the sacred mount in Jerusalem, a seven year period for the rest of the world to
recover from its wounds. But it will all be a ruse.
Forty-two months into the new era of peace, the world will turn against
Israel, led by a man considered to be God Incarnate. Invasion, occupation,
expulsion will be the result for the Israelis from the homeland they have
fought so hard to keep. Their temple will become the center of all cult
religion, defiled by a shrine erected by the world to their new god, the man
who finally brought peace to the Middle East. All other religions will be
abolished, all worship merged into the syncretic adoration of the man of the
hour. A mark will be issued for this man's followers, a registration, an oath
of loyalty. Those who have it will be allowed to continue their normal lives,
buying, selling, doing business. Those without it will be denied access to all
of their daily necessities. Jews who hold to their ancient tribal God and those
who have turned to Jesus Christ for the answers, these will be persecuted,
hunted down, imprisoned, and done away with.
During the rise and reign of the world's god-man, all of the crises and
disasters that rocked the world before he came will intensify and increase
until it seems that no one will survive these last days. In his bid for peace,
humanity's leader will wage war on all of his enemies. The staples of life will
be impossible to buy, but luxuries will still be in high demand among those who
can afford them. War, famine, disease, and infestation will kill off one-fourth
of humanity. Earthquakes will shake the planet from its place.
Asteroids and other celestial bodies will pound the earth from the skies. A
third of the trees and all the grass will be burned up. A third of the oceans
will be turned to blood, a third of everything living in the oceans will die,
and a third of the earth's ships will be destroyed. A third of the earth's
fresh water will be poisoned. The light of the sun and the moon and the stars
will be dimmed by thirty-three percent. Demon locusts that sting like scorpions
will infest the planet, tormenting with their sting and with their bite but
never killing. For five months, people will suffer all kinds of horrors, seek death
as way out, and fail to find it. But when the season of the locust has ended, a
supernatural army of demon horseman will invade this terrestrial sphere,
striking another third of humanity with death.
Just when the world thinks it cannot get any worse, a plague of sores will
break out on the bodies of those who took the infernal mark. All the water on
earth will coagulate like blood, killing everything in them. The sun's
intensity will increase to scorch the earth upon which it shines, but
supernatural darkness will cover the capital of the world. The Euphrates River
will dry up as a massive army from the east moves down the Silk Road to
confront the man they do not want to serve. The earth will quake and shake
again, rocking until every mountain and every city and every island on earth
has been leveled. Giant hailstones will fall from the sky. And on the ancient
battle field in Northern Israel, whose name has become synonymous with the end
of the world, all the nations of the earth will gather together for the war to
end all wars. There Armageddon will be unleashed.
And at the moment when all of humanity is on the verge of self-annihilation,
Jesus Christ will return in power and great glory. The heavens will open,
giving entrance to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Mounted on a white
horse and followed by all the saints of all the ages who had put their trust in
Him, the One who is called Faithful and True will, in righteousness, judge and
make war. With the two edged sword of His Word in His mouth, He will strike the
nations. With the rod of iron He will rule them. The great world leader who
exalted himself as God will be destroyed with the breath of Christ's mouth and
the brightness of His coming. All those who aligned themselves against Jesus
Christ will be destroyed in a moment, their flesh melting from their bones.
Jesus will rescue the Chosen People of Israel in their most desperate hour,
delivering them from the hand of their enemy. And when he touches down on the
Mount Olives for His second triumphal entry, the mountain will split and
healing water will burst forth from the depths, flowing out to heal the earth.
Judgments will follow. The enemies of the King will be banished forever. The
survivors of this great holocaust will find comfort and rest in the presence of
the Savior. Under the omnipotent but benevolent reign of Jesus Christ, humanity
will rebuild, and for a thousand years all will be peace. But in that last
generation of earth's last millennium, one last rebellion will arise, one last defiance
by the last of those who refuse to follow Christ. The lessons of old forgotten,
the nations of the world will converge on Jerusalem, there to be consumed with
a fiery blast from the throne of God.
The saints of the all the ages along with the remnant of humanity that
remained loyal to Jesus Christ will be gathered into the magnificence of the
New Jerusalem, and everything else will vanish away. The unrighteous dead will
be raised to face the final judgment before the throne of God, consigned to flames
of woe for all eternity, and then God will cleanse the physical plane with
fire, making the heaven and earth anew. And there we will live with Him forever
and ever, experiencing the next great adventure in the eternal plan of God.
So you see, the end of the world is at least 1007 years hence, and the
events that begin that last millennium have yet to happen. But they will. Soon.
The Mayans didn't get it right, but they shouldn't feel bad. No one ever has.
Not 1000 years ago, not 100 years ago, not last year when they predicted the
world would end in May, then October, then...Oh, I shouldn't have started
predicting in the first place. Because Jesus said, "No one knows
when...not even me. Only the Father in heaven knows when. But it will be soon."
Like a thief in the night. Like labor pains on a pregnant woman. Like the
master returning from a long journey. Like the bridegroom who has been delayed.
He will come suddenly.
And we need to be ready.
No comments:
Post a Comment