What Is The Time Of The End? (12)

Jesus Christ's Olivet Prophecy: Where Are We Now?

In a remarkable prophecy shortly before His death, Jesus described the signs that would preceed His return. What do those signs reveal?

Jesus Christ, in His Olivet Prophecy recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, foretold several major trends that would increase and intensify before His return. The trends He emphasized were religious deception, wars, famines, disease epidemics, earthquakes and devastating storms.

This is especially apparent in response to His disciples' inquiry concerning what signs would precede His return and the end of this age. "Take heed that no one deceives you," He warned. Many would come claiming to represent Him, "and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew:24:4-8



).

Are any of these prophesied signs apparent today?

Religious deception and confusion

We have been horrified by the headlines of mass cult suicides such as Jim Jones and his followers in Guyana in 1978 and the Heaven's Gate cult in Southern California in 1997. Another tragic chain of events led to the deaths of David Koresh's Branch Davidians in Texas in 1993. These tragedies made the news because charismatic leaders led their followers not to life, but to death.

But by no means should we assume this is the only kind of religious deception Jesus intended by His warning. Even in the early days of the Church, Paul warned of "false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ … For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works" (2 Corinthians:11:13-15

).

Other apostles also warned of a great religious conspiracy masquerading as Christianity.Peter warned of "false teachers … who will secretly bring in destructive heresies" (2 Peter:2:1). John wrote that even in his day "many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John:4:1). He also reveals the power behind this great deception—"Satan, who deceives the whole world" (Revelation:12:9).

Some two billion people claim to be Christian. Yet they are divided among thousands of churches and denominations, all claiming to follow Jesus Christ even while they hold to a bewildering variety of contradicting beliefs and practices. Is this the Christianity of the Bible, or is it part of the religious deception and confusion Christ Himself foretold?

Wars and rumors of wars

World War I was supposed to be the war to end all wars, after it took 8 million lives. A generation later World War II claimed almost 10 times as many.

But what about other wars? Hundreds of thousands more have died since in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia and other countries. Although most rarely made the news, 20 to 30 wars raged at any given time in the late 20th century.

According to some estimates, wars in the 20th century alone killed more people than all earlier wars combined.

When the Japanese city of Hiroshima was destroyed by an atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, the commander of the B-29 that carried the deadly payload wielded the power to destroy a medium-sized city. Today the commander of a single nuclear submarine oversees enough destructive power to vaporize more than 150 large cities—quite enough to bring several countries to their knees.

Dozens of such submarines bristling with nuclear weapons prowl the oceans, and that number doesn't begin to include the nuclear warheads that can be rained from other warships, aircraft, artillery and silo or trailer-launched missiles. Jesus said that world conditions at the time of the end would be so menacing that "no living thing could survive" unless He returned (Matthew:24:21-22
, REB). Only within recent decades has mankind held the enormous destructive capability to ­literally exterminate all human life many times over.

What will the last great war before Christ's return bring? According to Jesus Christ's revelation to John (Revelation:9:13-18




), well over a billion people will be slaughtered. With the development in recent decades of terrifying arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, such staggering casualties are now a sobering possibility.

To be cont'd. 

God bless you all.