The End Times

Christianity Made Simple – 07

One of the most popular topics in the Bible is the End Times, often referred to as the end of the world, or as Armageddon.  There are many differing opinions about how the end will come about, so we will stick to what the Bible clearly tells us. 

First, we are told that no one can know when the end will occur.  Therefore, anyone forecasting a specific date is speaking falsely.  On the other hand, the Bible tells us that we can know the signs of the near approach of that date, somewhat as we can look at storm clouds.  We can predict that a storm is coming, even if we cannot pinpoint exactly when.

In past centuries, men have falsely predicted specific dates, and of course they were all wrong.  In more recent times, men have pointed to world events, and said that the End is near.  Some of those seemed to have been very reasonable at the time.  For example, the rise to power of Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin and Mao Tse Tung, all seemed to fit the Biblical definition of the anti-Christ at the time.

The key to avoiding such error is to understand that Biblical prophecies are exact.  If some person or event is ninety-nine percent as predicted in the Bible, that ninety-nine is wrong.  It has to be one-hundred percent.  That should be kept in mind, so as to avoid being misled, and to avoid misleading others.

The Bible warns us that in the End Times, the world will be dominated by a false Christ, the anti-Christ. He will come to power, and the world will marvel at his seemingly wise words.  He will severely persecute Christians and Jews.

The anti-Christ will rule for seven years.  During the first half of his reign of total power, he will seem to have brought peace and prosperity to the world.  At the halfway point, however, total ruin will begin to replace the false utopian conditions.  War, famine, economic collapse, and natural disasters will occur on a massive scale never before seen in human history.

At the end of that seven years, the world will be at the brink of extinction, and only the return of Jesus will save the planet, and humanity, from final ruin.  The reign of Jesus will remove all evil from the world.

Are we seeing the storm clouds of those coming events?

Some say that those clouds have always been there.  Some say that such fore-shadowings may go on for thousands of years yet to come, and that we have plenty of time.

What is different now is that the Bible predicts things that seem like highly advanced technology that will be used by the anti-Christ, and to be sure, technology is now more deadly than ever before in history.  The Revelation 8:8 speaks of “something like a mountain, burning with fire,” falling into the ocean causing worldwide calamity.  This was written at a time when no human understood that meteors and asteroids pose exactly such a danger.  Artificial Intelligence, crypto-currencies and nuclear weapons are all recent developments which pose potential world-class destructive power.

Worst of all, however, is the corruption of humanity into perverse behaviors that are undermining the social fabric, behaviors that are not only being allowed, but in fact are being enforced upon those of us unwilling to participate in them.

You and I can do little or nothing to prevent world wars, or to counteract all the terrible factors which threaten civilization.

But we do have one powerful weapon that will defeat the lesser evils that confront us in our personal lives.  We can do as Jesus commands us to do, which is to preach the gospel.

The time will come, perhaps very soon, when we are forced to choose.  There will be no middle ground.  We will be one-hundred percent on the side of Jesus forever, or one-hundred percent against him for all eternity.  Only by asking Jesus for His wisdom and courage can we make the right decision.

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