PROOF JESUS IS COMING VERY SOON
Original 1996, Updated 2-98
It has been said and believed throughout the years and even in the first century that Jesus' return was soon to take place. In fact in Paul's day, a church that he had founded in Thessalonica was led to believe that they had missed it altogether. In 2Thessalonians 2:2 we see that apparently someone had come into the church and persuaded them that Jesus had already returned and they were left behind. Paul identifies these trouble makers in 2Timothy 2:17-18 and goes on to explain in the rest of 2Thess. 2:3-17 that he had already explained what would have to take place before Jesus would return. The proof of Jesus' return being very soon and very possibly within a time period of, any moment now up to at the most the next few years, is very evident in the events happening on almost a daily basis. Scriptures give many prophecies and accounts of what will take place up to the very moment He returns. We will look at many of those scriptures and compare them with the events occurring in and around us today. This is one of the most important reasons why it can be said that it is most assuredly close now, and even though others throughout history felt the same way, the fulfillments of these prophecies are more evident today than at any other time in history combined. First let's look at some of the specific things that Jesus said would happen at this time. You can find parallel scriptures of this account in Matthew 24, and Mark 13, and Luke 21; I will be using the text from Matthew.
Matthew 24:4-14
4.
Take heed that no man deceive you. 5. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ: and shall deceive many. 6. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places. 8. All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12. And because iniquity (lawlessness) shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold. 13. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.Now let us take a closer look at these scriptures and how they are being fulfilled around us today. In verses 4&5 the first warning Jesus gives is "not to be deceived", by those appearing to be godly. Isn't it interesting that the two fastest growing religions are Muslims and Jehovah's Witness; Jehovah's Witnesses started in 1879 with only a small following and are growing at an alarming rate. In 1940 there were only 95,000 J.W.'s worldwide and in 1993 the number was over 4.2 million, and is believed to be over 6 million at the present time with projections of growing by 1 million in 1997. One point of interest in the Jehovah's Witness growth is that over 90% of their growth has come from people who at one time were in a mainline denominational church. Muslims are the fastest growing over the past 5 years with an increase of over 500% since mid- 1995. It is growing especially rapid among the black population in America today. These are the major growers of today, but there are many other areas of concern in the world; Satanism is increasing dramatically along with the following, Mormonism, New Age, Hare Krishna, Unitarian, Church of Science, Hinduism, Buddhism, Spiritism, and many forms of Witchcraft. While at the same time the major Protestant denominations are showing minimal increases and in most cases declines. The only increase among traditional Protestantism is in the Pentecostal realms, and that brings up a whole new area of concern such as prosperity teaching and "name it claim it" philosophy. There have also been many who have claimed to be "Christ" over the years, such as Jim Jones, Rev. Moon, David Koresh, and others in the years past. In fact many of the Unitarian and New Age teachings claim that you can become God yourself. You can see why it is so important to study the Bible yourself as 2 Timothy 2:15 exhorts us to do. By individual study you will be able to see if someone is getting off base with their teaching. Why do you think that so many have been seduced into the Jehovah’s Witness, Mormons, Muslims, New Age, and many others that prey on spiritually weak individuals. Most so-called Christians of any denomination, seldom or never pick up their Bible except when at church. It is no one else’s responsibility but yours to spiritually arm yourself, and Jesus showed us the example in Matthew 4:4,7,10 the importance and power of the Word. The two most important areas for a Christian to grow is Prayer and the Word. If you want to prove it, just commit to take more time to do both of these everyday and see how much of a battle you have keeping your commitment. The devil knows how important these two things are in your life, I challenge you to prove it to yourself.
In verses 6&7a, Jesus says that there will be "wars and rumors of wars between countries and nations". True there have been battles and wars throughout history, but in the last 100 years there have been more wars than all of history combined. There have been two world wars which have involved many "nations against nations", and the Gulf War set a startling precedent, that involved many "nations" united against ONE nation. This set the stage for the United Nations to step up as a governing force made up of various nations to control the peace of the world; something that has never happened from the beginning of time until now. We will discuss later how this is prophesied concerning a "World Government" and a leader, the "Antichrist". There are presently hundreds of civil wars and battles in third world countries. There has been strife with Israel and that land since the Jewish people took back their land in 1948, and will continue to be until the end. There is a sense of unity among Communist nations and the Arab states to wipeout the Jewish people. There has been a recent discovery that will make sense for these enemies of Israel to want even more to take over this small country. In the Dec. 1997 international issue of the Jerusalem Post there is an article in the business section about a Russian Jewish immigrant who has just found what he believes is the biggest oil reserve in the world. In northern Israel he has found a reserve that he believes will dwarf the Saudi Arabia deposit. He claims that this reserve will supply over 70% of the world’s oil. For a country who’s major source of income right now is tourism, you can see how that it could become the world economic giant overnight. It also makes sense why countries such as Russia, China, and others like the Arab countries would want to take over this little country of Israel. This has been very quiet, but you can bet that it will not stay that way long. We know from scripture that Russia will come down and try to take over the Israeli country according to Ezekiel 38&39. We also know that the Chinese will come across the Euphrates in an attempt to do the same according to Revelation 9: 13-16. We know that this is China because they are the only country east of the Euphrates that can field a 200 million man army. In fact a former leader of China several years ago boasted in his diary that he could put over 200 million men on the battle field at any time.
In the second half of verse 7, Jesus states that there will be "famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in various places". There have been several severe famines in India, and parts of Africa, and Haiti, and parts of South America, and other third world countries such as Indonesia and others. Never before has there ever been a "World Council on Population", that are looking at ways to decrease and control the population because of the lack of food to supply the world. Pestilence’s are simply "plagues, or infectious diseases", think about the increase of the Aids virus over the past ten years. There are also several strains of sexually transmitted diseases that have no cure and are increasing extremely rapidly. Cancer is definitely considered a plague, with all its various forms. Then there are the earthquakes and other natural disasters, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, volcanoes, ect.. Earthquakes have increased at a dramatic rate, for example in this article out of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 11,1995, on the increase of earthquakes they gave the following statistics: Keep in mind that these are earthquakes rating at 6.0 or higher at Richter-Scale magnitudes. The following is alarming; in the 40's there were 51, 50's - 475, 60's - 1,056, 70's - 1184, 80's - 1085, and 90's there have already been 1,540 up to Oct.95. There are some other interesting facts concerning earthquakes, from Prophecy in the News, Oct.1996, in 1946, 47, & 48, there were 4 earthquakes each year, but in 1949 there were 395! From the end of "WWII" until the birth of Israel, there were only 4 quakes each year, and four is the number representing "Kingdom", in numerology. Could it be that God only allowed 4 quakes a year during the time the Jews were returning to re-establish their kingdom? In 1956, the year of Israel’s war with Egypt over the Gaza Strip, there were 666 earthquakes, ( sound familiar, look at Rev. 13:18) is this a coincidence? We have all witnessed what scientist and everyone else wants to attribute as "El Nino" effects on the weather. It has been given as the answer to the extreme weather abnormalities that have been taking place and readily accepted by the world. This is mans answer, I believe that "El Nino" has nothing to do with it. I believe God is allowing His judgment to be poured out on this world through the use of nature. I also believe that this is only a precursor to what can be expected during the Tribulation Period. If you look at the judgments in the Tribulation Period, almost all of them are natural phenomenons, but much greater than anything we have witnessed. It is true that earthquakes and the other pestilences have been around for ever, but the rapid increase in happenings and the increase in severity should alert us. I believe that God is trying to warn mankind that the time is rapidly approaching.
Then in verse 8 of Matt.24
, Jesus states that these signs listed so far, and their fulfillment, is "the beginning of sorrows", why? Because the future after these events start being fulfilled is the beginning of the "Tribulation", which will be far worse than anything the world has seen to this time. In verse 12 Jesus goes on to say that "because iniquity (lawlessness) shall abound (increase), the love of many shall wax(grow) cold." There is no doubt that this is being fulfilled at a sky-rocketing rate daily, just pick up a paper, or watch the news and listen to the stories of senseless acts of violence, increase of crime, disregard for human life, or for that matter the well being of anybody except "self". America has become a modern day "Sodom & Gomorrah"; actually this country has surpassed the ungodly level of this biblical example. Look at the following statistics, Since prayer was taken out of school in 1962, there have been dramatic increases in the following categories; Divorce 117%, adultery 200%, sexually transmitted disease ages 15-20, 226%, teen suicide 253%, unwed mother ages 10-14, 553%, unmarried couples living together 536%, violent crime 794%, sexual abuse to children (only reported) 2000%. These are only 8 of 40 categories which have been recorded, not to mention that America is #1 producer of pornography (including child porn), #1, in teen suicide, #1 in teen pregnancy, drug use, divorce, and violent crime. Then add in the fact that over 1,000 babies a day are aborted, and wonder why teen mothers are throwing babies in the trash bins like they are garbage. Hollywood has done little to help in any of these areas, for example, by the time the average child graduates high school they will have seen more than 70,000 murders on television. Society and government agencies have taken away the rights of schools to discipline the children and therefore they have no control over them. Drug use is a major problem in most schools, but was not even mentioned prior to 1962. God is systematically being taken out of society and the result is the statistics above. Is it any wonder that some of the youth in our society today have little or no regard for human life? The homosexual movement has not moved us up on the morality standards neither. America today will have to raise it’s standards dramatically to reach the level of Sodom and Gomorrah.Lastly, in verse 14 Jesus says that "the gospel shall be preached in all the world, then shall the end come." It was reported by the "World Missionary Report", in 1994 that "there are only extremely remote areas in which there have not been missionary activity, and we believe that within the next year, or two at the most, all of these areas should be reached with the Gospel." I have not heard any updates on this, but I would like to share some insight with you. In Revelation 11 there are two witnesses that will be proclaiming the gospel, and in chapter 14 it is said that the gospel is preached also. The point is that, according to the verse in Matt.24:14, that after the gospel is preached in all the world then the "END" will come: no where does it indicate that it will have to be done before the "Tribulation" starts, in fact the two scriptures prove that is not the case. The end of time as we know it will be when Jesus comes back at the battle of Armageddon which is described in Zechariah 14, and destroy all the armies of the world (antichrist) and sets up His Millennial Reign, which is described in Rev. 20. Now let us look at another section of scripture.
In 2Timothy 3:1-5,7
it says, 1. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent (without self control), fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4. Traitors, heady, high-minded (literally, to be drunk with pride), lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 7. Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that every one of these traits are not only present in our society, but on an extremely rapid increasing rate of intensity and frequency. The statistics in the previous section also show how these verses are being fulfilled at an alarming rate. Verses 5&7 describe very accurately the Catholic church, and many various cults, but not to be limited to these sects, because there are more than a few of these same performers in any church, Protestant, or any other as unfortunate as it may be, but never the less true. For the sake of space, we will not cover each verse here, and move on. Let us go to 2Peter.2 Peter 3:
has these things to say concerning the end time. 3. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4. And saying, where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5. For this they are willingly ignorant... 8. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness: but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. There are a lot of people today, even among the Christian ranks that have truly lost heart that Jesus is coming soon, and some if the truth be known don't believe it at all. The intense desire in the Church today is to say the least, lacking. To read the book of Acts and see the example of the first Church and look at it as a model and then compare it to the church today, shows the great contrast. The society we live in today has been a major factor in the lack of desire among God’s people. With modernization comes a price, with convenience in the world it also crept into the church. The bottom line is that the Church today is full of lazy Christians that are not going to be prepared to meet the challenge of trial. Christians will not stand when persecution arises, and it is coming soon. God will allow this persecution to sift out the true and professing ones. We have been blessed in America to have a freedom that others do not have, but I believe God is in the process of taking it from us and judging this country. This country has abused the freedom and become a perverted society. God will not go without judging this nation and I believe it has started. God makes it clear in His word that He never purposed for anyone to go to hell, in fact hell was not even created for man, Matt. 25:41, "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:" But because of man's continual rebellion and rejection of God, and the great salvation He offers, He has no choice but to grant their wishes and send them to the place THEY have chosen. In God's presence is no time, therefore it is impossible for us with the limited knowledge we possess to comprehend why it appears to be taking so long for Jesus to split the eastern sky. This scripture makes it clear that God in His great love for His creation, desires that all come to the place He has prepared for each of us if we just accept the simple terms of the agreement. The apparent delay in Jesus’ return is nothing less than the great mercy of God on His creation, desiring that all come to repent and accept His offer of eternal life. Let's move on.2 Thessalonians 2: 1
. Now we beseech you, brethern, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, 2. That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 3. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6. And now you know what with-holdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. As was mentioned at the first of this writing, someone had come into the church and tried to persuade the followers that they had already missed Jesus' second coming, and apparently many believed them and were extremely distraught. It is very apparent according to this scripture that even in this day that there was a strong teaching and belief that Jesus' second coming could happen at any moment, even in their lifetime. Paul makes it clear that they did not miss it, and then goes on to briefly explain what he had apparently told them before; that there would be a falling away first, then what ever was holding back the "Anti-christ" would be taken "out of the way", and then this anti-christ would set himself up in the temple as God, to be worshipped as such.First, let us go back and look at some of the conditions mentioned and see if they are evident in our time. The first thing mentioned is a "falling away", which I believe has been, and is taking place right now, and has been for some time now. First, remember that you cannot fall away from something that you are not a part of; so this falling away, I believe, is already in progress. As mentioned earlier in the section on Matt.24, about the dramatic increase in cults and the decline in mainline denominations shows that this is happening today. I also want to add that I do not believe that this only represents those leaving the faith completely, but I believe it also represents the lack of intensity we see today. I do not want to belabor the point but there is an obvious absence of true desire for the things of God in the church today. There is a lot of activity in the church, but very little genuine desire and concern for the lost. The church has plenty to keep people busy, but how much focus is placed on prayer, fasting, and reaching the lost? How many churches do you know that have regular fasting and prayer meetings? How many churches do you know that have a weekly day to go out and witness to the lost? What has happened to the focus? As the persecution increases and the liberals continue their assault on the Christian faith, you can only expect this falling away to increase. According to Paul, the next thing to happen is for the with-holding force to be taken out of the way, and the anti-christ to be revealed. That with-holding force is the Spirit of God working through His church throughout the world today; so when this force is "taken out of the way", it is referring to the time that Christ comes and takes His bride, the church, out of this world. This will open the door for the anti-christ to reap havoc on the earth in what is referred to as the "tribulation period". Let me explain further: The church today is the active force that is keeping evil from running rampant on earth now. I must clarify this statement by saying that it is the remnant of those with true desires that are holding back the forces of evil. The lukewarm Christians that are the majority are not holding back anything and they will be the ones to fall under the persecution. According to Job 1:6-7, & 2:1-2, and Ephesians 6:12, Satan is allowed access to the heavenly realms and roams between the earth and these realms, but according to Revelation 12:10-12, there will be a time when Satan is cast down and restricted to the earth, and when that happens he will unleash his fury on the inhabitants of the earth. I believe that this is the time period spoken of in 2 Thess. 2:6-7, and as God is taking His church up "out of the way", that at the same time Satan is being cast out of the heavenly realms and this will start the "tribulation period". The "Anti-christ" will then be revealed and Satan will work through him from the start. That's why it's so important to be ready to meet Christ at any moment, if you are not "born again" you will not go with the church, and will be stuck on earth to face the wrath of Satan through the tribulation. In verse four it is said that this anti-christ will set himself up in the temple and proclaim himself to be God. Obviously there is no temple in Jerusalem at this time so one might think that there is a problem here; not so, there is currently and has been for several years now a group called the "Temple Mount Faithful", who have made it their mission to erect the corner stone for the temple, and have been pursuing the avenues to do this despite the political barriers. There are also many artifacts being discovered concerning the temple services and if the Ark of the Covenant is found you can be sure that there is no stopping the rebuilding of the temple. There is also a group called the Temple Institute that have been preparing for years now the articles needed for Temple worship. For those that do not know some of the history of what I am saying, let me explain a little further. The temple was destroyed by the Roman army in A.D. 70, just as Jesus had prophesied that it would be in Matt. 24:2. They took every stone and threw it over the hill of the Temple Mount and there was not one stone left on another just as Jesus had said some 40 years earlier. The Jews were then dispersed throughout all the land, and the country of Israel was inhabited by the Arabs (Muslims), and other fractions of them. In 1948, the Jews fought and took back the country of Israel, and in 1967, they fought and took back Jerusalem, which was still controlled by Arabs, and in which on the temple mount they had built a shrine to Muhammad. The Jews stopped before taking back the temple mount and allowed the Arabs to remain in a portion of Jerusalem and control most of the temple mount. Now because of the "Dome of the Mosque", which is their shrine to Muhammad, is on the temple mount, most Jews believe it is on the spot in which the temple was. As you can see this has caused a tremendous amount of conflict between the Jews and Arabs for control of the mount. An interesting thing happened when Benjamin Netanyahu became the new Prime Minister of Israel and started announcing that he would no longer barter land for peace, and in fact said that they were going to reclaim all the land back that was rightfully theirs. Every thing is in place and prophecy is being fulfilled almost daily and now this new Prime Minister is demanding peace, without negotiation of land; it sets the stage for what Daniel prophesied in the 9th chapter of his book, let's look at it.
Daniel 9:24.
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people(the Jews) and upon thy holy city (Jerusalem), to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins ( note: this along with the rest of this verse is a prophecy concerning Christ; it was His death that puts an end to sin, in our lives, as long as we confess them to Him), and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks (69 weeks): the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. There is so much to cover in this section of scripture, I will try to make it as brief, but informative as possible. God gave Daniel a time frame for all His dealings with Israel. Verse twenty-four is the key to understanding this prophecy. It speaks of Daniel's people and the holy city (Jerusalem). The atonement for iniquity would be made for all sin at Calvary; it applies to individuals, not to the nation of Isreal (see Zechariah 12:10 - 13:1; 14;4-9). They still reject Jesus, and are lost because of that, but they will be purged (Ezekiel 20:34-44). The "most holy place" does not at this time exist (the temple), but it will be reestablished (Ezekiel chapters 40-48). The beginning of the time is the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. The "seventy weeks" can only refer to years; the sixty-nine weeks began with the decree that was issued to Nehemiah in approx. 445-444 b.c. and ended 483 years later (based on 360-day years) on Palm Sunday. Then there is a gap in Daniel's prophecy; this occurs because over thirty years elapsed between the crucifixion of Christ ("shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself,"vs.26) and the destruction of Jerusalem (destroy the city and the sanctuary,"vs.26). All of this follows the first sixty-nine weeks: I believe that once the "times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24) are complete, the clock of God's judgment will count off the last remaining week within that generation. In Matthew 24, Jesus devotes the whole chapter to telling the things that will occur at the end of time, and then in vs.34 says that "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled". I believe Jesus is saying that the generation that witnesses the signs of this end time being fulfilled will be the very ones to see His coming. When Israel became a nation in 1948, I believe that the "times of the Gentiles" began. Gentile nations had controlled the land from A.D.70, when Rome conquered Israel, until 1948, and in 1967 the Jews took control of Jerusalem. The generation Jesus referred to in Matt.24:34, I believe started in 1948, (when the Jews took back the Promised Land) and the final seven years of this generation will occur when the anti-christ is revealed and the seven-year tribulation period begins. It will end with Christ's return at the end of that period, and Christ will set up His reign on earth for 1,000 years. There is something else I would like to share with you. I went to Israel in Nov. of 97 and seen something with my own eyes that is a direct fulfillment of scriptures. First was the Dead Sea, if you look in your Bible in the maps, you will notice that the Dead Sea is one complete body of water. There is a peninsula at the southern tip of the sea which reaches about ¾ of the way across. This peninsula has completely crossed and now there are two separate bodies of water with about a mile of land in-between. The reason that this is so significant is that it is fulfilling prophecy concerning the Millennial Period. If you look at Ezekiel 47:1-12 you will see this prophecy, especially verses 8-11 were it describes the Dead Sea coming back to life. In case you are not aware, the Dead Sea is exactly that, "Dead", because of the high salt content nothing can live in the water. Now that the Sea is already divided it will be easy to see how that the waters can be healed and the marsh land to remain marsh as described. This part of the prophecy is already fulfilled and waiting the healing waters to be issued out of the Temple. It was fascinating to see this with my own eyes. While in Israel I witnessed something else that I feel was part of God fulfilling prophecy for the end time. While overlooking the Valley of Megiddo which is Armageddon I noticed something amazing, there is an underground Air Base in the middle of this valley. It is said that it is Israel’s Air Force, and I saw the runways and they disappear into the ground. It would make sense why all of the armies of the world would gather in this valley if this is true. The Air Force is their main fighting force and is the first thing that a enemy would want to destroy. I also noticed something else while looking over this tremendous valley. With all of the problems and fighting in the Jerusalem and surrounding areas over building houses it was amazing that there was thousands of acres of flat land without a single building on it. It makes sense that God is preserving this land for this battle at the end of time and they do not even know why they are not building on this land. It would be perfect land for development and would be enough for a good size city, yet not a single building is on it. There are no obstructions for these armies to gather, coincidence? I think not. I must end here, in order to keep it as brief as possible. You must understand that there is a tremendous amount more on this subject that could be included, but this was not intended to be exhaustive. I hope this helps in understanding how close we are to the end according to the scriptures and the fulfillments of them. I also hope this has encouraged you to dig further into this fascinating part of our life and the scriptures weaved together. We are so close to Jesus' return; I pray you are ready to face the Lord when He comes, if not please contact me, it would be an honor to introduce you to Christ for a relationship you will never regret.Adam Bartlett