Concerning the End Times

“The sky is falling! the end is here!”

Have you heard these words lately? I know I have. The world is in the worst shape it’s ever been in, supposedly. You’ve undoubtedly heard about increasingly devastating hurricanes and floods demolishing cities, leaving millions homeless. You know what Luke 21:25-28 says:

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

Well, the waves certainly have been roaring. The earth isn’t doing too great, but natural disasters aren’t the only signs of the End, so maybe we don’t have to raise our heads just yet. There are also societal signs – signs about the nature of the people in this world – that must also be apparent in order for the End to come. Let’s look at 2 Peter 3:1-5 for some comfort that we aren’t living in the End Times:

“This is now the second letter I am writing with you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’”

Okay, yeah, there are also self-righteous-scoffing-scoffers in this world; you can take a ten-minute browse on the internet to find that out. Have you seen anything on your way to this site? But at least there hasn’t been anybody falsely claiming to be Christ, as described in Matthew 24:23-24, when Jesus says,

“If anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”

Good thing there isn’t anyone claiming to be Jesus, because I’d be concerned otherwise.

Wait a second – I’ve just been told that there actually ARE, and that there’s actually a whole list of people who’ve claimed to be Jesus on Wikipedia that dates back to the 17^th Century! We’ve been in the End Times since the 1600s!?

Wait wait wait – there’s actually a guy in Acts 13:6 who literally called himself Bar-Jesus, “Son of the Savior,” of whom was encountered on Paul’s very first overseas mission!? Does that mean we’ve been in the End Times since the age of the Apostles?

What’s going on? Why isn’t the real Jesus here yet? I bet I know why – he’s coming on March 14, 2025, because that’s the next blood moon! After all, Joel 2:30-31 says,

“’And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood, and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”

I guess that seals it! Get ready for March 14, 2025! I’ve got a lot of things on my bucket list before then. Personally, I’m planning to go to Garfield, Montana and host a super-exclusive party for all 0.43 people in my immediate square mile celebrating the great and awesome end of the world! Maybe I’ll even tell them about Jesus while I’m at it.

Hold up – I’ve been told that I’ve been cherry-picking verses, and by intentionally leaving verses out of context and refusing to study them for further clarification, I’m not only misinforming anybody who reads this article, but also leading myself to come to unbiblical conclusions that inspire me to party with Garfield, wasting my time and money on something that could have been used to actually further God’s Kingdom! Silly me.

So what’s the other half of these prophecies that I’m apparently missing? Matthew 24 seems like a good place to start:

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” (6-8)

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” (36)

“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (44)

“So, if they say to you, ‘look, [Jesus] is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, here he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, the vultures will gather.” (26-28)

After reading all this – from just one chapter – what can we learn about the End Times?

It will be calamitous (worse than anything you’ve ever seen, or has anybody in the history of the world)
Nobody knows when it will come (nobody can accurately set a precise date for it)
Make sure you’re prepared spiritually for the end of the world (and not only filling out your bucket list)
It will be extremely obvious when it actually happens (there will be no debate as to what is going on)

So, I guess I don’t need to worry about the end of the world anymore; that sure puts a load off my back! But what am I supposed to do with all my concerns now? The answer is found in Acts 1:6-8:

“So when [the disciples] had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

There we have it! We are to be God’s witnesses to the end of the earth! You might think that this only applies to the apostles, but you’d be wrong, as I will point out in the next article. What we have here is another prophecy yet to be fulfilled! Before all the world is destroyed, it must first be witnessed to. So, before we should even start to worry about political affairs, we have a huge commission set before us.

With that, I will ask one last question: what has your mind recently been occupied with, and what should it be occupied with?