Unfolding Prophecy Truth

Signs of the End Times

“What Is the Sign of Thy Coming?”

The Disciples’ Big Question (and frankly, ours as well): Matthew 24:3: “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

The Answer: Matthew 24:4-8:

“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

We are watching with our own eyes in this generation “the beginning of sorrows.” Let me list some things for you. Also consider the warning Christ adds toward the end of that answer: Matthew 24:32-33: “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.”

What signs do we see that might fit the warnings given by Jesus to the disciples?

1. “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many”

• There are many “christs” in the world, various religious leaders who have declared themselves the Christ. This is not just exclusive to Eastern religions, but also to some so-called Christian cults (David Koresh), and Islam has a Christ – a Jesus who is called Isa. Jesus will not just show up on CNN or Fox and declare himself -but will return in the clouds on a white horse with His armies – there will be no doubt. Meanwhile, we watch the number of “christs” grow every year.

• Islam remains the fastest growing religion in the world, and America has become the great unchurched. A study by the Pew Research Center (2016) has found 78% of those who do not identify with a particular religion were raised in a religious setting. Our own church has seen a number of lost youth out of families who were once part of our body.

2. “[Y]e shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: . . . nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom”

• WWI, WWII, Korea, Granada, Iran-Iraq, Viet Nam, Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and many other smaller conflicts – and these all in the last one hundred years.

• Israel is more isolated than ever and without any friends in the Middle East (Turkey is shutting their diplomatic door to them), and the U.S., as well, was sending hostile signals to them just last year.

• Hezbollah is armed to the teeth with rockets of all kinds including Scuds which can reach any part of Israel with a multiple number of types of warheads. Iran will soon be nuclear, and they are the primary source for arms for Hezbollah and other terror groups.

• ISIS is now the scourge of the earth and trying to declare a new Islamic state with strict Sharia law that will eventually control the whole world. Hostilities emanate in or from Iran, Iraq, the Yemen battles, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, North Korea; and don’t forget the saber rattling going on in Turkey, Russia, from Indonesian Muslims, and others.

• Terrorist attacks are now happening all over the world: England, Spain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Indonesia, America, Canada, Mexico, and various Central and South American countries – “rumors of wars.”

3. “[A]nd there shall be famines”

• Most famines in the world today are politically and economically motivated. The world produces more than enough food; we don’t distribute it.

• Just a quick Internet search listed 144 major famines since Roman times with most of them in the last two centuries (the frequency is increasing). Some of note lately include Somalia, North Korea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, West Africa, Senegal, Gambia, Niger, Mauritania, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

• This does not include economic or political “famines” (food shortages) like those that have occurred in Argentina, Brazil, and Greece, or those created by war like Syria and Iraq, or because of sanctions like Iran.

4. “[A]nd pestilences”

• Can anyone say Ebola, HIV-AIDS, Zika virus, polluted rivers and streams, Lyme disease, flesh-eating amoebas, drug-resistant pneumonia, staph, diarrhea, tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever, and measles?

• More and more zoonosis diseases are cropping up – viruses and bacteria that jump from animal to humans like the various flus (which ave killed millions over the years).

• Some pestilences have hit not just people, but plants as well, like these I pulled from the Internet: anthracnose, apple scab, bacterial canker, blossom-end rot, brown rot, cedar apple rust, club root, corn smut, crown gall, damping-off, downy mildew, early blight, fire blight, Fusarium wilt, gray mold, late blight, leaf curl, leaf spot, mosaic virus, potato scab, powdery mildew, and rust. Whole crops have been wiped out and destroyed.

• And what about mad cow disease, PBB contamination of milk cows in Michigan, foot-and-mouth disease, rabies, brucellosis, anthrax, transmissible spongiform, encephalopathy, epizootic, paratuberculosis, bluetongue disease, rinderpest, Q fever, leptospirosis, Rift Valley fever, tularemia, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, salmonellosis, glanders, chronic wasting disease, orf, animal bite, viral hemorrhagic fever, tick-bourne disease, and mycosis which have lead to large numbers of animals having to be slaughtered.

5. “[A]nd earthquakes, in divers places”

• Volcanoes and earthquakes are increasing in both intensity and frequency, and even just the ash clouds wreak havoc on travel and economies. More earthquakes over 6.0 on the Richter scale have occurred in the last few years than in the last century.

• Japan and Indonesia have had not just earthquakes hit them, but the tsunamis that often follow coastal or oceanic earthquakes, and we have all seen the damage and death they cause.

6. “All these are the beginning of sorrows”

• When the stimulus package ended in America, all the jobs “saved” were lost and unemployment climbed again. The real unemployment is now around 35% – not the 4.4% figure they keep publishing (it includes all those 16 years and older who have given up looking and have exited the job market) (U.S. Department of Labor). All that money went primarily to unions and those friendly to the Democratic Party – not to help stimulate the economy.

• The U.S. is some 19 trillion in debt (Treasury Direct) – we most likely will never pay it off.

• We just experienced another “crash” a couple of years ago of 10% in the market with predictions of more to come. We have never been more uncertain of the future.

• China is now predicted to crash, as we are, in roughly twelve months.

• The euro is crashing primarily due to Greece, Spain, and Portugal’s poor economies. But they are not the only weak economy in Europe, several other countries are already insolvent. Africa and South America are also in very poor shape with weak economies and skyrocketing inflation.

7. “Take heed that no man deceive you”

• Political scandals abound, and the media hides and lies to us every day, pushing one world agenda items as crisis that must be fixed NOW – all at the loss of our constitutional freedoms. Add to that the slow government takeovers of banking, auto, health insurance, housing, and who knows what next, and a one world government attitude will soon dominate even here in the U.S.

• The big news in the news is fake news. We can’t trust politicians, the media, corporations (who lie to protect themselves), or our neighbors (who are encouraged to turn in anything they see that is suspicious to them). Cities and the police now confiscate citizens’ wealth without a cause (no known criminal act), and groups like BLM which seems to be created from information fomented by the media that turns out to be a lie.

Christian – you don’t prepare for the storm during the storm, but before it comes. The signs are everywhere. Wake up and get ready! How is your prayer life? How is your Bible study life? What are you wasting your time on instead? What spiritual shape are you in? Can you even run in the race at all?

Look up – for the birth pangs are upon us, and they are intensifying! Get ready now while there is still time.

May God bless and shalom to you all!

Bro. Joe

References

Lipka, M. (Aug, 24, 2016). Why America’s ‘nones’ left religion behind. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/24/why-americas-nones-left-religion-behind/

Treasury Direct. The Debt to the Penny and Who Holds It. Retrieved May 8, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/debt/current

United States Department of Labor. Retrieved May 8, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.dol.gov/

United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved May 8, 2017. Table A-1. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab1.htm

Privacy Policy