Now in the last fifty years, we've watched our culture "advance" so that now we're using our forearms for either chips or computer screens (LINK)...and we also have the ability for people all over the globe to see something at once.
Running on parallel tracks, the same fifty years have also seen wickedness advance at warp speed. Robert Bork coined a prophetic phrase when he said we are "slouching toward Gomorrah". It is this slouch that fills the cup of wrath against men as they write their own report card of destruction.
Here are some signs of the Lord's return that are familiar:
1. WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR. Yes, war's an old story. But has the world ever seemed closer to global fury? We don't even know whether to be more afraid of cyber war or nukes or terrorism or invasion. Hacking is daily news and the Pentagon/IRS have already been hacked. Now Russia pokes us in the eye by annexing the Ukraine breadbasket...while her pilots fly close to Alaska and taunt us on the Fourth of July. China is also getting militaristic in the South China Sea. ISIS stirs up the entire Middle East and Africa in flames of terror. Iran is close to a nuke that it promises to use. Setting off a nuke high above America makes an electromagnetic pulse that will fry our electric grid (affecting communications, transportation, banking, food and water).
Some believe our enemies will try to take us economically rather than militarily. Those people took note this week as Monday our stock market tanked because of China's flux. How secure can we be while we (the borrower) are China (the lender's) slave?
2. WEATHER, FAMINE, PESTILENCE, EARTHQUAKES. Food supplies can be affected by the increasing droughts, fires, and floods. Have you read articles about the area under Yellowstone? They call it a "supervolcano" that is much larger than anyone thought. The New Madrid and San Andreas faults are rumbling, but more active still are the plates off the coast of Washington and Vancouver. Scientists say the probability of a magnitude 8 or larger is as high as 75% in the next fifty years. They say it could shake four minutes and cause a tsunami which would inundate the coastal area.
3. ISRAEL IS GATHERED TO NATIONHOOD. Israel fulfilled prophecy as she was birthed in November of 1947. According to Amos 9:15, she will never be rooted out again from her land. As anti-Semitism flourishes in Europe, Jews are "coming home" to the Beautiful Land. Many left France after the Charlie Hebdo shooting, answering a very old Jewish question "Do you have a bag packed?".
Never before have so many people around the globe been connected by such a separating medium as the internet/cell phone technology. Such technology causes us to have our heads down. Then preoccupied and entertained unto ourselves, we have no time for God. We forget what is good and call evil good. The result? The Lord gives a veil called "delusion". If people do not want to see what is right, the LORD gives them what they want.
What else is happening that perhaps quickens Christ's return?
5. LOSS OF LOVE FOR GOD AS WICKEDNESS INCREASES. "And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold." It takes more and more courage to stand for righteousness today than even ten years ago.
Now the state can now bring punishment for abiding in what the Bible says about homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and abortion. Who could have guessed Denver would not want a fast food restaurant just because they stand for natural marriage? We watch people lose their businesses (marriage caterers/florists) and leave jobs (such as court clerks who refuse to issue marriage licenses or cases like the Atlanta fire chief who was kicked off the city payroll for giving his testimony).
If wickedness cannot be defined as "pulling an innocent baby out of the womb and suctioning its brains" then we need to apologize to the word "wicked".
"Nutcases" who think they are Jesus are a dime a dozen. But the latest shock has been to hear evangelical pastors accommodating same-sex marriage. God's words to Moses (repeated by Paul in the New Testament) say people who engage in such practices will not be in heaven. Aren't pastors here to point the way to heaven? To accommodate on the issue of unrepentant homosexuality...is to mislead congregants, ending in destruction.
All the world's religions are looking for the return of their particular religious man. ISIS tries to hasten their Mahdi's return by all their killings. But there is only ONE Son of the Living God who proved who He said He was by the resurrection.
7. SKY SIGNS. In Luke 21 we read of how the sun, moon, and stars will be signs in the last days; they have long been message boards for the LORD. Remember He hung a rainbow in the sky to remind us of His covenant? He tells us the heavens declare His glory and they do describe His faithfulness as the great lights appear day after day and night after night. On June 30th, Jupiter and Venus came close and their brightness caused some to call it the "Bethlehem Star" (link). The meteor showers this month (August 12/13) were dazzling and had us looking up.
But the skies also provide fair warning.
It's not just that we HAD two blood moons in 2014 and have two more scheduled in 2015. The significance is that the blood moons happened on certain feast days (Passover and Feast of Tabernacles) for two years in a row. Those four moons are called a Biblical tetrad and have only occurred seven times in the history of the world. Each time there was a tetrad, something of importance happened to Israel. NASA says there will not be another Biblical tetrad scheduled for 500 years, but next month one will happen on the Feast of Tabernacles (September 28th).
9. FALSE PEACE. The Bible says that in the latter days, while people will be saying "peace and safety", destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not escape. We've sure heard a lot about the peace that the Iran agreement purports to afford America.
10. UPHEAVAL. "Immediately after the distress of those last days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken" (Matthew 24:29). We sing an old song about the sky being rolled up like a scroll and it was Isaiah who gave us that insight in his 34th chapter. August's meteor showers were so pretty as the comets streaked across the sky and burned out, but we might think differently about countless stars pelting the earth.
In 2 Peter 3:10 it says we will not be expecting that day. "The day of the LORD will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything on it will be laid bare."
Through God's kindness, He prepares our hearts through reading His words. He says no one knows the day of His return, but He also says we should watch for the signs.
Believers are familiar with Luke 21:28 which says "Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near".
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