Signs of the End Time; or Same Old, Same Old?
Combining Matthew 24 and Revelation 6, we hear Jesus warning about some signs we will see as we approach the end of the age and his return. These include such things as, wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, disease, and wild beasts of the earth. But we know these things have been taking place for thousands of years, so why would Jesus use them as signs? Has the end of the age been in play for thousands of years? Some would say yes, so there’s nothing particularly special (they say) about these events we see happening in the world today.
However, I ask, when it comes to his return, what does Jesus care about organically grown wars, famines, earthquakes, disease, and wild beasts of the earth that have been around for thousands of years? I suggest the answer is…he doesn’t. The nature of these conditions he warns us about is special in that it is not organic. These events and conditions are not the result of naturally occurring phenomenon on the earth or in its atmosphere, nor just your typical type of confrontation between two or more nations. I suggest Jesus saw them as mostly “artificially” and nefariously created and perpetrated by men in a technologically advanced time in the future…a time which has now arrived.
Men can and now have used technology and science to create diseases and spread them using various means (including animals, or “wild beasts”). Men can and now have used technology and science to cause earthquakes and even destructive weather patterns and events. Men can and now are withholding vital energy supplies in order to disrupt agriculture and create food shortages. The same ones are destroying our meat supply while trying to replace it with bugs. Men can and now have invented reasons for starting and continuing wars that have no basis in real conflict. Furthermore, thanks to technology, all of these conditions have gone from being regionally experienced, to affecting human beings in every corner of the planet at the same time. We can easily speculate that even the religious persecution Jesus warned about will not be limited to just the Middle East, but to other countries, as well. The “open borders” and massive immigration into western democratic (predominantly “Christian”) nations all over the world have set us up for that potential scenario.
In other words, the dangerous and chaotic conditions that have been unfolding quickly over the past few years have been the result of intentional planning and execution by nefarious actors who hold tremendous power over all systems by which our planet is managed. From food and water to healthcare, from finance to education, from transportation to land management, farming and more, our infrastructure has been taken over by evil men and women who seem to have an anti-human agenda. Of course we know who they take their marching orders from…the god of this world, Satan the devil himself…the enemy and deceiver of humankind (2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 6:12; Rev. 12:9).
All of what we see going on around us today will likely culminate very soon in the final persecution of the saints of God and Christ. It will come by Satan’s right-hand man who the Bible calls the “lawless one” in 2 Thessalonians 2, “the Assyrian” in Isaiah 11, the “horn” or little horn” in Daniel 7 & 8, the “king of the north” in Daniel 11, and the “Beast” in Revelation 13. At the same time will be the meteoric rise of his political nemesis, Babylon the Great (Rev. 14, 17 & 18), which he will destroy after his reign of terror…the Great Tribulation. But then immediately afterward Jesus Christ will return with power and great glory to defeat the Beast…throwing both him and the false prophet beside him into the fiery furnace of destruction (Rev. 19:20). Jesus will then begin his righteous reign over the nations with absolute authority, while Satan is locked up out of sight and out of mind for a millennium (Rev. 20).
Make no mistake, Satan has begun his last ditch effort to destroy humanity with the intent that “no flesh will be saved alive” (Matt. 24:22). However, he will fail. Jesus will return before that happens, at which time he will also raise all of God’s faithful followers from their graves to live and reign with him in the Kingdom of God right here on planet Earth (Rev. 5:9-10). Then will begin the salvation of the rest of mankind as the veil over truth is lifted and the faith of Jesus gradually fills the earth. But, that’s another phase of the story we shall leave for another day.
