A couple of weeks ago as I came out of an office building I heard someone yelling.  Though we were quite a distance apart I could hear his voice loud and clear.  It was a man telling everyone within earshot that they had better get right with God or else ….  Immediately I was reminded of the Apostle Matthew’s quote of Isaiah 42:1,2 concerning the coming Messiah (42:1.2): “He will not strive, nor will He cry, nor will any man hear His voice in the streets” (12:9).  Years ago it was not uncommon for some bearded man wearing a sheet to walk the streets carrying a sign announcing the soon-coming end of the world.  Later during the early television age couple of well-known preachers even provided the date of Christ’s arrival.  During my youth the most popular ministers were known as “firebrands” because they preached “hellfire and brimstone”  Many a soul has been “saved” because some H and B preacher convinced him that Jesus might return before for “the church” before he arrived home, in which case he would be “left behind.”

These false prophets, and there were thousands of them, all had one thing in common: THEY DID NOT BELIEVE GOD’S WORD.  Which is the same reason “the church” of today does not know the answer to the question asked in the series title.  The people mentioned above offered up their opinions based upon a few “headlines” found in the Bible.  The problem is that God’s “fine print” did not confirm their opinions.  What they did not know was that God had given His people several “signs” that would mark lay out a time path that would end with the return of His Son to earth.  The “doomsday preachers” were also wrong about what would happen upon His return, and for the same reason–THEY DID NOT BELIEVE GOD’S WORD.

For 2000 years the ultimate question within church circles has been: ARE WE LIVING IN THE END TIMES?  Until relatively modern times, the answer from the Holy Scriptures had been “no.”  That has changed.  Let us with open heart study God’s “fine print” to learn the Truth about the timing of Christ’s return, the end of this present evil age and the approximate time it will all take place.  When asked when the end would come and the kingdom would be restored to Israel, Jesus replied that He did not know the time, but that God would provide signs that would let His people know when the end was approaching.  He said that, though His Very Elect would not know the day nor the hour of His appearing, but they would recognize the “season” by the signs that he would provide.  His signs would be revealed to all of mankind, but only His true prophets would see them for what they were and would tell His other saints.  Those without eyes to see and ears to hear would be deceived by Satan’s false prophets.  Then He revealed the signs.  In this series we will study them, and in so doing, will conclude that His arrival on the scene is near–that the “season” has arrived and that “this generation” who will see the final signs will witness His return.

Everywhere on earth conditions continue to grow increasingly worse as God continues to multiply and intensify the curses He is pouring out on sinning mankind.  Even skeptics are beginning to wonder about the future of civilization, or if civilization has a future.  Pandemics, tyrannical governments, failing economies, social conflict, crime, wars, so-called “natural disasters,” mass migrations of people, growing aggression between nations, ideological extremism, weapons advancements, etc. reveal what is happening on earth at present and what man can expect more of in the future.  Many people realize that something extraordinary has to take place if humanity is to continue to exist.  Many are openly speaking about the “END OF THE WORLD.”  The problem is that the “something extraordinary” will not take place.  Man will refuse to do what must be done.

I, along with others more knowledgeable than I, have for years been warning that the signs of the end of the age have been appearing just as the Holy Scriptures warned would happen.  Each sign revealed that the time for the Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord, the Second Advent of Christ, the end of man’s control of this world and the end of this world were growing ever closer.   And we have been ignored by the world’s masses as puny man tried one cure after another to heal the deadly wound that is bringing this world to its inglorious end.  The problem is that mankind cannot bring itself to identify the deadly self-inflicted wound which is slowly killing humanity.  That wound is man’s “transgression of the Law”–otherwise known as SIN (1 Jn. 3:4).  Isaiah warns religious man that, “Your sins separate you from your God” (28:2).  When God does not fill the life of religious man, he becomes low-hanging fruit for Satan.  Those in the Institutional Church–so-called “grace-saved sinners”–are being devoured by the devil who has convinced them that they are “walking with Jesus.”

As highway signs tell the traveler that he is getting closer and closer to his destination, the Lord’s “signs” have continued to appear with the passage of time.  Because the signs are ignored, the world works tirelessly to solve the endless flow of problems that time brings with it.  The problem is that man is trying to figure out what HE can do to stop the chain of negative events that just keep on coming.  For example, we now have a new COVID-19 variant developing in South Africa that, if the reports are correct, has other variants connected to it.  The irony is that man could stop it and all other disasters immediately.  But he refuses to do so.  Though he has had hundreds of years of warning from the Great Forecaster of Truth, man continues on his mindless quest for self-direction which, after killing billions of his fellow man, will take him to the very edge of suicidal self-destruction.  Only divine intervention will keep him from destroying himself.

Some 2000 years ago the greatest newscaster the world has ever known foretold today’s chaotic world condition.  He who “knows the end from the beginning” warned those with eyes to see, ears to hear not only foretold what would happen at the end of the age, but how to discern when the end was approaching.

This great forecaster of events was Jesus of Nazareth.  This is the same Jesus Who promised to return at the very last moment to save mankind from extinction.  What He said concerning the end of the age has been written in the Book many know about but few know, fewer believe and even fewer obey.  Which explains why mankind continues to wallow in the moral sewer he, himself has created.  Jesus knew what would take place at the end of the age which began on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. with the establishment of the New Testament Church.  He knew because His Father told Him.  And what the Father has told Him He has relayed to His loyal disciples in vivid detail.

Bible lovers know that the warnings Jesus proclaimed while on earth were not new to mankind.  He had warned the first humans personally.  He then warned their descendants through His Old Testament prophets.  The simple message He spoke to the masses through them was the same message He speaks through His modern day prophets: OBEY MY LAW AND BE BLESSED; DISOBEY MY LAW AND BE CURSED.  Adam and Eve rejected His message and paid a terrible price for doing so.  Incredibly, their descendants, with extremely rare exception, have followed in their spiritual footsteps and will also pay a terrible price.  To make His His covenant with man easy to understand He recorded it in the most simple of terms, NOT ONCE BUT TWICE.  Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 can be understood by a third grader.  In those two short chapters He plainly reveals the COVENANT He offers to “whosoever will”–OBEY ME AND BE BLESSED; DISOBEY ME AND BE CURSED.  The formula for being blessed and not cursed in this life could not be more clear.  And yet ….  L.J.