The Second Coming - 2
Sign of the Times
Biblical prophecy is not Old Moore’s Almanac. More than a quarter of the Bible is prophecy and 80% has already been fulfilled with 100% accuracy. The prophecies and warnings about the end of the age and Christ’s return have this purpose – to prepare us, not to scare us.
It is clear from scripture that at the end of the age righteousness and wickedness will mature simultaneously. The light will become brighter and the darkness will grow darker. As Derek Prince wrote, “Lawlessness will be the hallmark of the last phase of world history.” The best is yet to be, but the worst is still to come.
There’s an old chorus that says “It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus. Earth’s trials will seem so small, when we see Christ.” Do you not long for the day when” the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together?” Do you cry to God for the fulfilment of Habakkuk’s vision that the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea? O for the day when the gods of the heathen shall be cast to the moles and the bats, when the demonic principality that energises all false religion falls, like Dagon, shattered before the Lord God Almighty!
Why is Jesus coming again? Because He is the Truth and He will keep His word. He will fulfil His manifesto commitments and ensure that the meek inherit the earth. He’s coming for His Bride. He’s coming for the national salvation of Israel, His ancient people. He’s coming for the overthrow of the Antichrist and of Satan himself. He’s coming to judge and to establish His millennial kingdom on the earth. Then prayer will be answered. God’s kingdom will come and God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
In Matthew chapter 24, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. They wanted to know what would be the sign of His coming back and of the end of the age. After warning about not being deceived, He says “You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth-pains” (verses 6 to 8). One might argue these things have always been occurring. But are they not growing in intensity and frequency? Since the end of World War 2 there have been over 250 different wars and though there were 640 earthquakes in the 18th century and 2,119 in the 19th century, in the 20th century there have been more earthquakes than in the last 5,000 years. The whole of creation has been groaning as in the pains of child-birth right up to the present time.
We want to know when Christ’s return will happen. Jesus says that it is classified information known only to the Father. However He does, in broad brush strokes, tell us that the climate will be as it was in Noah’s day and Lot’s day. Noah’s day (Genesis 6) was marked by wickedness, evil, violence and corruption. Lot’s day (Genesis 18) was a time of grievous sin and sexual perversions. Jesus declares in Luke 17: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark” (verses 26 to 27). In other words, daily life went on as normal. “Then the flood came and destroyed them all” (verse 27). The event was sudden.
“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building” (verse 28). Life as we know it. “”But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulphur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed” (verses 29 to 30).
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Where is the promise of His coming?” The Bible warns that ‘in the last days scoffers will come’ (2 Peter 3 verse 3). Mockers will taunt believers. The first Christians were eagerly expectant and yet were disappointed. It didn’t happen in their life-time. An old retired clergymen once asked, “How can you be watching and expecting for a thousand years?” But doesn’t the Word say “With Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day”? Three times in the Bible’s last chapter, the risen, ascended, glorified Christ declares, “Behold, I am coming soon!”
One thing is certain. Christ’s return is nearer now than at any other time in history. Tomorrow we shall be one day nearer the Lord’s return!