The unexpected appearance of signs of the end-time sometimes appears in casual statements that indicate culminating thoughts of intentions by those who are planning our future. We must ask how their plans fit with God’s revealed plan for the future, as told in Scripture.

There is the simple unfolding of Scripture in its chronological format as its timeline. That seems to be the format a God of no confusion would choose. A speaker once said he always tried to pick out someone in his audience who might be one who would have trouble understanding his message. Then, he would try to take it to a level that could be understood easily. How would God do it? Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44).

After listing several turbulent upsets in the world’s geological and social conditions, Jesus says in Luke 21:28, “When these things begin to happen, look up for your redemption draws near.”

Then He tells a parable of the blossoming of the fig tree that is about the coming restoration of Israel to its own national sovereignty. That incident actually happened on May 14, 1948, 75 years ago. It was prophecy fulfilled.

That event set a pivotal date for the generation living on that date. Mark 13:30 tells us, “…This generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.” Those who were born on or before May 14, 1948, if still living and a believer in Christ, will be among those who never die and are caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

Those are going to be elderly people, 75 years old and older, “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast…” (Hebrews 6:19).

Another sign of the times is told in 2 Thessalonians 2:3: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first….” It is the obvious and prolific increase of lawlessness, moral degradation, mass killings, and relentless injustice now prevailing. There is a tendency to respond with, “We’ve seen these things happening before now, so it is not unusual,” but I submit that it has never been so deep and acceptable from the top leadership of nations of the world. Look at how Jesus saw the world, as Luke reported His words in Luke 17:26-30:

“And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

“Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”

Here the Scriptures acknowledge “these things” have happened before, but this time, they are introducing the coming of the Lord in the Rapture. Is God reluctant to reveal signs of His return? That does not appear to be true at all. Further in that Luke passage to verse 37, we find a description of how the Rapture will touch individuals around the world—some taken to safety, some left behind.

In Amos 3:7, He says, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”

Bible students of prophecy have long learned not to be called a “date setter” because we forget to consider the whole counsel of God, or perhaps we forget Proverbs 3:5 which has been staring us in the face all along: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” But then, how are we to factor in such a sign as this one now looming on the horizon?

The United Nations has announced a 2023 Summit meeting on September 18-19, 2023. It is not front-page news that is readily apparent, but its purpose is awesome when compared with the prophecies of Scripture, mainly Daniel 9:26-27.

It is labeled as the “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDG) for its purpose and would mark the “beginning of a new phase of accelerated progress towards the SDG’s plan for high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions leading up to 2030.”

The UN website has this statement by the UN Secretary-General: “The SDG Summit in September must be a moment of unity to provide a renewed impetus and accelerated actions for the SDGs.”

So, what do we say to that? “Aw, the UN is always doing something over there in their high-towered edifice that never works out,” is that it? After President Obama took office in 2009, he toured the Middle East, apologizing for America, and demanded the peace negotiators have a plan in place the next September. Nothing was in place in 2010, nor 2011, nor 2012, then re-election took first attention. Apparently, God’s timing was not then.

This meeting is to set up a seven-year plan of action to transform the world into a conforming New World Order, as further digging will reveal. It is set for this September 18-19 in New York. It is scheduled on the next two days after the Feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashana, on the calendar for September 16-17. (Two days to allow for sighting the new moon if clouds cover it the first day.)

The comparative prophecy that speaks of this is Daniel 9:26-27:

“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself, and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined.

“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”

When Jesus returns for His body of believers around the world, the sudden disappearance of multi-thousands of people will result in major chaos, as one can imagine. Those left behind will be scrambling for someone to take charge of the devastation. If this September is that time, the “purely coincidental” meeting of UN officials in New York will already be on top of it with that person ready to take over.

They will confirm a covenant of seven years for the Jews and will allow them to rebuild their temple. This is the time when God returns His attention to His planned restoration of Israel with their true Messiah and the seven years of punishment for their continued disobedience in those past centuries. This will be that “missing” 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy in Daniel 9:20 and following.

The ministry of those 144,000 Jewish evangelists will lead many thousands to the Lord from every tribe, tongue, and nation. See Revelation 7. They will have refused to take the Mark of the Beast and are killed for it, apparently, for they come out of the Great Tribulation, the last half of the seven years.

These are the Scriptural accounts of the last days of this age, but how should we look at the events in the world that seem to correspond? We must look at the attributes of God. Does He also know every thought and intent in the minds of those who do not believe, as Psalm 139 tells us, or is it just believers? Certainly, it is all mankind.

For some time, I have pinpointed the Rapture to occur during the Feast of Trumpets, the time of the late harvest, and because of the progress of the “falling away,” the Day is clearly approaching, in my opinion. Would God allow such an obvious action of the world to occur contrary to His will? “Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10b).

The question of this article is the title: “Has the time of the signs now arrived?” Have you seen the Day approaching, and are you ready? Has the “falling away” reached its peak? It must come first, then the One who resists will come for His believers.

“Even so, Lord Jesus, come” (Revelation 22:20).

Contact email: andwegetmercy@gmail.com

 

Isn’t it true that mankind does not like change? Especially if it is sudden, we are really upset. But life is full of surprises. The announcement that the Lord will come “like a thief in the night” brings a sense of uncertainty.

For many years we have been taught that Jesus would return at any time, that nothing hinders Him from coming this afternoon, even. Yet, do we really live like we believe that? Our lives, our plans, all have future dates, and we live like we believe every tomorrow will fade into a today, just as it has for thousands of years.

And quietly, underneath the obvious, we have begun to absorb the world’s provisions so much that God has to take extreme measures to get our attention—both believers and non-believers!

When God was ready to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, He salvaged a baby named Moses from the ravages of the Pharoah, who had ordered the killing of all Jewish male babies under two years of age. Forty years later, Moses realized his calling, but his kinsmen were not willing to leave Egypt. Another forty years passed, Moses had gone away to Median, and Pharoah had begun to make life unbearable for the Jewish people.

Then, both Moses and his kinsmen were ready to depart their habitats.

In those years afterward, the Jews were continually willing to forsake the leadership of Moses and return to their miserable prior existence. There were two men of faith and commitment, Joshua and Caleb, as there have been down through the ages.

The greatest work of God came as a result of His promised punishment for their repeated disobedience—that He would have them scattered into all the nations of the world. His prophets repeatedly relayed that promise to them: “I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them” (Jeremiah 9:16).

“Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone” (Deuteronomy 28:64).

Then, the promises of their return from the nations:

“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24).

“After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely” (Ezekiel 38:8).

Now, we look back to 75 years ago, May 14, 1948, and see the fulfillment of those promises. However, the final scattering came with the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple with the Roman invasion in 70 A.D. and following. It took 65 years, until 135 A.D., for Jerusalem to be truly uninhabited.

Jesus acknowledged this destruction when He responded to the disciples’ admiration of the temple, told in Matthew 24:2b: “Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

The stones were inlaid with pure gold. Contrary to current teaching by some, there is no evidence of the beginning of the Millennium at that time, nor any Roman soldier standing in the Holy Place and declaring himself God and demanding that all must worship him as God—as they were tearing the temple down! If the thousand-year “Millennium” began then, none of the returns of Christ will have happened. Both the Rapture and, seven years later, the Second Coming precede the Millennium, just as the Scriptures roll out the future events.

For 1800 years, the land lay desolate—70 A.D. to 1870 A.D., when nomadic Jews began to filter back into their promised land. But the return of them to a nation of their own was not yet. A foundation of leadership took time to develop, and after the First World War—1914-1917- signs began to emerge with relationships with Britain. The Balfour Declaration established a homeplace for the Jewish people—Palestine—but no sovereign nation among nations.

God’s foreknowledge of the coming establishment of a sovereign nation for the Jews also brought forth the awesome challenge of getting Jewish people willing to move there from those countries where they had become embedded after those 1800-plus years. Their past experience of 400 years in Egypt tells us that—they loved those lentils and garlics of Egypt.

The answer was the Holocaust that formed in the minds of Adolph Hitler and his associates. Since God cannot, in Himself, touch evil, all He needs to do is to allow Satan free reign. With man’s ready and willing Adam nature, Satan is enabled to “steal, kill, and destroy” whoever and wherever he finds an opening. Peter declares this in his first epistle: “…Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Even as believers, we find our feelings, our emotions, and actions entangled with “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” that we tend to draw back when we learn that “All things work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28). But repenting may not be so difficult if we change the disappointment to His appointment in our hearts with submission. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, for His compassion fails not, they are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness!” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

So Peter writes of the attitude that will be in the last days when scoffers will come saying, “Where is the promise of His coming, for all things are as they were in the beginning” (2 Peter 3:3-4). Is there a reluctance in the hearts of man to turn loose from the attachments of the world? It is understandable that unsaved people would readily accept any position that does not recognize God’s presence in the world.

Are true believers also among those “scoffers” with deviant doctrines of disbelief that Jesus really is coming, first, for His own body of believers? Looking for “a new heaven and a new earth coming down from heaven” is not the next thing on God’s agenda, according to great passages of Scripture that cannot be ignored as no longer relevant. In the first part of 1 Corinthians 10, Paul writes of the definite need for the examples of people and God’s response recorded in the Old Testament. When Paul wrote to Timothy that “all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable,” he only had the Old Testament scrolls in hand.

As I write of these things, I come to the undeniable truth that “If we do not believe, yet He abides faithful for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). Just as Proverb 3:5 sums up rather quickly the underlying truth that it is God who is sovereign and not mankind.

Our times are in His hands, and thankfully so.

Contact email: andwegetmercy@gmail.com