The Wonder of the End Times The bible often speaks of the end times. One in 27 verses in the bible deals with the end times and 23 out of 27 books in the NT talks about it. In the Old Testament, there are 1,845 references to Christ Second Coming, where 17 books give it prominence. For every prophecy in the Bible concerning Christ first coming, there are 8 which look forward to His second coming! You will be surprised to find out that the Second Coming is the most prophesied event in the entire Bible. What will happen at the end? Time of Tribulation In Matthew 24:21-22 Jesus said “…there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. 22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” The prophet Daniel described this time of tribulation as a “time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then…” (12:1). It will be seven years pure tribulation. Devil will go on a rampage with fury because his time will be short (Revelations 13:5). Read the signs of the times The bible is very clear that no one knows the day or hour when Jesus is coming back. But we are told there are sign we should look for. Paul “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3). There are four signs we need to give attention. Sign of deception The first thing we find is that before the coming of the Lord, there will be a great falling away. He calls it “apostasy”. Jesus mentioned the same thing would take place when he warned us to “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name, saying, I [Jesus] am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:4-5). This worldwide deception will lead to persecution of Christians. Even today, approximately four of five people persecuted for their religious beliefs are Christians. Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world and it's accelerating at a rapid rate. Today, 1 in 9 Christians suffer high persecution. In the top 50 persecuting countries 1,266 churches were attacked in 2018. Places like Vietnam, Myanmar, China and North Korea all saw increases in stricter state control of religious rights. Iraq they had fallen from 1.5 million Christians before 2003 to less than 120,000 today. What's is at the core of their fallen away? Delusion takes over the world to confirm what was in their hearts. What was in their hearts? II Thessalonians 2:10 says they didn't "LOVE THE TRUTH" It literally reads "did not welcome the truth". Who then will overcome? Those who love God more than life. We will see the rise of the Antichrist before the coming of the Lord. He is described as “the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.” (II Thessalonians 2:9-11). Those who follow and pledge alliance to the Antichrist will bear the mark of the beast the number 666”. In the bible, the number 6 is the number of man. The number 7 is the number for God. No matter how much the Antichrist tries, he falls short of the perfection and greatness of God. Those who wish to purchase food or supplies, will need to have the mark of the beast. The Antichrist will control the basic necessities of lie. Today, we have the technology to In May 2016, at the United Nations Headquarters in NY, the inaugural ID2020 Summit brought together over 400 people to discuss how to provide a unique digital identity to everyone on the planet, including the 1.5 billion people living without any form of recognized identification. The Antichrist will have a global monopoly on the economy through a cashless society. The apostle John first says “I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.” (Revelations 6:2). This is a description of the Antichrist. John depicts him having a “bow”, but with no arrows. This is symbolic of conquering via diplomacy. He will go about peacemaking but with a hidden intention of world domination. The Antichrist will rule for 42 months over the earth, though he will appear before ruling over the world. For three and a half years he “was given authority to continue [literally “make war”] for forty-two months” (Rev 13:5). In fact the Anti- Christ “was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation“ (Rev 13:7). The appearance of the Antichrist will resemble the speed of a leopard, the solid strength of a bear, devouring power of a lion. Revelations 13:2 says about the Antichrist, who is call “the beast”, " And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority." Same animals mentioned in the book of Daniel for the four greatest world empires. He will have the combined power of all four. The Antichrist will do miracles from the underworld and darkness to deceive people. We are told in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 that “the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing." Satan is going to try to do every possible to copy Jesus. Jesus and his followers did and continue to do miracles according to the power of the Holy Spirit. But Satan will “performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven, to the earth in full view of the people” in order to deceiving until bowing their allegiance to Satan, the Antichrist and the False Prophet. Sign of disputes Jesus said “you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains” (Matthew 24:6-7). The early pains of the coming of the Lord will be an intensification of wars. It is disturbing to know that 50% of all research scientist is devoted today to arms development. We currently have about 4,000 pounds of explosive for every person living. John goes on to say “then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword” (Revelation 6:3-4). The “large sword” is describing a large weapon which causes great damage. Today, we have weapons of mass destructions that can affect the entire world like never before. Sign of devastation John the apostle said, “8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:8). The pale horse is the last horse of the four horses in Revelations 6. We are told in this passage ¼ of the world population will die at the beginning of tribulation. This is a staggering number of people dying. In WWII 1 in 40 die as the result of the war. Later during the great tribulation another 1/3 of the world’s population will die. There will also be pestilence. We know today rats carry around 35 diseases and have been the carriers of diseases with a combined death more than all of the wars put together. For example, in the fourteen century, one third of Europeans were killed by the bubonic plague, carried by fleas which were in rats. In the 4th century AD., Tiphus killed 200 million people. This passage is probably also describing biological warfare, we can cause entire large city be killed in just a week. Today we are experiencing the direct effects of Global Warming. As temperatures rise and the metabolism of marine animals sped up, the warmer waters can not hold enough oxygen for them to survive.