The Signs of the Last Days. When?

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What terrible wars, both foreign and domestic!
what pestilences, famines . . . and quakings of
the earth has history recorded!-Tertullian, in
Ad Nationes, writing in the year 197 A.D.

In the minds of many religious people there is a belief that the final war of Armageddon, the coming of Christ Jesus for the final judgment, is sure to occur in their day. The coming of Jesus Christ on earth and the promise of his return awakened great expectations in human hearts.

It is hard for a person to accept that an event of such momentous importance should not happen in his or her lifetime. One inwardly resists the thought of missing out on it, of not experiencing a personal 'rendezvous with history,' particularly divine history. Doubtless this is why books that feed and stimulate such expectations often enjoy great popularity.

A defining feature among a large segment in every generation seems to have been the belief that their day was unique. Though aware of the hardships and calamities that have been the common lot of people in all ages, they have nonetheless concluded that their times were worse - that troubles and dangers were mounting rapidly toward the extreme calamity that could, and would, end the world.

No doubt, the expression, "the good old days" makes a nostalgia that the past seem better, that the present is getting worse. This attitute is nothing new, it calls the mind the Biblical admonition: "Do not say: 'How is it that former times were better than these?' for it is not in wisdom that you ask about this."- Ecclesiastes 7:10, The New American Bible.

Perhaps because we are to such an extent strangers to the past, we easily read into the events and circumstances of our own day a distinctiveness and uniqueness that may not actually be there.

Yet, history shows that generation after generation has fixed high hopes on certain dates or predictions, only to suffer disappointment, many becoming seriously, even bitterly, disillusioned when their expectations failed to materialize.

Quite in contrast to such attitude, King Solomon of ancient Israel sets out the plain reality of matters as relates to human life in general, saying:

"What has happened before will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing new in the whole world. 'Look!' they say, 'here is something new!' But no, it has all happened before we were born. No one remembers what has happened in the past, and no one in days to come will remember what happens between now and then." -Ecclesiastes 1: 9-11, Today's English Version.

Whether in the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Age of Discovery, the Industrial Age, the Atomic Age, the Space Age, the information age, the events of the day are essentially repetitions, variations, elaborations or extensions of the past, and life on earth, the overall course of humankind, human nature itself and mankind's relationships with one another continue very much the same as they were in the past. What appears momentous, even stupendous, to one generation is not to the next, and rarely figures in the daily thoughts or concerns of people living in such later time. Spectacular though landing in the moon may have been, today how many persons remember the name of the first man to set foot on the moon? The past fades from human thoughts that are immersed in the present and grappling with the future.

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The Bible, in reality shows that only a genuinely complete change takes place at the revelation of God's Son, who can make all things truly new. If History has any lesson for us, it makes no stronger point than the unwisdom of "date-setting" for the end. Editorial writer Noel Mason says:

"The history of Jewish and Christian 'date-setters' with all its bitter disappointment and disillusionment has not curbed the desire of many Christians to calculate the end. Some groups continue to cling to their dates in spite of the embarrassment created by the continuation of history. Rather than acknowledging their interpretations of Daniel and Revelation as wrong, many simply avoid the embarassment by reinterpreting the supposed 'filfillment'."

Such date-setting and religious alarmist writings are thus very "old news," repeatedly occurring throughout the nineteen centuries of the Christian era. Already in the first century we find the apostle Paul writing to fellow believers in Thessalonica:

"Now we implore you, brothers, by the certainty of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and of our meeting him together, to keep your heads and not be thrown off your balance by any prediction or message or letter purporting to come from us, and saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you by any means whatever." - 2 Thessalonians 2:l-3, The New Testament in Modem English by J . B. Phillips.

Despite that plea, the conjecture and predictions did not end. In the third century, for example, we find church father Cyprian painting this ominous picture to Christians of his day:

"That wars continue frequently to prevail, that death and famine accumulate anxiety, that health is shattered by raging diseases, that the human race is wasted by the desolation of pestilence, know that this was foretold; that evils should be multiplied in the last times, and that misfortunes should be varied; and that the day of judgment is now drawing nigh"

In the sixth century, in a powerful, stirring sermon, Pope Gregory the Great proclaimed:

"Of all the signs described by our Lord as presaging the end of the world some we see already accomplished... For we now see that nation arises against nation and that they press and weigh upon the land in our own times as never before in the annals of the past. Earthquakes overwhelm countless cities, as we often hear from other parts of the world. Pestilence we endure without interruption. It is true that we do not behold signs in the sun and moon and stars but that these are not far off we may infer from the changes in the atmosphere."

History thus records the long and dismal list of predictions and failures of countless "prophets" of the end times. It seems hardly necessary to go into detail about all the last-days proclaimers who in our own time have-both by printed word and radio and television sermons- stirred up excited expectations with their eschatological alarmist predictions.

Does this mean that a sense of expectancy is wrong? By no means, for we are constantly urged in Scripture to stay "on the watch." On the watch for what then? Do the failures of past predictions necessarily mean that our generation may not be the exception, that our twentieth century may not indeed contain events that definitely mark our time as that in which Bible prophecy will reach final fulfillment? If the Bible actually sets out a certain "sign" (perhaps composed of a number of individual "signs" that enables us to identify such a period and if that "sign" is now visible, it would be disastrous for us not to acknowledge it, reprehensible not to contribute toward making it known. On the other hand, if such claims are nothing more than the result of manipulation of fact and, worse, manipulation of Scripture, then it would be equally disastrous and reprehensible for us to promote trust in such claims, to contribute toward their spread. Reprehensible, because it would mean disobeying the Word of God which warns against practicing deception on others, deception which can not only be hurtful
emotionally, materially and physically, but can also cause devastating erosion of faith in the genuine message of God.

The claim is certainly made that we today are seeing such a "sign" or "signs" identifying our generation as living in the end-time of the world.

In his best-selling book, Approaching Hoofieats, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Dr. Billy Graham states: "We have to ask ourselves: Is this the time of 'the end' that the Bible speaks of so graphically in so many places?... The Bible teaches that there will be a number of signs that are easily discernible as we approach the end of the age. An of these Signs seem currently to be coming into focus." - Pages 126,127.

Under the heading "Watch for These Signs," in The Promise, published in 1982, Hal Lindsey refers to Jesus' words in Matthew chapter
twenty-four and lists these signs as wars, famine, plagues, lawlessness and earthquakes. He likens these and other features of prophecy to pieces of a "great jigsaw puzzle" and then goes on to say that, following the establishment of the Jewish state in Israel in 1948, "the whole prophetic scenario began to fall together with dizzying speed?" - Pages 197-199.

In Good-bye, Planet Earth, Seventh-Day Adventist author Robert H. Pierson cites the disciples' question about Jesus' coming and then says:" Read what Jesus answered-what He had to say about your day and mine-the latter part of the twentieth century...Read these words in the light of current world events."

The now-deceased Herbert W. Armstrong, founder and leader of the Worldwide Church of God, in a letter to subscribers of Plain Truth
magazine, wrote: "...let me give you a brief preview of the world -YOU live in today, and what the next very few years are going to bring into YOUR life and mine. We are living in a time of extreme DANGER! ... All evidence seems to indicate it - pollution, unprecedented crime and violence, family life breaking down, morals in the cesspool, terrorism, local wars in Asia, the Middle East, South America. ALL signs point to the fact that we are Living in the TIME OF THE END of this present civilization!... We are living in the most tremendous days of world history-the very END TIME, the END of this present evil, unhappy, violent world-just prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ."

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While numerous sources proclaim that our day is indeed different from any past time and that we do indeed see events and conditions that positively mark our era as the foretold and final one, probably none is more vocal in this claim than the international organization known as Jehovah's Witnesses. Their leadership, through its agency the Watch Tower Society, has built up a worldwide publishing empire rarely equalled for sheer volume of output. The millions of persons among the organization's membership are continually exhorted to be conscious of the 'urgency of the time.' In response, members are to be found knocking at the doors of homes in all lands where such activity is allowed, offering literature which declares as indisputable fact that the last days began in the second decade of this century, and that some of the people living then will positively still be alive when the final end arrives

More than this, their Governing Body makes belief in such teaching an article of faith, essential to acceptance by God and Christ and therefore necessary for anyone to gain salvation. For that reason, any member who seriously questions the soundness of such teaching-on the basis of Scripture and fact-is subject to disfellowshipment, thereafter to be considered, and totally shunned, as an "apostate" from the faith.

Because of such factors, and particularly because their claims regarding the "uniqueness" of our times often surpass - both in boldness and extent-those of other sources, in its comparison of scriptural teachings and historical facts this book may at times focus somewhat wider consideration on the claims and predictions made by the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses and their Watch Tower Society as to the times we live in.

In so doing, the views of other widely publicized sources are by no means lost from sight, for the same facts here considered generally have a strong bearing on the claims and predictions made by those other sources.

Whatever the source, the essential question is: Are such claims truly authorized by Scripture? Do the events and conditions so dramatically pointed to actually constitute a Biblical "sign"? Are they truly unique to our century and distinctive of our generation? What do the facts show?

We believe that the material prepared by the authors of this book will bring home to the great majority of us just how much we have been 'strangers to the past,' and therefore how easily we may have shown ourselves to be 'incompetent judges of the present.' The historical evidence resulticg from the authors' intensive research will doubtless be surprising for many, yet it is carefully and authentically documented. We are pleased to publish this work, trusting that it will greatly clarify some very crucial questions

You can also download Crisis Of Conscience: THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN LOYALTY TO GOD AND LOYALTY TO ONE’S RELIGION

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time is short...most of all" have been invented our cars are faster than ever our buildings can't get any taller, our ritual are quite advance..children are wiser.. Muslims are converting in mass..inner eyes are been opened..money is most needed..trust are been broken...love is 90percent dead...spiritual activities are fast hapenin physicaly in our society...the changes in the world are real...it gets realer..lets look to hav the master back to earth