Lately, I have heard many pastors and teachers say we are living in the last days before the return of Jesus. I don’t like to take anyone’s word for something like that, so I decided to examine the evidence for myself.
First, I went to the Bible and looked primarily at the verses in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 that talk about this time. What do they say the conditions on earth will be like before the coming of Jesus? I decided to list some of them and then come up with my own conclusions.
The first sign in Matthew 24 is that there would be false Christs and they would deceive many. I went on Google and found there are countless people claiming to be the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Some have a few followers, while others seem to be only deceiving themselves. There were others, however, like Jim Jones, David Koresh and Sun Myung Moon who, among themselves, have deceived countless individuals.
The next sign would be an environment on the earth where there would be “wars and rumors of wars.” Jesus went on to say, “nation would rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.” The word for nation in the Greek is “ethnos.” In other words ethnic group would be fighting against ethnic group. I have heard enough on the news to know that this sign is taking place.
There would be “famines.” I need only to look at Africa and the people there who have been experiencing famine for years. Some of the famines have been from natural causes, but others are man-made and a form of political genocide on a particular group of people. There are also millions of refugees around the world who are on the brink of starvation because of wars taking place in their countries.
There would be “earthquakes.” In Luke 21, it says “great earthquakes.” Again, I have seen this happening all around the world, but a 2014 NBC news story entitled, “Worldwide Surge in Great Earthquakes in the Last 100 Years” was an interesting read. The USGS also has a list of the strongest earthquakes since 1900. There are a lot of them, and all of them that are 8.0 and above on the Richter Scale and are considered “great earthquakes.”
There would be “pestilences.” I looked that word up, and it means a disease that normally would kill you. I think of the rise of diseases such as Ebola and AIDS. There are also superbugs that are resistant to medications, and if you get one of them, there is not much the medical community can do for you. Pestilences are here.
Luke 21 also lists “signs in the sun, moon and stars.” I had heard of the four blood moons that occurred on Jewish feast days and the Revelation 12 sign that just occurred in the sky recently. Will there be more? I will have to watch and see.
Jesus also said in Matthew 24 that the gospel would be preached in all of the world and then the end will come. The gospel is being preached on the internet and on television in various countries around the world with the technology of satellites.
Israel would have to be a nation again, as there are several references to Jerusalem and Judea in these passages. Israel became a nation in 1948, so that seems to be lining up with Scripture.
After I thought about all of these things, I decided, “Yes, these could very definitely be the last days. It does seem like we are moving towards the culmination of all things and the return of Jesus Christ.” So what should I do?
I will continue to read Scripture and watch world events so I can be aware of what is happening. I will try to keep my eyes on Jesus in the midst of these unsettled times. And I will pray; for myself to be awake and aware, and for others to look around and see the events happening today in the light of the prophetic passages in the Bible.
One of the hardest things Jesus ever told his followers was, “Love Your Enemies.” As a believer in Jesus Christ, I have been challenged by this command ever since I first read it. How do we truly love our enemies?
Recently, my cousin received a kidney transplant. His kidneys had not functioned well for years, but he finally came to the point where he needed dialysis. He sent a letter out letting people know he needed a kidney, and many people volunteered to be a donor. Unfortunately, everyone was rejected for one reason or another. Finally, he transferred to another transplant center, and they began the process of reassessing his potential donors. After a while, a new doctor thought he had found the right match. It was my cousin’s wife who had been the first donor on the list, but had been rejected because of her allergies. Within a month, they were both in the hospital awaiting surgery. Both surgeries went well, and they were both out of the hospital within a week.
When we think about love, we don’t usually associate the word with hate. But real love, true love, agape love, it hates…people, no, but the wrongs of this world, yes. Here are some things that love hates:
The book of James tells us that our lives are like “a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” When I read those words in my twenties and thirties, I understood them but they didn’t speak to me as strongly as they do thirty years later. Now, looking back on my life, it does seem like a vapor that has come and can be gone very quickly.
Jesus was talking to a lawyer about the two most important commandments. When they got to the second one: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” the lawyer, wanting to justify himself said, “Who is my neighbor?” He was probably hoping that Jesus would say, “The guy who lives next to you, you know, the one who is so similar to you that you can easily identify with him.”
I have a friend who is faced with a difficult life choice. She needs to make a decision, but has been fighting it. She is making it difficult for herself and for her family. I would love to see her make the decision and move on with her life. As I was praying for her the other evening, I said, “Lord, make it easy for her.”
Recently, I was asked to pray a prayer of blessing before the meal at a public gathering. I was cautioned, “Don’t use the name of Jesus.” So okay, I will certainly respect the wishes of whoever asked me, but later I thought, “When did the name of Jesus become a dirty word?”
When I met my husband, I thought I was “in love” with him, but was it really love? I looked forward to our weekend dates, felt very good around him, and thought about marrying him. I experienced emotional highs when he called, followed by lows when I didn’t hear from him. I really loved being with him, but was that the kind of “love” one should base a marriage on?
Valerie Cullers 