The End, Part 1

This week, a friend in the ministry said on the telephone, based on world events that we're seeing in the news today, the Great Tribulation will probably start within the next three years. I thought, whoa, are you setting dates here? No. Just based on world events, you would get the idea that the Great Tribulation is just around the corner. And probably, he was saying, just the way things are going, you'd expect that to start within the next three years. Well, if there's anything that is unpredictable, it is when the end will begin and when Jesus Christ will return. So he wasn't predicting or setting dates, but he was just observing the fact that things are really happening in the world. Have you noticed some things? Has it caused you to wonder really what's going on, including the degradation of human relations everywhere? Even where you tend to think of the world as a tourist planet where you can go here and there, we see the leaders of some of those countries in those tourist spots either being ousted or little internal wars, struggles, or external wars and struggles, or just talk about wars taking place. Sometimes, if you're thinking about traveling to a spot, I've heard people say, well, we'd better hurry up and go this year, because probably in the future that won't be possible. If you look at some of the unsustainable environments on planet Earth, you begin to realize, you know, we can't just go on doing what we're doing and all stay alive. With approximately one-tenth of all humans who have ever lived alive right now at the same time, there are a lot of stresses on the Earth and its environments.

We see natural disasters coming in and shaking up some of those environments. There is warmongering going on. There's terrorism. There is saber rattling by the biggest governments on the face of the Earth. There are falterings among the ancient tribes of Jacob, in their economies, in their structures, their political systems. There are increasing levels of godlessness that would seemingly really upset God, who will ultimately determine when and end of all these things will take place. And at some point, Jesus indicated that SNAP, the Great Tribulation, is upon you. Just like a trap, it will come on this Earth, like something that spring shut in just a minute, or like a woman who is pregnant but not in labor and suddenly, bam, it's time to begin having that baby.

In Matthew 24, which is one of the three places that Christ's Olivet prophecy was recorded, it says in verses 36 through 44, from Jesus's own mouth, But of that day and hour no one knows. No one has any idea if it will be within the next three years, or three minutes, or thirty years. No, not even the angels of heaven, he said, no, but only my Father. Verse 37, But as the days of Noah were, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man. We've been telling the Gospel, preaching that Christ is going to return, warning that the end of an age is going to come down, especially on the house of Jacob.

We've been doing that for a long, long time, just as this era of the Church. I would say some 75, 80, 85 years, somewhere in there. It's a long time. Kind of get bored with the message. People get, eh, I've heard that. My great-grandfather used to hear that. It hasn't come. It's like no out there, building the boat for 120 years and warning everybody. The end is coming, the end is near. And they grew dull of hearing.

And so, verse 38, for as in the days before the flood, they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, given in marriage, they were going about daily life until the day Noah entered into the ark. When is that? They didn't have lights and cameras and a reporter right there. Well, it looks like Moses is finishing his tea now.

I wonder if he'll make a step for the ark. You know, it just happened one day that Noah was in the ark, and people weren't really paying attention to that fact. And it was all sealed up and pitched up, and it just happened one day. Verse 39, they did not know until the flood came and took them all away.

So also will be the coming of the Son of Man. In verse 40 comes a little symbolic warning for you and me. Then two shall be in the field, symbolic of their involvement in the Lord's harvest. Two will be working, doing the work of God in the field, which is about a harvest. One will be taken, and the other left, reminiscent of the ten virgins. Half would be acceptable and half not. And verse 41, two will be grinding at the mill. Again, it's symbolic of being part of that harvest of God, being involved in that process. And half, one shall be taken, and the other left.

A similar scenario was repeated here. In verse 42, therefore, watch. Watch. Look out after your spiritual state. Look after that thing that you're entrusted with, which is the will of God, which is to bear fruit for that harvest. To be producing many kernels of wheat for that harvest.

For you do not know what hour your Lord comes. You and I don't know when He's coming. It's not just a matter of saying, oh, it looks like the tribulation will start soon, count three and a half years, and then Christ will be here. It's a little more complicated than that, is what He's saying. God doesn't want us to know. He doesn't want you and I to be able to figure it out. He wants our fruit to be the real deal, the genuine stuff that was growing anyway. It wasn't sort of hurry up and let's manufacture something made of plastic, you know, for the dried fruit arrangement.

It looks like the real thing, but it's not. Verse 44, therefore, you also be ready. For in that hour you think not. The Son of Man comes. It's in that time. Not when you think, oh, I think He's going to be coming about now or about three years from now. It's in the hour when you're thinking He's not going to come. That's when it's going to happen. What is the exact timing?

We find in Acts 1, verse 7, some of the last words of Jesus Christ, spilling over into the Acts of the Apostles. He says, He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. That is something that the Father has put in His own authority. Today I'd like to begin a series. This is the first of a four-part series on prophesied events concerning the time ahead. We might consider it the time just ahead, just around the corner.

Some have already started to say, well, this is it. We're in it. But there is a time that the Bible calls the time of the end. It's not the end of humanity. It's not the end of the earth. It's the end of an age, the end of an era, the end of an age which has been dominated by Satan as the God of this world. And that age is going to end with a struggle between powers, supernatural powers, earthly powers.

It's going to be a time of tumult such as this world has never experienced as one age ends and another begins. The title of part one is The End. Part one, Struggle for Survival. Part two will contain prophecies about what will come upon Christ's true church. Part three is prophecies concerning safety from terror that will be given to some. And part four will be prophecies about the continuing transformation into the new age that's coming after this present evil age that we often refer to as the wonderful world tomorrow. So this time of the end is something in advance of the Feast of Trumpets this year that I would like us to understand, be aware of, and have that in mind as world events continue to deteriorate so that we can not only expect certain things to happen, but also to be focused on those things that are important to be doing during this time. In Newsweek magazine in 1996, some 15 years ago, Henry Kissinger stated this, Russia possesses 20,000 nuclear weapons. 20,000 nuclear weapons. Just imagine for a moment a nuclear weapon, not an atomic weapon, not just a dirty bomb, but a nuclear weapon ready to go, ready to take out a huge mass of population and spoil a great portion of the earth, and then multiply that times 20,000 and put those on all types of warheads, fixed, mobile, put them in airplanes, attach them to who knows what in secret places, dial in potential population centers that are large. And that's one country. It's not to say Russia has the most nuclear weapons. It's quite a statement, though. 20,000 nuclear weapons. Recently, there was a super power pact that was formed that's been coded BRIC, B-R-I-C. It stands for Brazil, Russia, India, and China. While you might not think Brazil is a big factor, you certainly should sit up and think about Russia, India, and China, for in those countries you have most of the world's population. Plus, you have countries who are armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons.

Brazil is a renegade state that has a lot of money, has really close ties to South Korea, and has been arming itself and ramping up not only armaments for itself, but also encouraging other terrorists, we might call them, organizations to become armed, armed and very dangerous.

USA Today this week said in just two decades China has created the largest force of submarines and amphibious warfare ships in Asia. Its air force has added hundreds of fighter jets. As its military might increases, China has been ramping up confrontation with U.S. allies.

A poll released July 14, 2011 among key nations of the world showed that 15 of 22 nations say that China either will replace or has already replaced the United States as the world's leading superpower.

Of those nations polled, all but four say that China's increasing military might is a bad thing.

There are multiple news reports and WikiLeaks documents that have come out from the United States government that show that arms races are going on throughout the Middle East and throughout Asia, including strategic missiles, chemical weaponry, and a desire for nuclear capability being sought by most countries in the Middle East. Not just one or two, but most countries in the Middle East as well as over in Southeast Asia.

I'd like to play for you two news videos.

The first is about an arms race among Middle East cultures.

If we could play this one first. These are out in the public domain, and they're both created by Al Jazeera, and this one on the Middle East will give an interesting perspective from a Middle East news service.

We have audio, please. South China Sea. Between them, the United States, China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan account for 65% of all global military spending, and that's getting bigger year by year.

The Asian seas are a potential flashpoint. Major powers like Japan, South Korea, and China have been investing a great deal in naval power.

Over the past decade, China has increased its military spending by between 10 and 20% every year. It now has the second biggest military budget in the world.

For the first time in centuries, China has both a strategic imperative to develop its maritime capabilities and maritime area defenses, and also the ability to do so.

Beijing has long argued that it's simply playing catch-up.

If we increase the military expenditure at a common speed, our military forces will always fall behind others, and cannot fulfill their mission of defending the country.

But Washington has interpreted this as a serious bid for dominance in the region.

Some in America think that there is something to fear in a rising China.

Not least because Beijing is spending heavily to build a navy with blue water capacity that would allow it to rule these waves.

There is a broader Chinese goal of creating the conditions under which all actors in the region will feel obliged to think, what will Beijing think of this?

What would Beijing, how would Beijing react to this?

To counter the perceived threat of China rising, all its regional rivals are now locked into spiraling naval spending.

South Koreans say, well, we're building these ships, these large ships that are very similar to Japanese ships, because the Japanese have a bunch of them.

The Japanese say, well, we're building all these capabilities because look at the Chinese, they're building a bunch of them.

But the most dangerous aspect of this new arms race is happening far below the public radar.

The seas of northeast Asia are patrolled by rapidly increasing submarine forces from at least ten countries, many of them still struggling with the poisoned legacy of past wars.

There is only one China. Taiwan is part of China.

And some of the most potentially explosive unresolved disputes on the planet.

Bad historical memories and territorial disputes, if you combine all of those factors, you have a perfect storm brewing here in terms of a potential regional crisis or confrontation in the future.

The row between North and South Korea over the torpedo attack on one of South Korea's ships.

Inexorably dragged its superpower sponsor into the dispute.

We are viewing this as an unnecessary response.

While Japan's interception of a Chinese fishing boat in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, we will defend our sovereignty.

There should be no changes in our stance in that in the future.

Has brought simmering regional tensions to the boil.

It was Japan who provoked matter. Japan has repeatedly made the stakes, aggravating the situation.

The submarines and warships flood the shipping lanes of these most volatile waters.

How long before a minor clash between regional rivals turns into a major international crisis?

And if it does, who will stop a full-blown shooting war?

Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, they do not have any regional mechanisms for crisis management.

That means that it's going to be a matter of picking up the phone and calling whoever, hoping that someone picks up.

This is the second video I'd like to ask to be played.

Concerns an armed race between China and the United States. And also shows, along with the one of the Middle East, that there are great efforts to arm and have arms races to arm the major militaries of this world.

Another U.S. arms deal with Saudi Arabia is in the pipeline, the biggest in history.

This $67 billion deal includes 84 new F-15s, 70 Apache helicopters, 72 Black Hawks, 36 little birds and $30 billion for the Navy.

This deal alone surpasses the entire global arms sales in 2009, already $57 billion.

And it's not just Saudi Arabia. Other countries in the region are also embarking on one of the largest rearmament exercises in peacetime, or fueled by petriplers.

The UAE will get $36 billion worth of arms from the U.S., Oman, $12 billion, and Kuwait, seven.

And it's not just the Gulf or America. Armed sales to North Africa increased by 62% in the last four years.

Russia, too, has signed substantial arms deals with oil-rich Libya and Algeria, which is increasing its defense budget by more than 10% to $5.4 billion.

And last, and very much not least, a new $4.2 billion deal will see Iraq getting 18 M16 jets and a range of high-tech equipment from the U.S.

So what's behind this arms build-up?

Is it Tehran's real or perceived military program? And its continuing tensions with the United States and Israel?

And then there's Israel itself, the only nuclear kid on the block and already the pre-eminent regional military power not shy about using its power, ratcheting up the need for more foreign arms.

In addition to existing U.S. military aid, agreements worth over $30 billion, a new $3 billion deal will give Israel 20 new F-35s. You could potentially see a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East.

Some justify these deals as merely replacing obsolete weapons systems. Others would call it an insane arms race where winners could end up as losers.

The domino theory was once about spreading freedom and democracy in the Middle East. But is it spreading weapons instead? Those are some news perspectives that are provided from a Middle East viewpoint.

But they certainly show that there's a lot of tragedy ahead for individuals, and there's a rush to arm ourselves as humanity with things that will inflict great casualties in the long run.

In the Good News magazine, an article by Mr. Rhodes, it said, "...the rapid acquisition of nuclear arms in the most volatile region of the world bodes ill for the future peace and stability of the planet.

Logically, the more nations that have nukes, the more likely it is that one or two of them will trigger in-time events." So these things are there. They're always sort of a pressure for things to begin and things to start.

In Matthew 24, verses 7 and 8, Jesus Christ speaks that here on earth there will be a tendency for warfare.

And when asked when the end of the age will come, He said in Matthew 24 and verse 7, "...for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in different places. All these are the beginning of sorrows." They're not the end time, but they're the beginning. They're the start of sorrows.

And the word sorrows there from the Greek means birth pains. It's the beginning of the labor.

It's an analogy of labor pains.

Now, many would assume that consistency and reporting of wars and violence and uprisings and famines and earthquakes and tsunamis and things, they are sure signs that we are in the time of the end. And yet, Jesus Christ made it clear that such tragedies are just part of the way things are on earth.

As the time of the end approaches, however, these things will begin to accelerate and begin to show us a sign of something that lies just beyond.

But He explained that these factors by themselves do not represent the start of the end time or that we are in the end time because there will be many such things before He returns.

Rather, the worst is yet to come. These are just the beginning of sorrows.

Notice in verse 6, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

See that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

There are certain specific things that have to happen for that end time to begin.

And these are indicative that they are getting close.

There will be an increase in natural disasters and earthquakes and tsunamis.

Things will be getting worse.

We, as a planet, are currently experiencing the worst economic recession that I know of in history simply because it affects so many and so many economies all at the same time.

And those economies are now much larger and much more codependent than any time in the past.

Worse, Times of London reported, a ballooning world population is taking such a heavy toll on the planet's resources that it is putting the survival of humankind in jeopardy.

So it's like there are many guns pointed at the survival of humanity.

And it's becoming more difficult for humanity to maintain a status quo of life as we've known it or come to know it here on the planet under so many impacts.

Eventually, the horrors of a time that will be not just tribulation but great tribulation will manifest themselves.

And that period of time will last for three and a half years, as the Bible says in several places.

In Matthew 24 and verse 21, he talks about when that period finally begins.

For then shall be great tribulation, such as has not been seen since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

That is great tribulation. That's the cataclysmic termination of one age with all of its dying death throes that it goes through.

This earth and its inhabitants are not a fragile environment that can go away easily.

It's difficult to kill off nearly seven billion people.

It's difficult to wind down the ecosystems that God has made to last for millennia in just a very short period of time. And yet, Jesus said, it can be done. And if he doesn't intervene, it will be done. Verse 22, And unless those days should be shortened, no flesh would be saved. And the intent here is nothing living would survive. No flesh, no living being would be saved alive.

However he makes the statement, but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. I'd like to give a little side note and note that there is a group of elect whose days must be extended.

And for an elect's sake, he said, those days will be shortened so that not all flesh shall perish. Who do you think those elect are? Whose lives must be spared? Would you think, well, that's the church? Do you think that's the saints? I would say certainly not, because there's a resurrection for them.

But who are these? Well, it would seem to indicate they are those who must stay alive because there is no resurrection in God's plan for them. And thus they cannot be allowed to die. A very important people of elect to God. And we see over in Revelation 7, beginning in verse 1, John in a vision says, After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. So we see God is very involved here, and he has angels who perform, who allow, who protect, or who perform certain things in the right order as God would have it. In verse 2, Then I saw another angel descending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea.

Whether these are godly angels or other angels, this one coming in with God's seal now says, with a loud voice, Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. It's important that these elect, these servants of God, are sealed, and they are spared from the day of the Lord, spared from death.

Verse 4, And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand, notice, of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed. Then he goes on to name twelve thousand from each tribe were spared. A very small amount. A small amount.

And these are sealed and spared.

Now, the important thing is, you and I and all the firstfruits have a resurrection. It doesn't matter if we live or die in that sense, because in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 52, Paul said, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the last trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed.

There's no problem there. If God wants to spare some, that's fine. But, even right at the end of this passage here in Revelation 7, there's an innumerable multitude that's unnumbered in verse 9 who dies. They come through the Great Tribulation and died, but they're very much living with God and ready to be part of the Bride of Christ. So, going back to what Jesus said in Matthew 24, there is an elect that must be spared in order for God's plan to continue on.

God does need to protect the lives of some 144,000 of Jacob as seeds for his model nation during the coming millennial reign of Jesus Christ. We read of this in many places, but one is Jeremiah 22 in verse 3. Jeremiah 22 in verse 3. Thus says the Lord. I'm sorry, Jeremiah 23 in verse 3. Jeremiah 23 in verse 3. He says, I will gather the remnant of my flock, a remnant, just a small number, like 12,000 from each tribe, out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase.

See, they'll be like seeds, and I'll bring back these few, and they will be fruitful, and they will increase. Verse 4, I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them. This is an important aspect of the beginning of the next age, the next era, the age in which righteousness dwells, the age in which Jesus Christ and his bride reign for a thousand years.

We'll have more planned in part 4 of this series on that topic. But the world has always had problems. It's always had its troubles. It's always had empires and wars. But the great tribulation and the end time events will be condensed, condensed into just three and a half years of the most horrific things that have ever happened on earth.

Jesus said in Matthew 24 and verse 34 that one single generation will see it all from beginning to end. Assuredly, he said, you can take this to the bank. This is God saying to you, assuredly I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away until all these things take place. Notice, all these things will take place to this generation. So you have to come down in time to where you have a generation where all of those events can and in fact will take place.

And once you figure out about when that takes place, you can probably guess which the generation is. Once they're set in motion, all are going to occur within the lifetime of a single generation. They will witness all the mounting global conditions, and then they will see the things that are described in God's Word take place. They will see the arrival of the specific three and a half year period, the end of this present evil age. And they will live through those three and a half years and all the prophesied events.

And they will then see some in that generation who survived. They will see the end of it and the beginning of the next generation, the ushering in of the kingdom of God. They will see with their own eyes Jesus Christ returning with the saints on white horses. They're described in Revelation 19.

And they will see Him standing on the Mount of Olives when it cleaves in two. In Isaiah chapter 13, verses 9 through 13, we see this day of the Lord is coming, and it's not going to be a pleasant experience. Sticking our head in the sands in advance and just saying, well, I don't want to know about it. I don't want to think about it.

And then suddenly it's there. Suddenly being part of the ten virgins that weren't busy about doing God's will of developing fruit, fruit that remains, that wouldn't help us. That wouldn't help anyone.

Nor should we worry unduly, because Jesus said, don't have undue worry about what will happen tomorrow, because if you are with God, all things will work out for good. And He said, God closed the grass of the field, and the other animals and the birds. How much more does He care about you?

So there's no reason to fear, but there is reason to be very, very serious. So we read here in Isaiah chapter 13 verse 9, Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel with both wrath and fierce anger. What's He coming for? To lay the land desolate, and He will destroy its sinners from it. Notice He's not coming back to destroy the righteous from it.

For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened and it's going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. I will punish the world for its evil. I find it interesting He didn't say, for its sins.

Paul said, without law there is no sin, and God has not called the world at this time. He has not put them under a covenant. But they know God from the creation, and they should know God. They know right and wrong, and they know what good and evil is if they chose to, but they have chosen a way of evil.

He said, I will punish the world for its evil, and therefore I will shake the heavens and the earth will move out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts. That's pretty strong when God gets going and begins to show mankind a few things.

Now, there are dozens of prophecies in the book of Isaiah about this coming time of the end. There are, when I say dozens, that would mean like 36 or so. There are about as many in other, three other books as well, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.

And then there are a dozen minor prophets in which virtually all of them make statements about the end time period. Joel and Zachariah are examples of this. In Joel 2, verse 1, 1-2, it says, Well, there is an answer to that question. Who can endure it?

What's he coming for again? He's coming to correct and destroy evil. He's coming to put an end to sin as a way of life, as a mentality of an age. It is a challenging time that is coming in the future, and all of us need to not only be aware of it, but be preparing that whatever God allows you and me to go through, that we are faithful. There are tragedies that can come in this life, such as came to my father on Sunday. Cancer took him into the tragedy that ended his life. That was quite an event for that individual, quite an experience. And yet, no matter what, an individual can say, I'm putting myself in God's hands, and I'm going to remain faithful, and I'm going to keep repenting, and I'm going to keep doing the fruits of righteousness until my last breath, no matter what. And then you see, it really doesn't matter what the circumstance is, does it? You can have a huge upheaval in your life if you lose a job, because those who employ you hate God's way of life, God's commandments, God's laws, and want nothing to do with it, and therefore nothing to do with you. That can be a huge, tremendous upheaval in your life. And yet, if you just keep going and saying, I will always obey God, I will always continue loving and serving, no matter what people do to me, as my Lord and Savior did in His last days and hours, then you have no problem. You have no problem, whether it's now or whether it's during the Great Tribulation, because God is coming back to correct sin. The end of the age is going to involve unparalleled human suffering for some. Daniel said, it's a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation. Let's go back and look briefly at some of this time of trouble, because it's going to be different than what you and I might just imagine from past events.

If we look in Revelation, we'll begin in chapter 8 of Revelation. In Skim chapters 8 and 9, just be reminded of what a unique time this will be. Revelation chapter 8 says, When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Something unique, something big begins.

And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given the seven trumpets. And the first trumpet, verse 7, blew. And hail and fire followed, mangled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. We begin to see some things here. The mind tries to imagine what this is, or these allowances for some weaponry. It's tough, but when you look and see the environmental impact, and then just guess what happens to the humans around it, this is terrible.

This is like the ten plagues on Egypt, only nothing like humanity has ever experienced before. These are massive. In verse 8, the second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. I don't know if this is some burning asteroid that punches a hole in the earth, but our oceans are fragile enough as they are. How do you suddenly survive as a planet, a catastrophe, where a third of the seas look like blood, cannot, in other words, support any form of life? Without the ocean environments, you cannot have land environments that produce life and food, because there's a chain of life that God created, and so now the very foundational structure of life on earth has been shaken, it's been wounded, it has a mortal wound, and a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

In verse 10, then the third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. You know, water is in short supply. Everybody around the world is saying, preserve water. We need more water. We don't have enough water.

And yet, here comes a third of all the available water to support life suddenly turns, and they become wormwood, and many men died from the water because it was made bitter. There's something wrong here. Something got poisoned, whether by God or by some weaponry or something now, that's earth is beginning to shut down its ability to support life. Then a fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, a third of the star, so that a third of them were darkened.

Now you begin to have a problem with all living things, depending on photosynthesis, and everything is interdependent on some other life form. You don't have any form of life that I know of that can simply live by itself.

Because as you exhale carbon dioxide, the vegetation needs carbon dioxide in order to produce the oxygen that you and I need. And yet, all of a sudden, we have a lack of light.

And I looked, and an angel said, woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet, the three angels who are about to sound.

Chapter 9, verse 1, the fifth angel sounded, and a saw star fallen from heaven to the earth, to whom was given the key to the bottomless pit.

Something happens here, and from John's perspective, the smoke rises out of the pit like the smoke of great furnace. And so the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Out of the smoke, locusts came on the earth. It's almost as if now we have a fight, a scraping for survival of the last ones fighting over whatever food or processes can maintain life. And to them, we're given power as the scorpions of the earth have power.

And you might envision helicopters, and you might envision little things flying around that now are hurting people. They were commanded not to harm the grass or the earth. Don't do anything that would take away that life-sustaining part of the environment that still exists, or any green tree or any green thing, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads, those ones who have been set aside as elect, whose lives must remain alive.

They were not given authority to kill them but to torment them for five months.

Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. So much in the military today is aimed at not killing soldiers but rather wounding them and making a small group, a small army of people, be required to sustain them.

Hurt the eyes, hurt the legs, hurt the limbs, put them in pain, put them in a hospital, then have a whole bunch of staff and a whole bunch of people and a whole portion of that population have to take care of them. Because if you just kill one, well, then you have all those rest of that country available as warriors and support.

In those days men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die and death will flee from them.

Talks about some of these things, shape of the locusts. Verse 9, breastplates like iron, sound of the wings, like chariots with many horses running into battle.

Somebody who had never seen and experienced some of the things that you and I take for granted in aviation and warfare today.

They had tales like scorpions, verse 10, and their power was to hurt men five months.

And their king is Satan.

Verse 13, the sixth angel sounded.

Verse 14, release the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates. You've got some demons here that have been restricted because they're so bad. So the four angels were released to kill a third of mankind.

Now, a third of mankind right now would be somewhere in the neighborhood of two and a half billion people.

And that's a thousand million, and a million is a thousand thousand. Just burying a thousand people would be a huge catastrophe. It would make news. But a thousand thousand or a million would really make news. But a thousand times a million times two and a half, you know, a third of mankind, especially if that's concentrated, you're just going to have a lot of dead people and nobody to bury them, and probably nobody caring. People just trying to hunker down and stay alive.

In verse 16, now the number of the army of the horsemen was 200 million.

It talks about things that happened. Out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. Verse 18, by these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone that came out of their mouths.

Verse 20, but the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship the satanic system.

Verse 21, nor did they repent of their murders, their sorceries, or their sexual immorality, or their thefts. And all of those things mentioned in verse 21 are the themes of entertainment today. Those are the principle four themes of entertainment.

Humanity loves to be involved in that, either actually or vicariously.

It says in Zechariah 14, verse 1, Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations. It's one thing for them to be involved and take it down to a tough level, but there is coming this day of the Lord portion of the three-and-a-half years at the end. And the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle.

We turn over to Revelation 16.

We find that the seventh trumpet contains four bowls.

And I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, Go and pour out the bowls of wrath of God on the earth. These are God's angels.

These are things that are supernatural that God specifically Himself brings upon mankind. So the first wind and poured out His bowl upon the earth, and a fowl and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshipped His image. This is not the right way. This is not what you want to do. Repent. Change. Get rid of an allegiance to Satan, the God of this world. You can see what he's done already. He's taken you to the very brink of genocide on a global scale.

Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea died. This is really a closing down.

First of all, pain, to get your attention secondarily, you now see that life is going to be ending. Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.

And I heard the angel of the water saying, You are righteous, O Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to be, because you have judged these things, for they have shed the blood of the saints and the prophets. And all during this time, the righteous people were being killed off. And Satan went to make a war with the remnant of Christ's seed, and to persecute the church and all those who keep the commandments. And we saw an innumerable multitude who believed and trusted in God and lived God's way, and they were all killed.

And you have given them blood to drink, for it is their just due.

In verse 7, and I heard another from the altar saying, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.

Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God, who has power over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory.

Is there any reason for the righteous to be involved in this? Is God coming after the righteous? No.

Verse 10, Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. And what did the kingdom of the beast do? They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they did not repent of their deeds.

And then the sixth bowl, verse 12, was poured out on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.

We see these spirits of demons, verse 14, performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth, to the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

Jesus says in verse 15, Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see their shame. He's warning us. He's telling us. Come out and be separate. Don't suffer these penalties. And they gathered them together in a place in Hebrew called Armageddon, or Haar Megiddo, the Valley of Megiddo. And then the seventh bowl, the seventh bowl comes out, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, It is done. There were noises and thunderings and lightning. There was such a great earthquake, such a mighty great earthquake, has not occurred since men were on the earth. Now that great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Every island fled away, verse 20, and the mountains were not found. This is a great earthquake that tends to level things out. God may fully rearrange the landscape of planet earth. We don't know.

He may make a lot of room for the second resurrection for those who will ultimately come up so that he can prepare it during the thousand years. These are just guesses. And great hail from heaven fell upon man, each hailstone about the weight of a talent, but men blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, and it was exceedingly great. So, you know, there are terrible, terrible things that take place, and that is the catastrophe at the end of one age, as another age prepares to be born, and it comes in with birth pangs, and the other one fights tooth and nail under Satan's inspiration and influence to sustain it and somehow retain his authority, his rulership. He doesn't want to let it go. You see this sometimes with human governments, where the outgoing individual, they don't want to go, they want to keep it. You know, at all costs, they want to stay on, they want to maintain that power.

So this end of the age is going to see unparalleled human suffering.

There are going to be terrible, terrible things that happen. The United Church of God has a booklet, Are We Living in the Time of the End?

Revelation 17, verse 12, speaks of 10 kings who have received no kingdom as of yet, but they received authority for one hour for a brief period of time as kings with the beast.

The indications there are that humanity will be living in conditions that are so desperate and dramatic that these 10 rulers will give their authority to a powerful figure who is the head of a new global superpower that will bring order out of chaos. During all of this time, you see, people are trying to survive.

It sounds good to a human who doesn't know God, because it's going to save a life, right? But the booklet continues, In the midst of this great turmoil, people will be desperate and in need of a savior figure. And so guess what? A savior figure pops up.

This leader will then take charge. He will share power with a deceiving religious leader called a false prophet in Revelation 19.

The merchants of the earth will be pleased because the system will bring some security and prosperity to some. You'll have this new Messiah, a false Messiah, and a new age. Well, it's a false new age. And it's a religion with miracles. And it looks like it's going to work.

The survival of me will be rampant on the earth. It feels necessary at all costs. It reminds me of the survival of the fittest concept of evolution that humans have adopted so freely.

It gets great support from Western nations, at least. But what about for you and for me? What about during all of this chaos and all of this desire for survival and these seemingly workable solutions that are put forward by certain nations and certain miracles that would indicate a person can survive, can continue economically, can buy and sell if you follow these things?

Is that good for us as children of God? Is that good for us to go along with a system that requires a mark to be put on one's hand and forehead, at least symbolically, a pledge, a direction, that which one thinks and that which one does is in support of the current God of this world? Well, we'll take a closer look at that next time in the sermon, entitled, The End, Part 2, The Survival of God's Church. As we conclude today, a single generation will experience all of these, Jesus said. Will it be your generation? It could well be your generation that will see all of this come, live through all of it, see it end, and see the beginning of the kingdom of God on earth. And to us, God says in 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 1-4, that we need to be aware, we need to be cognizant of what's coming, not so that we fear or not so that we play end games, as I mentioned in a recent sermon, so that we can genuinely be the developing children of God. I'd like to conclude by reading 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 1-4. Paul says to the church, But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write to you. For you yourselves know accurately that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes on them, as labor pains upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. Verse 4, But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief.