Where Are We in Prophecy?

As you know, recently in the news, ten airplanes were targeted as terrorist tools to create havoc across the Atlantic, kill people flying on British Airways back from London to to this nation and also on a couple of other airlines. We've read in the news some very stressful things happening over in the Middle East that seem like they could get out of control very easily. Israel stated that it was going to eradicate Hezbollah and the New York Times indicated that the court of Egypt responded by saying, you know that peace plan that we put forward in 2002 that would guarantee that Israel would have a right to exist and be recognized by all the Arab nations.

If you go in and do this, we'll pull that plan. They went on to say this, we will allow that to perish. That could well perish. If the peace option is rejected due to Israeli arrogance, it said, then only the war option remains and no one knows the repercussions befalling the region, including wars and conflict that will spare no one, including those whose military power is now tempting them to play with fire.

Well, that seems like a small issue involving a small country. There are greater issues looming in that region. President of Iran, Barad-dai, was quoted as saying by CNN in a discussion that took place last week that Barad-dai said he hopes to drop a nuclear warhead on Iraq and on Jerusalem. Now why would you think that he would want to kill millions of Arabs, millions of Muslims? It doesn't make a lot of sense. This would be done in order to expedite the return of the one called the Mahdi, the seventh Mahdi, the tenth Mahdi. I'll tell you, things get a little...

you know, some of the details, depending on which group you listen to, change a little bit. But essentially, this is what was said. The Mahdi, who is the Great One, sort of the Messiah of the Islamic religion, will only come under certain conditions, and these have been prophesied from long ago. One of the conditions is this. Fire must happen over Baghdad, it says in the Qur'an. So what is fire over Baghdad?

Then the Mahdi will come. That also, the Mahdi will return only when a great catastrophe befalls the people of Islam. So you have to kind of wake this Mahdi up. If you want him to come back, he's not going to come back until there's fire over Baghdad, until the people of the Islamic religion are under great persecution. And so, since you want this to happen, and since, you know, the great reign of the Mahdi over all the earth needs to take place, why not go ahead and precipitate that?

Go ahead and nuke Baghdad, hit Jerusalem while you're at it, create a great backlash from any Western countries. This is a good thing. Because it'll cause a whole bunch of persecution against the Arabic people, and then the Mahdi can come. How do you fight against that? How do you wrap your arms around that and try to solve some of the problems over in the Middle East? The more Muslims who die, the more attention the Mahdi will give, and so this is a good thing in the eyes of some.

Today, we see a lot of things going on, a lot of potential things going on, a lot of potential threats. How do these things fit in with Bible prophecy? Should we be alarmed? Should we be packing? Should we be digging? Should we be hiding? Where are we today in the prophetic timeline? That's the topic of today's sermon on prophecy and you. What is going on? And how does it fit into Bible prophecy? And where are we on that prophetic timeline? You know, the plain truth is that we may be fast approaching a time of transition between two ages.

Over in Matthew 12, verse 32, Jesus talked about this present evil age and the age which is to come. There's a transition going to take place between two ages, the age of man, the age of Satan, and the age of God, God's government, the kingdom of God. Noah and the prophecies, the prophecy that Jesus Christ gave concerning Noah and the parallel of that historical account with our time is a very sobering thing. He used this example of the time of Noah and the end time.

You go back to the early, early part of the book of Genesis. And here Jesus Christ turns... He makes relevant one of the very early parts of biblical history with something that takes place at one of the last parts of the Bible, that takes place at Revelation. In Matthew chapter 24, verse 37, in the Olivet prophecy, when the disciples had asked Him about the end of the age and the sign of His coming, He said this, But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. So you see this historical event and you see this future event, and He ties the two together in some way.

For as in the days before the flood, they were eating, drinking, marrying, and given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark. Now, you know Noah was warning. Noah was trying to convince the world that things were awry, but people just kept going on. They kept going about their life, about the business of the day, until the day Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came, and took them all away. So also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

So the attitude would be the same. Life goes on. Life doesn't necessarily go on just that blissfully, but life goes on in the same manner, the same way. People are unconcerned about their spiritual condition. Remember in the days of Noah, he couldn't get anybody to be concerned about their spiritual condition. And so it was, people thought they were okay. They had kind of the leia to see, and I'm fine, I'm rich, I'm increased with good, spiritually speaking, I'm okay.

I don't have to worry about that. I'm a good person, and I do good things, perhaps. They're blind to God's impending judgment, blind to the fact that God is going to come back and test and try those who dwell on the earth. Instead, they were focused on the material. They were focused on the personal, and they were focused on kind of entertainment, enjoyment, things physical.

These are the attitudes that have always existed down through time, pretty much. And this is the thing that's going to happen again, the mentality that will happen again. Let's go to Luke 21, verse 34. Luke 21, verse 34.

But take heed to yourselves. This is what Jesus is now saying to his called-out ones, to God's called-out ones. Take heed to yourselves. What that means is watch yourself. Take heed. Be aware. Lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, with this mentality that has always existed in humans, with drunkenness, the cares of this life, and that the day come upon you unexpectedly.

It will come upon humanity unexpectedly, but it shouldn't come upon you or I unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare. Now, a snare is what? You know what a snare is? It's some sort of a trapping device that comes upon an animal or a human unexpectedly.

An animal is walking along, just going about the process of getting from one place to another, of finding food, and BAM! They're in a snare. Wow! Where did that come from? All of a sudden the animal's shaking, or it's up in a net, or whatever it is, or the mouse has got this thing slammed down on it. It happens unexpectedly.

It will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

Watch, therefore. Watch all kinds of things. Be aware of what's going on on the outside, but that won't save you. Be more aware of what's going on inside, because God is not judging us on whether we know when He's going to come back. He's judging us on what we're like when He comes back. So you watch the state of all of these things.

In verse 34, He says, Take heed to yourselves, lest you be weighed down by these things. So you be careful, verse 36, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape. Escape what? The snare. Escape these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. Not to fail, not to fall, not to be caught short, not to be one of the five virgins who ran out of oil because they were preoccupied in something else, but you'll be able to stand and do well.

Prophecy is a very important tool, because as we see these things, they cause us to realize that the plan of God is going on. And the important thing in this life is not to have the mentality of typical humanity be self-consumed, but rather to be putting on the character of God, the godliness of God. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 and the first five verses, the mentality of the end of this age that will be like that of Noah is described in this way. But know this. 2 Timothy 3 verse 1, In the last days dangerous times will come. It'll be like a snare. It'll be something that happens quickly. It'll be very perilous, dangerous. Why? For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud blasphemers. These are the hallmarks of our age. This is what our country is about. This is what politics and government is about. This is what wars are being fought over. Disobedient to parents, unthankful and holy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God. This end of the age will come when the vast majority are unprepared, unprepared for it. Now what age? Well, we know in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4 that Satan is the God, small g, the God of this world.

This age is going to end. This present evil age, it says in Galatians chapter 1 and verse 4, this current evil age. The disciples asked him, Tell us when will these things and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? So there is an age that's going to transition. It's going to move in a different direction. The next age is going to be an age of man, or foreman. It will be the third age for man. The first age was the pre-Noachian world.

And that age ended when God killed off those people and started with another preacher of righteousness, Noah. But that age was still an age that Satan the devil was over. But this next age of man will be what we call the millennium, or the return of Jesus Christ, the government of God and the saints. And this age will be different. It is the world to come, Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 5 calls it. We call it the world tomorrow, or the world to come is what the Bible says there in Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 5. It involves the resurrection of the saints, the return of Jesus Christ, something dramatic, a big shift. Satan is bound for a thousand years and can't deceive anyone.

It's a new age. Revelation chapter 15 and verse 4, Revelation chapter 15 and verse 4, we see that this new age has an awareness of God and government of God.

Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? That's a question for that period of time, for that next age. Which humans will not fear you and glorify your name? Following the end-time events, the heavenly signs, the seven last plagues, the removal of all the governments, the shaking of the earth, the huge earthquakes, the remnant of perhaps a third of humanity.

People are going to fear God. Going on. For you alone are holy, for the nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested. So that judgment of God will have been shown to everybody. That time of testing, that judgment. And all nations shall come and worship before you. That's a very different age than the one that we are currently in.

Isaiah 11, 9 says, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. If you've ever been out to the sea and perhaps gone scuba diving or deep sea diving or seeing shows on that, there's a lot of water in the sea. And water, once you get out even in a boat on top of water, even if you don't look down, you can't see anything. When we fly over to Africa, as my wife and I will be doing in a couple of weeks, you fly a long, long, long, long, long time all night and then the next day you wake up and you're still over the sea. That's all you can see. It's just the Atlantic Ocean with its huge white caps down there just rolling in infinity as you keep going and going and going over the sea. A sea is a huge thing. Well, that just shows how much the knowledge of God will cover the earth, as it were, during that time. A unique period, a unique age. This present age has to end. A new one begins. And that process the Bible talks about is a process. It didn't just happen. Believe me, you're not going to wake up tomorrow when Jesus Christ is here. I can promise you that by the Word of God. It's not going to happen like that. It's not done in a flash or a moment in a twinkling of an eye that this process takes place.

It's a process. And there are certain things that have to take place in this process.

And Jesus Christ warns you, don't let anybody deceive you. I'm going to give you some clues here. It's a process. It's a process that the Bible, Jesus Christ even says, is like a woman in childbirth. I don't know, how many of you ladies have given birth? How many of you men have been around a lady giving birth? Okay. We know it's a process. You don't say, oh honey, guess what?

I just had a baby. It doesn't happen like that. It doesn't happen like that.

It's a process. It's not instant. There's no guesswork as to what's happening. You know what's happening. Not everybody knows. From time to time, you hear stories. And evidently, the person really didn't know. But usually, you really know what's going on. There's a lot of signs, you know, visual clues as to what's going to be happening. It's not instant. It's a process. There are difficulties involved. There are certain challenges involved. All the way through.

Those challenges, though, give way in the end to a lot of joy and a real blessing. And so it is.

During the period of time, called the Day of the Lord, which is part of the end time events, great destruction will take place. And it'll take some time for this destruction to take place.

It says in Joel 2, verse 1, Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound the alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand, a day of darkness and gloominess.

Verse 11, The Lord gives his voice before his army, for his camp is very great, for strong is the one who executes his word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible. Who can endure it? This takes place at the end of the great tribulation. This is going to come a time when God and the armies in heaven will come, and events will take place on this earth. In advance of that, some other events will be taking place on God's behalf by one nation or group of nations that God has called to execute judgment and be a discipline for the descendants of the Israelites whom he formed a covenant with. Zechariah 14, verse 1, adds some things to that. It says, Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst.

For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. So here we see at some point in this process, in these end time events, all the nations are going to gather around Jerusalem, not just one or two nations, not just one or two powers, but it says all the nations are going to gather at Jerusalem. And then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle. And in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. And in that day the Lord is one it shall be, and his name one. So we see that transition from age to age. And right there we've seen some of the events that take place right at the end of the transition. But that transition doesn't just happen in a flash. No, Jesus described political events, military events, environmental trends before his second coming. Let's see this in Matthew chapter 24, beginning in verse 6.

When he was asked about the sign of his coming and some of the events at the end of the age, at the transitional time, he says, you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

See that you are not troubled. Now, how are you not troubled when you see and hear of wars and rumors of wars? Well, if the war is on your soil, if you're the one in the town or the city that is being bombarded, if you're the one on the airplane and some maniac has got a device trying to blow you up, the war is very close. I don't know if you've ever been around war. In a sense, my wife and I experienced a little of it one time in Southern California during some riots. And there were wars, in a sense, going on. It wasn't a conventional army against army, but it was people against police.

And to come out of a building like this that had no windows, we were inside for several hours, and to come outside and be told by the security people to flee the area or basically run for your lives, and to come outside and then look and see vast plumes of smoke just rolling. It looked like what you would imagine Pearl Harbor looked like in World War II, just the black billowing smoke from across the street and down the road as massive structures had been burning. To be told, don't go that way. There's a sniper on the roof shooting people over there, and don't get on the freeway because there's people on the freeway shooting and sniping cars going by. What you need to do is go down towards the center of the rioting down towards Los Angeles and work around and go back over the mountains. It doesn't present you with any good exit strategies, but that might sound like a real big deal if you're on the spot. But to someone else, a state away, hearing it on the news, that's no big deal. It just depends on a person's perspective. Jesus says, for all these things must come to pass. It's part of the process. It's part of, as it were, the transitional phase. But the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, huge disease epidemics, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains, is what the Bible says. That word sorrows translates out in the Greek to birth. These are the beginning of the process. Labor is starting. So whenever we see something, we should not jump to any conclusions and wonder, well, why isn't the church warning us about this? There's something in the news, or there's these events in the news. We should all be, you know, I don't know, canning things, or, you know, storing nuts, or I don't know, digging holes. Why aren't we getting on a ship and going somewhere? Because, well, it's a process, isn't it? It is a process, and these things were the beginning of sorrows, or the New Revised Standard Version says, the beginning of birth pains. There always have been catastrophes down through time. There are periodic catastrophes, such as war. You know, the sporadic periods of war. We know the great wars, but in between those great wars, there are many wars. At any given time, there may be 200 wars going on at this very moment. We don't know of all of them. We tend to forget some of them. However, wars will go on, and these things come and they go. This week, the Israelis have gone home, and they didn't do a good job, they said. And their troops complained that they didn't have provisions. They didn't even have water. And in some cases, they had no equipment, and some of them hadn't even thrown a hand grenade in 15 years, didn't know what they were doing. They weren't expecting the enemy to be so well positioned and so well armed. See? Things come and things go. Periodic famines come. You know, we can see even in this country, you'll have drought for a few years, and then there's a lot of water comes. A lot of water, maybe too much water. Now you have floods, and that gets on the news, and hurricanes. And of course, we know the hurricanes are getting worse and worse, and they're getting bigger and bigger, and tsunamis are getting taller, except in 2006.

Hurricanes this year have been revised downward again. They're just less and less of them for some reason. Okay? Things come and things go. Disease epidemics come and they go. The prospect of a massive disease coming out of the East, it looms. Sometimes they come through as they have around the turn of the last century, and other times they knock out millions of people as they have down through time. Other times they don't. Other times the big bird flu epidemic doesn't really materialize, you see. The end time, however, is unique. The real time of the end is a unique period of time, and that's a time when these events will steadily worsen. They won't back off. There won't be ebb and flow. The wars will get stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger, and the famines will get stronger and stronger, and the diseases get stronger and stronger, and the earthquakes get stronger and stronger. So the end time events will steadily worsen.

When the question comes up is, is what we're seeing a sign of the end? We should ask three questions. Three questions. First question, are they part of the normal ebb and flow of disasters?

I can tell you almost definitively where the next earthquakes are coming.

Can you guess? They're coming where the tectonic plates cross.

All right? That's where the volcanoes will be. That's where a lot of our big disasters involving lava and shaking. They're going to take place where the plates of the earth slip and collide. That's basically all the coastlands of the world. California, Asia, down the Pacific Rim, over in Iraq, the highlands where the big mountains are growing tall. Why do you think Mount Everest is so tall? You're going to get some earthquakes up in there. You shouldn't build with rock and stone that's unreinforced because of those tendencies. But Jesus said in the end time, you're going to hear of earthquakes in various or diverse places. Something unique. Something more unique. Are they part of the normal ebb and flow of disasters? Same with wars. Mankind can only take and get greedy for so long and next thing you know they duke it out. Is that the normal ebb and flow?

Number two. Are all the signs that Jesus mentioned in place?

Christ can't come tomorrow by his own words. He can't come next week. He can't come next year, believe it or not. Are all of the signs that Jesus mentioned in place? Number three.

Is there solid evidence that the prophesied trends are increasing and intensifying?

The prophesied trends? Are they increasing and intensifying? We don't have those three things. All three of those things met. We're not seeing the events that say we are in the time of the end. Let's take a look at some of this. This is because this is the difference between false predictions and people who get people all up in the air and they quit living life.

You know, they kind of go into shutdown fear mode and start selling things, altering their place on this earth and what we're supposed to be doing, and go into a self-centered mode.

Today, more than ever in history, I think we can see most aspects of the sign that Jesus Christ talked about present in our world. We can see earthquakes, we can see famines, we can see diseases, and we can see wars. We can see those things. But a few crucial signs that are involved in the time of the end are still missing. We're still going to put together this piece of puzzle, let's say. We have a puzzle. Here's the end time, the three and a half years, a great tribulation, but we need all the pieces of the puzzle in there. I think we can definitely see puzzle pieces. I have no question that we can't see puzzle pieces, but are those pieces all in place? I'd like to take a look here today at some other signs that mark the time of the end. Let's go to Matthew chapter 24 and verse 9. Matthew 24 and verse 9. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated of all nations for my namesake. Is this one in place? You'd have to say, no. We are not hated by all nations for God's name, for Christ's name. In fact, the world is a very tolerant place for religion in most countries that we go to. We are gladly welcomed in some countries such as Kenya. They were so welcoming of us over there that they wrote our constitution for us and passed it without our knowledge. We had applied with our own constitution, but they upped it. They added in universities and hospitals. We can own land and property. We can come in and basically build churches. We can do anything we want in that country. That's how welcoming we are.

In Kenya, it says here, "...then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another." Is that going on in the church? This is talking about those who are supposedly in the church. Many will be offended, will betray one another, will hate one another, and many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound in the church, the agape love of many will grow cold.

But he who endures to the end, the same shall be saved. In other words, frightened people will abandon each other. Do we see this great fright of this persecution? I don't want to die, and so I'm turning you in, and I'm turning you in to save my own skin. They're going to abandon God and His love, His instructions, and disobey Him. Don't forget that that is one of the signs of the end time.

The start of the Great Tribulation isn't just a bunch of things going on in the world, bad things going on in the world. You can't say we're in the Great Tribulation until Jesus Christ says we're in the Great Tribulation. In Matthew chapter 24 and verse 15, He says, when these things will begin.

In verse 14, it says, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end of the age will come. Once the gospel is preached in all nations, to all nations, then the end will come. That will begin, or sometime after that will begin, the Great Tribulation. When does that start? Verse 15, therefore when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place.

Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place. Remember what that was? You have the one who calls himself God, the one who stands and causes the sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem to cease, and that is ceased for three and one half years, the time of the Gentiles, the time when Jerusalem will be overrun by the Gentiles, and this is the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

When you see that, the great false prophet, the one who sits on the beast, the woman, who declares himself as God with great signs and wonders, then you'll know. Three and a half years, you can set your clock after that, and we're off.

In verse 21 now, once these things happen, we read of in verse 15, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place. Let's drop on down to verse 21. For then shall there will be great tribulation, then after that there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, known or ever shall be. See, this is ratcheting up. It's bigger. It's not an ebb and flow.

It takes place after a specific event. Don't let somebody convince you when even a nuclear warhead goes off, or a dirty bomb, or who knows what could happen. Don't let that convince you that, oh, well, we're in the great tribulation, all this stuff. Listen to Jesus Christ. Listen to the words. These pieces have to be put into place.

We will also see global genocide. Without global genocide, you don't have a great tribulation.

Just as we read in verse 21, this will be such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, known or ever shall be. This is something far above anything that's ever been. Verse 22, and unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved alive. No flesh. The Bible records that a third are going to be killed off here, another third, evidently, by another situation. There's a lot of dying, a lot of global genocide. We're talking in the billions of people.

These are part of the end time.

This period will see the instigation of a world war that, if God didn't halt it, there would just be no end to it. No end at all. Now, is that peace laying on the table? Oh, yeah, it's been sitting there. View around in 1962 when the Bay of Pigs disaster, but when the Cuban Missile Crisis took place, remember John Kennedy and a Khrushchev were duking it out in words. They heightened that right to the edge where both really felt this global exchange would take place and annihilate everything on earth, but they were prepared to do so. And it was only then that one of them, I hope, was inspired to back down. But DEF CON, how many times have we been to DEF CON? One, two, three, four? We don't even know. Some of the nuclear power buttons, the Titan missiles, the underground missiles, the MIRV warheads that have floated or could be floating, various nuclear weapons, multiple independently reentry vehicles, so that one missile head or one bomblet releases a cluster of 20, which are independently targeted to 20 different cities from a single missile. I mean, these things have been around for a long, long time. Now we're in a world of baseball, baseball nuclear warheads. These things are sitting on shelves. Russians have a bunch of them.

What do you do with it? I'm not sure. It's probably not good to be the one that has to throw it, but the prospect, the prospect of this, yes, the piece is laying there. And now, of course, the prospect gets into hands that are less and less stable, as I've already mentioned, because Iran is after the production of nuclear power. Korea is after the production of nuclear power. Don't forget that it was just 2002 that Colonel Gaddafi agreed to return the nuclear fission materials that he had bought off of Russia once the Soviet Union had decayed. He somehow got himself on quite a bit of highly enriched uranium and has just recently, in the last month, sent the last of that back to Russia. We are told. But sure, that's laying around and has been for a long time. Then there's another one in Matthew 24 verse 23, and that is religious signs. If anyone says to you, look, here's the Christ or there, do not believe it. Don't be sucked in.

For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the very elect. This is a sign of the end that false prophets will have tremendous deceptive power with signs and wonders. They're not going to be like this week's revelation that the latest Mary sighting was found in chocolate, dripping chocolate, I believe it was. I don't know what that'll reach on eBay, but remember the old cheese sandwich got about $25,000 here recently.

We're talking about something great. And to counteract this deception, Jesus said that His gospel would be faithfully preached to all nations around the globe as the end time nears verse 14. Now, during this final three and a half year period, Jesus is going to use two of His servants to witness mightily. We call them the two witnesses. They spread the truth.

Any time there is a deception, God provides truth. There's an equal balance. Mankind is never left to the devices of Satan alone, nor is the church ever just left to the persecution, nor was Job just left alone. There's always control. There's always a counter. And so during this huge time of great signs, God also has two individuals also able to give great signs.

And the two witnesses will be there for three and a half years, the whole time.

They will have miraculous powers and be unable to be killed until just before the return of Jesus Christ. It says in Revelation 11, beginning in verse 3, I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days. That's three and a half years.

That's not some obscure deal on a website. That's not some obscure individual going around and you know, trying to get on radio or TV or the United Church of God with our booklets. Nope, that's not one of the two witnesses. These are individuals who have miracles to where the entire earth knows who they are. All the people on the earth, remember, rejoice greatly when they finally die. Everybody. In verse 6, these have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy. They have powers. They have power over waters to turn them to blood and to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire. I haven't seen those two around, have you? See, just like the days of Moses against the magicians of Pharaoh, when you have the great false prophet, you will have the two witnesses and they will be counterbalancing each other.

Other dramatic events will also mark these final days. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. You have the heavenly signs that will come on before Jesus Christ returns. That's why he can't return tomorrow. We don't have three and a half years yet of the sacrifices ceasing in Jerusalem. We don't have the great false prophet. We don't have three and a half years of the two witnesses. That's why I can promise you Jesus Christ will not return next year. It's by his own words, by the word of God, these things are done in a process. It's like a woman giving birth. You don't get to the third month and have a nine pound baby.

It's not the process. You can pretty much guarantee a pregnant lady who's barely showing you got a while to go. You're not going to deliver a full-term baby tomorrow.

It's not going to happen.

Now, after these events, and as they grow closer and closer, more and more fulfilled, Jesus Christ will return with power and with majesty.

In verse 30 here, Matthew 24, verse 30, next verse, Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

So again, the key here is whether these trends steadily increase, whether to diminish, and that the intensifying comes with the other end-time signs, not by themselves. War escalating by itself, pestilence, famine, disease, doesn't do it. All the components have to be present. Now look around in the world today. Let's be honest. Are all of the components that I've mentioned present? They are not. And therefore, we are not called to stop living, to shift into a selfish mode. It's all about me and saving my skin. Stop being an example in a light.

Start trying to figure out the best, you know, possible spot for me or hole for me or whatever.

That's not what we're called to do. Not called to do. So where are we now? What about all the religious deception and confusion? Well, you've got a problem. We have a problem there in saying the world is like that because the West is irreligious. The Italians aren't Catholic. Well, they are, but they don't go to church. You know? What about German? Germans don't go to church. What about the Anglicans? The British? They don't go to church. More Muslims go to church in Britain than the British do. And that's a fact of life. They are boarding up churches in the United Kingdom because they're not being used. It's just the way it is in Europe, in France, in Austria. Remember the Baltic countries? Poland, Czechoslovakia, the old countries that were part of the USSR.

Religion was banned. It was forbidden. You have generations there who never even heard about God. You have some of the old who are staunch Christians, but you have a lot of the new who have this mentality of humanity at the end. It's materialism. It's fun. It's power. It's politics. It's trade. And what is the hallmark of the beast power? It's trade. And what is the hallmark of the great false prophet Babylon? You can read it there in Revelation 18-19. It was trade when the merchants of the earth saw that the trade went down when she was burned.

When the great religious structure... It was all about trade and money and wealth.

Wars and rumors of wars. Yes, there are wars and rumors of wars. People are trying to make nuclear weapons, and one day I'm sure they will be. What about famines? Well, we happen to be able to create more food today than people can eat. Now, it may not be very good food, but there's sure a lot of it. And those countries who didn't used to be able to produce food now can produce it because technology and various engineering and agricultural products have gone around the globe. And food is fairly prolific, except for in sporadic areas or when various things happen. However, don't rely on that because a lot of this food is what's called GE food. It's genetically engineered. It's modified in a way that it loses its ability to resist defenses towards insects, loses defenses towards various diseases that would come into crops.

And so, there's a lot of it, but it is a defenseless thing. And some of the crops now, there are no herbicides anymore that can even kill the weeds, let alone the insects, because the weeds and the insects have become consistently resistant. And so, now you have these things growing in some areas where they're just kind of out there. It used to be that about 7%, was it 7% or 3%? I mean, just get my figures here.

I believe it was 7% in the pre-genetically engineered crop period. 7% or 3% of crops failed.

I don't have the numbers right at the tips, but it's about that. Now that you have all of this genetically engineered stuff going on in the agriculture, the crop failure rate, or the crop rate, is much bigger. But the failure rate has almost doubled within just a fraction of a percentage. It has doubled. It's even now 7% or 14% or something like that of a failure rate among those crops. So, what I'm saying is, though there's a lot of food out there, it's a fragile thing in some areas. And there are a lot of countries that do not allow genetically engineered crops, and yet a lot of the crops today are tweaked and adjusted in some ways. And it all could collapse. There's no question about it. It all could collapse. The nuclear weapons could come on board, and they could get strapped to rockets pretty fast. Disease. Well, diseases aren't too bad. I mean, sure, you hear of diseases, but you know, AIDS didn't wipe out the world.

And a lot of the diseases that have happened that you read of in the news only affect a few thousand people as this world's population grows into the billions.

But the diseases are definitely possible, just as though, I mean, just as we hear from time to time on the news, there are some possibilities out there.

Earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, we hear of them, but just remember the largest of them happened in antiquity. They haven't happened in your... the largest earthquake did not happen in your lifetime or mine. The largest volcano explosion did not happen in our lifetime, and the largest tsunami did not happen in our lifetime. So far as I know, these are historical, historically recorded. We are seeing some, however. Jesus, remember, said in verse 6 that all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

So that just means that what lies ahead, the specter of the great end time events, is going to be really catastrophic. It's going to be horrible. But is the puzzle being assembled? Is the puzzle being assembled? We see potential pieces, but are the pieces going together?

Well, some seem to be going together at times. We try to assemble them. What about this one? What about that one? Put them together? It seems like the puzzle pieces, some of them might be going together. No question. And yet, some are not to fit together yet. One of the hallmarks of the end time is that there will be two beasts and two kings. One beast power would be a European-based union of ten kingdoms, not necessarily countries, but ten kingdoms, whether they're old kingdoms or new, we don't know. But ten kingdoms in a very strong alliance. And that second beast would be a religious power riding on the first. It's a very challenging proposition to look at these beasts in Revelation 13. It's so clearly defined. And yet, see those pieces today. We don't see those pieces today. The reason is it's a very challenging proposition. Daniel talked about those pieces being made of iron and miry clay. Iron and clay don't work well. They don't adhere together well. There's no strength in them. And so as these nations, yes, we see them wanting to get together. We see over 20 of them already forming some kind of an alliance. But it's not together.

They don't even have a common currency. Although the euro has been an attempt at a common currency, not all nations have the euro. And those who have adopted the euro continue to have problems with it because some of their economies are facing inflation, some maybe are facing deflation, and having that euro actually be of the same value in all countries is becoming kind of a nightmare. We see they can't agree on a constitution. They can't put together an army. There's a lot of problems and challenges with that. But is that peace trying to come together? Sure it is. One thing that it needs, of course, is the second beast to write upon it. How can you have the religious head giving cohesion to the beast when the people are irreligious?

That's a tough one, isn't it? So we don't look for that necessarily to grow in an organic way for everybody finally, you know, maybe we wait another 30 years and the trend swings back more towards people becoming more religious when right now it's fewer and fewer people are religious. How does that happen? These are some of the challenges.

Then we have the king of the south. That would be the king of the north.

Back in the time of Alexander the Great, the prophecy was that there would be four kings that came from him. He had four divisions once he died. His four generals divided up the country, and two of them took over from two of the others, and you ended up with a king of the north and a king of the south. One was based in Egypt and one was based further north. So we would say the king of the north then would represent the northern power, the northern alliance, the beast power, and the southern would be what we would call the Islamic, the Arab world.

Be careful of the term Arab because if you're not from Arabia, even though you might look what you and I would say Arab, you could offend somebody from Egypt if you called them an Arab or an Iranian or an Iraqi. If you're not on the actual peninsula there of Arabia, you're not an Arab. But we might term them in that sense as the king of the south, all of those people. Now, how about it? Is the Arab world or is the Muslim world united now?

You know, you have right in one country of Iraq three groups killing each other. If you add in Iran, you have the Sunnis and the Shia and you have the Syrians, you have the Lebanese, you have the Palestinians, you have the Egyptians, you have the Libyans, you know, then start moving your way over to Afghanistan with the various factions that are there. Keep moving east all the way over to Indonesia, where I believe most, I think it has the highest population of Muslims. And what do you have? Do you have cohesion there? No. You don't even have a similarity of belief in many. And you have great competition among them as who's going to be the force that brings in the Mahdi if they believe that, whether it's the seventh or the tenth or, you know, whatever the belief or the feeling is of the day. So the king of the south, when you turn back to Daniel 11.5, there's a challenge in our time, in our day, in our age. There is a challenge for this prophecy to be fulfilled. Daniel 11 verse 5, it says, and the king of the south shall become strong, as well as one of his princes, and he shall gain power over him and have dominion. His dominion shall be a great dominion. There's a challenge to that happening. The Islamists believe that a man will come from the east in the end times as a conquering hero. The head of a great army is believed he will be raised up to power by their God, Allah, and it will happen in one day.

And he'll be a man who bears the name Muhammad, Imid, Abdallah. He will act and talk like Muhammad, but he won't look like him. He'll have a high forehead and a hooked nose, one group says.

Another group talks about his ears being unique. There's a lot of variations.

Islam believes that he will rule for seven years and bring peace and distribute great wealth to those who serve him. This is the Mahdi. They believe that he will follow Jesus Christ, who will return and declare the Mahdi to be the true Messiah and King. And then Jesus will die, leaving the Mahdi to reign for those seven years. This is a world of disarray. A world of disarray. But in verse 40 of Daniel 11, it says, At that time, at the time of the end, we're talking about the time of the end, at the time of the end, the King of the South shall attack him. Is the King of the South developed in that way? Strong? No. But it will attack the King of the North. Is the King of the North together and solid? No, it's not. So we have a little problem here. And the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships. Today, they have nothing. And he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through.

So it won't be a French legion of 200 soldiers. We're talking about a really organized time.

The Mark of the Beast, Revelation 13. The Mark of the Beast has to take place. This will exist again for three and a half years. The Mark of the Beast will be something that will be pushed by the religious head of the Beast's power. And you can read all about that in Revelation 13.

Mr. Armstrong, I remember since I was a child, I was in his congregation since birth there in Pasadena. And he said, the Mark of the Beast is no doubt Sunday observance. Everybody's always looking for some computer thing or an embedded ship or whatever. Sunday observance. Because it's what you believe and what you do. Your forehead and your right hand. Sunday observance.

We could understand that from the perspective of the church and the end times. You're being pushed and you're being tested. Will you obey God? You either work on the Sabbath or you don't eat. And if you don't do that, you're going to get killed and things like that. So you have a real test for God's people. But how does that come about in a world that's not religious? In a world that doesn't even keep Sunday, I mean, please, really. Do you know any Sunday keepers who keep the day holy? Or just go to work? You know, go have fun. Start of a day off. Maybe you go to church. Maybe you don't. How do you keep Sunday observance when you're not even religious? And so through the years, I keep kind of thinking about how would this apply? How would that... How do you pick this chip up? How do you take this puzzle piece and make it fit? At last, I personally, my own little mind, figure, for the first time in my life, the mark of the beast as Sunday observance finally makes sense.

See, the puzzle piece finally fits whether or not Europe ever becomes religious. It's kind of irrelevant. Because what do you have that's the problem? It's the king of the south, the islamics pushing at the king of the north. You know, the old crusades, you know, how this back and forth, it's existed now for hundreds of years. This old deal. And now the king of the south is pushing against it, the king of the north.

Well, it's not just that they're down there, is it? There are probably more mosques in England today than there are Anglican churches that are open. There are more mosques in Germany, France, the United States than ever before, and they're growing at a very rapid rate.

You remember the car burnings that took place over in France recently? Remember the train bombings in Spain? Just this week, Germany reported that two bombings on its trains or subways were foiled or actually failed. They're just now discovering them. The bomb blast on the tube or the underground subway and the buses in London not long ago. If these things escalate and keep going like they are, how do you separate yourselves? If somebody were to declare, like the beast's power will, the great religious head will, you keep Sunday or die.

How would a Muslim exist in their country? Couldn't, because they're Friday worshipers.

Friday is their holiday, and if they're going to be devout in their religion, all you'd have to do is declare that as a law with a death penalty for breaking it, and you'd cleanse your country right now of any Islamic. Now, you catch the Sabbatarians sort of as an incidental side thing, but your country would never even have to be religious, would it? You could just declare that as a law. I mean, I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but for the first time, you try to go in and get them out by any other means, how do you do it?

By declaring one law, I believe it would go a long way towards that.

Mains to be seen, I have no idea. But eventually we have the heavenly signs and seven last plagues, and those who endure it will finally be humbled. Jesus Christ will return.

You know, prophecy and conclusion can be an important tool.

It's not a sign of who God's people are. It's not a spiritual tool. It's not a spiritual badge.

Prophecy can be an important tool, or it can be something else. It can be the thing that causes a person to miss out on salvation, the fulfillment of prophecy.

Here's why. We are called to love, aren't we? We are called to give, to serve, to do the will of God, to love no matter what. Not to have the love wax cold.

If prophecy is a tool, it can remind us, like Jesus said, to be aware of our situation, be aware of what's going on in the world, come out of her, my people, that you not be partakers of their sins, and these things. It can be a very positive thing. Or it can shift an individual into some sort of a self-mentality. Oh, the end is near! I believe the end is near! I've got to pull in! I've got to protect me and my family! I better sell my house! I better get my money into euros, or maybe not euros, maybe into yen, I don't know, maybe gold!

Maybe into wheat! Maybe I better move to Jerusalem like some people did! Maybe I better move over here! Maybe I better move to the desert! Don't go to Judea, whatever you do!

And you shift into self-mode. You shift into fear. The love of God casts out fear. But now, a person's in fear! Oh, I'm worried! I'm self-mode! I'm not loving, I'm not serving, I'm not preaching the Gospel, I'm not helping others, I'm not giving and serving and helping other people, giving what I have. No, I'm in self-protection mentality. I fear, I do nothing, no joy, I quit. I'm the man who received God's Holy Spirit and put it in a napkin and buried it in the ground, not using it. What is the ultimate prophecy in the Bible?

Ultimate prophecy for humans, as far as the age of humanity, which will extend into two more eras.

One is the millennial phase and one is the second resurrection phase.

The ultimate prophecy for that, I believe, is 2 Peter 3, verse 10 through 13. If you think the prophecy about the end time is a scary one, and that we should consider our spiritual state, consider this prophecy, 2 Peter 3, verse 10.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, this is the ultimate day of the Lord, in which the heavens will pass away with great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. This takes place at the end of Revelation, chapter 21. This is the end of all things human and all things material.

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, and here's the great reason for prophecy, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?

Hmm, that is what prophecy is for. That is what we are to look and examine. Like Jesus Christ said, take heed to yourselves. What manner of person are you, essentially? Looking for, verse 12, and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Hmm. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

The parallel here is very important. We see these cataclysmic things happen, and the question is, what kind of person ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, no matter what? Love never fails. In verse 14, Therefore, beloved, look forward to these things. Be diligent to be found by him in peace, in harmony. That is what that Greek word means. Harmony without spot and blameless.

What should we do, brethren? I would like to conclude by reading Isaiah 33, verses 14-16. What should we do? What should we be doing?

Isaiah 33, verse 14. The sinners in Zion are afraid.

Okay? Are you a sinner? Then be afraid. Fear, worry, because God's judgment and punishment is coming upon you. And so the sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites. Those who had said they are of God, the house of God, the family of God, the spirit of God, but are hypocrites. Read about them, Eken, one of the church eras. They said they were the true people of God, but you found them to be liars and hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Can you dwell with this devouring fire with the end-time events, with the prophecies? With God's help? Sure you can. What's the problem? You don't need to be fearful and seized by fear like the hypocrites and the sinners. Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly. That's who can endure.

He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, who stops his ears from the hearing of bloodshed. That's not my form of entertainment.

You know, I don't like about murder. We're not going to go there. I'm not involved in that.

And he who shuts his eyes from seeing evil.

That's not my entertainment. That's not what I live for. He will dwell on high, and his place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. Bread will be given him, and his water will be sure.

So brethren, as we go through time, let's keep the big focus. Let's keep the picture, the one that God gave us. Do God's will. Put away self. Repent. Overcome.

Stay alert to our condition. Don't be seized by fear or things that are coming on the earth. Live your life, plan it. Don't bury the Holy Spirit in the ground and say, well, I can't do anything now. Let's just keep being Christians.

And let's realize that there is a process that takes place in end-time events. And I've shown you today how this process can be examined against anything or events that take place. I would encourage you to read the Church's booklets on these particular topics, including the book of Revelation Unveiled. And also, are we living in the end time?

Those things can help guide us through the tremendously murky and terrible times in which we sometimes live.