Signs of the End
Key verse. Matthew 24:3: As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"
Motivation for this sermon. The motivation for this "sermon" came from a question someone asked in Sabbath School a few weeks ago: How do you see all this ending? How do you see the final events unfolding? We no longer question the idea that we are at the end of TIME and that Christ is coming soon—the signs are all around us. What was being asked is: Exactly how will all this happen? In the following I will provide five general characteristics.
How it will end
The final events will be fast. Faster than you will be able to (consciously) keep up with. Jesus describes it as being take unawares.
- Matthew 24:40-42: Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
EGW describes it this way:
- 9T 11.2: The agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones.
The final events will come in rapid succession. Is this what is happening now? Are events occurring in rapid succession? Do you get the sense that you've lost control of what is happening around you? Then, pay attention, stay awake, be watchful, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
The final events will be furious. Definition of furious: Full of anger or energy; violent; intense; raging; unrestrained. In simple language, at the end of time, things will get bad, real bad. Jesus lists the events that will happen at the end, and they all sound bad, see if you agree: wars, rumors of war, earthquakes, famine, disease, false prophets, and persecution. It should noted that it will be bad for everyone—for both the righteous *and* the wicked. We are all in this together.
The final events will be worse than you can imagine. How bad will it get? Here is how EGW describes it:
- GC 622.4: The “time of trouble, such as never was,” is soon to open upon us; and we shall need an experience which we do not now possess and which many are too indolent to obtain. It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal. In that time of trial, every soul must stand for himself before God. “Though Noah, Daniel, and Job” were in the land, “as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.” Ezekiel 14:20.
I'd like to emphasis the following in this quote, "It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal." What she is saying in simple words is that we can't even IMAGINE how bad things are going to get at the end of time.
Cowardice. As a consequence, many will fall away, as Jesus declares in Matthew.
- Matthew 24:10: And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.
In the story of Job, we find Satan telling God,
- Job 2:4: Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.
When it comes right down to it, most people will do ANYTHING to ANYBODY to save themselves. It's the "me before you" type of thinking. Betrayal is not out ot the question; neither is cursing God as Job was tempted to do. We've seen this throughout history. Betrayers or informants or the so called "collaborators" come out of the woodwork when push comes to shove and crisis is at its most extreme.
Block out. The other human tendency is to stop thinking about the problem, to block it out, especially when it is too painful to think about. We want to deny its existence or deny the possibility of it reaching us. We rationalize it away.
- It can't happen HERE, in this land of the free and the brave. We have a Constitution!
- It can't happen NOW. Everything has been going so well. It will interfere with my own plans for the future.
- It can't happen TO ME. I'm too nice of a person. I don't deserve this.
So we block it out of our minds. If it happens, maybe it will happen, but far in the future. Yes, I believe Jesus will come again but, please, let it not happen in my day. Not now! I just purchased a new home. I just got married. I just finished my college degree and ready to start my career. To these people the Bible says:
- Habakkuk 2:3: For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.
When the clock strikes midnight, it will wait for no one. You can be sure of that. So procrastination or blocking it out of our minds or rationalizing it away will not help.
It will be seen from a distance. Think of the Second Coming as the coming of a Hurricane. In this modern age, we can predict the coming of a hurricane through satellite, days before it happens. So it will be with the coming of the Son of Man. The signs will point to Christ's soon return. You will know by the signs. Jesus is telling us, pay attention; do not sleep; do not procrastinate. The time appointed will surely come; it will not delay.
Summary. So these are five characteristics of the time of the end: It will be fast and furious. It will be worse than you can imagine. You will see cowardice (many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another). And, you will see deniers—those who will attempt to block it out of their minds.
Why it will happen this way?
It will happen this way, because it is the final test.
Dual atonement. Adventists believe in the dual atonement concept (which was studies in our Sabbath School last quarter). What was done on the cross by Jesus was the first and great test. It proved God's love for man. What will be proven at the end of time is man's love for God. It will demonstrate the power of God's grace in man. How man can be changed in both heart and mind to the fullest extent. As it says in Revelation,
- Revelation 12:11: And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
- Romans 8:19: For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
The final generation will reveal that man can be saved, fully and completely, and be able to love God and resist evil even if it means the loss of their lives, even unto death. This will be the great test of the final generation.
God's grace withdrawn. At the end of time, God will both lose control and have control. A great dichotomy. As EGW puts it:
- 9T 11.1: We are living in the time of the end. The fast-fulfilling signs of the times declare that the coming of Christ is near at hand. The days in which we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth. Plagues and judgments are already falling upon the despisers of the grace of God. . .
At the end of time, God's restraining power will gradually be withdrawn from the earth. The Bible depicts it as the four angels no longer holding back the four winds of strife (Revelation 7). God will withdraw His restraing power and, figuratively speaking, all hell will break loose. But this will not be entirely true for the righteous. Their experience will be intense but at some point God has to shield them from the onslaught of evil. His angels will have to sustain us and protect us, or there will be no one left.
- Revelation 7:9-14: After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Character preparation. The final test will be the manifestation of character, both of the righteous and of the wicked. This will be when good and evil will be in full display before men and before all of heaven. But how does one prepare? The answer is found in the message to the Church at Laodicea, the final church in prophetic history. Here is what the Book of Revelation tells us:
- Revelation 3:18: I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
God and silver are refined by fire. It will be the fire of affliction, the fire of trials and persecution. Many of you are already going through the fire. It is a refining fire—the burning away of the dross. The development of righteous character. When you see a fire burning, you see the flames come and go, sometimes more intensely and sometimes with less. Handel put this idea to music in Handel's Messiah that I would like for you to listen to. The words of this music is taken from Malachi 3:3. Please listen carefully to the words.
Why does God purify the sons of Levi? That they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness, in righteousness. When you have been tried by fire, you come forth as gold (Job 23:10). You can then perform righteous deeds, from a pure heart and pure motives, unstained by selfishness. You can then offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. It is symbolically represented by the white garments that Christians will wear, the righteous deeds of the saints.
Eye salve. What is then the eye salve? It revolves around the Word of God. As David said:
- Psalm 19:8: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes
And as James said:
- James 1:22-25: But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
The eye salve is used to look at the Word of God, the law of God, with spiritual eyes, with clear vision, with full understanding. The final generation will be filled with the truths of God and proclaim it with clarity and conviction. They will not only proclaim it, but they will live it.
Gold, white garments, and eye salve. These are the three ingredients that you will need at the end of time.
What are the signs?
We now come to the signs of the end, the title of this sermon. What signs should we expect to see? There are many. The list is long. We can literally spend hours talking about them. But our time is limited.
There are several categories. We can break them down into the areas of Health, Morality, Finances, Freedom, and Physical Phenomenon. In Orwellian terms we can describe them into "ministries". There is:
- The Ministry of Peace. Is to provide Peace and Stability.
- The Ministry of Health.
- The Ministry of Prosperity.
- The Ministry of Personal Freedom.
- The Ministry of Inclusiveness.
- The Ministry of Truth.
When I say these categories are Orwellian, it is because they are all Doublespeak. We have a Ministry of Peace, when there is no Peace. We have a Ministry of Health, when the health of our people is failing. We have a Ministry of Properity, which is all financed by ever increasing debt which is on the verge of collapse. And so on. Do we have Personal Freedom? Do we have Inclusiveness? Do we have Truth or is it all Lies and Propaganda?
I can be specific, but most of you are aware of the times we are living in. You are seeing the signs all around you.
I have prepared two examples to hopefully drive the point home. One is on health decline and the other is on a specific aspect of moral decline.
Health decline
One of the signs of the end of time is pestilence. Luke tells us:
- Luke 21:11: There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.
About four years ago (April, 2018), I presented a study at a vespers program in our church which showed the increase in chronic disease in the United States for the last 20 years, up until 2015, which was the data I had available. Here is a sampling of the percent increase in chronic disease in the United States by category.
Neurological Disorders (>90 million)
- Bipolar Disorder. 108X (10,833%) more prevalent.
- Psycho-Social Emotional. 25X (2,500%)
- Autism. 21X (2094%)
- Psycho-Social Attentional. 8X (819%)
- Alzheimer's. 3X.
- Depression. 2.8X (280%)
- Panic Disorder. 2.6X (263%)
- ADD/ADHD. 1.4X (139%)
- Anxiety. 1X (104%)
Auto-inflammatory Diseases (>200 million)
- Chronic fatigue syndrome. 110X (11,027%)
- Fibromyalgia. 77X (7727%). Widespread muscle pain and tenderness. Accompanied by fatigue and altered sleep, memory and mood.
- Celiac disease. 11X (1,111%). Disease in which the small intestine is hypersensitive to gluten, leading to difficulty in digesting food.
- Lupus (SLE). 8X (787%). Imflammation of the skin. Can affect joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs. Symptoms can include fatigue, joint pain, rash, and fever.
- Osteoarthritis. 4.5X (449%)
- Hypertension. 2X (223%)
- Autoimmune Disease. 2X (221%)
- Multiple sclerosis (MS). 1.2X (117%). A disease in which the immune system eats away at the protective covering of nerves.
- Inflammatory Bowel (IBD). 1.2X (120%)
- Allergies. 1X (104%)
Cancer:
- Leukemia. 6X (588%)
- Skin cancer - Squamous Cell. 1.8X (177%)
- Skin cancer - Melanoma. 1.5X (145%)
Others:
- Hypothyroidism. 7X (702%)
- Cataracts. 5X (480%)
- Kidney Disease. 4X (413%)
- Sleep Apnea. 4X (430%)
- Diabetes. 3X (305%)
- Stroke. 2.6X (262%)
- Obesity. 2.6X (260%)
- Thyroid Dysfunction. 2X (233%)
- Kidney Stones. 2.5X (246%)
- COPD. 1.5X (148%)
- Congential Heart Disease. 1.4X (143%)
- Asthma. 1.4X (142%)
- Sleep: Insomnia. 1.2X (123%)
When you look at the charts, the percentage increases look parabolic. They are at a slow increase up until 1996-97 and then they take off.
Recent pestilence. But that's old data. It only goes up to 2015. What has happened since then? What has happened the last 6 years (from 2016 to 2021)? I'm glad you asked. Rather than me tell, I'll have a medical doctor tell you. Let's take a look at this video:
So, from the mid-1990s to 2015, chronic disease in this country essentially went parabolic. Then, from 2016 to 2021, particularly in 2021, chronic disease has gone hyper-parabolic. A 40% increase in "all cause deaths" in one year (2021) is like a 10-sigma statistical event. In other words, this should NEVER have happened, not in a billion years, all else being equal.
Steps of action. What do we do about this? Well, we need to get educated. The more you read, the more you will find out what is going on. I have my own theories. You may come up with your own. The bottom line is: It's a sign of pestilence. It's a sign that we are at the end of time.
I believe preparation will not only be spiritual. There are physical, mental, emotional, financial, and health-related issues that we need to address in our lives. Change is not easy, and we will need God's help in all of it. May God help us.
Moral decline
Moral decline in this country has been going on for decades. And I believe it has been accelerating these last 20 or so years. Let me tell you what occurred just a month ago. On March 30, 2022, our president, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order regarding the transgender community. I'll let him tell you want it is:
What does this Transgender Day of Visibility entail. The declaration states the following:
- My entire Administration is committed to ensuring that transgender people enjoy the freedom and equality that are promised to everyone in America. That is why I signed an Executive Order Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation. We are expanding Federal non-discrimination protections; promoting strategies to address violence against the transgender community and advance gender equity and equality; and disseminating new resources to enhance inclusion, opportunity, and safety for transgender people. Additionally, Americans will soon be able to select more inclusive gender markers on their passports. I continue to call on the Congress to swiftly pass the bipartisan Equality Act, which will ensure that LGBTQI+ individuals and families cannot be denied housing, employment, education, credit, and more because of who they are or who they love.
What does LGBTQI+ stand for? LGBTQI+ stands for individuals who identify themselves as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex. The "+" means this list is not exhaustive. It can also include third gender types or two-spirit genders, or other sexual orientations such as pan-gender or pan-sexual, etc. When you fill out a questionaire for employment, you no longer need to classify yourself as male or female. The forms will be changed so that you can identify as anyone of these abominable transgender types.
I used the word "abominable" because that is what the Bible calls them, in Leviticus chapters 18 and 20. If this word sounds harsh and hateful, then so be it. This is what God calls them in the Old Testament. The New Testament isn't anymore gracious, just read the second half of Romans 1, for example. If there is a sin that you can be sure God will judge above another, it is the perversion and destruction of gender identity, as originally designed by God. In Leviticus 18 it says that because of these perversions the land will become unclean and the land itself will vomit them up (verse 25). This means that the cup of their iniquity is filled to the brim and judgment follows. Exactly what kind of judgments and when is anyone's guess.
Gender-affirming medical care. This proclamation means the federal government will promote "gender-affirming medical care" which includes a long list of surgical procedures. I counted 35 different types of gender altering surgeries. Each of these is basically, trying to make a female look like a male or a male look like a female.
They include such surgeries as: Body contouring, Brow lift, Calf implants, Cheek, Chin and Nose implants, Construction of a clitoral hood, Phalloplasty, Facial bone reduction, Facial feminization and masculinization surgery, Feminization of torso, Hand feminization and masculinization, Jaw contouring, Lip enhancement or reduction, Masculinization of torso, Nipple reconstruction, Pectoral implants and/or breast removal, Pitch-raising surgery, Tracheal shave (reduction thyroid chondroplasty), Voice modification surgery such as laryngoplasty which is shortening of the vocal cords.
This will not only be done to adults but to children. Government sponsored and in some cases, government paid for. It also includes medications such as hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and the like, together with psychiatric care. Which you will probably need after everything is said and done.
False prophets. Jesus says that in the final days false prophets will arise.
- Matthew 24:11: And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.
What is a false prophet? A false prophet is one who claims to speak on behalf of God but has his own agenda. A false prophet is one who uses the Bible with the intent to mislead, to corrupt, and to turn the mind to false gods. Note the first words of this Executive Order.
- To everyone celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility, I want you to know that your President sees you. The First Lady, the Vice President, the Second Gentleman, and my entire Administration see you for who you are — made in the image of God and deserving of dignity, respect, and support.
Is that statement true? Are all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (and all other transgender variants) made in the image of God? Yes, they are. This statement is true. So why is the President and his administration so intent on having these individuals go to their nearest and dearest plastic surgeon to mutilate them and drug them to become persons that God did not intend them to be! Do you see the hypocrisy—the misleading message? God created us in His image, male and female, but God must have made a mistake with some of us, so off to the plastic surgeon we go, to fix what God got wrong.
You know the really sad thing about all this, is that there are nations in the world, that blindly follow the United States in whatever they promote. But they take it to the next level. Whatever the United States does in moderation, these other countries do in excess. You have countries like Australia and Canada and even the country I come from, Chile, who will follow the United States blindly.
Steps of action. What are we to do as Christians in the face of this? There's not much that we can do. We can pray for our President and his administration, which we should be doing anyway. But can you stop the course of immoral behavior and policies this nation is pursuing? I doubt we can. We can plead to God for intervention. Like Abraham plead for mercy over the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He had a conversation with God along the lines, "If there are 50 righteous in the city, will you destroy it?" And God said, "If there are 50 righteous, no I will not destroy it." We can plead for this nation, that God do something to turn it around. And maybe God will or maybe it's too late, as the story of Abraham illustrates.
But more than praying for our leaders, we are to pray for ourselves that we be ready for Jesus to come. I don't want to be caught unawares. It's time to start packing your bags so to speak, because soon, and very soon, we are going to see the King. Soon and very soon we are going to see the King. Soon and very soon we are going to see the King. Hallelujah, hallelujah, we are going to see the King.
From the beginning of time, with the fall of Adam and Eve, to the end of time, there is a tension between doing the will of God and human desire. God told Cain in Genesis 4:7, "If you do good, will you not be lifted up? If you do not do good, sin is crouching at the door. It has a strong desire for you, but you must rule over it." Desire is also referred to as "lust." We have strong desires, strong passions, strong lust for temporal things. But as Matthew 16:24 says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
