Two days before his crucifixion, Jesus Christ led his disciples through the streets of Jerusalem
toward one of the ancient world's most magnificent buildings, the Jewish temple, reconstructed
by the king Herod the Great. Here, surrounded by walls of marble and gold 15 stories high,
the disciples spoke excitedly about the splendor of Israel's most sacred structure.
Look, teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings. There can be nothing in the entire
world as beautiful as this holy place. Unmoved by their enthusiasm, Christ stunned the twelve
with a chilling prophecy. Do you see these great buildings? I tell you, not one stone
here shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.
Nearly 40 years later, the Roman army brutally suppressed a Jewish rebellion by setting fire
to the temple and its surrounding walls. Stone by stone, the Romans pried apart each marble
block, then threw them into the streets below. In this act of violence, Christ's prophecy
was fulfilled to the smallest detail. Yet Jesus' prediction of the temple's impending
destruction was only the beginning of all he was about to reveal concerning the future.
Later that afternoon, he led his disciples outside Jerusalem's walls toward the summit
of the Mount of Olives. There in the gathering twilight, as Jesus looked out over the city,
Peter and John approached him, fearing that if the temple was destroyed, the end of the
world would soon follow. Troubled and confused, they asked, Lord, when will these things be,
and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? Once again, Christ answered
with the full power of prophetic truth, as he described for his disciples and every generation
that would follow the extraordinary signs and events that will one day culminate in
the end of human history.
The teachings of Jesus in the Mount of Olives are absolutely essential to any understanding
of future events and end times chronology for a couple of reasons. It's Jesus speaking,
first of all. And secondly, it's in response to a specific question and set of questions
such as, what are the signs of your return and of the end of the age? And it's the only
time that Jesus really took the time to lay out a chronology, detail by detail and sequence
by sequence, for us to understand.
He knows the end from the beginning. He's God. And on Him, the Spirit, the Bible says,
rested without measure. Now, the Holy Spirit rested on all the prophets, but I think we
can depend on the words of Jesus in a special category. And what He did is He gave us an
outline on which all other prophecy must rest.
Christ's description of the end times is now recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. In each of these accounts, Jesus foretells the incredible scenario that will
unfold during the final chapters of the earth's history.
Listen to my words. There will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world
until now, and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one
would survive.
Christ's prophetic teachings read like a horror story of natural disasters, spiritual deception,
famine, war, and death, the likes of which the world has never known. For nearly 2,000
years, these words have sparked both fear and fascination, as 50 generations have anticipated
their fulfillment.
Today many believe we are living in the final generation. Yet there is no way to be certain,
for an aura of mystery still surrounds the catastrophic events that, according to Jesus,
will one day shake the foundations of this planet.
But as we walk in the lengthening shadows of the end times, we can be confident of two
things. Christ's prophecies are, at this moment, closer to fulfillment than ever before,
and they are resonating with the daily course of human existence throughout the world in
a harmony that cannot be ignored.
Let us look now to the future, as seen through the eyes of Jesus and the prophets he inspired.
For in their words, we will discover important clues to understanding all that is to come.
Prophecy, itself, is God's way of reminding us that he alone knows the future, and therefore
he alone can tell the future. The signs in prophecy are indications to remind us that
if you see these things begin to happen, then know that the rest of the fulfillment is close
behind.
If we are indeed living on the verge of prophetic fulfillment, then it would seem our need for
insight beyond mere human speculation has never been greater.
Two thousand years ago, Christ began his discourse on the future by identifying for us specific
signs that he said would herald the beginning of the end of time.
Watch out that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name, claiming, I am the Christ,
and will deceive many.
In Matthew 24, Jesus warned in answering the disciples' question, he warned about 11 times,
beware of false teachers and false Christ and false messiahs.
As we have moved into the last 150 years, false prophets, false cults, false religions
have just exploded. There are numerous cult groups today that are growing into the millions
of followers.
Spiritual deception has always played a significant role in the human drama, for in every generation,
many have come as messengers of light, only to lead their devoted followers into spiritual
darkness.
In recent years, some of these false Christs have become household names.
Jim Jones and the tragedy of Guyana.
Marshall Appelwit and his Heaven's Gate suicide cult.
David Koresh and the disciples of the Branch Davidian.
Each of them claimed to be the Christ, the chosen messiah, and each led his flock astray
with promises of deeper insight and enlightenment.
Christ prophesied that in the final days, these masters of deception will increase in
number and influence as a desperate world searches for spiritual direction.
And as these counterfeit saviors flourish, their tools of persuasion will include more
than convincing rhetoric.
And they're going to increase and increase, and I would be so bold as to say on the basis
of Matthew 24, they will increase in power. They'll have power to perform miracles. They'll
have power to perform healings. They will try to replicate the miracles of Jesus and
prove themselves to be false messiahs, giving false teaching.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom
against kingdom.
Christ also warned that the end times would be marked by a dramatic increase in warfare.
There is little doubt that the 20th century has given us a vivid glimpse of what a world
dominated by military conflict will be like.
For the last 100 years, scarcely a day has passed when the planet has not been scarred
by warfare.
Two world wars punctuated by countless ethnic and regional conflicts have claimed millions
of lives while shrouding the earth in tension and fear.
Since 1945, nuclear weapons have given man the power of self-annihilation. And as the
century draws to a close, the fuse on what is perhaps the most deadly threat of all seems
to grow shorter by the day, the prospect of all out war in the Middle East.
Whether or not our generation is living through the specific wars and rumors of wars Christ
will saw is open to speculation.
But amidst the anxiety and bloodshed, there is little doubt that modern weapons of destruction,
coupled with ever-mounting political tensions, represent the volatile formula that could
potentially lead to the end of civilization as we know it.
There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places. All these are
the beginning of birth pains.
Like the specter of escalating warfare, Jesus said that a progression of devastating natural
disasters will also underscore the approach of the last days. Again, our world is well
acquainted with these fears.
World Relief Agencies estimate that as many as one-third of the Earth's six billion people
are victims of starvation. 34,000 of them die of famine-related causes each day.
Of the 68 most devastating earthquakes in recorded history, 46 of them occurred in the
20th century.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 23 million children are infected with the HIV virus, the deadly
killer for which there is no known cure.
When Jesus talked about things that were going to occur in the future, and he referred to
them as signs that were coming, he also referred to them as birth pains. They'll come on you
like birth pains on a woman. Those begin to come intensely, but they start to intensify
and come more rapidly, more quickly as you get to the time when the baby is delivered.
I think it's obvious then that he uses the term birth pains to symbolize the fact that
some of these signs of the future may begin to come to pass on the scene slowly, one at
a time, but eventually more and more of them will come in rapid sequence.
Christ's warnings bear an obvious resemblance to another prophetic image revealed by God
late in the first century.
On the island of Patmos in the Mediterranean Sea, the apostle John beheld a series of visions.
In one of them, four mounted horses appeared on the horizon of the future as the ominous
messengers of the final apocalypse.
The first horse in John's vision was white, and it symbolized the rampant spiritual deception
that would grip the earth in its final days. A red horse and rider followed, the images
of intense warfare throughout the planet. Then a black horse thundered through the earth,
wrecking havoc with famine and natural disasters. And finally, the pale horse of death made
its dreaded and inevitable journey.
Spiritual deception, wars, starvation, earthquakes, had intensities beyond anything humanity has
ever experienced. They are early signs of the end times, prophesied by Jesus Christ.
There is an ancient Hebrew proverb that proclaims, Israel is the center of the earth. In the
context of the end times and the signs that will foreshadow their coming, there is little
doubt that this small strip of land at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa is
the focal point of all that Christ and the prophets taught about the future.
You have to put Israel and Jerusalem in every factor about end time prophecies because it's
the center of the earth. And in this end time event, you'll find that God still has many
plans and promises for the Jews that are going to be fulfilled.
Certain geographic locations are made important by God because God's veracity and truthfulness
hinges around him doing certain things at certain geographic locations. So we're seeing
that history does not move forward prophetically unless the nation of Israel is involved.
Israel's spiritual significance was established nearly 4,000 years ago when God set apart
the Jews as his chosen people and promised them this land as their home.
Today Jews from around the world gather in Jerusalem at the Western Wall, the last remnant
of their ancient temple. There they pray and remember the words of God's enduring covenant.
Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.
Behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will raise up from David a king who shall
reign and prosper. I will grant salvation to Zion and my splendor to Israel. You will be
my people and I will be your God. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be
uprooted from the land I have given them.
There is an unbreakable bond between God, Israel and the prophetic events of the future.
For here in this land the final confrontation between good and evil will be waged. Here
on the Megiddo Plains the full measure of God's wrath and judgment will descend upon
the planet. Here upon the Mount of Olives Christ will return in all of his glory. And
here in Jerusalem Jesus will establish the throne of his kingdom that will last for a
thousand years. A kingdom of perfect peace on earth and the prelude to the eternity of
heaven.
According to biblical prophecy each of these events will take place only when Israel is
a Jewish nation. Yet throughout most of history the probability of such an occurrence seemed
virtually impossible. For by the end of the second century A.D. foreign invaders had driven
the Jews out of their homeland to the far corners of the earth.
The tragedy of the dispersal of the Jews was a tragedy of unspeakable and seemingly unending
dimensions. I don't think anyone understands what it's like to become a no people. It isn't
that they were a nation without a country. They weren't a nation anymore. How can you
be a nation without any communication, be scattered this far? And not only that but
almost everywhere that they've been scattered I believe supernaturally through the occult
influence or the dark side the Jewish people have been persecuted. There is no way to capture
the desperation of a Jew outside of his land who is facing that kind of situation for close
to two millennia.
Between 135 A.D. and the beginning of the 20th century control of Israel would pass
through the hands of the Romans and the Arabs, the Turks and the British Empire. This tragic
dispersal of the Jews not only destroyed their nation it also suspended the progression of
biblical prophecies relating to the end times. Then in 1917 the winds of change began to
blow. World War I and the issue of the Balfour Declaration paved the way for Jews throughout
the world to return to the land that God had promised them and for two decades a small
stream of immigrants entered Israel. This flicker of optimism proved short-lived however
as the outbreak of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust claimed more than six million
Jewish lives. But when the war ended unimaginable tragedy again turned to hope as the floodgates
of history's greatest human migration miraculously opened. On May 14th 1948 after nine months
of debate the United Nations voted to recognize the new state of Israel. Billions of Jews
from every continent joyously poured back into their ancestral homeland. Their ravaged
country was rebuilt and against all odds Israel existed as a Jewish nation. Many considered
this the greatest fulfillment of biblical prophecy since the birth of Christ. Out of
all the nations of the world the Jews started gathering back and there were very few in
1917. Today there are over five million. It's an incredible migration in fulfillment of
prophecy. In June of 1967 the momentum of prophetic fulfillment accelerated again when
the Jews took back control of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War. After two millennia the promised
land and its capital were restored to Jewish sovereignty. When they occupied Jerusalem
that was a stellar day and I think it ignited the clock of God's prophetic calendar and
it's moving relentlessly to the fulfillment of all these things. Either the stage is being
set or the signs have already begun to be fulfilled. Israel's back in the land, there's
conflict between the Jews and the Arabs, the western powers are trying to broker peace
treaties in the Middle East, weapons of mass destruction already exist. So all the things
the Bible says are going to transpire at the time of the end are already beginning to transpire.
That ought to get our attention. These are like red lights flashing at me saying, wake
up we're getting awfully close to the final fulfillment of all of these things. Israel's
restoration is the catalyst that will ignite the fulfillment of all that Christ and the
prophets foretold about the future. Yet since Jesus spoke to his disciples two days before
his death the meaning of his words have been debated by theologians and scholars of every
generation. In the process several interpretations of what the scriptures actually reveal about
the planet's last days have emerged. Let us now turn our attention to one of the most
widespread and compelling of these interpretations. It is a scenario of the end times based upon
centuries of biblical scholarship and analysis with specific focus on the personalities and
events millions believe will shape history's turbulent finale. As a new millennium dawns
on Israel and the rest of the world this explanation appears more feasible than ever before. And
when considered in the light of prophetic understanding it is not difficult to imagine
how someday the events you're about to see could actually unfold.
Though the biblical signs of the end times are numerous and well defined the specific
event that many believe will trigger history's final countdown will come without a hint of
warning. It is an event that will catch the entire world by complete surprise and then
plunge it into total chaos. To those who have studied the prophetic calendar it is known
simply as the rapture. The rapture of the church is easily the most exciting event that
could ever be imagined in the mind of men. God has given us this report that it's going
to happen in a twinkling of an eye. You have to be prepared in advance. You can't get prepared
when it happens. The most detailed biblical accounts of the rapture are found in the New
Testament. Not all of us will die but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment
in the twinkling of an eye for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding
shout and with the trumpet call of God. First all the Christians who have died will rise
from their graves. Then together with them we who are still alive and remain on the earth
will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever.
For all of its mystery perhaps the most compelling aspect of the rapture is its imminence. It
could literally occur at any moment. And as the scriptures tell us there will be no doubt
when that moment arrives. The entire planet will be shaken by a thunderous shout and a
piercing trumpet blast. Then in cemeteries around the world graves will split open and
Christians who have died will rise from the ground. Not as decaying flesh and bone but
as living human beings with transformed bodies ready to meet Christ in the air. An instant
later millions of people from every walk of life will vanish as they too will encounter
their Lord between heaven and earth. Regardless of age or nationality every man, woman and
child who is taken has one thing in common. Each of them believe that Jesus Christ is
the savior of the human race. In the hours immediately following the rapture a panic
stricken world will attempt to come to grips with the unexplainable. Governments will frantically
search for answers and the news media will race to cover the story of the century. But
in these attempts to find the truth the world will be blinded to the most obvious explanation,
that which is written in the scriptures. The apostle Paul said in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 they will believe the lie. Some official statement will be made. Aliens got them, laser
beams zapped them, something that sounds reasonable and credible and the majority of people will
believe that explanation rather than believe the truth of scripture. Chaos will be rampant
in the months that follow as fear and confusion engulf a planet trying to cope with the disappearance
of an enormous segment of its population. And as anxiety builds the birth pains of spiritual
deception, wars and natural disasters will accelerate while the earth stands on the brink
of a terrifying future. I think in Matthew 24 Jesus is talking about
the time of tribulation and judgment that is coming in the future. The tribulation period
is an expression of the wrath of God against an unbelieving world that occurs, I'm convinced,
after the rapture of the church. Well the tribulation period must be put into perspective. It is
real, it is a time frame of seven years. The Bible says God cut it short because it's such
a traumatic time. It's worse than any time that has ever been or ever would be. For then
there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the
world. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved. There are more
scriptural references to the tribulation than to any other historical period mentioned in
the Bible. In the Old Testament this seven years of turmoil is also called the day of
God's vengeance, the time of Jacob's trouble and the time of the end. While New Testament
descriptions include the hour of judgment, the great day of his wrath and the end of
this world. In every case the tribulation is prophesied to be a time of literal hell on
earth, when God will exact his final judgment upon a world that has rejected his love. The
tribulation period is separated into two halves, three and a half years that are just plain
tribulation. It will be very trying. Then the next three and a half years Jesus called
the great tribulation. That will be three and a half years that are worse than anything
that he said ever would be or ever was. So consequently it will be the greatest time
of trauma in the world and man will suddenly be aware of the fact that there is a supernatural
God. The scriptures indicate that though the focal point of the tribulation will be the
nation of Israel, the full magnitude of its impact will be global. No one on earth will
escape the catastrophes spurred by the events and personalities described by Jesus and the
prophets. We have a scenario of what that period is going to be like and so we can sit
here and build a model of the players who are going to be involved, what part of the
world they are going to come from and we can see that God is setting that stage in the
last 50 years like he hasn't done in the last 2000 years.
The tribulation may well begin with Israel facing an age old crisis. She is threatened
on all sides by her Arab neighbors. With the prospect of war growing by the day, the always
tenuous security of the country will appear more vulnerable than ever before. As tension
in the Middle East reaches fever pitch, a charismatic world leader will arise out of
Europe offering the Jews the one thing they most desperately seek. They are harassed by
the Arabs, they are harassed by the enemies, the anti-Semites from all over the world and
here comes a world leader that wants to give them the guarantee of peace. He is going to
come on the world scene and be the leader and he is going to amalgamate the world and
bring all of these countries together in the name of world peace.
The Bible refers to this leader by many names. Master of intrigue, worthless shepherd, the
beast, the anti-Christ. In what appears to be an extraordinary act of diplomacy, the
anti-Christ aligns himself with Israel and brokers a peace agreement with the Arab nations
preventing an all out war. And when he makes a league or a covenant with the children of
Israel, a peace covenant for seven years, it's not for ten years, fifteen years, it's seven years.
And when he makes that covenant, that starts the tribulation period.
Yet immediately after the peace accord is signed, any thought of tribulation is obscured
by the anti-Christ's soaring popularity. Empowered by Satan, he becomes the head of
a European confederacy of nations that will rule the world in its final days.
Many scholars believe this confederation will stand as the most powerful economic, political
and military force in history. To a planet weary of turmoil and war, the
anti-Christ is hailed as a savior. To the Jews, the treaty he has forged represents
the key to the fulfillment of a dream, the reconstruction of their temple.
Once the anti-Christ comes on the scene, the Bible clearly indicates that he'll sign a
peace treaty with the nation of Israel. Some believe that that peace treaty will allow
them to rebuild their temple and that he will guarantee them security and survival in the
Middle East. Today, the reality of the temple's reconstruction
seems impossible. For standing on the traditional site where the Jews must rebuild is one of
the holiest shrines in the Muslim world, the Dome of the Rock.
This sacred mosque, completed late in the seventh century, rises from the spot where
Islamic believers contend their prophet, Muhammad, ascended into heaven.
It is revered by nearly a billion Muslims who would fight to the death to defend it.
Any attempt to move the dome would now be considered an act of war.
Yet, miraculously, during the early stages of the tribulation, perhaps through the negotiations
of the anti-Christ, the dome is removed from Jerusalem and construction of a new temple
begins. Jews today in Israel say they could rebuild
a temple in seven to eleven months. In other words, they've got everything ready to go.
And there are whole organizations over there that exist that do nothing full-time other
than to study how we're going to rebuild the temple.
If the announcement hit the newspapers tomorrow that permissions were in place and the money
was there and construction was about to begin, there would be tears of joy and dancing in
the streets of every Orthodox and conservative Jewish home and community on the planet.
As the world watches in amazement, the temple is rebuilt and the sacred rites of worship
are initiated once again. For Jews throughout the world, the joy of this
sight is overwhelming. Yet, the newfound sense of security they feel is only an illusion,
but the anti-Christ is about to reveal his true nature.
Midway through the tribulation, he suddenly breaks his treaty with Israel and unleashes
a torrent of persecution against God's chosen people.
The whole purpose of the anti-Christ at this time is he's shifting from protecting Israel
during the first three and a half years to persecuting Israel.
He senses that they are now the focus of the attention of the world, the rebuilding of
the temple, and the re-institution of the worship of God.
But I think the ultimate issue is because the Bible says that Satan fills his heart
and if he is empowered and indwelt by Satan himself, Satan hates the Jewish people because
they're the covenant people of God. And you always see Satan behind the scenes
saying if I can destroy the work of God, whether it's in the human race in general or the nation
of Israel in particular, then I can keep God from accomplishing his ultimate will and purpose
and I will eventually vindicate myself.
The horror of the second half of the tribulation will eclipse the worst hours of the first
three and a half years. Dropping any pretense of his earlier role as
a peacemaker, the anti-Christ moves by force to strengthen his hold on the planet.
His agenda expands beyond military, economic, and political objectives when he moves to
establish himself as a God and demands the worship of the entire world.
His closest advisor, the false prophet, creates a universal religion positioning the anti-Christ
as the supreme Lord. As an act of allegiance and identification,
every person on earth is ordered to wear the mark of the beast, 666. Without it, no one
can buy or sell in the global economy. Then, at the height of his arrogance, the anti-Christ
commits the ultimate act of desecration against the Jews. He enters their holy temple and
erects an idol of himself as an object of worship.
Some suggest that the temple is so beautiful and so wonderful that he cannot resist wanting
to go to that temple, sit in the temple of God, defile that temple by his presence and
claim, I really am God incarnate in human flesh.
Let the world know that I am God. And from this day forth...
In what will appear to be a miracle, the idol of the anti-Christ will speak, commanding
the world to bow down in worship. Satan will actually give it power. I don't
know if it will be electronically capable of speech or if it will be supernatural. And
people will hear the voice of this beast, this idol, and be tricked into worshipping
it. And when they do, they will have forsaken their soul.
In the Gospel of Luke, Christ issues a startling warning to anyone who refuses to follow the
anti-Christ. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the
mountains. Let those in the city get out. And let those in the country not enter the
city, for Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles.
There is an obvious sense of urgency in Christ's words. And all who heed them will find that
their route of escape leading to the vast wilderness areas south of Jerusalem.
There the Jews will hide from the wrath and persecution of the anti-Christ.
The Old Testament talks about them being hidden away in Basra, which is a Hebrew for sheepfold.
And that is believed to be the ancient city of Petra, which is in Jordan.
It is not hard to envision how the ancient city of Petra, 100 miles south of Jerusalem,
could provide sanctuary for thousands of men, women, and children during the last days of
the Great Tribulation. Carved from solid rock by an Arab merchant
population more than 2,000 years ago, Petra is an almost impregnable fortress.
The abandoned city is surrounded on all sides by towering cliffs and accessible only through
a chasm that narrows to a width of 12 feet. Here many believe God will supernaturally
protect and sustain his people, perhaps by providing water from a rock and manna from
heaven, as he once did for Moses and the children of Israel.
While those in the wilderness are protected by God, the rest of the world is embroiled
in total chaos. For the death toll from the birth pains of
war, natural disasters, and famine rises to more than a million human lives a day.
By the middle of the Tribulation, 50% of the people will have been wiped off the face of
the earth. So sociologically, that would send everything
into chaos. Half the police officers, half the school teachers, half the medics and doctors
and professional workers. Everything that the Antichrist tries to do, he's going to
have to be searching for capable people because so many people will be wiped out. It's going
to be a time of chaos. As his control of the world erodes, the Antichrist's
anger against the Jews intensifies. And at the height of his fury, he orders his armies
of the European Confederacy to converge upon Israel.
Committed to the total annihilation of the Jewish race, the most powerful military force
in history assembles here on the Megiddo Plains, north of Jerusalem.
It's the Valley of Jezreel, the breadbasket of modern Israel, a valley some 50 miles wide
and 200 miles long. It's the largest flat area in Israel. It's the ideal place to assemble
an army. So it becomes in the Bible a term, a symbol of major war and conflict. Many of
the battles of the Old Testament era were fought on that location.
While the forces of the Antichrist invade Israel, another army, 200 million strong,
marches relentlessly from the east toward the plains of Megiddo. The stage is now set
for the ultimate confrontation between Satan and God.
The Antichrist begins his campaign to destroy the Jews by attacking Jerusalem.
The fighting is intense and the Jews are defeated, suffering enormous casualties.
With Israel's capital under his control, the Antichrist then directs his attack on the
Jews who had fled the city after the temple's desecration. He orders his armies into the
wilderness. As the Antichrist approaches, the Jews will cry out to God for deliverance
and turn to the Messiah they had long rejected. In that extraordinary moment, God's covenant
with Israel is made complete and the prophetic words of Christ again come into focus.
For the last remnant of the Jewish population, terror now turns to hope as Jesus Christ,
their promised Messiah, stands ready to return and fight the legions of Satan in the final
battle of Armageddon.
And so the final confrontation taking place at Armageddon just outside the city of Jerusalem
indicates to us that in God's view of things, Jerusalem is the center of the world. This
is the place where the line of the Messiah started. This is the place where Jesus died
on the cross. This is the place where it's all going to culminate in this final battle.
And then when Christ returns, he'll go to Jerusalem, sit on the throne of David, and
rule the kingdom just as the Old Testament prophets predicted the Messiah would do.
The very prospect of Christ's return shakes the universe to its core.
The sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the
sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
The heavens are darkened like a great stage before the curtain rises on the most dramatic
event in history.
Then what Christ described as the sign of the Son of Man will appear for the entire
world to see. A brilliant light that radiates to every corner of the planet. It is called
the Shekinah Glory of God.
As Jesus appears, the Antichrist and his armies are filled with rage. Now, under the complete
control of Satan, millions of soldiers armed with weapons of mass destruction launch a
lethal attack on the King of all creation.
And when he comes, it says the tribes of the earth will mourn. They're not rejoicing to
see him and they do not repent and instead shake their fist in the face of God and say
in essence, we will not submit and we will not bow down to you.
And when the scripture describes this battle, it simply says that he returns and speaks
the word and it's over with.
The God who spoke the world into existence and the person of his son can speak a final
word and the army of the Antichrist is defeated.
Jesus does not come back with planes and guns and bombs to win the battle of Armageddon.
He comes back with the power of the word of God and speaks the word. I don't know what
that word is. Perhaps peace. Be still and it's over with.
He who could still the storms and cast out demons and conquer the hearts of individuals
will ultimately prevail and conquer all at the battle of Armageddon.
The return and triumph of Jesus Christ will ultimately transform the devastation of the
end times into a remarkable new beginning.
For in the aftermath of the judgment at Armageddon, control of the earth will pass from the dominion
of Satan into the hands of God.
In the decades that will follow the final apocalypse, the planet will be renewed as
instruments of peace replace the weapons of war.
And for a thousand years, Jesus will rule the universe from Jerusalem, his holy city.
Then to all who have believed in Christ throughout the centuries of human existence, God will
open the gates to his eternal kingdom of heaven.
There the pain and suffering of the great tribulation will be washed away by a river
of healing and hope.
The darkness of spiritual deception will yield to the radiant plight of perfect truth.
And the sting of death will be swallowed up forever by the joy of everlasting life.
When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads because your redemption
is drawing near.
I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.