“Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your (‘Jesus’) coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3b)
Jesus’ followers were a rather curious bunch at times. They wanted to know what the conditions would be that would signal His return as well as the end of the age (Matthew 24:3). They weren’t the only ones who were curious – – there are multitudes today who are asking a very similar question – – what’s the end-time scenario look like, what will the times and its conditions be like. Are we living in these kinds of circumstances?
Well, let me just give you a few of these trademarks: (they are recorded by Matthew, one of Jesus’ followers) – –
1. There will be high-time deception and deceivers, who will delude or dupe many (Matthew 24:4, 5, 11, 24). There are lots of them out there!
2. Wars and rumors of wars will abound (Matthew 24:6). Have you heard of any rumblings lately? Can you name some of them? You can’t?
3. How about nations rising against other nations? It is quite enlightening that “nations” translates into ethnic groups! (Matthew 24:7).
4. This will be accompanied by famines and earthquakes in various places. I read in Wikipedia that the worldwide earthquake count in 2023 so far was 33 – – those are only the ones with a 6.0 magnitude or higher on the Richter-scale. If you add the smaller ones, you have a total of 3,443 worldwide earthquakes since January 1st of this year!
Folks, “All these are (just) the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8) Think about that!
Matthew (24:21) puts the “finishing touches” on this list of tragedies, when well more than half of the world’s population will perish, “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be!” (The Book of Revelation, chapters 6-19, gives us a fuller picture of the 7 most horrendous years just around the corner)! God’s offer still stands “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). You know what to do, since you know what’s coming!
Don’t wait till God unleashes His wrath upon unbelievers, so don’t be one!
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