An Introduction to End Times.

Part 1 Introduction

So what is the situation? – Section 1a

It seems to me quite alarming, even terrifying, that so many people have so little idea of what might well be happening in the world in the not so distant future.

I am not sure why people should be so unaware. It may be due to ignorance, or lack of concern, or our fear to face facts, or many other reasons as well, but I think that mostly it is due to unbelief – not lack of faith – just unbelief. What do I mean by unbelief? To my mind, unbelief is the inability to believe that something could possibly take place, merely because it exceeds our own cognition or capability to think beyond what we see now. In the Bible, St. Paul talks of unbelievers being blinded by the devil (2Cor 4:4). This is the kind of thing I mean.

The same situation arose at the time of Noah, of course. No one then would have believed that the whole world could be flooded, but it was, and Noah was the only person who seemed to have an inkling of what was in store. (Gen 6:9ff)

But it is now spelt out for us!

The situation I am talking about now though is even more shattering because, not only is the chain of events to come, spelt out for us in the Bible, but it seems painfully clear to me and many others that the situation in the world today, which could lead on to what I am talking about, is quite obvious and ominous. I am talking about the end of the world as we know it. I am not talking about it all going up in a puff of smoke (at least not yet) but, a complete change in our situation.

It is no good saying, “Oh, people have been going on about the ‘end of the world’ since time immemorial (or at least since the days of the Acts of the Apostles) and it hasn’t happened yet.” That is just putting your head in the sand.

Anyone who has studied the Bible(*), and many others besides, must be well aware that we are fast approaching ‘end times’ as it is known. The increasingly violent  and frequent disasters throughout the world over recent years, should  tell you that God is far from happy with the way the world is behaving at the moment and that ‘things could happen’ at any time. We (ie. the world) have been asking for trouble, from a Godly perspective, for a long time now. If you are not aware of this then it is not up to me to prove it to you. Just open your eyes and take a look around. Even if you are not familiar with the Bible you must know that things are not right with the world and indeed are rapidly getting worse.

(*) The bible consists of 66 books, attributed to around 40 different authors. It has been written over hundreds of years and concerns the actual history of 100’s of thousands (millions) of people across a time period of  more than 4000 years – all of it pointing to the one man ‘Jesus Christ’. The Bible is, furthermore, fully supported by secular historical verification.

Why look at the Bible though?

So let’s look at what the Bible says, but first, if we want to know what lies in the future, and how soon that might be, why should we go to the Bible at all?

Well, we can look to spiritualism and horoscopes (and many people do), but objectively, information from these sources is only reckoned to be around 5% accurate – or 95% wrong.

Or, we can look to science – to our own knowledge. In many respects science is amazing but, when it comes to forecasting and prophecy, we are talking around a 25%, or maybe even 40% accuracy, but not much more. (This is not to say that science is wrong. Far from it. True, fully verifiable science agrees with the Bible – and we would expect this – God is not ‘anti’ science, He invented it – surely science only tells us what God has already set out!)

Or, we can turn to the Bible. Many things are predicted in the Bible, personal, social, political, environmental and so on. In fact, that is one feature that makes the Bible unique, it is a predictive book. No other religion can claim to have such a handle on the future.

The Bible is a predictive book!

Now, according to the Encyclopaedia of Biblical Prophecy (J. Barton Payne - Hodder and Stoughton 1973) the Bible contains 737 predictions. Of these, 594 have happened as stated, ie. about 80%. However, the remainder all concern future times and so have not yet had a chance to be fulfilled! Thus the Bible has, so far, been 100% accurate. One would think therefore, that a reasonable assumption might be that it will continue to be 100% accurate. Christians of course accept this – ‘Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever’ (Heb 13:8).

One feature that stands out in the Bible is the prediction that one day a carpenter who lived around 2000 years ago is going to return to the world, and history as we know it will come to an end. This is an amazing prediction and of course many people do not accept it but if you know your Bible, that has to be your main-line thinking. (Some prophecies, amongst scores, concerning Jesus’ first advent are: Deut 18:15, 2Sam 7:13, Jer 31:31-34, Daniel 9, Zech 13:7 (Mk 14:27), Book of Psalms c. 20 refs. (see MacArthur Study Bible p. 754) and Book of Isaiah c. 30 refs. (see MacArthur Study Bible p. 965).

However, we are about to explore prophecies concerning Jesus’ second coming!

It is incredible that at a time when the world is going bananas over global warming, environmental collapse, and financial chaos (& where will it all lead?), the one source that surely will tell people – the Bible, God’s own Word – is the one place they refuse to look!!

Next time: What will happen?