Throughout my lifetime (and doubtless yours, too), I even have personally experienced and heard about others experiencing all types of natural disasters and worldwide events. For example, since I’m sufficiently old to recollect, I even have known of earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, and tsunamis which have devastated lands, destroyed homes, and brought people’s lives. Wildfires have charred hundreds of acres of woods and anything of their path. Solar eclipses, comets, and solar flares have caught the eye of billions of individuals, causing them to look up in wonder.
On top of all of those natural events, humans have been the cause or no less than catalyst for wars and riots claiming the lives of countless people, viruses affecting whole countries, and violent regimes causing the genocide of whole races of individuals.
If you are taking a transient leaf through a history book, nevertheless, you’ll notice that none of this stuff are recent or personalized to our current era. Only a blind idealist would think that any of those will or may be stopped so long as the world exists in its broken, sinful state.
But when these major earthquakes, devastating wars, and mysterious eclipses happen, we cannot help but wonder if there may be more occurring than we will see with our own eyes or hear about with our own ears.
Then we come across passages within the Bible that show us that there really IS more occurring! One such passage is within the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus is teaching his disciples on the Mount of Olives about some events that they’ll expect to happen. Jesus told them:
“And you’ll hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you simply are usually not alarmed, for this must happen, but the tip just isn’t yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the start of the birth pains. “Then they’ll deliver you as much as tribulation and put you to death, and also you shall be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray each other and hate each other. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness shall be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the tip shall be saved. And this gospel of the dominion shall be proclaimed throughout the entire world as a sworn statement to all nations, after which the tip will come.” (Matthew 24:6-14, ESV)
If you’re like me, you could have some big questions if you read this passage (subtitled “Signs of the End of the Age” in my ESV Study Bible). You can also realize that each one among this stuff has already come to pass (even the spreading of the gospel to each nation, depending on the way you understand that line). In fact, now we have had wars, famines, earthquakes, persecution of Christians, people leaving their church and “deconstructing” their faith, and lawlessness over and over over throughout the world for the reason that day that Jesus declared this stuff on the Mount of Olives. And due to great missionary efforts by many churches, missionaries, and mission networks (resembling the IMB) and assisted by the invention of the printing press, radio, television, and now the web, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is accessible to no less than every continent and each nation (although not all tribes and tongues have heard yet).
While it doesn’t seem to be every part that the Bible has prophesied in books like Daniel and Revelation has taken place, if these events that Jesus mentioned really are the “signs” of the “coming of the tip of the age,” then I believe we will say with confidence that we reside within the “end times.”
So how are we to reply to all of the symbols, pictures, and world-affecting prophesies that God has given us in his Word? Do we want to get frightened and anxious? Do we want to spend more time attempting to decipher codes and plot out prophesies? Should all of us be sitting in Bible studies on the book of Revelation as often as we will?
It is human nature to need to know more. God put inside us a desire for knowledge. Normally this is an excellent aptitude since it fuels our adventures, discoveries, and academic pursuits.
However, this hunger for knowledge may be distracting and even harmful when it substitutes motion. For example, it could be unhealthy for somebody to spend a lot time searching through cookbooks for the right recipe that they never get around to cooking. It could be unhealthy for somebody to look at so many romantic books and films that their minds are stuffed with a lot fantasy that they’re unable to have an actual marriage relationship.
In an identical way, it is feasible for a Christian can spend a lot time studying their Bible, scouring the web, and happening so many YouTube or TikTok “rabbit holes” (like Alice in Wonderland) so as to determine prophecies and tell the long run that they lose touch with reality and neglect their other Christian responsibilities.
When Jesus ascended back to Heaven after his resurrection, he told his Apostles to be disciple-makers. But I’m afraid that some Christians today are not any greater than astrologers, fortune tellers, and science-fiction enthusiasts. Like Saul in 1 Samuel 28 when he defied God by hiring a witch to speak with the dead prophet Samuel, some people care more about knowing the long run than knowing God – which is idolatry.
So, how should we respond once we hear about wars, earthquakes, and eclipses? The answer may be very easy: be faithful to God.
Jesus prefaced his list of “signs” that we read earlier with this phrase: “See that nobody leads you astray” (Matthew 24:4, ESV). Jesus was not teaching his disciples this stuff and God has not given us prophesies in Scripture in order that we shall be consumed by determining the day of the Second Coming or becoming “doomsday prep-ers” (although we do need to save lots of up for our future carefully). Instead, God wants us to arrange ourselves spiritually for whatever comes our way so we’ll remain faithful to him. That is why he also said in our passage that salvation shall be given to those that “endure to the tip” (verse 13).
This lesson agrees with what Jesus also taught within the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. In the tip, what matters greater than us predicting the long run or with the ability to understand every part is whether or not or not now we have the Holy Spirit inside us.
Should we ignore the prophecies within the Bible? Of course not—God put them in there for a reason. But as one creator puts it, God may allow us to “only understand prophecies the moment they’re fulfilled or in hindsight.” Think about this: people had been given prophecies concerning the Messiah centuries before Jesus got here, but nobody (except possibly the disciples) appeared to give you the chance to place the pieces together (John 2:22).
So read, study, and ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom to grasp the prophecies within the Bible just as you’ll the narratives, poetry, commands, and letters to the churches. But study them so you may grow closer to God, get to know him higher, and obey him higher. Any other goal will lead you astray.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Andrew McArthur
