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 1000’s 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 not 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 glance 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 could 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 aren’t alarmed, for this must happen, but the tip will not be yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there can be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the start of the birth pains. “Then they may deliver you as much as tribulation and put you to death, and also you can 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 can be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the tip can be saved. And this gospel of the dominion can be proclaimed throughout the entire world as a testimony to all nations, after which the tip will come.” (Matthew 24:6-14, ESV)
If you’re like me, you’ve some big questions while you read this passage (subtitled “Signs of the End of the Age” in my ESV Study Bible). You may 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 (corresponding to 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 not less than every continent and each nation (although not all tribes and tongues have heard yet).
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