THE  END of THE AGE IS HERE

Anita Clark – Pastor, Grace Chapel, Carbondale, Kansas

And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?”  Matthew 24:3.

First, we will define some of the words in these questions from the original Greek.  The term “end” means the “consummation, the indication or token.”  The word “coming” is the Greek word “paroosea-ah,” which means in the Greek, “the coming or presence.” The word “paroosea-ah” is used by Apostle Paul in I Thessalonians 4:15, where Paul speaks of the coming of Christ for His overcoming people who are ready before the tribulation takes place.  

The disciples were asking about, when would the “end of the world,” take place, which means “the entire completion, consummation of the dispensation.”  The word “world” means “the age, or period of time.”  This is repeated in Mark 13:4, “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled.”  Matthew 24:30, Jesus tells the disciples, that when He comes back at the end of the tribulation, “... then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”  

This victorious coming spoken of Jesus at the end of the tribulation is also seen in Revelation 19:11-16, where Jesus comes back with the “armies in heaven,” which refers to the overcoming saints of God, who are “clothed in fine linen, white and clean.” Refer to verse 7, where the “wife of Lamb hath made herself ready.”  Note that she is clothed in  “fine linen, which is the righteousness of the saints,” or as another translation says, “the righteous acts of the saints.” Jesus will come for this overcoming group before the seven years of tribulation, and they will come down to judge the Antichrist, false prophet and the unbelieving hoards of enemies of Christ and God at the Battle of Armageddon. We have already been shown the “signs of the times” in God’s word.  All of mankind will be without excuse before God.

II Timothy 3:1 says, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.”  The word “perilous,”  means in the Greek, “reducing strength, difficult, dangerous, fierce and furious.” Everyday on the news, we are told of increased crime in our nation, dangerous situations in big cities, foreign countries sending off rockets and missiles, our country being flooded with immigrants, high prices, loss of jobs, and the danger of the virus Covid and various new breeds of the virus.  In spite of all this, Apostle Paul tells us “know” that “perilous times” are here and will get worse as we near the tribulation time. Isn’t it amazing to see all the many signs of the times.  If we are a believer in Christ Jesus, we need to be very aware of what time we are living in.  We don’t have much time left to let Jesus be exalted in our lives and be ready for the rapture.

Note that the verse says, “know this.” In other words we must “know” what is happening all around us.  Note the list from vs. 2-7 the conditions which would be a sign of the very soon coming of our Lord Jesus.  Verse 2 states “For men shall be lovers of their own selves.” Also, this verse uses the word, “covetous, “which speaks of “lovers of money, impelled by greed.” And “blasphemers” which speaks of “impious against God. And showing contempt and lack of reverence for God.”  Verse 4 states that people will be “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” We definitely see this happening even to believers. How about, “disobedient to parents?”

In our society today, respect for parents is radically missing in homes and public schools. Recently, we have seen the devil getting into the classrooms through evilly indoctrinated teachers and other authorities, going against the Bible teaching and against Christian parents.  In the U.S. any day 424,000 children are in foster care.  The authorities say this is due to drug addiction of parents.  The most despictcable problems are that many children taken away from parents by the state have no place to go, and end up sleeping in the States Office Buildings, because there are no homes for them to go to a volunteer family for foster care.    

The list goes on in II Timothy 3:2-5.  Verse 2 says, “unthankful and unholy,” Verse 3 states “Without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent (without self control), despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded (inflated with self, deceit, lifted up with pride,) lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, (this is so prominent in the world today.)  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such turn away. “We experience this prominent problem so often in our local churches.  So, many have let the devil direct their path away form the church gatherings. We pray for a change in the hearts of the believers who are letting down their attendance at church.  We need to pray more and more as we see the signs of disobedience to the Word of God showing that the day of Christ is very near.

Verse 12-14 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived.  But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.”  This is a final admonition!  It is very important to “...press for the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,” as Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:14.  

Jesus is returning so very soon.  We are witnessing so many pertinent signs of the times.  The Holy Spirit is warning to be ready.  “In a moment in the twinkling of an eye (a jerk of the eye) at the last trump, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ shall be raised, incorruptible and this mortal must put on immortality.  O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I Corinthians 15:52-57.