(Taken from the New International Version of the Holy Bible)

Matthew 24:3-44:

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hates by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

So when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation spoken of through the prophet Daniel – let the reader understand- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of the house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now – and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect – if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time.

"So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

"Immediately after the distress of those days

"’the sun will be darkened,

And the moon will not give its light;

The stars will fall from the sky,

And the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

"At that time the sign of the Son of man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angles with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as it twigs get tender and its leaves some out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth; this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this; if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

Hebrews 9:26b-28: "But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of him. Just as man is destined to die once, an after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."

2 Timothy 3:1-5: "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them."

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12: "Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to himself, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.    Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness."

1 Thessalonians 4:16-5:11: "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

Get a Bible and read the book of Revelation for yourself. It’s the last book in the Bible.

1. Premillenial: Christ will rapture the church – then a period of tribulation – then Christ will return with believers to reign for a thousand years. Some Premillenialists believe that the rapture will occur at the midpoint or end of the tribulations period.

2. Postmillennial: sees the world becoming more and more Christian with the Gospel message being embraced by virtually everyone. After a thousand years of peace on earth (millennium), Christ will return, Satan will be defeated, and eternity will begin.

3. Amillennial: interprets the thousand year period symbolically. Good and evil will continue to struggle throughout history. The world will come to an end with the second coming of Christ. The resurrection and final judgment will follow.

(3 views taken from Stubblefield – SBTS MDIV, PHD. – S/S quarterly 12/12)

Prophecies from the Old Testament

Ezekiel 37:12b-14: “I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done, declares the Lord.”

Ezekiel 37:21-23: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.”

B) Concerning Russia, Iran (Persia) and other Muslim nations attacking Israel. Russia has been helping Iran develop their nuclear weapons and they are expected to be ready in late 2006*. Russia has been hungry for a warm-water port in the Mediterranean, the mineral-rich land nearby, and of course, the oil. They will lead a coalition of Jew-hating terrorists (Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda, etc) in a last-ditch attempt to wipe Israel from the face of the earth. By then, America will probably be led by an administration that was elected on a platform to extract & desist from the Middle East conflict and Israel will be alone to face this great enemy. But God, Himself is orchestrating the world events to bring an object lesson to rescue his chosen nation (Israel) and show everyone He is who He says, fulfilling prophecy and ushering in this last period of history before the final days of apocalyptic events foretold in the book of Revelation:

*National Review Online (June 27, 2005) Joel Rosenberg ""by January 2006 - if not before - Iran will finally have the technology, the know-how, and the trained nuclear scientists needed to produce highly enriched uranium."

*"My sources in Israel support this information. They tell me (April 2005) that Iran is in stage 5 and can have a bomb ready in 12-18 months. That would make Iran's nuclear weapons ready by April 2006 unless international diplomacy prevails." Jerusalem Countdown by John Hagee, p. 8.

Ezekiel 38:1-9:  “The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meschech and Tubal; prophesy against him and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech (Rosh) and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army – your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. Persia, Cush (upper Nile region) and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its troops and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops – the many nations with you.

          Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.”

Ezekiel 38:16b-19: “In days to come, O Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I show myself holy though you before their eyes.

          ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Are you not the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel? At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them. This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign Lord. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel…”

Get a Bible and read the rest for yourself, how horrible calamity will come upon them and how God will defeat Israel’s enemies’ right at Israel’s doorstep. With Russia, the Islamic jihadists and their allies defeated, this will create a vacuum in world leadership when a European Union leader will step up and take over as the Antichrist. Read the Book of Revelation for more details about the days following and the final battle of Armageddon.

Daniel 12:1 & following: “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people – everyone whose name is found written in the book – will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. But you Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.

          Then I, Daniel, looked, and there before me stood two others, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank. One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, ‘How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?’

          The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard hi swear by him who lives forever, saying, ‘It will be for a time, times and half a time. When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.’

          I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, ‘My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?’

          He replied, ‘Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.

          ‘From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.

          ‘As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.’”

So How Should We Respond?

Jesus said, “Watch and Pray,” “Be ready.”

In Matthew 25 Jesus followed up his warnings of the end times with 3 parables: the parable of the 10 virgins, the parable of the talents and the sheep and the goats. If you read them you’ll see the moral of the stories: “Be ready for His return,” “Be faithful and invest yourself in His kingdom because of a coming accountability,” and “Jesus’ followers (sheep) will be separated from the unbelievers (goats) whose end is destruction.”

If you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you can become a believer and receive His promise of eternal life, and get forgiveness of your sins.

Pray this prayer (and mean it): “Father, I know I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins. Please forgive me for all my sins, I turn to you in faith, believing that you will accept me based on Jesus’ shed blood and His sacrifice for me. Please, Jesus, take my life, come into my heart now.” Amen.

If you prayed this prayer, know that the angels in heaven are celebrating over one lost sinner who comes home. You are now part of God’s family and the Holy Spirit lives inside you as a promise, (like a down payment of things to come), and as a comforter and counselor.

Start reading the Bible, a good place to start is the book of John and learn more about Jesus and what God has provided for you. Tell Someone (Confess your decision). Pray each day and ACT upon what God wants you to do. Get into a Bible believing church where you can grow strong in faith and knowledge.

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E-mail me if you have questions or want help getting into a church or need prayer.

roy@2wheelcommunications.com