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Signs Of The Last Days
Carl Worline / Rapture Ready
Are we really on the very cusp of an imminent rapture that will end the Age of Grace and herald a period of tribulation that will wipe out most of humanity, or have we twisted and tortured the signs before us to tell us what we want them to say? Perhaps we need to take a step back and re-evaluate these signs. At such times as these I find that a mug of strong coffee and a huge cinnamon roll are most helpful to clean the mind of worldly distractions.
Just like the proverbial tree hidden in a forest, there are so many warning signs of the end of the age around us that it is increasingly difficult to actually see the road, itself. Are we really at the end of the Age of Grace? What does the Bible say?
The truth of the matter is that the Bible doesn’t actually define in so many words when the “end times” or “last days” actually begin. However, every reference in both the old and new testaments that refer to the last days is predicated on the assumption that Israel goes from being a people scattered across the entire planet to a mighty nation (See Ezekiel 37:21-22). In fact, God said that He would make Israel a nation in a single day, and He fulfilled this promise on May 14, 1948 at 4 PM in the afternoon when David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, stood up in Independence Hall in Tel Aviv and formally announced the formation of the Nation of Israel. We also know from Matthew 24 that the events of these last days, from the re-birth of Israel as a nation until the Battle of Armageddon and the start of the Millennial Reign of Christ, will occur within a single generation.
Although we have been told by our Lord that no man knows the day or the hour, we have also been told repeatedly that we can not only know the season, but we are commanded to know the season and to diligently watch for His return because our Lord is returning as unexpectedly as a thief in the night (I really hate using that analogy to describe our Lord and Savior). Jesus bitterly scolded the Pharisees for being able to predict the weather based on the clouds in the evening sky while being totally incompetent with prophecy that predicted the season they were in. Our Lord made it quite clear that we are expected to know and interpret prophecy and to be watching for His return.
I believe that we are not only in the season of the Lord’s return, but that we are at the very end of that season.
The Bible tells us that in the last days there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars. We are certainly witnessing a myriad of both rare and spectacular signs in the heaven. The real beauty of these signs is that they are available to mankind all over the world regardless of the language each person may speak. Even more unique is how these signs speaks volumes to the person who looks up in belief, while they are little more than pretty lights in the sky to the spiritually ignorant and those unbelievers who lay claim to the mental superiority of the scientific mind while closing those same minds to the facts which surround them that do not support their feeble hypothesis.
To those who refuse to believe, no amount of proof is sufficient. To those who believe, no proof is necessary.
The signs of nature that tell us we are in the last days are even more plentiful than the signs in the heavens. Floods and droughts of Biblical proportion have certainly increased in both frequency and intensity. From watching the evening news and the local newspaper it would seem that anyone not floating away in one of these extremes must certainly be perishing in the other extreme. Natural disaster damages for 2011 were five times higher than the average for the past ten years and were double 2010’s total of $130 billion. Earthquake activity has increased dramatically in both frequency and intensity while dormant volcanoes all over our planet are coming back to life. The “vapors and columns of smoke” which the Bible predicts will occur in the end times are closing large chunks of airspace to commercial aircraft while raining ashes on surrounding towns and villages. The Japanese earthquake in 2011 was the costliest natural disaster in all of recorded history. Japan hit the apocalyptic trifecta with an 8.9 magnitude earthquake that moved the entire planet several inches off its rotational axis, a tsunami where a 30 foot high wall of water traveled as much as 3 miles inland, and a triple nuclear meltdown with still untold and horribly foreboding consequences.
Major wildfires are becoming far more common in the United States, Australia, and the former Soviet Union as well as many other nations in our world. Hurricanes have not only increased in frequency and intensity but are also occurring in places never seen before in our world. The number of record low temperatures set in the United States last year is only rivaled by the number of record high temperatures.
My mocking friends are constantly accusing me of falling over the apocalyptic edge every time a natural disaster occurs. They are also wrong. I realize that nature has been full of tragedies ever since the beginning and that there will be tragedies right up until the end. It is not the fact that these tragedies occur that is so unique, it is the frequency and intensity at which they are occurring now that is prophetically significant. We have become so numb from witnessing natural disasters that we scarcely noticed the greatest loss of life from nature when, starting in June 2011, 13 million people were affected in the worst drought in decades to strike eastern Africa. The death toll from this horrible famine ran into the tens of thousands and included 30,000 children.
In addition to the routine natural disasters that are taking place, strange sounds are being heard in many places all around the world. These sounds first gained attention on August 11, 2011, in Kiev, Ukraine. They are often described as a humming, rumbling, scraping, or pulsating that almost sounds like a low-pitched trumpet at times, and are also described as eerie and haunting. Other descriptions range from bizarre, to creepy, to industrial, to mechanical. From listening to the various recordings, I am reminded of a huge piece of metal scraping along as it is being moved, like an enormous steel door with rusty hinges opening or closing. In every reported case it is impossible to tell what direction the sound is coming from. They are omni-directional with no single traced source of origin, while leaving the impression of coming from directly overhead or from directly under the earth. Lately these sounds have changed to very loud explosions and crashes that occur in a region for a few days and then fall silent.
For we know that the whole creation moans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (Romans 8:22 NASB)
A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD (Jeremiah 25:31 KJV)
From God’s perspective Israel is the center of the world. To be even more precise, Jerusalem is the place which God considers as the center around which mankind revolves (Ezekiel 5:5). If we want to know how close the world is to blowing up we need only look at how short the fuse has become that is burning in the Middle East. The dogs of war are definitely growling and are ready to pounce. All 22 Islamic dominated nations comprising 99.4 percent of the land area in this region are armed to the teeth and ready to go to war at a moments notice. Tiny little Israel, with only 0.6 percent of the land in the Middle East and only 2 percent of its population, along with God, are determined to defend the right of the Jewish people to exist.
All of the traditional signs of the last days have not only been in place for many months now, but they also continue to intensify with each passing day. One would expect the rapture of the Church at any moment based upon these signs alone and yet there is something more – much more – that has the world on edge. It is a pervasive feeling that something really big is about to happen. This feeling is exceptionally difficult to define. Christians hopefully look for the return of the Messiah. Many in the New Age Movement look for the Age of Pisces to end on the winter solstice on December 21, 2012, and for the Age of Aquarius to begin as the earth’s equatorial plane aligns exactly with the center of our galaxy. Buddhists look for the return of Maitreya sometime in the very near future. Mayans predict and end of an epoch on December 21, 2012, and a new epoch to begin. The Aztec look for the return of the flying serpent, Quetzalcoatl, sometime around the end of 2012. Aztecs also predict the possible end of time, as we know it, and possibly the end of the world. The I-Ching independently predicts the end to occur on the winter solstice this year. Meanwhile, the Zohar, which is a collection of books in the mystical Jewish Kabbalah from 13th century Spain, talks about the appearance of the Messiah at about this same general time. According to these texts, all of the kings of the world will come together in Rome, which will then be destroyed by God. This closely parallels the prophecy of Saint Malachi, the Bishop of Armagh, who was summoned to Rome in 1139 AD by Pope Innocent II and while there had a vision in which God revealed the 112 future popes, including the last pope, who will come to power and witness the destruction of Rome. Muslims look for the return of the Mahdi, or Twelfth Imam at about this time, while teenagers around the world look for the return of the twelfth season of American Idol.
continue at RaptureReady.com:
I have been researching these coming future events for the past 3 years and the only coming events I believe will have a horrible effect on the people of this planet is Financial Collapse, Starvation,Depression, Diseases, World War 3,Torture and Death in OBAMA FEMA CAMPS and Concentration Camps around the World like in world war 2 but just worst.
“or have we twisted and tortured the signs”.
Not so much twisted but stole. These so called signs from Revelation are based on well known Greek Mythology. Revelation was found in a cave famous for its use by Shaman, on the Greek Island of Patmos. It is written in fluent local Greek. If anything it is about you, not for you. It accurately describes your religion as the harlot riding the many headed political beast. Christianity spends more money in one year on lobbying governments, than it dose giving to charities. And then it’s thier own charities, ie building boarding schools to force native kids into being christianised, if not brutally murdered.
Hey Pix…….REPENT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank God Catholics are the actual true church of Jesus and
don’t run after all these stupid fallacies like ‘The Rapture’
and support for Israel. Of a truth, what Catholic is there
that does not hate and detest the Jewish People? Murders
and Liars, a synagogue of Satan. A filthy rotten branch
ripped from the tree and cast into the Lake of Fire, this
is the 12 tribes of Israel. A rotten spoiled worthless
generation to be wholly destroyed except for the 144,000.
Oh boy! More of the “rapture” crap.
Jewdeo ANTI-CHRISTians wouldn’t understand scripture if it bit them in their asses.
To all NON-JEWdeo ANTI-CHRISTians, here’s it EXACTLY what Yahshua said concerning the end times.
There are Wheat (True Israelites of the Dispersion). These became known as “Europeans” later. Names change but the marks remain the same.
Then there are the TARE – these are the jews. The wicked one planted these through the womb of Eve, when the devil mated with her. From this union, she bore Cain and all the descendents of Cain have this “mark”.
Now, the tares are to be gathered up FIRST and ONLY THEN is the Wheat gathered into the barn…NOT BEFORE…NOT FIRST.
Quit frankly I hope the JEWdeo ANTI-CHRISTians are gathered (raptured) up first. It’ll serve those ignorant boobs right for worshiping and supporting evil!
Thank God Catholics are the actual true church of Jesus and
don’t run after all these stupid fallacies like ‘The Rapture’
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Nope…they just worship idols, call a mere man their FATHER and observe pagan holy days….true church huh?
Yeah right!
It’s very important not to entangle New Testament(NT) prophecies with the Old Testament(OT)era prophecies. It’s very important not to interpret God’s perspective as though one is an authority on God’s perspective. God’s perspective is from beginning to end and we barely, if ever, comprehend it! We have to take things in total context — especially in regards to The End of Days — study hard and pray long before we speak.
The OT example of Jerusalem being at the center of the world cannot be used to show God’s particular fondness for or as a special kindness to the Jews. Except perhaps to show that he continually irks and confounds them so they might finally wise up and stop the evil they’ve done to the nations through usury, genocide and political manipulation.
Jeremiah 6:6: “For thus says the Lord of hosts,”Cut down her trees and cast up a siege against Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished, in whose midst there is only oppression. As a well which keeps it’s waters fresh, so she keeps fresh her wickedness. Violence and destruction are heard in her. Sickness and wounds are ever before Me. Be warned O Jerusalem, lest I be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.”
Jesus Christ (who fulfilled all the OT) likewise said,”O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!” Matt.24:37
[The Jews to this day go round and round with the Torah&Prophets mashing the message all about trying to figure how to make the sun shine on their parade. They've spun themselves into the role of fulfillers of OT prophecies. Hence, our modern hubris derived from old and deeply shadowed psychopathy has now been laid out for all to see -- if we will.]
The establishment of the modern nation of Israel is a total drama of the flesh — no spiritual good faith about it at all. The local Folks are angry because real crimes have been committed and no justice is available. They are being forced into the moneychanging usurer’s corner to become their slaves along with Europe, the US and the rest of the world. Like Christians, their faith is used against them.
The whole of Christian prophecy hinges on The Testimony of Jesus not the existence of the Modern State of Israel. We might see it as one more marker of the times but not for any particular romanticized awe.
In The End,the modern(~1830)escapist Rapture doctrine has effectively put Christians to sleep,keeping them hamstrung from properly engaging the world in a forthright discussion of the truth of the matter.
It’s no wonder what passes for the church today might be rhetorically spit out of God’s mouth when such modern Christian sensibilities would deny that they might have to suffer judgements with the rest of the world. (Rev.3:16)
“For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome of those who do NOT obey the gospel of God?” I Peter 4:17
There is a prophesied point in time when we will be gathered to Him — before the Pan Ultimate Judgement. That timing is His secret. The highly symbolic rhetorical revealing of Revelation shouldn’t be used as an opportunity to cleverly commentate on this ol’ world’s troubles — especially because you may be wrong in your interp and hold up The Faith for derision. Nor should it be used as a pigeon-hole for people who long to make sense of the world as we know it. The Book itself warns against adding or subtracting from it’s words. The truth will always be open and free for those who have a taste for it.
Let’s not confuse people about The Faith in this public forum.
Hope you editors don’t get in trouble for my forthright words.
Debra
The OT example of Jerusalem being at the center of the world cannot be used to show God’s particular fondness for or as a special kindness to the Jews.
___________________________________________________________________
OMG! Are you people really that lazy that you speak with authority and know NOTHING about which you speak.
YOU WILL KINDLY PROVE THAT THE JEWS ARE GODS CHOSEN…THAT THE WORD JEW EVER EXISTED PRIOR TO 1620…THAT JERUSALEM WAS INHABITED BY IDUMEANS AND NOT TRUE ISRAELITES (at least not in great number).
Did you know that the Herods controlled JUDEA? Do you even know what a JUDEAN is? Do you know of the Herodians?
Honestly every time a JEWdeo Xtian opens his or her mouth, they sound like imbeciles to those who have ACTUALLY STUDIED!
Needless to say, YOUR COMMENTARY IS WAY OFF THE MARK; REPLETE WITH ERRORS FROM BEGINNING TO END.
PS: Anon,
Did you know that the Vision of Obediah has NOT been fulfilled yet?
Did you? I mean you state that the OT prophecies should not be confused with the new. HOW SO?
Did a different g-d write them. Whom exactly do you serve anyway.
NO ANON, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. THE SAME GOD GAVE THEM AND THE ONLY THING THAT SEPARATES THE OLD AND NEW IN YOUR MIND, IS THE FACT THAT SOME SCHOLAR DECIDED TO SEPARATE THEM AND GIVE THEM CHAPTERS AND VERSUS AND THE LIKE.
Jesus Christ fulfills all the OT prophecies. He claimed to do so in Matthew 5:17. We don’t need to go to the OT anymore to find the future. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the future described in the Old Testament. He rendered it obsolete. That’s why it’s called the NEW Testament. Get it ?
ObAdiah’s bitter prophetic poem alludes to his own time. The pivotal prophetic point is in v.15: “For the day of the Lord draws near on all the nations, as you have done it will be done to you. Your dealings will turn on your own head.” Obadiah wisely leaves vengeance to the Lord.
The usefulness of Obadiah for us today is to show God’s concern for all the oppressed and that He Himself will lift them up restoring what has been taken from them. This was an allusion to Christ.
The use of the word Jew is to use the common vernacular. It’s always a risk to pin any name on Them.
What was your point ?
Debra
The Old Testament is about Jesus Christ’s first coming — to the Jew first. After they spurned and killed him, his message was then taken to any and everyone else.
The New Testament is all about Jesus Christ’s second coming.
Same God.
Is 40+ years enough time to study? There’s still much yet to learn. But I always hope I may wisely love and not condemn my fellow seeking learners. Otherwise all I know is worth nothing. Ad hominem accomplishes zip when we are trying to get things figured out.
Debra
BS Debra,
Jesus Christ or Yahshua The Anointed fulfilled the prophecies OF HIS COMING PERIOD!
THE LAW is STILL in EFFECT.
The Law being The Law of Moses. Only the ORDINANCES are void, having been a sign of Yahshua to come. ALL THE REST IS STILL IN EFFECT.
Furthermore, the Vision of Obediah (I doubt you’ve even read it as it is OT) states that ALL Edomites will be destroyed. Well, DEBRA! Guess What? They still live! So either there are some prophecies of the OT yet to be fulfilled or
YOU ARE CALLING YHWH A LIAR!
Now…which is it?
THIS IS FROM THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA – AUTHORED BY THE JEWS THEMSELVES.
The Jewish Encyclopedia tells us that “Edom is in Modern Jewry”. This witness from the 1905 edition records the connection between modern day Jews and the race of Edom: “Some anthropologists are inclined to associate the racial origins of the Jews, not with the Semites, whose language they adopted, but with the Armenians and Hittites of Mesopotamia, whose broad skulls and curved noses they appear to have inherited (Vol. X, p. 284).
So THERE Debra. You ADMITTEDLY have little knowledge having left off the beginning of the story WHICH GREATLY AFFECTS THE OUTCOME.
Oh these JEWdeos, THEY PROUDLY PROCLAIM AND PARADE THEIR UTTER STUPIDITY FOR ALL TO SEE AND YET, they still think they are GOD’s gift LOL!.
Well, Debra, you are probably not an Israelite anyway so do your own thing and worship your strange g-d and let me know how it all works out for ya.
Oh wait, I already know how it will work out.
OH and if you can’t see what the point is about calling people a BIBLICAL name that has never appeared in the bible BECAUSE THEY NEVER EXISTED AS YAH’S CHOSEN..then you are EXTREMELY DUMB or you are a lying jew. Either way, you are way off base.
Well, I already knew that JDEWdeo Xtians reject The Law, they worship a strange g-d. They call the Edomite jews whom YAHSHUA HIMSELF called children of the devil, HIS CHOSEN. They insult the true GOD of heaven by stating that those rotten evil jews are HIS children (I can’t wait to see what punishment HE gives to you ignorant morons.)
On a secular level, they are guilty as HELL of HIGH TREASON. They have been an instrumental force in PROMOTING EVIL AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WEST.
I say we kill all Judeo-ANTI-Xtians and let YAH sort it all out.
This evil cannot be allowed to continue.
You seem to be learned in what the Bible hold for us. I get the feeling you may have missed what Jesus taught about how to live ones life in ways that will please the Father, that through Jesus we gain eternal life in His kingdom. Even the “ignorant morons”, judge not lest ye be judged. You may be a biblical scholar but sadly you haven’t learned that which God what to teach us. It matters not how much knowledge is in you nor the good deeds you do to show everyone, it only matters what He sees inside you. How you treat and feel about other people.
There is no need for us to worry over this subject, ours is to spread His word, love and take care of each other, strive to be like Jesus, talk to Him everyday, and be ready for His return.
Simple enough.
The heart of man is evil. It was impossible for a human to enter into heaven with the first covenant so God made a second covenant with man effective when Jesus Christ returned to Heaven. That is what negates part of the old covenant, not the old testament.
I hope you let the knowledge in your brain make it down to your heart, maybe you won’t be so angry. You may yell at me all you want to, but know I won’t be back to here to hear it, or read it.
God reveals to each of us what we need to know when we need to know it. Thank you Jesus.
Oh just so you know, one of major points that made it from the old to the new is “Thou shalt NOT Kill”. Surely you know thoughts can be sins. Be mindful to keep thoughts unspoken and words spoken pleasing unto Him…
HAGD
Debra you are an ignorant fool and you keep proudly showing it – 40 YEARS (if you aren’t lying…more like skimming for 40 years)
OR YOU WOULD KNOW THAT THE WORD “JEW” WAS INSERTED INTO THE TEXT IN 1620 AND THAT NO SUCH RACE EVER EXISTED! THAT IS AN HISTORICAL FACT DEBRA, BUT YO9U REALLY AREN’T INTERESTED IN FACTS ARE YOU?
You hear that NO SUCH RACE CALLED JEWS EVER EXISTED.
The oldest Greek manuscripts all use JUDEAN…but then you knew that after 40+ years of SKIMMING no doubt.
To a Judeo Anti-Christian woman, study is reading the bible like any fairytale rhyme or possibly even the Women’s Home Journal…whilst knitting no doubt…we must be ever so proper while we fill our heads with poop. And it can’t be just any old poop. It must be the right poop. It must be jew poop…because my lying pastor (oh isn’t he sooooo handsome) says that the children of Cain, whose father is the devil…are somehow now the very chosen of GOD.
Women have bought into every lie of the devil. Even Eve allowed that smooth talking snake in the grass to screw her once her Adam was away.
Through this union, she bore Cain. Her husband Adam should have divorced her and threw her out! But no…he’s like so many stupid men who think that they MUST have a woman. so he keeps her. By THE LAW OF YAH he was REQUIRED to throw her out!
So…they both got thrown out.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” Romans 8:1-2
“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave or free man, there is neither male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” Galatians 3:27-29