We are to “watch and pray” for the Lord’s return. We will help you do so by keeping our eyes on the “signs of the times” and reporting them to you. Jesus chastised the Pharisees for not knowing the signs of the times in His day. So He wants to us know the signs today, for they instill in us hope for the future and encourage us to evangelize the lost while there is still time.
In part one of this series we explored some of the clearest hints from the Old Testament that the Lord has always intended to rapture the Church before the End Times judgments begin. This time we’ll continue with a two part survey of the New Testament. Because Paul was the first to reveal the mystery of the Rapture, we won’t expect to find a clear explanation in the Gospels, but since we already know about it, we’ll be able to spot a couple of hints here and there. Shall we continue?
Is there any evidence that the financial markets weathering rough storms right now will crash in an economic collapse, bringing about a one-world order?
Dr. David Reagan and I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Mark Hitchcock on the show Christ in Prophecy. Mark is a leading Bible prophecy expert, prolific author who has penned over 20 books on the end times, senior pastor of Faith Bible Church located in Oklahoma, and adjunct faculty member of the Dallas Theological Seminary. He is also a much in demand speaker at Bible prophecy conferences all over the nation.
A U.S. Army report from May 2008 says Pre-Millennial Dispensationalists are the biggest threat to world peace. We take the Bible literally. Read the 60-page report here:
1) There are no passages in either the Old Testament or the New Testament that say the Church will go through the Tribulation Period.
2) The Tribulation Period is called the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble” [The time of unbelieving Israel’s Trouble], but it is never called the time of the Church’s Trouble (Jer. 30:7).
3) Gabriel told Daniel, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people [Daniel’s people are the Jews] and upon thy holy city” [The Holy City is Jerusalem] (Dan. 9:24). There is no mention of the Church.
Q. Please elaborate on the “falling away” mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Who falls away – the true Church or the world? Or is this a reference to the Rapture?
A. The verse in question defines several of the precursors of the “day of the Lord” mentioned in the previous verse:
“And I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him…” (Revelation 6:8)
On August 6, 1945, when the Enola Gay’s bombardier Tom Ferebee sighted Hiroshima’s Aioi Bridge, he knew the moment had arrived. Squeezing the trigger on his Norden bombsight, he became the first man in history to drop a nuclear weapon upon a populated city. Tail gunner Bob Caron, after being temporarily blinded, described what he saw on the ground below:
Yes, they are definitely coming, but when and why? “The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming” was the title of Norman Jewison’s 1966 hit comedy about a Russian submarine going aground on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts. Could this happen again in real life?
Russian Subs off U.S. Coastline
The answer to this question appears to be yes, although there is no humor in it. In early August 2009, for the first time in 15 years, the Pentagon was tracking a pair of Russian subs roaming just outside our territorial waters about 200 miles off the east coast of the United States.
How can a world filled with secular humanists, atheists, and just plain God-haters be pondering the end of the world? They are embracing what is found in the mystical Mayan calendar that has the world ending on December 21, 2012. And has the media taken notice! The History Channel, Fox News, U.S. News & World Report, ABC News, USA Today, and more are talking or writing about it. Books on the topic are flying off the shelves. Hundreds of Web sites discuss the issue. The world of skeptics is captivated! View Full Article
2012: Has the Final Countdown Begun? – September 9
(NOTE: HEAR MARK HITCHCOCK ON OUR AUGUST 15 RADIO PROGRAM AT “RADIO ARCHIVES.”)
The headline was seen all over the world. The first news item that flashed across the internet on July 6, 2008 was an article titled “Thousands Expect Apocalypse in 2012.” The article was excerpted from an ABC News investigation on the global rise in “doomsday cults.” The opening sentence of the article said it all: “Survival groups around the world are gearing up and counting down to a mysterious date that has been anticipated for thousands of years: December 21, 2012.”
We are to “watch and pray” for the Lord’s return. We will help you do so by keeping our eyes on the “signs of the times” and reporting them to you. Jesus chastised the Pharisees for not knowing the signs of the times in His day. So He wants to us know the signs today, for they instill in us hope for the future and encourage us to evangelize the lost while there is still time.
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