Are We Living in the Last Days?

I hear the following statements often: “We must be living in the last days; the signs are everywhere.” “Jesus must be coming very soon; look at all the signs.” But they need some clarification.

I realize we live in tumultuous times, but the designations “last days’” and “last times” do not apply exclusively to our generation. The New Testament identifies the entire Church Age as “the last times” (1 Peter 1:20; Jude 18-19), “the last days” (Hebrews 1:1-2), and even “the last hour” (1 John 2:18). Christians of every generation have lived in the last days. Of course, we may be living in the final period of the last days. We simply must not dogmatically claim that we are.

But what about the signs? In His Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24 and Luke 21) Jesus identified certain signs as precursors to His coming. Some of those signs are earthquakes, international conflict, famines, religious deception, persecution, and tidal waves. We observe such occurrences today, but they are not exclusive to our generation. Many past generations have seen similar tragedies. Other signs identified by Jesus include unprecedented distress, solar and lunar darkness, and the shaking of stars and planets from their orbits. My point is, when all these phenomena occur collectively, Jesus will come again.

However, the coming He referred to in the Olivet Discourse is His coming as the Son of Man in glory with His angels to establish His kingdom on earth. I distinguish this return of Jesus to the earth from His return in the air to remove the Church from the earth (the Rapture; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

The Bible doesn’t offer any signs as precursors to the Rapture. It could happen any moment— now or in the future.

So let’s read Matthew 24 and Luke 21 again, and weigh carefully those statements about living in the last days with all the signs. And let’s live every day as though this might be the day Jesus arrives in the air to take us Home.

Are We Living in the Last Days?

I hear the following statements often: “We must be living in the last days; the signs are everywhere.” “Jesus must be coming very soon; look at all the signs.” But they need some clarification.

I realize we live in tumultuous times, but the designations “last days’” and “last times” do not apply exclusively to our generation. The New Testament identifies the entire Church Age as “the last times” (1 Peter 1:20; Jude 18-19), “the last days” (Hebrews 1:1-2), and even “the last hour” (1 John 2:18). Christians of every generation have lived in the last days. Of course, we may be living in the final period of the last days. We simply must not dogmatically claim that we are.

But what about the signs? In His Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24 and Luke 21) Jesus identified certain signs as precursors to His coming. Some of those signs are earthquakes, international conflict, famines, religious deception, persecution, and tidal waves. We observe such occurrences today, but they are not exclusive to our generation. Many past generations have seen similar tragedies. Other signs identified by Jesus include unprecedented distress, solar and lunar darkness, and the shaking of stars and planets from their orbits. My point is, when all these phenomena occur collectively, Jesus will come again.

However, the coming He referred to in the Olivet Discourse is His coming as the Son of Man in glory with His angels to establish His kingdom on earth. I distinguish this return of Jesus to the earth from His return in the air to remove the Church from the earth (the Rapture; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

The Bible doesn’t offer any signs as precursors to the Rapture. It could happen any moment— now or in the future.

So let’s read Matthew 24 and Luke 21 again, and weigh carefully those statements about living in the last days with all the signs. And let’s live every day as though this might be the day Jesus arrives in the air to take us Home.

A Memorable St. Patrick's Day

St, Patrick’s Day, 1973, Gloria, our three children, and I moved into a house in Green Mountain, Lakewood, Colorado. The master bedroom, a bathroom, and large family room with a fireplace were in the basement. Memorial Day morning, that same year, I stepped out of bed into cold, clear water. The basement was flooding. Soon, water was pouring through the floor and even through the fireplace.

We struggled until August to stop the flooding, but nothing worked. The concrete basement floor was only ½-inch thick, and it was porous. The contractor we hired to lay drainage tile abandoned the project. The gas lines were sagging, and the city was ready to condemn the property. Apparently, an underground stream had found its way into our house, the lowest house on the street. We lost the house, and learned that insurance does not cover damage caused by water that comes from below ground.

We learned a few other things too.

We learned that some Christians add insult to injury. Some of my coworkers at the Christian publishing house where I worked as an editor joked about my “swimming pool.”

We learned that some Christians demonstrate compassion by helping. One coworker sloshed through the water with me and helped me move furniture from the basement. Another, a member of a small church I was serving as interim pastor, offered a loan to get us back on our feet. (I chose not to accept it, but I appreciated his thoughtfulness.) Also, the church, Ralston Hills Baptist Church of Arvada, Colorado, let us move into the back of the church and live rent-free as long as we needed to.

We learned that material things may be swept away—literally—in an instant, but the Lord’s faithfulness withstands trials. In time, we recovered financially and were able to assume a loan on a small house in Denver.

We learned that who we have is far more important than what we have. The flood removed only material possessions, not our children.

Some of these lessons were hard to grasp, but they are enduring.

St, Patrick’s Day, 1973, was a gloomy day, but this St. Patrick’s Day is a good day to celebrate God’s faithfulness.

The chorus to G.A. Young’s “God Leads Us Along” affirms:

“Some thro’ the waters, some thro’ the flood, Some thro’ the fire, but all thro’ the blood; Some thro’ great sorrow, but God gives a song, in the night season and all the day long.”

Tragedy Strikes Japan

A devastating earthquake, multiple aftershocks, and a merciless tsunami struck Japan yesterday. Within minutes buildings collapsed, roads buckled, and trucks, houses, and cars were swept away. Loss of life was swift and extensive. As we watched the horror unfold, our minds could not fully grasp the deadly force of nature and our hearts filled with sympathy for the Japanese people. I’m sure many of us will respond to the tragedy by praying and contributing to relief efforts.

The images of destruction and suffering that came from Japan gave me a clearer mental picture of a far more devastating earthquake that will occur just before Jesus returns to earth. Revelation 16:18 describes it as the mightiest earthquake in human history. Cities throughout the world will be reduced to rubble (v. 19), and perhaps in the wake of accompanying tsunamis islands and mountains will disappear (v. 20).

We live in an imperfect world. Natural disasters have occurred for centuries, and they will continue to occur as long as nature groans under the curse, but the earthquake predicted in Revelation 16 will carry the imprint of divine judgment in response to unprecedented, unchecked immorality and blasphemy.

Fortunately, God offers forgiveness and assurance of heaven to all who believe on His Son as their Savior (John 3:16; Eph. 1:7). What happened in Japan proves how tenuous and uncertain life is. Faith in Christ is the best preparation for the unexpected.

Does God Know Everything?

A fairly new teaching is circulating. It’s called the openness of God, and it alleges that God’s knowledge is limited. He doesn’t know everything, according to the proponents of the openness theory.

I’m not buying it. First John 3:20 insists that God “knows all things.” So what part of “all things” don’t the openness proponents understand?

God’s all-knowing characteristic—His omniscience—includes His knowledge of our needs (Matt. 6:8, 32), our thoughts (Psalm 94:11; 139:2), our days (Ps. 37:18), the secrets of our hearts (Ps. 44:21), our mortality and frailty (Ps.103:14), and the number of hairs on our head (Matt.10:30—in my case the accounting system has become very simple). He even knows the path we should travel through life (Prov. 3:5, 6; Isa. 30:21).

“Doesn’t God know what I am going through?” you might ask someone who subscribes to the openness of God theory. He might respond, “Maybe He doesn’t.” Try to squeeze some comfort and encouragement from that response! But for genuine comfort and encouragement, read what the apostle John wrote: “God knows all things.”