By: Dr. John Ankerberg; ©1994 |
There are some clues given in Scripture that can help us recognize that the rapture is near. What are those signs, and do we seem them coming about in our day? |
Signs of the End Times
Today we want to talk about the characteristics of the religion of the last days as it’s outlined in the Bible: The characteristics of the religion and the people of the last days, the New Age Movement, and how it all relates to the return of Jesus Christ. When you talk about future events from a biblical perspective, there are two things that I’d like you to keep in mind tonight. One is that, usually, when we talk about the coming of Christ and specifically the rapture, that we believe that the rapture will have no signs, no events that will take place prior to it that we have to be watching for. It could come at any moment. The apostle Paul, the Thessalonians, were waiting for God’s Son to come from heaven at any moment. Paul expected to be one of those that would be caught up, snatched, in 1 Thessalonians 4, because he said, “We will all be caught up together with them [the dead in Christ], then we will meet Christ in the clouds.” We don’t think that there are any signs that we need to look forward to in terms of that. But there are some signs that kind of come through the back door, if you want, that tell us that the rapture has got to be close. What do I mean? Well, we know that at the second coming of Christ, when Christ comes to planet earth and his feet hit the Mount of Olives, according to Zechariah 14:4, that at that time he’s going to set up his millennial kingdom. And Christ has given us, in Matthew 24 and other places, exact signs about what’s going to happen. He talks about the beginning of birth pains. What are birth pains? Well, when a lady goes into labor, you start off having the contractions. They’re rather short in terms of the pain sequence, and they’re also spread apart quite a bit. And as you go toward having the child, the fact is, the pain gets more intense and the time of those contractions start shortening up until, when you get right to the end, you’ve got both together pounding at the same time and then the child comes. Jesus, in Matthew 24, said, in terms of Christ coming back to do battle, to rescue Israel, to set up his kingdom, during that period of time, the tribulation time, the seven-year period that Daniel was talking about in Daniel 9, is that the birth pains will start and they will increase in intensity as we go toward his returning physically to planet earth. But, in giving those signs that talk about when he will actually come to planet earth, if we start to see some of the hints of those signs and we believe that the rapture will occur before that tribulation time period, then these signs are casting a shadow back and we know that the rapture must be near. Do you understand? It’s like, if we know that Christmas is coming, we know that Thanksgiving’s got to be even sooner, right? If you see them putting up the Christmas trees in the stores, you know we’ve got to at least be close to Thanksgiving—the way things are going, it’ll be right after school starts in the fall pretty soon. But the same thing with the second coming of Jesus Christ: if you start to see the signs for that, you have to realize that the rapture, which comes before that—where Christ comes and rescues the Church, snatches us out of here—that is even closer. So we’re going to see some of those shadows tonight. But there’s also a second thing that will tell us about the time of the rapture, and that is the fact that the Lord gave us signs about the Church itself and its development from the time that he founded it all the way up until the great apostasy. In other words, there’s a progression of evil inside the Church. And he says, when you start to see this, you can recognize where it’s going just from your study of Scripture. And that’s what we’re going to look at tonight: What are the characteristics of the people and the false religion of the last days?” I want to say that it’s going to have, in the final analysis, it’ll still probably have the name “Christian” over it, but it won’t be a Christianity that you and I recognize. This is a very scary thing, that we call ourselves Christians. But as you go back in Church history and you look at from where it came from and you look at how strong it has been in certain years, and you look at it in your own lifetime, you recognize that there is a progression where a part of the Christian church—or those that call themselves Christians—are now starting to deny the very things we call the fundamentals of the faith. And yet they still call themselves Christians. I believe this is what the Lord is talking about, that there is a growing apostasy, there is an increase of evil and false doctrine inside the Christian church itself that he has told us what the bottom line is, where it’s going to culminate, and if we can start to see that, that’s going to tell us where we are on the prophetic calendar. I don’t know if you’ve ever approached it that way. But I’d like to start and I’d like to give you the characteristics, and it’ll go tonight and tomorrow night [Part 2]. What I’m going to do is, I’m going to take you through this progression, and tomorrow night we will come to what the Bible says is the end: What is the end? And what’s amazing is that I think we can start to see glimpses of that being acceptable in our culture today. It just didn’t dawn on me until this last year actually what I’m talking about tonight, that goodness sakes alive, some of this stuff that I’m going to tell you, that when I was in seminary I thought, you know, if anybody had told me this stuff, I thought he’d been a Martian that stepped off a rocket from Mars. It couldn’t happen. And I’ve gone back to those verses that I looked at in seminary, and I’ve looked at them and I’ve realized in my own ministry on television that I’m dealing with these topics all the time. So let’s start to look at them and let’s see what you think, okay? Go to 1 Timothy 4:1-2, because this is the first characteristic, if you want, of the religion and the people of the last days. If you want, you can start to put numbers down here and I’ll keep those numbers straight for you, hopefully. Characteristic number one—the Bible says the people will depart from the faith. Let’s look at the verse a little more carefully. Now, “The Spirit.” Underline Spirit and, if you want, put a number one there. This Spirit. Which Spirit? The Holy Spirit. Number two—“speaketh expressly” —wants to say to you something specifically. I mean, Christians reading their Bible, seeing these words, I mean, we ought to come to attention. The Holy Spirit specifically says something. He’s got my ears. “Now, the Spirit speaketh expressly” —and here’s that phrase—“that in the latter times.” That’s number three, if you want, “that in the latter times.” What times? The latter times. Now, we’ve got to define terms here. Ever since Jesus came, the apostles have referred to that time to the present as the latter times, okay? Some people are starting to talk about, “Are we in the latter part of the latter times?” But I want you to see that they consider this part of the latter times, but they also talk about in these latter times that there’s going to be a progression of evil. Now, what is the first characteristic that the Spirit wants us to look at? “The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart.” They will depart; they will leave. That’s number four. If you want, they will abandon. They will, with their eyes wide open, say, “I’m changing my mind. I’m leaving.” And what will they leave? What will they depart from? Now, in the Greek you have the definite article “ the faith.” It’s not just faith, it’s the faith. Here is a body of specific truth that makes Christianity to be real Christianity. Every once in a while the apostle Paul puts in the articles so that we know that he’s talking about Christianity and the content, the fundamental beliefs of Christianity, without which Christianity would not be Christianity. And what the Spirit is saying is that in the latter times, people will depart from that body of content. What content? What are some of the fundamental things? I just put down a few of them:- The virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
- The doctrine of the Trinity—that the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God—all three Persons are the one God. Remember Matthew 28:15: “Go ye into all the world, baptize them in the name [doesn’t say names with an “s” on it] the name [singular] of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” That’s where we get the Trinity, there and other places. The one God in three Persons. “Go and baptize in the name [singular], “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
- The triune God—the doctrine of the Trinity. People don’t want to believe that today, do they?
- The inspiration of the Bible.
- The deity of Christ.
- The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It’s in Newsweek this month, saying 50 percent of the Church they polled do not believe in it.
- The promise of the resurrection of all believers. The glorious future that we will have with Christ.
- The substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins is another.
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