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Are We
In the
LAST DAYS?
by Herbert W. Armstrong
circa 1985
How can you know whether
we are near "the end of the world"?
Can we prove it?
ARE we now in the biblically
prophesied "time of the end"?
President Reagan, of the United States, spoke of world conditions indicating we may be nearing
"Armageddon."
The atomic scientists some time
ago set the doomsday clock one more minute forward
from four to only three minutes till "midnight." An editorial in the U.S. News & World Report
referred to this seemingly imminent time, saying it would seem that the
world's only hope now lies in the sudden appearance of "a strong hand
from some place."
Time was, when some wild-eyed
freak shouting a "doomsday" warning was ridiculed as "off his
rocker." But today serious world leaders and scientists are saying grave
things about the current drift in world conditions. Some prominent scientists
have said the world's only hope now rests in a single world government, with
only one military force, yet in the same breath they admit the utter
impossibility of mankind being able to form such a one-world super
government.
Strikingly, biblical prophecy
says just such a super one world government is to appear. But do these
prophecies imply that our present living generation is the one to live into
that time?
Even the Original first century
apostles expected this end of the world as we know it to occur in their
lifetime. Individuals in every century since have believed the world was at
"the time of the end" -- that "Armageddon" was near.
But how may we know? How may we
be SURE? Or can we know?
Jesus said in Luke 21:28:
"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up
your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."
These things he was talking about include many prophesied events now
occurring for the first time in history.
One cannot look at one or two
superficial signs or events and jump to any sure conclusion. We must
comprehend God's overall PURPOSE and how he is working out that purpose. Many
prophecies must be considered. We must not guess or surmise, or jump hastily
to conclusions.
The Modern World
The modern world really
began only about one hundred and fifty years ago. If we have the chronology
of human existence about correct, the first human, Adam, was created nearly
6,000 years ago. The Bible shows that God's Master Plan for working out his
purpose here below is a 7,000-year plan with some 6,000 years allotted to
this world of Satan, followed by 1,000 years of Christ's reign over all
nations of the earth. Somewhere around 1,600 years from Adam's creation came the earthwide Flood. How
civilization developed prior to the Flood we do not fully know. But we may
assume the material civilization progressed no farther than in a similar span
after the Flood. So far as we know, therefore, the development of human
civilization continued on a comparatively even keel until about 150 years
ago.
There was little advancement in
human knowledge and material progress until after the invention of the
printing press about 1450. Printing made possible the spread and diffusion of
knowledge. This diffusion expanded but slightly until the middle of the 19th
century. Most modern inventions and facilities have appeared since A.D. 1850.
The increase in knowledge and invention of mechanical facilities has
multiplied with constantly increasing momentum since 1850. It is almost as if
mankind first appeared on earth about 150 years ago and has been learning and
progressing more and more rapidly since.
End-Time Prophecies
Now consider some end-time
biblical prophecies.
The longest prophecy in the
Bible is Daniel 11. The 10th chapter is the prelude and the 12th the completion.
In Daniel 11:40, the prophecy comes to the "time of the end" and
continues in chapter 12. The prophet Daniel did not understand what he was
being told to write. The angel said the words of the prophecy were closed up
and sealed until the time of the end when knowledge would be increased, and
people would be traveling "to and fro."
That time has come.
Knowledge has been increased at
a breathtaking rate in the last 150 years. Indeed, it was claimed that the
world's fund of knowledge had doubled during the 1960's -- although this
increase was largely in the areas of medicine, science and technology. Also,
people are traveling "to and fro" on the earth. The mode of travel
from the beginning of civilization until 150 years ago was indeed very slow.
Few people traveled more than 50 or 100 miles away from their homes. Travel
for millennia was by foot, horseback, camel back, oxcart, rowboat or
sailboat.
Construction on the steamboat was
not begun by Robert Fulton until 1806. Then came
the railroad. Travel by automobile has all come within my personal lifetime.
I well remember that when I was eleven years old automobiles were called
horseless carriages. "Horseless carriages" were quite a sight. I
remember, at the time, when I was eleven, my father calling out, "Oh,
come to the front window quick, there goes a horseless carriage." We all
rushed to the front window to see the sight. Sure enough it was a
"horseless carriage." It was a carriage being pulled by a mule!
When I was twenty-three years
old, as assistant secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of South Bend,
Indiana, I was given the assignment of persuading the farmers in a township
south of the city to sign up a petition agreement allowing a new cross
country highway, called the "Dixie Highway," from the Gulf to
Canada to go through their township. It was not a paved highway. It was
gravel and dirt. Paved highways had not yet come. Today people are traveling
to and fro by automobiles railroad and airplanes. Modern airports are jammed
with people "going to and fro."
World-Ruling Kingdoms
In the second chapter of Daniel
is a prophecy reaching till the Second Coming of Christ. King Nebuchadnezzar
had framed and ruled the first empire of nations in world history. He saw in
a dream a most astonishing statue of a man incredibly high. God revealed the
meaning to Daniel. The image's head was of fine gold, breast and arms of
silver, belly and thighs of brass. Legs of iron, and feet and toes of iron
and clay mixed. The head represented Nebuchadnezzar's Chaldean
Empire. The silver represented the succeeding world kingdom, which proved to
be the Persian Empire. The brass represented a third world kingdom, which
proved to be the Greco Macedonian or Grecian Empire; the forth, represented
by the legs of iron, proved to be the Roman Empire with capitals in
Constantinople and Rome. The feet and toes represented succeeding smaller
empires to follow, leading to the toes representing ten kingdoms in Eastern
and Western Europe. The prophecy dates the time in which we are living now.
We await the appearance of those ten-toe nations. In the days of those toes,
now just ahead of us, a stone supernaturally is to come from heaven, smite
the ten-toe nations, replace them, and rule the whole earth forever after
(Dan. 2:34, 44). This stone represents Christ's Second Coming to set up the kingdom
of God and destroy all this world's governments -- setting up
the government of God over all nations. That will be the end of this world --
the end of this man-made civilization as we know it.
Full understanding must include
Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 and 17. These show the Roman Empire,
falling in A.D. 476, replaced by three kingdoms that disappeared, the
Vandals, the Ostrogoths, and the Heruli. They were the first three horns of Daniel 7 that
were "plucked up by the roots." (verse 8).
In other words, these three peoples disappeared from history and we have no
historic record of what became of them. There were seven more of the ten
horns on this beast yet to follow. The first of that seven was the
restoration of the Empire in the West. This happened when, at the behest of
the Pope at Rome, Justinian, Emperor at Constantinople, reestablished Imperial authority throughout Italy in A.D. 554. Historians record this as the restoration
of the Roman Empire. There followed a series of valleys and peaks in Europe. It
reached its next peak in A.D. 800 under Charlemagne, the Frankish head. It
reached another mountain peak about the 10th century with Otto the Great of
Germany at the helm. At this time it was known as the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy
Roman Empire reached another
peak with the Habsburg dynasty in Austria. This was followed by another peak under Napoleon, who
fled into exile in 1814.
In 1929 Mussolini arranged a
Concordat with the Papacy. Then, about 1935 Mussolini, having united Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Italian
Somaliland to Italy, proclaimed it to be the reestablishment of the Roman Empire.
I announced this ninth restoration myself on radio at the time.
We are now looking for the tenth
and last resurrection of the Roman
Empire -- the seventh head of
this Beast of the 17th chapter of Revelation (Rev. 17:12), which is also
pictured by the ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image of Daniel 2:40-44. Since
these toes were on the two feet that represented Eastern and Western Europe, there is strong likelihood that this final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire will include Iron Curtain nations of Eastern Europe as well as nations in Western
Europe. (Write for our two
booklets "The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last" or "Who or
What Is the Prophetic Beast?") They will form a third gigantic world
power probably as great or even greater than the
U.S.S.R. or United
States of America.
These ten toes of Daniel 2:40-44
will be destroyed by Christ at his Second Coming and will be replaced by the
world-ruling government of the Kingdom
of God, with Christ at its head and all the resurrected saints
also ruling under Christ.
Jesus' Principal Prophecy
Now consider the principal
prophecy of Jesus Christ himself. It is found in Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark
13.
But we quote from Matthew's
account. Jesus with his disciples had just come out from the Temple (verse 1). He and his disciples were looking at the
buildings of the temple.
"See ye
not all these things? verily I say unto you, There
shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown
down." That event happened in A.D. 70 in the lifetime of those
disciples.
Then, a little later, as Jesus
sat on the Mount of Olives with some of his disciples, they asked him, "When
shall these things be?" They referred to the destruction of the temple,
which, I repeat, actually did occur in their lifetime in A.D. 70. But then
the disciples added another question. "... And what shall be the sign of
thy coming, and of the end of the world?" The disciples expected the end
of the world in their own lifetime, so they connected this question with the
destruction of the temple. Jesus knew, of course, the end of the world would
not occur for more than another 1,950 years. So he answered only their first
question first, for the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70.
Jesus then said, "Take heed
that no man deceive you." He was speaking to
his own disciples about being deceived in their lifetimes.
He continued, "For many shall come in my name, saying I [Jesus] am
Christ; and shall deceive many." How could they be deceived by the
teaching that Jesus was the Christ?
Many did come in his name
claiming to represent him, saying that Jesus was the Christ and they deceived
the many even in that very first century. Let me explain a very important
fact here. Soon after Christ's ascension to heaven and the founding of the
church in A.D. 31, a violent controversy arose, according to church history,
as to whether the gospel to be proclaimed was the gospel OF Christ, or a
gospel ABOUT Christ. The latter won out. False prophets did arise in the
first century, saying Jesus was the Christ, but omitting altogether Jesus'
gospel which was the message of the coming world ruling kingdom
of God to rule all nations after Christ's Second
Coming.
Different Gospel Preached
In Galatians 1:6-7, we see they
were already preaching a different gospel than Jesus' gospel of the kingdom
of God. The apostle Paul also spoke of these false prophets
preaching a different gospel in II Corinthians, the 11th chapter. To the
church in the very first century, he wrote: "But I fear, lest by any
means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if
ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel,
which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him" (verses 3-4).
Of those false prophets claiming
to speak in Jesus' name, Paul added: "For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And
no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore
it is no great thing if his [Satan's] ministers also be transformed as the
ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works"
(verses 13-15).
These were actually the
ministers of Satan the devil, but came in Jesus' name, saying that Jesus was
the Christ. However, they misrepresented Jesus, so that in fact they were
preaching about "another Jesus" -- a different Jesus (verse 4).
Just What was Jesus' Gospel?
Jesus came as a messenger from
God bearing a message about the coming kingdom
of God to take over and rule all nations.
That was Jesus' gospel. Notice
the gospel which Jesus proclaimed.
In Mark 1:1, it begins to relate
the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It mentions how John the Baptist
prepared the way, and how Jesus was baptized by John. Then in verse 14,
"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee
preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God" what gospel did Jesus preach? -- "the gospel
of the kingdom of God." That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the
gospel proclaimed by the apostle Paul to gentiles (Acts 20:25, 28:23, 31).
Mark this well. That gospel was
not proclaimed to the world for 1,900 years. In the very first century, they
turned to a different gospel -- a gospel about Christ, but not the gospel OF
Christ. Read that again. To this very day, nearly all churches and
evangelists preach their own gospel ABOUT Christ, but not the gospel OF
Christ about the coming kingdom
of God to rule the world.
For 1,900 years traditional
Christianity has failed to preach about. Jesus as coming KING and world ruler
in the coming kingdom of God to replace Satan on the throne of the whole earth. A
FALSE GOSPEL has been universally proclaimed. Now with all this in mind,
return to Jesus' prophecy in Matthew 24. He was warning his own disciples
about false prophets coming in his name saying he, Jesus was the Christ, and deceiving
the MANY -- not the few, but the MANY. That started in the very first century
soon after the church was founded and has continued to this very day. It is
true almost universally in a professed Christianity to this
minute.
True Gospel Withheld 1,900
Years
But in January 1934, Jesus
Christ began proclaiming through me for the first time in 1,900 years the
true gospel of the kingdom of God. It spread coast to coast across the United States and Canada. Nineteen years later, January 1953, that gospel went
out on the world's most powerful radio station, Radio Luxembourg, to all
Europe and Britain, and almost immediately after that on other radio stations
in Taiwan, Radio Ceylon, Radio Monte Carlo, stations in South America and
elsewhere. Soon it was going to Australia, New Zealand and many other parts of the world.
And now, at last, we can say
that gospel has gone into every nation on earth.
Now proceed with Jesus'
prophecy: Matthew 24:5, Jesus had said many would come in his name pretending
to be his ministers, yet deceiving the many. That did happen in their
lifetime in the first century and has continued even since our program went
on the air in 1934, and the same gospel Jesus and the apostles preached began
going out in the PLAIN TRUTH magazine, which now has reached into every
nation on earth, with a circulation of over eight million households every
issue. Notice, now what Jesus said in verse six, "And ye shall hear of
wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must
come to pass, but the end is not yet."
In other words the end of the
world was not yet in their lifetime. In verse seven, "For,"
continuing, "nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against
kingdom: and there shall be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes, in
diverse places." Verse 8, "All these are the beginning of
sorrows."
All these thing have continued from the first century. Verse 9.
"Then they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you
...." These things did happen to those very disciples. Most or all of
the apostles were martyred except the apostle John.
The Sign of the "End of
the World"
Then in verse 14 Jesus comes to
answer his disciples' second question: "... and what shall be the sign
of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (verse
3). In verse 14 he answered that question, Jesus himself knowing it would not
happen until some nineteen hundred years later. Here is Jesus' own answer to
when the end of the world would come.
"And this gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a
witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." That gospel was
not preached to the world from about the middle of the first century until
near the middle of the twentieth century.
Jesus was speaking, not of the
end of the earth's existence, but of the end of this world this age this
present civilization in a world ruled by Satan, who still sits on the throne
of the whole earth. However, remember Satan sits on that throne only because
God allows it. But God shows us in Bible prophecies, not the date or the
year, but the approximate time when he will send Jesus Christ to end this
world.
Basic Law of Coming World
Government
At that time, Jesus Christ will
come in all the supreme power and glory of God to sit on earth's throne and
rule over all nations. He will then set up the kingdom
of God, which will be the government of God (not of Satan) in
the hands of the born family of God under Christ, ruling all nations with the
government of God.
All governments are based on
foundational laws. The foundational law of the government of God over the
whole world will be the law of God. That law may be expressed in the one word
"LOVE." Jesus magnified that law to mean love toward God and love
toward neighbor. This, in turn, was magnified by the Ten Commandments -- the
first four giving four broad principles defining love toward God, the last
six commandments defining in broad principles love toward neighbors.
This very work of God, from
which you have received this booklet, is one of the evidences that the end of
this world of Satan and civilization as we know it is very near its
end.
The Great Tribulation
In these days, after the
proclaiming of the gospel of the kingdom
of God, "... shall be great tribulation, such as was not
since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And
except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved
[alive]: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (verses
21 and 22).
Many other scriptures show that
conditions will become more frightful than ever before or ever shall be again
on earth. Such conditions are rapidly escalating at this moment. Person is
against person, even within a large proportion of families. Group is against
group. Nation is against nation. Violence is escalating as never before in
history. Terrorism is throwing fear and consternation into people all over the
world.
Apostle Paul's warning
Truly we have come to the time
warned of by the apostle Paul, in II Timothy 3, "This
know also, that in the last days perilous times
shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters,
proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without
natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce,
despisers of those that are good, traitors' heady, high minded, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness but denying the
power thereof: ... ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth" (verses 1-5, 7).
This is a prophecy, as it
plainly states, for the last days. When I was a little boy, ninety years ago,
those conditions were not true or escalating as they have been within the
last twenty or thirty years.
Now notice again, Jesus said in
Matthew 24:22, that except these terrifying days should be cut short, no
flesh would be saved alive. Not a human being would survive.
A prophecy in Ezekiel 6:6
states, "In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and
the high places shall be desolate ...." That prophecy is speaking of
this same time. The weapons have never existed in all history that could have
laid all cities waste until the hydrogen bomb of some thirty years ago. How
significant that this became possible only during the time while this gospel
of the kingdom was going from nation to nation into all the
world for a witness to all nations.
Great Tribulation Cut Short
But, here comes the world's one
and only great and supreme hope. Jesus said in Matthew 24:22 that "...
for the elects' sake [his one true church] those days shall be shortened."
In other words, God will not move to cut short the continuation of this
present civilization as we know it, until humanity has come to the very brink
of its last gasp. If God delayed longer, human science, technology,
engineering and government would be the Frankenstein monster that would blast
every living person out of existence.
God is not going to intervene or
send Jesus Christ to set up a better civilization and the wonderful, happy,
peace-loving world tomorrow, until humanity and its leaders have had to admit
their utter failure in providing peaceful, happy and useful lives on this
earth. Even today, most people in the Western world do not want to hear much
about God. They want God to "keep himself out of their lives."
The very first man God created. Adam, rejected the tree of life which meant reliance on
God and the gift of eternal life from God.
Instead he chose to rely on
himself and his own mind to guide his life and solve all his problems. To
this very day, the nations and the leaders of this world still try to rely on
themselves and human attempts at solution of their escalating problems. The
world still refuses to rely on God.
It is only when the world and
its leaders have come to the place where they have to realize
their utter helplessness before their own problems and that their only hope
from here on is reliance on and obedience to God, that
God will intervene and bring about the end of this world by sending Jesus
Christ.
When Jesus does come in all the
dazzling splendor and the power and the glory of the great Creator God, as
the King of kings and the Lord of lords, humanity is going to be forced to realize
that only reliance on God can save humans alive and bring in peace with
happiness, joy, and invigorating productivity.
Also Foretold by Daniel
Now once again back to the 12th
chapter of Daniel. Just after he spoke of the time of the end (Daniel 11:40), Daniel speaks also of the same great tribulation -- a
time of trouble greater than ever before or ever to come." And at that
time shall Michael [a great archangel standing against Satan] stand up, the
great prince which standeth for the children of thy
people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there
was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be
delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of
them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
life ..." (Daniel 12:1, 2).
This is speaking of the Second
Coming of Christ when the dead in Christ shall rise first. "For the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise
first: then we [the saved of God's true church] which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess.
4:16, 17).
Meeting Christ in the Air --
Where Then?
And where do we go from there?
In that same day Jesus' feet will descend on the Mount of Olives overlooking
Jerusalem on the east (Zech. 14:4). (Write for our free book "The
Wonderful World Tomorrow -- What It Will be Like, which explains in detail
the world to come.)
We read in Revelation 20:1-2
that at the time of Christ's coming, Satan shall be removed from the throne
of world rulership. Jesus Christ will then sit on
that throne over the whole earth. In Revelation 3:21, Jesus said to those in
his own true church, that if we overcome Satan and the evils of this world,
he will grant that we will sit with him on that throne.
Jesus also said in Revelation
2:26-27 that if we, his own people, overcome we will be given power over the
nations, and we shall rule them, under Christ. In Revelation 5:10, he says
that we who are true believers in his own church shall be priests and kings,
and we shall reign on the earth.
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