The Question of the Age

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”  Matthew 24:36

I have written blogs about the end times before, but since we are still here and the world is still turning on its axis, we still have some time to prepare as best as we can for the time when Jesus will return.  In Matthew 23, Jesus had a lengthy encounter with His persecutors.  He and the disciples left the temple area and headed back to the Mount of Olives just outside Jerusalem.  I would suppose the human side of Jesus would be rather weary after His time with the scribes and Pharisees.  You know, there are only two basic kinds of personalities in the world–those who add value to your life and those who drain the life right out of you.  Guess to which group the religious leaders of Jesus’ day belonged.  Confrontation usually affects human emotions negatively, even thought confrontation can sometimes produce a positive outcome.

As Jesus sat down on the Mount of Olives, the disciples took advantage of this time apart from the crowds to ask Him questions that are still being pondered today–end time questions.  As they had departed from the temple, the disciples were pointing out various details about the temple to Jesus.  He said that there would come a day when the temple would be destroyed.  This is what initiated the disciples’ questions.  They wanted to know when this temple destruction would take place, what would be the sign of His coming, and of the end of the world.  Jesus gave several signs which would occur as indications that the end times had begun:  1.  Many will come claiming to be Christ, 2. There will be wars and rumors of wars.  3. There will be open hostility between nations.  4. There will be famines, serious diseases, and earthquakes in all sorts of places.  As best that I can tell, all of these things have happened and have been happening, but perhaps not to the extreme that these prophesies portend.

For anyone who has been at least halfway paying attention to world events over the last few years, he or she would have to acknowledge that we certainly seem to be living in the end times.  I originally wrote the words of this blog in 2013, and things certainly seem to have worsened since then.  The last seven years have brought in some major changes in how folks view right and wrong.  When people call good evil and evil good, call light darkness and darkness light, and call sweet bitter and bitter sweet (Isaiah 5:20), we know that they have been deceived.  It seems like that is becoming the norm.

For the last two thousand years, people have assumed their generation was the one to experience the second coming of Christ.  Scripture makes it clear that no one except God the Father knows when Jesus will return to earth.  Regardless of the timing of His return, it behooves us to be prepared to meet Him because we will meet Him one way or the other, either upon His return or after our death, whichever occurs first.  Every day that passes brings us closer to each of these events.  Living with this in mind certainly makes a difference in how one lives his or her life.