Discerning the Signs but Looking for the Lord
I do listen. As I get older, I forget more easily, but I do listen to people’s concerns. In the last several years, a number of devoted Christians have asked me some form of the following question: “Are we close to the return of Jesus Christ?” As with any Biblical teaching, we must be careful with this subject. In Matthew 24:36, Jesus said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Later, in Acts 1:7, He added, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” Paul wrote in I Thesssalonians 5:2 that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Thus, date-setting defies God’s Word and dishonors our Savior. However, in Matthew 16:3, Jesus pointedly asks, “Can ye not discern the signs of the times?” We do not know and cannot know the exact time of Jesus’ Second Coming and the resulting period of the Tribulation, but we are told to seriously study the signs found in Scripture. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
A nineteenth portent of the end is the increasing importance of Europe and its growing hostility to Christianity. Europe has been important in the world for centuries – really, millennia. However, it has traditionally been a center of the Christian faith. The observable spiritual declension in Europe (along with a sadly predictable intensification of anti-Jewish sentiment) is consistent with prophecies in both the Old and New Testament. Daniel 7 (especially verses 7-8 and 24-25) references a European confederacy similar to the Roman Empire (which was still future in Daniel’s day). This imagery is employed in Revelation 13 (see also Revelation 17:12) of a European bloc and its leader, the Antichrist. Although we hear of an occasional revival in Europe (for example, among the traveling Romany or Gypsy people), there can be no doubt that Christianity is at its lowest ebb since the arrival of Paul and other missionaries in the first century. Coupled with the economic and geopolitical power of the European Union, this escalating antagonism to the Christian faith provides the requisite foundation for the final future fulfillment. Still, though, God will continue His saving work even there, for Revelation 5:9 tells us that Jesus will redeem people “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.” God’s promises do not fail.