END-TIME SIGNS & OUR TASK

It was 1967, Israel had defeated the surrounding Arab nations and unified Jerusalem at the end of the Six-Day War. Surely this meant that the rapture of the church was around the corner people thought. In A.D. 960, Bernard of Thuringia predicted the end of the world. By A.D. 999, the prediction had spread throughout Europe, multitudes journeyed to Jerusalem in expectation of the second coming of Christ by the turn of the first millennium. A 19th-century American preacher, predicted Jesus’s return in 1843. When that year had passed and Jesus had yet not returned, a new date was set; 1844. These predictions and teachings continued to carry an influence among evangelicals, not least the Seventh-day Adventist movement. Founder of the Seventh-day Adventists, claimed that some of those attending the conference in which he spoke, year 1856, would witness the coming of Christ. The Jehovah’s Witness have predicted the return of Christ in 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1976 and 1994, and their predictions has failed every time. When Israel became a nation in 1948, a countdown began where many claimed that Jesus would return within one generation (40 years). It is now 2017, and Jesus has still not returned? Founder of the Calvary Chapel church movement predicted that the Lord would return before the end of 1981. There are many books written by preachers, that is trying to understand times and seasons, Bloodmoons, Shemitah’s and Jewish calendar calculations are main topics. The booklet, 88 reasons why the rapture will occur in 1988, sold 4 million copies. When the date failed, his sequel was entitled; 89 reasons why the rapture will occur in 1989. We have heard all the Bloodmoon prophecies in 2015, where Anti-Christ would be revealed, and special dates were given. Some even went so far to predict such a silly prediction that Barack Obama would be the Anti-Christ. Atomic bombs would be dropped over the United States in 2007, It’s 2017 and I am still waiting for the atomic bombs to be dropped. A mighty earthquake would supposedly hit California, I wonder if that was a prophesy or just something preachers had found on Google from an unknown geologist?

THE TASK

I’m afraid that believers rather seek to understand predictions, theology and different doctrines, rather than what Jesus emphasized. Remember the disciples who asked Jesus “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”, but Jesus replied: “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me” Notice how Jesus redirected their thinking, because they were so thirsty for predictions and signs, but Jesus instead re-programmed their thinking to “you shall be witnesses to Me”. Jesus redirects the attention of his followers to what really matters! The same happened in Matthew 24 where Jesus’ disciples asked him: What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Jesus again redirected their thinking by listing a number of events, but then assured the disciples that “the end is not yet”. Strangely every time there is an earthquake, famine or some sort of disaster, preachers contradict Jesus’ own teaching by saying “Jesus is coming soon”. Now, I understand that the rapture is a fact and will take place, but Jesus is more concerned about the preaching of the Gospel (verse 14), than signs. In fact, the disciples asked for “the sign of Jesus’ coming” (singular) - not the signs.

Sadly, believers are more concerned about different signs and predictions than the actual harvest; “This Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come”.

THE SIGN

The disciples' question concerned the end of the age [Gr. Aion], not the end of the world. The age referred to here, is the age during which all the world will hear the gospel. While so called “prophets” make wild predictions based on everything between solar eclipses to hurricanes hitting the east coast, the fact remains, Jesus will not return until all ethnic groups have heard the gospel. False prophets can wear themselves out by prophesying nonsense, but he won’t come back until we stop our foolish attempts to predict his coming, and start preaching the gospel. Standing on the Mount of Olives 2000 years ago, Jesus told us that the singular sign that the end of this age has come, is that the gospel has been preached to all ethnic groups. While we as believers 2000 years later, selfishly let the world at large die without having heard the gospel, we have failed to obey the Great Commission, being too busy trying to cook up a new prediction. We are side-tracked and confused, fooled and ignorant, occupied by analyzing so called “signs”, while forgetting a world that Jesus died for to save. Preachers sell millions of copies of “end-time prophesy books”, when less than 1% of all the mission funds raised by Christians goes to reach the 29% of the world’s population who have never heard the name of Jesus. Millions of dollars goes into producing movies, books and other teachings that seduce Christians away from the task that Jesus gave us, and we as believers are ignoring the simple end-time instruction Jesus gave us. Wake up church!