Page 172 - Eschatology - Masters revised

Chapter 18: Evidence of how our present world
is preparing for the Tribulation

Connect…

Since Jesus ascended into heaven, Christians have been waiting for Jesus to return as He promised.
While He never gave any exact date for His return, He did give us some indicators about what the world
would be like when He does. One key indicator was given: “As in the days of Noah, so shall the coming
of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24:37-39). This passage tells us a couple of things about the time of
Christ’s coming. First, people will be eating, drinking, and giving in marriage which means everyone will
be about their normal business and not looking for His coming. Secondly, it tells us that evil will increase
and the expression of sin will become more blatant. God chose to destroy all of mankind, save Noah
and his family, because of their wickedness. As we look at the condition of mankind today, we ask
ourselves, “Are we living in the last days.” It surely seems so. Since the Flood, the wickedness of
mankind has never been as prevailing as it is today. So, is there any evidence that the prophetic end
times are at hand? Let’s look at the evidence…

Objectives…

1. The student should be able to explain the general preparations Scripture gives for Christ’s Second
Coming and how today’s culture identifies with them.

2. The student should be able to explain how Israel, and the current events taking place there, lead us
to believe that we are living in the last days.

3. The student should be able to describe how the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple is so important in
end time prophecies.

The Lesson ...

Evidence of how our present world is preparing for the Tribulation

The obvious question we would like to ask is, “How close might we be to the next prophetic event which
is the Rapture of the Church?” We cannot answer that question because God does not want us to have
that answer. We are living in the Church Age, which will end at the time of the Rapture. The Rapture is
imminent, meaning that it could happen at any time. In fact, it could have happened any time after
Peter’s martyrdom. And, for all we know, the Church Age could last another 2,000 years. Daniel’s 490-
year countdown timer is on pause and we are simply not told when it will start again.

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