What on Earth is Happening: Sign of the Times or Time of the Signs

When one looks at the times in which we live through the third lens of Scripture, one can hardly escape the notion that we are living in a unique age. Jesus compared certain signs to birth pangs and buds on a fig tree. In one case, you know that the birth of a child is near, in the other you know that summer is near. Jesus went on to say that when these signs were apparent that His Second Coming was near.

It is interesting to note that Jesus used the analogy of birth pangs and that yesterday (January 24, 2010) was Sanctity of Life Sunday. Maybe I'm just on overload here, but for me it is a quick connection between that and the fact that abortion on demand has been legal in this country for 37 years now. Mainstream media did little to point this out in the past week. I believe two big reasons why abortion is legal in this country are: 1) sacrifice made to the god of convenience, and 2) apathy on the part of the church. Rev. Flip Benham, director of Operation Save America has said, "Abortion will end in this country when the church of Jesus Christ says so, and not one day sooner." The connections don't stop there. One of the signs of Christ's soon return is earthquakes. For every decade since records have been kept, earthquakes have been increasing in intensity and severity (just like birth pangs). All the while, real birth pangs have decreased by some 50 million in this country over the past 37 years. In 2 months, as many babies will be killed in this country as people who died in Haiti's earthquake. Not that Haiti shouldn't be helped, but the genocide in our back yard is virtually ignored.

Jesus spoke of a last-days generation that would be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, ungrateful, brutal, not lovers of the good, lovers of pleasure and not lovers of God. He spoke of events that presumed the existence of national Israel and a third temple. National Israel was born on May 14, 1948, and during the six-day war in June, 1967, Israel took possession of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Today, Islam has two mosques located on the Temple Mount and much political complexity surrounds who can enter that sacred ground and when. Jerusalem and the Temple Mount continue to be at the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Yet at the same time there is a group in Israel preparing the implements needed for Temple worship, ready to move forward with the building of the Temple.

Events are spoken of which presume present-day technology, because the prophecies imply the whole world having knowledge of them. Prophecy speaks of an army, 200,000,000 strong moving from a position east of Israel. Bible prophecy speaks of an alliance between members of the former Soviet Union and Persia (Iran) attacking Israel and being supernaturally defeated. Such an alliance is visible today. Russia is known to be heavily involved in Iran's nuclear program. Iran hates Israel and Israel is preparing for such an attack. One doesn't have to be an extremist to see that we are living in a unique time.

One specific sign given in Matthew 24 is that before the end, the gospel of the kingdom would be preached to all people groups as a witness. This holds dual significance, since: 1) several missions organizations estimate 10-20 years before the task is accomplished, and 2) faith in this gospel is the only means of escaping the worst of what is to come. This can be viewed as alarmism, or as good news - the choice is ours.