James & Tess Arendt
God's Word gives us hundreds of Signs of the Times, signs and signals of the Last Days, of the Endtime, signs that we are to watch for and expect, so that we will know when we are near the End. We are now going to examine just a few of these outstanding, literal specific, Biblical predictions and prophecies regarding conditions and events during the final Last Days of Man's rule on Earth, as foreseen by God's prophets thousands of years ago!:
In reply to His disciples question, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the World?" (Matthew 24:3), Jesus said, "Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: See that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the End is not yet.--For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows!"--Matthew 24:6-8. Although we've had these things for millenniums and they re only the beginning of sorrows, it's interesting to note how the scale, severity and frequency of all of these have increased.
"Wars and rumours of wars...": Although the World had never been completely free from war prior to 1914, until then war had never been universal. But from 1914 to 1918, with World War I, total war was waged, and then again from 1939-1945 with World War II. In the latter, 93 million people served in the Armed Forces of both sides: At the 21st Session of the International Red Cross in 1969, it was reported that more than 90 million people have been killed in wars since the 20th Century began, over 3 trillion dollars have been spent on arms and over 130 conflicts on five continents have been waged!
Governments now spend hundreds of billions of dollars yearly preparing for war. The U.S. Defense budget for 1986 was about $300 billion, or $1,300 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. The U.S. recently completed a 5-year $1 trillion arms buildup. As for nuclear weapons, the hell bombs of these Last Days, it has been said that we are the first generation who have the capability to destroy the planet! Presently there are enough nuclear bombs in existence to equal 1.3 million Hiroshima explosions! One nuclear submarine alone carries more explosive force than all the bombs and ammunition detonated in WWII!
"Famines...": The World Health Organisation estimates that about one-third is well-fed, one-third is under-fed and one-third is starving! Over four million people die each year of starvation, 70% of the World's children under six years old are undernourished, and 30 persons die of starvation every minute! In spite of record high food production, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the U.N. reports that about 460 million people are now living on the verge of starvation, including 60% of all Africans. 12,000 square miles of African farmland becomes desert each year due to deforestation and lack of fertilisers.
"And pestilences...": Jesus predicted that there would be an abundance of these. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 35% of the World's food is lost to insects prior to harvest, while an additional 10% is destroyed in storage by pests. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture says there are 364 super bugs Worldwide which have developed a resistance to the poisons used to control them.
"Earthquakes in diverse places...": The World Almanac tells us that there were only six earthquakes of major strength in the nearly 100 years between 1800-1896. But in each decade from 1897 until 1947 there were either two or three, in the decade from 1947-1956 there were seven, and from 1957-1966 there were 17. Since 1975 there have been over 40 significant earthquakes! In the last five years of the 1970s, more people were killed by earthquakes than in the entire 75 years preceding! In fact, 25 of the 49 largest earthquakes in recorded history occurred from 1960-1980, within only two decades!
To continue with Jesus description of the Last Days: "And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the World for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the End come!"--Matthew 24:14. Now when the Lord gave these other signs in reply to His disciples question about the sign of His Coming and of the End of the World, He said the End is not yet, these would only be the beginning of sorrows. But, He now says, "When the Gospel is preached in all nations, then shall the End come!"
Never in the entire course of history has the Gospel been preached in all the World to all nations as it is right now!--If not directly by missionaries, travellers and visitors, it is certainly being preached by the modern mediums of radio, television, printed literature etc.! Every nation on the face of the Earth today has heard the Gospel!--A definite proof that we are now living in the time of the End!
The modern means of communication and transportation that have brought about the fulfillment of the above prophecy bring to mind another prediction regarding conditions in the Last Days, given to the Prophet Daniel in 534 B.C.: "In the time of the End, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."--Daniel 12:4.
"Many shall run to and fro...": People's means of travel--horse and buggy, wagons, camels, sail boats, etc.--hadn't changed for thousands of years, until just a little over 100 years ago! Until then, Man still travelled in the same fashion that Adam travelled: He walked or rode an animal or something pulled by an animal.--And very few people travelled any great distance! But in only a little over 100 years, Mankind has advanced from a state little different from Adam's to one in which Man not only drives at enormous speeds, but flies and even goes to the moon!--And many run to and fro!
People travel more today than they ever travelled before! International tourism is a huge multi-billion dollar business involving over 200 million people travelling outside their own countries every year throughout the World! Within the U.S. alone, over 300 million passengers were carried by domestic commercial airlines in 1979 and over 223 billion miles were logged by air travellers!
When you realise that there are people alive today who can remember the days when the common means of travel was horseback or horse-drawn carriages etc., you ll appreciate how amazingly this prediction about the Endtime has been fulfilled! Cars today can travel over 600 mph (1,000 kph), planes over 2,000 mph (3,000 kph) and spaceships at 24,000 mph (36,000 kph)! A jet can fly around the World in 24 hours, a spacecraft can cover the World in 80 minutes, and in less that one second a radio message can reach the ends of the Earth!
2,600 years ago another Prophet actually foresaw our modern highways and their racing, raging automobiles!: "The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of His preparation. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings!"--Nahum 2:3,4.
Now imagine the ancient Prophet seeing a vision of future highways, today's super highways, with hundreds of cars speeding along with their headlights (flaming torches) on at nighttime!--How would he describe it? He d never seen or even imagined anything like it before! They must have looked like lightning to him! And they certainly jostle one another in the broad ways!--Thousands of people are killed every year from this jostling!
"And knowledge shall be increased...": Did you know that more has been discovered by science in the last 100 years than had been discovered or invented in the entire precious 6,000 years? Knowledge has been increased within the past hundred years of this Endtime almost beyond imagination!--To the point that machines have now become so complicated, even highly trained scientists and technicians can barely understand them!
Computers are now even taking over the thinking of Man and are able to perform feats of calculation and memory and computation and even thinking, far beyond the limits of Man's own mind! A man takes about 90 seconds to multiply 2 five-digit numbers. A computer can do it 30 million times as fast. The NASA Space Center in California has a computer that can make almost 13 billion complex calculations per second.
A few years ago it was estimated that the sum total of Man's knowledge was doubling every ten years! But now experts estimate that it takes less than five years for Man's store of knowledge to double! It is a known fact that more than 80% of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive today! Medical knowledge is increasing so rapidly that an estimated 70% of the medicines in use today were developed after WWII. Dr. Malcolm Todd, one-time president of the American Medical Association, said that about half of medical knowledge is outdated every 10 years. It is estimated that over 15,000 scientific journals are being published annually and that, throughout the World, more than 1,000 new books are published every day!--Knowledge certainly has been increased!
But although modern Man has all this knowledge and has made so many amazing scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs, what good has it really done him?--Without God and without His Word, things are so confusing, so complicated and so complex that by the time they complete their modern education, most people are more mixed-up that when they began! Unwittingly, they've fulfilled another prophecy about this last generation: "This know also, in the Last Days men shall be ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth!"--2Timothy 3:1,7.
Another strikingly fulfilled prophecy regarding the time-period immediately before Jesus returns is: "That day (of Christ's Second Coming) shall not come, except there come a falling away first!?--Thessalonians 2:3. This means that a great apostasy, a cooling off, a falling away must happen before Jesus returns to take over the Earth. Has this happened today?--Are many cooling off and falling away from the church and from Christ and from God?--Yes! In fact, a survey of the National Council of Churches in America found that only half of the clergymen believed Jesus to be divine, and only 60% believed in an afterlife.
There's a great falling away taking place throughout the World today because of unbelief, loss of faith in God and loss of faith in the bible. Entire countries of former Christianity, so-called Christendom, have abandoned their faith for the false teaching of Evolution, for which there is no foundation in proven fact whatsoever, just pure theories, lies, fantasy and guesswork! (See Evolution Exposed!, and Whose Fool are you?, )
By abandoning God, the Bible and Christianity, and putting nothing in its place except the animalistic, cannibalistic religion of Evolution, the result has been total anarchy and chaos! After all, if there is no Creator nor Creation, then life if just a meaningless, chaotic process of Evolution! If there's no God, then there's no Ruler. And if there's no Ruler, then there are no rules! And if there are no rules or laws, then nothing is either right or wrong! Kill and rob or do whatever you want to do! It doesn't matter! Nothing's right! Nothing is wrong!--And the result is total insanity, madness!
Do you know which age group has had the biggest increase in crime involvement today? Fifteen is now the age of the largest increase of arrests for all kinds of crimes, including major crimes. In 1979, over 1,607,000 15-year-olds and under were arrested in the U.S. alone, according to FBI and Department of Justice reports. In the 1930 s, the age group of criminal involvement was in the 20 s, now it's gone clear down to 15 and less! Why?--Because in places like the U.S., they've taken God and the Bible and Jesus and religion out of the public schools!
So things are not getting better and better, as Evolution purports! In fact, the Bible predicts just the opposite!--"In the Last Days, evil men and seducers shall grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived!"--Timothy 3:1,13. In fact, Jesus Himself said that "as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of Man comes again."--Matthew 24:37. Well, how were things in the days of Noah?--he World was so bad that God was sorry He had even made it, sorry He had even made Man. Think of it! "And God saw that the wickedness of Man was great in the Earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Earth also was corrupt before God, and the Earth was filled with violence."--Genesis 6:5,11.
Is the World full of violence today?--Yes! In the U.S., violent crime has risen by 1,600% in the past 20 years!--Costing an estimated $12 billion annually! The Surgeon General reports that violence in all its forms, from murder to child-and-wife-beating, is now the nation's number 1 public health problem!
Experts have calculated that by the time the average American child is 15 years old, he will have personally witnessed the violent destruction of more than 13,000 human beings on television! No wonder their teenage darlings wind up in jail! In one week, the following acts were observed on television during children's viewing time: On the 185 programs viewed, there were 281 assaults, 117 killings, 19 robberies, 16 kidnappings, 10 murder conspiracies, 3 arsons, 3 extortions, 3 jail breaks, 1 lynching, 1 bombing and 1 suicide! On the average station there are 800 acts of violence per week! And the pity of it is, perverted American television series, videos and movies are imported, prized and viewed by most countries worldwide! It's hard to imagine that even the days of Noah were as violence-filled as those in which we are now living!
In another prediction regarding World conditions and trends immediately before His return, Jesus said, "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed!"--Luke 17:28-30.
Well, just like the ancient wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, today's World is just full of Sodomites, "men with men working that which is unseemly" (Romans 1:27), and sodomy, or male homosexuality, has swept across the World! The laws of Man are beginning to tolerate and even encourage it, while countless films and entertainers are openly flaunting and promoting it!--Which is another reason why God is going to step in soon!
"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold!"--Matthew 24:12. With today's totally selfish and self-indulgent me generation, this prophecy by Jesus about the Endtime certainly is being fulfilled! Iniquity is abounding and no one can deny that the love between so many people has grown cold. "For in the Last Days men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, without natural affection, despisers of those that are good, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God."--2Timothy 3:1-5.
Without natural affection is also fulfilled in the millions of anti-God murderous abortions which now take place every year, in which women with no natural maternal love murder their own unborn babies because they don't want children. Children were considered a blessing for all the thousands of years of World history, and only in these Last Days is it considered a blessing not to have children. More than 1 million legal abortions are performed in the U.S. alone annually. About 30% of all American pregnancies are terminated by abortion. According to the U.N., for every five births in the World today, there are two abortions!
"And there shall be upon the Earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring."--Luke 21:25. The peoples of the Earth are often likened unto the sea and the waves in the Bible.--Isaiah 57:20,21; Revelation 17:15. So here Jesus is actually speaking symbolically of the peoples and nations of the World--the waves of their various wars and conflicts and riots and uprisings. Every time you turn on the news on the television or the radio, you can hear the waves of a new war roaring, a new riot, a new rebellion, a new revolution, more terrorism, more strikes, more problems, chaos!
"And men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth!"--Luke 21:26. Do you know what the greatest cause of death in the Western world is today?--Heart failure! The World Almanac tells us that in 1980, 566,000 Americans died from heart attacks, and approximately 1-1/2 million Americans have a heart attack every year! Over 37 million Americans suffer from hypertension, which is nearly 1 out of every 4 adults in the U.S., and more than 20 million have headaches sever enough to require medical help each year!
Before World War II, most people were not living in constant fear and terror as they are today! They didn't live in constant fear of getting murdered on the street or being annihilated by an atom bomb in a nuclear war! But ever since World War II and the following nuclear arms race, it seems like the majority of the World abandoned their faith in God and got scared stiff of blowing themselves to Hell, and still are!
Another prediction regarding the Endtime which has found obvious fulfillment has to do with the tremendous and unprecedented upsurge and interest in the occult, psychic phenomena, spiritism, demonology and witchcraft which the World is experiencing today: "Now the Spirit clearly warns that in the Latter Times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron."--1Timothy 4:1,2.
In these Last Days, the Devil's really on the job and he's very very busy. There are all kinds of weird religions which are sttracting wide followings nowadays, particularly amongst the youth. In the absence of spiritual reality in the hypocritical religions of their parents (even so-called Christians), many young people have, in their pursuit of genuine spirituality and the actual supernatural and miraculous, gone into ancient mysticism, drugs and the Spirit World.
Of course, if people have rejected and refused to receive the Gospel, the truth, God's Word says that God Himself will then send them "strong delusion that they might believe a lie!"--2Thessalonians 2:10-12. There is nothing left for them to believe but a lie, so they are then wide open for the liars and the false prophets. And now the youth from so-called Christian backgrounds are following many modern-day false prophets by the millions!--"For many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many!"--Matthew 24:11.
Besides these commonly recognised demonic mediums, the Devil in recent years has raises his ugly head and literally roared his message loud and clear through another medium: Popular Music!--Hard Rock, Acid Rock, Punk Rock, etc., have deceived youth particularly and misled them into the horrors of drugs and Hell! Much of the music is literally demonic, invoking demons and seducing people to yield to their influence! Much of its jungle rhythms and screaming savages are the sounds of horror, the sounds of Hell, tortured music that's literally driving this generation insane!
When these things begin to come to pass--when you see these things happen, even when they begin to come to pass--then look up, and lift up your heads!--Don't be discouraged, don't look down! "Look up!--For your Redemption comes near!"--Luke 21:28. When all these bad things begin to happen, start looking up, because Jesus is coming soon! PTL! "So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled!"--Matthew 24:33,34.--This generation! Your generation will not pass away till all these things are fulfilled!
In other words, the curtain has been drawn aside on the last scene of Earth's great drama, and the act has begun and it cannot stop now! It is impossible! All of the signs are pointing to the End! So needless to say, the Time of the End that God's Word speaks of is these last few years in which we are now living! We are already living in the Time of the End!--And are soon to witness the very final Signs of the End which Jesus said would happen next: The rise of a totally Godless World dictator known in the bible as the Antichrist or the Beast.
Under the Antichrist, Christians and believers of all faiths shall suffer intense persecution during a time known as the Great Tribulation. At the end of the Antichrist's reign, the Bible promises that Jesus Christ shall return to the Earth and rescue His children out of the clutches of this despotic Devil-man!--Daniel 7:21,25; 8:23,24; Matthew 24:15,29-31.
But most people never seem to sense impending doom or things that are about to happen until it's too late.--They remind us of what Jesus said to some: "You can discern the face of the sky, but you can not discern the signs of the times?"--Matthew 16:3. Most people just go on with business as usual, no matter what is happening!--Unwittingly, they themselves are a fulfillment of another Endtime prophecy: "There shall come in the Last Days scoffers, saying, Where is the promise of His Coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation."--2Peter 3:3,4.--In other words, There's no danger!--Business as usual!
And just like Jesus said about the Days of Noah, "They builded and they planted and they married and were given in marriage, and knew not until the Flood came and swept them all away, so shall also the Coming of the Son of Man be!"--Matthew 24:37-39. Most people today are just going on with business as usual! Oh, they've been preaching this business about Jesus coming for centuries and He hasn't come yet! Well, He is coming and He's coming very soon, and you d better be prepared by believing in Him and living for Him, or you re apt to be swept away by the awesome soon-coming events of the very End!
Are you ready? Your only hope is Jesus and the only way out is up! He said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: No man cometh unto the Father but by Me."--John 14:6. He loves you and will forgive you your sins and give you His Love, joy and peace if you will just humble yourself and pray, asking Him into your heart! Receive Jesus today and prepare for His Coming by serving Him and telling others about His Love!
My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.
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