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Today's Headlines Written Nearly 2,000 Years Ago
Chapter
2
Many Bible prophecies predict the conditions and events of our day
as signs of the end of the world—today’s headlines written nearly
2,000 years ago. Consideration of these prophecies establishes: (1)
that the Bible is indeed the inspired Word of God; (2) that we are
living in unprecedented times prophesied in Scripture as the “end of
the world”; and (3) that man is standing at the threshold of lasting
peace and economic security in a pollution-free earth.
Daniel 12:1 and 4
give four signs that mark the “time of the end,” or end of the
world:
1. A time of trouble such as never
was since there
was a nation;
2. Many shall run to and fro;
3. Knowledge shall be
increased; and
4. Your (Daniel’s) people
(Israel) shall be delivered.
Unprecedented
Trouble—Daniel 12:1
That the first sign,
unprecedented trouble, is the hallmark of our time is confirmed by
historians. True, the world has always had trouble, but never before
has it been in such staggering proportions.
Wars:
In the 20th century over 400 million people died in wars, genocide,
or mass murders. Political scientist Rudolph Rummel estimated 262
million deaths were caused by democide (government-sponsored killing
for political purposes). From 1990 to 1995, 70 states involved in 93
wars killed 5.5 million people. Forty wars were waged in 1999 alone.
Wars in the 21st century
have continued to escalate. From 2011 to 2015 the Syrian Civil War
alone has taken hundreds of thousands of lives, with over 7.6
million people displaced and 5 million refugees fleeing the country
for both neighboring countries and Europe. ISIS/ISIL continues to
plague countries in the Middle East, affecting worldwide terrorism.
Unprecedented terrorism
not carried out by government forces has also escalated from under
600 terrorist attacks in the 20th century to over 2,300 terrorist
attacks in the first 15 years of the 21st century.
In his book Out of
Control, Zbigniew Brzezinski observes that the 20th century became
the century of insanity in which 175 million were slaughtered in the
name of “politics of organized insanity.” It is horrific— “175
million were slaughtered” in one century because of mankind’s hate,
greed and ruthless craze for power.
Total all the deaths from natural disasters in the 20th century and
what do you have? It is a drop in the bucket compared to man’s
killing machine of the insane 20th century. It Is Horrific! He says:
“Contrary to its
promise, the twentieth century became mankind’s most bloody and
hateful century of hallucinatory politics and of monstrous killings.
Cruelty was institutionalized to an unprecedented degree, lethality
was organized on a mass production basis. The contrast between the
scientific potential for good and the political evil that was
actually unleashed is shocking. Never before in history was killing
so globally pervasive, never before did it consume so many lives,
never before was human annihilation pursued with such concentration
of sustained effort on behalf of such arrogantly irrational goals.”
The population explosion
and industrialization of Third World nations accentuate the oil
crunch. Nations will go to war for oil. Many Third World nations
have the poor man’s bomb—chemical warfare, and are working on actual
nuclear warheads. Such volatile weaponry in the hands of these
regimes spells trouble.
Population Explosion:
Before A.D. 1650 the population doubled every 1,000 years. In A.D.
1804 the population was one billion. It doubled in 1927 (123 years
later). And doubled again in 1974 (only 47 years later). In 1990 the
world population was 5.5 billion. By 2014 it increased to 7.2
billion.
There are nearly 60
million forcibly displaced people in the world, according to the UN
Refugee Agency. More than half (53%) came from just three
countries: Afghanistan (2.56 million), Syria (2.47 million) and
Somalia (1.12 million).
Over 900 million people
do not have enough to eat. Each day over 20,000 people die of
hunger. Three of every four who die are children under the age of
five. While Americans spend over $53 billion a year on pets.
Pollution:
The U.S. has 4.43% of the
world’s population, but generates 30% of the world’s garbage, uses
26% of the world’s oil, 25% of the world’s coal, and 27% of the
world’s natural gas. The U.S. releases 26% of the world’s nitrogen
oxides and produces 19% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.
Air
pollutants from car exhaust and industry spawn disease. Deaths from
respiratory disease double every five years. In 2012 around 7
million people died as a result of air pollution exposure. This
finding more than doubles previous one-in-eight world deaths and
more than doubles previous estimates, confirming that air pollution
is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk.
Skin
cancer and cataracts caused by ozone depletion are increasing. From
1950 to 1980 melanomas increased by 500%. One person dies of
melanoma every hour (every 57 minutes). Of the seven most common
cancers in the US, melanoma is the only one whose incidence is
increasing. Between 2000 and 2009, incidence climbed 1.9 percent
annually.
Solid wastes, radioactive and toxic chemical wastes
are contaminating our rivers, lakes and oceans. In the last 200
years, the U.S. has lost 50% of its wetlands, 90% of its old-growth
forests, and 99% of its tall-grass prairie.
The
world is losing tropical forests at a rate of about 1 acre each
second, or 31.5 million acres per year, an increase of 50% from a
decade ago. 80% of the ancient forests have been destroyed. Only 20%
of the ancient forests remain intact. At the current rate, tropical
forests will be gone within 115 years.
Even
though rain forests cover only 7% of Earth’s dry land surface, they
sustain over 50% of all species. We lose 50 species every day—2
species per hour—due to tropical deforestation.
Tropical rainforests act as a global air conditioner by storing and
absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, storing the carbon, and
producing about 20% of all the oxygen in the world. They maintain
global rainfall and regulate climate patterns worldwide. Acid rain
is destroying our forests, which in turn will produce “global
warming.”
Global Warming:
“Except for nuclear war or a collision with an asteroid, no force
has more potential to damage our planet’s web of life than global
warming.” (Time Magazine, April 9, 2001)
The
period from October 2013 through September 2014 was the warmest
12-month period on record. September for the globe as a whole was
1.3°F above the 20th century average of 59°F, according to the NCDC,
which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. The period from January-September was 1.22°F above
the average of 57.5°F for the 20th century.
All but
one of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred in the 21st
century (1998, when there was a very strong El Nińo, is the
exception). Earth’s steadily rising temperatures are the result of
the buildup of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, in the
planet’s atmosphere. Warmer climates have widespread effects on the
environment.
The sea
level will rise as oceans absorb heat from the atmosphere and
expand. Polar ice caps will melt. Increases in sea level will flood
and erode coastal areas inhabited by half the world’s population.
Tropical storms will become more frequent and intense.
Weather
patterns will become extreme, causing flooding. Soil moisture will
decrease, impacting crop failures and life-threatening droughts.
“Breadbasket farmland” (like our Midwest) will become barren desert.
Markets and food supplies will be disrupted. Severe food shortages
will result.
The 21
century witnessed the devastation of giant hurricanes like Rita,
Katrina, and Sandy as well as tornadoes of historic killing
proportions that roared across the country. Unprecedented weather
patterns wreaked havoc across the world.
Cities Could Disappear:
Another crisis is looming in the United States that will have its
parallel elsewhere in the world. According to the noted
Huffington Post, 14 U.S. cities could disappear over the next
century due to rising tides. For example,
“If Hurricane Sandy struck Boston during high tide, 6.6 percent of
the city would have been flooded. Water would have reached the steps
of City Hall. Within 100 years, that could become the new normal,
twice a day.”
“Hurricane Sandy gave New Yorkers just a taste of what might happen
to their city over the next hundred years. According to new data
released in June, the sea level could rise by 4-8 inches in New York
over just the next ten years…. A five-foot rise [during the next 100
years] in sea level would submerge La Guardia airport, many of the
barrier islands, and a significant portion of Manhattan.”
Then the Huffington Post gave examples of twelve other major
cities to show how the United States and other nations in turn would
be devastated in the next 100 years. They are Miami, Fla.,
Atlantic City, N.J., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Honolulu, Hawaii, New
Orleans, La., Sacramento, Calif., Los Angeles, Calif., Charleston,
S.C., Savannah, Ga., Seattle, Wash., Virginia Beach, Va., San Diego,
Calif.
The White House issued a
global warming alarm. From
the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean, Global
Warming spells utter disaster unless something is done
immediately to control it.
Time is
running out, according to Lester R. Brown, president of the highly
respected Worldwatch Institute. “Preceding generations have always
been concerned about the future, but ours is the first to be faced
with decisions that will determine whether the earth our children
inherit will be inhabitable.”
Scientists are now concerned that the population explosion could
hasten and increase the effects of global warming. Drastic climate
changes resulting in economic disaster in many nations could trigger
wars for survival.
Drugs:
We are losing the drug war
because the huge profits are too corrupting.
There
are more than 4 million hard-core (more than weekly) drug users in
the United States. In 2010 21.8 million Americans age 12 or older
used illegal drugs, up from 19.7 million in 2006.
The
2006 NSDUH study found that 10.2 million people drive under the
influence of drugs. The drug-related crime rate is spiraling. There
were 1,552,432 arrests for drug related crimes in 2012 alone!
According to a 2013 study by the University of Michigan, one
dependent newborn is born every hour in the United States. More than
13,000 baby drug addicts are born each year.
Economic chaos: The
U.S. entered 2015 with a staggering debt of over $17.9 trillion and
a perilous foreign trade imbalance. Outstanding consumer debts have
increased from $1,395.4 billion in 1999 to over $16,653 billion in
2015. Yet there are 492 billionaires in the US.
World
public debt is $51,493,789,398,165—over 51 trillion! Yet the world’s
billionaires have swelled to a record 1,645 with an aggregate net
worth of $6.4 trillion.
Is Now the “End Times”?
According to 2013 the Barna Group poll of all the adults in the
U.S., 54% of Protestants and 77% of Evangelical Protestants, expect
our civilization to fall apart within 150 years. Also, 45% of
practicing Catholics believe the world is now living in the End
Times. Most startling is that 41% of all participants whether
religious or not, even some atheists, said conditions in the world
are so disasterous we are in the biblical End Times. Incredible!
It has been observed that there has never been a poll like this on
End Times. It sparked unprecedented preaching by Evangelicals
warning our world is in the end-times.
Indeed,
our generation is experiencing a “Time of Trouble such as never
was since there was a nation.”
Increased
Travel—Daniel 12:1
The
second sign is increased travel. Transportation has expanded rapidly
because of the automobile. Selden made the first automobile in 1877.
Today there are over 1.1 billion cars in the world. Through numerous
modes of transportation millions are crossing and re-crossing each
other’s paths around the world.
In the
past 100 years, man has increased his travel from 30 mph to 25,000
mph off the planet to the moon.
Knowledge
Increased—Daniel 12:1
If the
increase of knowledge from the dawn of history to the 1880s is given
a value of one, then knowledge has doubled 16 times within the last
10 years. With the advent of the Internet, knowledge was doubling
approximately every 18 months by 2004, according to the American
Society of Training and Documentation (A.S.T.D.). IBM predicts that
in the next couple of years, information will double every 11 hours.
One
hundred years ago, 90% of the world’s population could neither read
nor write. Today, 84.1% of the world’s population can read and
write, and in the Western world literacy has reached nearly 90%.
Over
Ninety percent of all scientists who have ever lived are alive
today. Over fifty percent of the world’s inventions have been
created in the last decade.
Communications:
Sophistication in communications allows man to see and hear
throughout the world instantly. From 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell
invented the first telephone to today’s phones, the use of cell
phones has soared. There are almost as many cell-phone subscriptions
(6.8 billion) as there are people on this earth (seven billion).
There are over 96 cell-phone service subscriptions for every 100
people in the world today.
Additionally, smartphone users worldwide will total 1.75 billion in
2014, having surpassed the 1 billion mark in 2012. 45% of American
adults have smart phones and use them for emailing and texting,
listening to the radio, browsing the web, taking photographs, doing
online banking or paying their bills, getting directions, listening
to music, watching videos, ordering groceries, checking their heart
rate, starting their car from their kitchen, answering questions,
carrying on a conversation, and more!
Computers: From the
first modern analog computer invented by Sir William Thomson in
1872, the use of computers in the world has skyrocketed. In 1995,
31.7% of households had personal computers; by 2000, 53%. An
estimated 835 million PCs were sold worldwide between 1981 and 2000.
In 1993
there were 14,161,570 Internet users in the world. By 1999 there
were 280,866,670; by 2014 there were 2,925,249,355.
Medical Advancements:
Today humans can move robotic limbs using only their thoughts and
get sensory feedback from their robotic hands. Biomedical engineers
are revolutionizing the medical world by developing 3-D printing to
construct human ears, kidneys, heart valves, blood vessels, skin
grafts, and bones from actual human cells.
Today’s
fear is that artificial intelligence (a computer that thinks like a
person but does not have to eat or sleep) may turn against man
uncontrollably. Recent experiments found the machines becoming
secretive and deceitful, bent on self-preservation without
conscience. (The Artificial Intelligence Revolution, by Louis
Del Monte)
The
noted historian, Barbara Tuchman has observed,
“Man
entered the Nineteenth Century using only his own and animal power,
supplemented by that of wind and water, much as he had entered the
Thirteenth, or for that matter, the First. He entered the Twentieth
with his capacities in transportation, communication, production,
manufacture and weaponry multiplied a thousand-fold by the energy of
machines.” (The Proud Tower, Foreword, xvi)
Unprecedented travel and increase of knowledge marks our day as the
“time of the end.”
Israel Becomes a
Nation—Daniel 12:1
The
fourth sign which marks us at the
“time of the end” is that the Lord will stand up for Daniel’s
“people,” the Jewish nation. If we are living in this “time of the
end,” we should expect dramatic evidence of God’s favor on behalf of
the Jewish people.
Against
this background, Matthew 24 becomes meaningful. “What shall be
the sign of your coming [Greek, parousia], and of the end of
the world [age]?” (Matthew 24:3)
Matthew
24:32-34 gives the deliverance of Israel as one of these signs:
“Now
learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and
puts forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh: So likewise you,
when you shall see all these things, know that it is even at the
doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till
all these things be fulfilled.”
Israel Restored
Students
of prophecy from many denominations
generally recognize that the fig tree is pictorial of the nation of
Israel. (See Jeremiah, Chapter 24.) In Matthew 21:19, Jesus cursed a
fig tree because he found no fruit on it. As a result of his
cursing, the fig tree withered.
Several
days later Jesus applied the lesson of the withered fig tree. He
proclaimed judgment on the nation of Israel, “Behold, your house
is left unto you desolate.” (Matthew 23:38) Why? Because like
the fig tree, Israel had not borne fruitage to God. Israel was
subsequently scattered and persecuted.
Israel’s restoration is an outstanding sign of the end of the age.
The fig tree coming back to life and putting forth leaves represents
Israel coming to life as a nation, and receiving God’s increasing
favor. Historians agree that Israel’s rebirth is a miracle of
history.
Never
before has a nation been destroyed, its people dispersed to the ends
of the earth and then—nearly 2,000 years later—its descendants
regathered to their homeland and re-established as a nation.
Compare
Luke 21:29-32 with Matthew 24:32-34. The restoration of Israel means
the kingdom is at hand. Luke 21:29-32 states:
“And
he spoke to them a parable: Behold the fig tree, and all the trees
[other new nations];
“When they now shoot forth, you see and know of your own selves that
summer is nigh at hand.
“So
likewise you, when you see these things come to pass, know you that
the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till
all be fulfilled.”
The generation that witnesses Israel restored as a nation will also
witness the complete end of the age, and the full establishment of
the Kingdom of God.
Scriptures are charged with signs that have become the headlines of
our day. Jerusalem is no longer trodden down by Gentiles. (Luke
21:24) Many new nations have gained independence. (Luke 21:29,30)
Evil is exposed as never before. (I Corinthians 4:5) Most people,
even the professedly religious, lack faith. (Luke 18:8)
Men
love themselves, have no respect for parents, and have no natural
affection. (2 Timothy 3:1-5) Turmoil grows between labor and
capital. (James 5:1-4) Wars and war preparations intensify. (Joel
3:9-11) All the while men proclaim “peace.” (I Thessalonians 5:2,3)
Men’s hearts fail for fear. (Luke 21:36).
One more sign bears consideration.
Nations on the
Run —
Another
Remarkable Prophecy
"Woe unto you that desire
the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD
is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a
bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the
wall, and a serpent bit him."
Amos 5:18,19,20
In
Amos’ prophecy the fleeing man
represents the world’s experiences in this dark “time of
trouble.” At the dawning of our era, Great Britain ruled the
most expansive empire on earth. The “lion” in this prophecy,
Britain’s national symbol, appropriately illustrated the mighty
nation that devoured (colonized) weaker nations. Colonialism’s
suffocating grasping led to the world’s fleeing to another form of
government.
The man
in Amos 5:20 escaped the lion only to meet the bear—a form of
government diametrically opposed to the grasping greed of
colonialism—communism! The former Soviet Union, the “bear”
of Amos’ prophecy, offered man another hope for safety in this time
of trouble. Communism’s failure to rescue man was underscored by its
precipitous fall. Nations are now seeking another hope of
security—nationalism.
Entering the “house” of nationalism has been anything but
comfortable for the nations of the world. Bosnia, Serbia, Germany
and other nations seeking safety in nationalism have suffered civil
war, economic malaise, the rise of new “hate groups” and other ills.
While in the supposed security of ultra-nationalism (will church and
state reunite?) the people place their hand on the wall. Seeking
rest in the supporting structure of human government will result in
being bitten by the serpent.
That
old Serpent, the Devil and Satan, which once deceived the nations
into thinking that they were Christ’s Kingdom (Revelation 12:9) will
bite them again. Then the nations will feel the rebuke of Jehovah in
the great time of trouble.
All of
these prophecies mark the time when the present evil world is being
destroyed. God is now revealing Himself as never before in history,
a revelation which will climax with the establishment of the Kingdom
of Christ on earth.
Take
heart—even though things must get worse before they get better. It
is the unprecedented severity of world problems (Matthew 24:21) and
the paralysis of hopelessness (Luke 21:25) that mark us at the
threshold of the great Kingdom blessings which God has in store for
man.
Just as
urban renewal requires the demolition of old structures, so the full
establishment of Christ’s Kingdom requires the removal of our
corrupt civilization (Hebrews 12:28). The present generation will
see the Kingdom in all its glory. (Luke 21:21-32)
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