"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son.... only the Father.” Matthew 24:36.
For almost 2,000 years people have been searching the Bible, reading between the lines, hunting for secret codes hidden somewhere in the text, trying to find the formula that predicts when the world will come to an end.
An untold number of people have tried to predict the Lord's return by using elaborate time tables and mathematical calculations to arrive at the hour and the day. Some groups and individuals are actually well known for their prognostications about the end of the world.
No single group or person can top Jehovah's Witnesses for failed predictions of the end of the world. They made sure of it with their last prediction... 1984. The JW’s record of the most wrong doomsday predictions is currently holding at nine failed dates.... 1874, 1878, 1881, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and 1984. The JW's are claiming they're out of the prediction business. Maybe, but I think they'll be back with yet another one.
Harold Camping of Family Radio first said the end of the world would be in 1994. Now, he’s more precise... saying the end is coming October 21, 2011 when the world will be destroyed by fire. His elaborate calculations arriving at this date are mind numbing.
Of course the Mayan–Aztec calendars predict the end of the age to happen Dec 21, 2012. Supporters of the Mayan theory have a movie debuting in theaters worldwide this Friday that proves it!
Whether its Nostradamus, the Mayans, Harold Camping, Jehovah’s Witnesses or any of the well known or hardly known... all such predictions of the “day and the hour” have failed or will fail. Over 200 known predictions beginning in 44 C.E. to this day have been wrong.
Although we do not know the day or the hour, we do know one thing for certain... there is ample Bible prophesy about the world ending as we know it. But what does that really mean?
When Jesus' disciples asked Him about "the end of the world," they weren't talking about "world" in the sense of our physical planet, the earth. The Greek word translated "world" is aion, from which we get the English word eon. The two mean essentially the same thing—an age, an epoch, an era, the system of man-made institutions.
Christ's followers knew the many prophecies of the Old Testament that foretold the coming age of the Messiah. Our present time, the time of human rule on earth under the deceptive influence of Satan (1 John 5:19), is described by the apostle Paul as "this present evil age" (Galatians 1:4).
Another Greek word translated "world" in the New Testament is kosmos, which denotes the ordered world around us—not the physical planet we live on but man's societies and geopolitical dominion. This is “the world” that will end.
Paul and the other apostles understood that, at the end of this age, man's corrupt civilization will be swept away and a new era will dawn at the return of Christ. Peter described this change as one in which "times of refreshing" will come from God the Father through Jesus, who will return from heaven when "the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets" (Acts 3:19-21, NIV).
This transition from man's misrule—which is in reality, the unseen unrecognized rule of Satan—to Christ's divine reign in the fully established Kingdom of God was at the heart of the messages of the biblical prophets as well as the gospel Jesus.
Scripture proclaims that the present age—the civilization and societies we know today—will terminate in a cascade of unimaginable destruction and violence that will climax at the return of Christ. In the New Testament alone, more than 300 verses refer to these events.
Signs of the end time
When Jesus' disciples asked about the end of the age (Matthew 24:3), He responded by listing several warning signs. The first would be massive religious deception, including religious teachers who, while claiming to represent Him, would not follow His teachings but would deceive many through a counterfeit Christianity. He also said there would be many wars and other conflicts between nations and ethnic groups. He also spoke of famines,massive disease epidemics and earthquakes.
The problem with trying to precisely predict the end from these signs is that these trends and conditions have been with humanity in varying degrees from the first century until now. This fact alone helps explain why end-time prediction fervor has risen repeatedly over the past two thousand years.
Many believe that man's development of modern weaponry with the ability to annihilate human life is a sure sign of the last days. As for this destructive potential being a sign of the end, Jesus did say that "if that time of troubles were not cut short, no living thing could survive" (Matthew 24:22).
Man’s awesome scientific and technological advancements have made life on earth dangerous and tenuous. Without intervention by God in controlling the “inclinations of man”, the human race would have little chance of survival.
However, regardless of when the end of the age comes, people will be living at that time who will dispute the possibility of the world ending. The apostle Peter tells us that... "scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming?" (2 Peter 3:3-4).
Regardless of when it occurs, there will be people who express disdain even as the very events unfolding. No matter how difficult things look, some will assure humanity, that man and governments have everything under control. Tragically, such assurances will do nothing but provide a false sense of security, leading people to foolishly continue to trust in human abilities to prolong a future for this broken world rather than in God’s plan to create a new environment on earth.
As the day approaches
However long it is until the actual end of the age, one theme the biblical writers emphasized is that it draws nearer every day. Paul warns us that "now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed" (Romans 13:11). That was written nearly 2,000 years ago, expressing the powerful sense of urgency felt among first century believers. How much more urgent is that warning today?
Salvation is certainly important to keep in mind as everything falls to pieces around us. The end of the world as we know it, though it includes many catastrophes on a scale never seen in history, it is not all bad news for mankind. While hard to comprehend, there is good news that comes with these events. God will intervene before it is too late (Matthew 24:21-22). Human civilization is going to change. There will be a large throng of peoples of all nations who survive what ever happens. Now... is the time to prepare for these events.
The only wise action for anyone who understands what is coming, is to turn to God in repentance and obedience (Acts 3:19). Indeed, "now God commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed , Jesus Christ" (Acts 17:30-31, NIV).
When Jesus returns in power and glory, He will rebuke the world for its sins. This is part of the message proclaimed from the very beginning of the Church, beginning on the Day of Pentecost. On that day of the Church's founding, the apostle Peter exhorted his audience... "Be saved from this perverse generation" (Acts 2:40).
This is the message the Church is still commissioned to proclaim throughout the world today. How were the people to be saved? Peter urged them to repent—to turn from their own sinful, selfish ways and to seek God's ways—and to be baptized (Acts 2:38) for forgiveness of sins. At His second coming, Christ will know those who have taken that command seriously and lived their lives in harmony with His will and purpose.
Don’t worry about the day or the hour
It is not a question of whether the world—man's corrupt civilization—will end. God's Word says it will. Our chief concern should not be when it will end. Jesus said it would be impossible for men to precisely calculate this ahead of time (Matthew 24:36, 42, 44).
Instead, our main focus should be to continuously seek God, to be spiritually prepared for the times that are coming. "But keep on the alert at all times," said Jesus, "praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36, NASB).
The Bible describes believers as living in a state of expectancy, in a state of tension, between two worlds... the one passing away and the one He makes “new”. We live in the present world, which we know will end, while we look for the world to come with the return of Christ. "So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him" (Matthew 24:44, NIV).
We need to seek God in heartfelt repentance and faith, leading us to baptism so we can receive God's Spirit (Acts 2:37-39). Then we must remain faithfully obedient while awaiting Jesus' return. For "he who endures to the end shall be saved" (Matthew 24:13).
Jesus never said the Christian’s life would be easy. On the contrary, He said it would be challenging and difficult (Matthew 7:13-14). The rewards of faithful obedience are great, far beyond anything we can imagine. Be prepared. Be watchful... be on guard. Live your life as if the world will end at any moment.
