50 Reasons Why We Are Living In The End Times: Part 1

The Bible says we cannot know the time of the Lord's return (Matthew 25:13). But the Scriptures make it equally clear that we can know the season of the Lord's return (1 Thessalonians 5:2-6):

This passage asserts that Jesus is coming like "a thief in the night." But then it proceeds to make it clear that this will be true only for the pagan world and not for believers. His return should be no surprise to those who know Him and His Word, for they have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to give them understanding of the nature of the times.

Furthermore, the Scriptures give us signs to watch for — signs that will signal that Jesus is ready to return. The writer of the Hebrew letter referred to these signs when he proclaimed that believers should encourage one another when they see the day of judgment drawing near (Hebrews 10:25-27). Jesus also referred to the end time signs in His Olivet Discourse, given during the last week of His life (Matthew 24 and Luke 21). Speaking of a whole series of signs which He had given to His disciples, He said, "When you see all these things, recognize that He [the Son of Man — that is, Jesus] is near, right at the door" (Matthew 24:33).

Every time I think of "Signs of the Times," I am reminded of a great man of God named Elbert Peak. I had the privilege of participating with him in a Bible prophecy conference held in Orlando, Florida in the early 1990's. Mr. Peak was about 80 years old at the time.

He had been assigned the topic, "The Signs of the Times." He began his presentation by observing, "Sixty years ago when I first started preaching, you had to scratch around like a chicken to find one sign of the Lord's soon return."

He paused for a moment, and then added, "But today there are so many signs I'm no longer looking for them. Instead, I'm listening for a sound — the sound of a trumpet!"

One hundred years ago in 1907 there was not one single, tangible, measurable sign that indicated we were living in the season of the Lord's return. The first to appear was the Balfour Declaration which was issued by the British government on November 2, 1917.

This Declaration was prompted by the fact that during World War I the Turks sided with the Germans. Thus, when Germany lost the war, so did the Turks, and the victorious Allies decided to divide up both the German and Turkish empires.

The Turkish territories, called the Ottoman Empire, contained the ancient homeland of the Jewish people — an area the Romans had named Palestine after the last Jewish revolt in 132-135 AD.

In 1917 Palestine included all of modern day Israel and Jordan. In the scheme the Allies concocted for dividing up the German and Turkish territories, Britain was allotted Palestine, and this is what prompted the Balfour Declaration. In that document, Lord Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, declared that it was the intention of the British government to establish in Palestine "a national home for the Jewish people."

The leading Evangelical in England at the time was F. B. Meyer. He immediately recognized the prophetic significance of the Declaration, for he was well aware that the Scriptures prophesy that the Jewish people will be regathered to their homeland in unbelief right before the return of the Messiah (Isaiah 11:11-12).

Meyer sent out a letter to the Evangelical leaders of England asking them to gather in London in December to discuss the prophetic implications of the Balfour Declaration. In that letter, he stated, "The signs of the times point toward the close of the time of the Gentiles... and the return of Jesus can be expected any moment."

Before Meyer's meeting could be convened, another momentous event occurred. On December 11, 1917 General Edmund Allenby liberated the city of Jerusalem from 400 years of Turkish rule.

There is no doubt that these events in 1917 marked the beginning of the end times because they led to the worldwide regathering of the Jewish people to their homeland and the reestablishment of their state.

Since the time of the Balfour Declaration, we have witnessed throughout the 20th Century the appearance of sign after sign pointing to the Lord's soon return. There are so many of these signs today, in fact, that one would have to be either biblically illiterate or spiritually blind not to realize that we are living on borrowed time.

I have personally been searching the Bible for years in an effort to identify all the signs, and it has not been an easy task to get a hold on them. That's because there are so many of them, both in the Old and New Testaments.

I have found that the best way to deal with them is to put them in categories, and in doing that, I have come up with six categories of end time signs. We will explore these catetories beginning in Part 2 of this series.

I’m not sure why you are so busy bashing Catholicism with false statements and misreadings of what Padre Pio and JP II actually said.

Although I was born and bred an Episcopalian, and subsequently became a Catholic, I take no pleasure in bashing Protestants, nor do I rejoice at the travails that my former church, the ECUSA, is currently suffering under its American leadership. I got a great deal from the Anglican Church during my years as a member, and will always be grateful for that.

I have a number of Evangelical friends and colleagues, and we find it generally better to work together promoting causes on which we can agree, such as the right to life, and agreeing to differ on points of doctrine and worship. They don’t generally mind if I drink wine at dinner while they refrain, although I’m happy to refrain too if it makes someone more comfortable. I have no problems with asking an Evangelical friend to say grace at a meal or an invocation before a meeting.

***I have consistently said what the website said — that it’s a photo of a statue in the main Mary basilica in Rome.***

Are you saying that if you publish a lie, that you are not responsible for generating that lie? And therefore that lets you off the hook? If I publish things that are not correct, then I am called out on it and I will admit it. Where is your admission?

There is no main Mary basilica in Rome. Have you published a retraction as I have several times to you when I did not find proof of posts that I claimed that I had sent?

***I also offered you ANOTHER photo of ANOTHER church in Poland.***

Where? Identify it. Is this as much of a lie as the first one? Whatever I think of Calvin and his demonic destruction of Christian theology, I have never posted lies or made up any thing about him. What makes your arguments so thin that you stoop to this?

***Keep up, Mark.***

Only with my eyes fixed on salvation; the limo ride is giving the Reformed idle time for the devil to find work for. I notice that some of the Reformed are getting rather active...

For the Grand Finale of Chapter 17, I will post again Kehrli’s Second Storm Vision:

Kehrli
CHAPTER 17

SECOND STORM WARNING

This chapter, “The Second Storm Warning,” is more clearly understood today than it was twenty years ago when the Lord first revealed it to me. This is often true regarding prophetic messages or visions from God. Often the words or images are not understood until the events actually take place or near the time that these events are about to take place.

It is a grievous error to interpret something that the Lord does not interpret for you.

Unfortunately, this practice is commonplace among people who attempt to prophesy for the Lord. At that time, as I related the vision to a group of churches at a small denominational prayer meeting, there were parts of it that I did not understand. Since then, as events have unfolded during the last twenty years, more has seemingly become clear.

In June 1986, on a Friday morning, I was praying that God would move in a prayer meeting that we were to have with several other churches that night. At this time the Lord showed me a vision of a storm that He would send to His Church. Later that night at the meeting, the anointing of the Lord came upon me in a very sovereign and compelling way and I prophesied what the Lord had begun to reveal to me earlier.

He showed me an army camp with thousands of tents pitched. It was night and most of the soldiers were asleep in their tents. There were men and women soldiers fully armed with guns, grenades, rocket launchers et cetera and fully clothed to do battle.

They were sleeping very soundly and dreaming pleasant dreams. I could see their dreams: they dreamed of good times at the beach, beautiful homes, and fine luxury cars. They dreamed of getting money
and spending money.

They even dreamed of bigger and more successful ministries. In the far distance I could hear thunder rolling and see lightning flashing. A storm was brewing off to what was the east in my vision and the storm was being blown toward the camp of the Lord slowly but steadily and became progressively brighter and louder. Then with loud crashes of thunder and bright flashes of lightning the storm broke with full force over the camp of God.

But VERY FEW of the soldiers woke up. The vast majority just kept on sleeping with satisfied smiles on their faces. I saw some stir and almost wake up but they just changed positions and went back to their sweet dreams. A few others woke up, grabbed their weapons and went to stand on the walls that surrounded the camp and look out on the horizon to see if any one was coming. The walls surrounding the camp were not fully intact and had many places where the enemy had broken through in previous encounters.

These places had never been repaired, but on top of the walls there were places to stand and watch for the enemy. The Lord said that this was the beginning of the second storm that He would bring to His Church but that the crashes of thunder and flashes of lightening would only wake a few of the fully equipped but peacefully slumbering soldiers. He said they were too busy dreaming about their churches, the success of their ministries and their material blessings. Because of this they would not wake up.

After the thunder and lightning passed over the camp of God, the Lord showed me many cannons that were similar in style to those used in the Civil War. These cannons came from the left as I viewed this scene. The Lord made it CLEAR that the storm came from the EAST and the cannons came from the LEFT. He did not refer to the East as the right and He did not refer to the left as the West. They were slowly but steadily rolling up to within close range of the walled camp, many within ten yards of the walls.

The soldiers who had awakened earlier and were standing on the broken walls shouted a loud warning to the ones who were asleep, but few stirred and even fewer got up to see what was happening. Then the cannons all rolled even closer and cut loose a terrible volley that brought down the wall that faced them. The cannons were then aimed at the people who were beginning to wake up. So devastating was their attack that the majority had time only to stand up and cry, “O My God,” and then were quickly cut down by the barrage. I saw that many were hit in the chest.

Most of the people were then completely awakened by the horrifying sound of the attack but were not ready and were cut down. A few woke up and had time to properly ready themselves to fight, but the majority of the
people inside the sparsely-guarded, weak, and broken-walled camp were either killed or badly injured. ...

http://www.cryfromthewall.com/chapter17SecondStormWarning.html

The problem here, as I see it, is that Catholics, for the most part, embrace Prostestants, but Protestants won’t embrace Catholics. Even though C.S. Lewis adopted many Catholic ideas, such as confession, he could not bring himself to convert. He spoke of his inability to rid himself of anti-Catholic prejudice that had been ingrained as a child.

I read the full thread of the “Second Storm” a few threads back, which is “right on” as they used to say, except for what is says about Catholics. I don’t understand how anybody could believe that the very church that Christ founded is demon-inspired after Christ said “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Nobody can deny that, just as nobody can truly deny that abortion is murder.

The Catholic Church has its problems, just as every Church has it problems. And some of these problems take a long time — a very long time — to correct. But doctrinally, the Catholic Church is a lot closer to what the author of the “second storm” says it should be than many of the Protestant churches.

Hocndoc, you’re right, it’s too bad these arguments break out. I can understand why the Protestants were angry about indulgences and other issues during the reformation. But if we were really idolaters, we would worship statues, and we don’t. Yes, yes, I know you don’t believe me, but how many of you have actually attended a Catholic ceremony? (If you have, you know it’s not true. You’ll also know we do not worship Mary.)_Yes, yes, I know you think entering a Catholic Church for a worship service would be a sin. But what about ignorance? Isn’t that a sin, too? I watch this show on EWTN called “Journey Home.” It’s on Monday nights at 8 p.m. eastern time. It’s an interview with someone who converted to Catholicism. Almost without exception, the people who convert say they did so because they eventually discovered “the truth.”

The Catholic Church, as damaged as it is, holds Christ’s truth. And I feel sorry for those of you who are missing it.

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