The foundational precept to lay when approaching Biblical end time prophecy, is simply that no man knows the day or the hour of Christ our Lord’s return, or second coming! Matthew 24:36. Emerging at the outset of prophetic study in Matthew 24, this fact should have prevented the Millerite “Great Disappointment” in 1844, yet William Miller’s research, and resultant teaching omitted this vital clue. Far from the work being in vain however, 1844 is a significant milestone in Bible prophecy. The year 1844 marks the date of the beginning of man’s understanding Daniel’s prophecy of seventy weeks. Scholars of prophetic study are therefore speaking accurately when they state that in the year 1990, our Lord had tarried 146 years! That our Lord would “tarry” is confirmed in the parable of the ten virgins. Matthew 25:5.
Building on the fact no man knows the day or the hour, the second precept required is to understand a thousand years with man equals one day with God. 2 Peter 3:8. If we do the arithmetic, it reveals 1 second of God’s time is 4.22 days of man’s time, and if Jesus is to return in 60 seconds of God’s time, this would be equivalent to 253.2 days of man’s time. 1 hour of God’s time is the equivalent of 41.67 years of man’s time, so if our Lord is to arrive in half an hour of God’s time, this would translate to 20.83 years of man’s time. This is important to know to understand Luke 13 verse 32, for in God’s time, it is 2 days, (2000 years with man) since our Lord was crucified for the sins of the world to be raised from the dead on the “third” day. Essentially, we need to grasp that we are about to see the close of the age of the “reign” of Antichrist, to witness the start of the Messianic age of the Kingdom of God, having come to overspread the entire world!
The prophecy of seventy weeks predicting our Lord’s birth, death, and victory over death, is also a foretelling of the approximate time of the end of the age. Closing Biblical prophecy with the destruction of Jerusalem by flood, Earth finally shrinks a miniscule .012 percent after Armageddon, and the new Messianic age commences on Earth!
The calculations center around understanding the Bible’s interpretation of prophecy. We have the principle of 1000 years with man being equal to one day with God, to understand we have progressed in history into the third millennium after Christ, and we have the day for a year principle, Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6, with which we are able to make sense of Daniel’s prophecy of seventy weeks. Supporting the aforementioned are several clear statements by our Lord Jesus. “But as the days of Noe were so shall it be with the coming of the Son of Man”, Matthew 24:39, supports the closing of the age by flooding of the isles, also read as coastlands, Ezekiel 39:6, and the parable of the fig tree, gives insight into the time of the consummation of the age.
Israel became a nation in 1948. This is popularly believed to be the fulfillment of the parable of the fig tree. Our Lord said, “when his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled”. Matthew 24:32:34.
Understanding a Biblical generation is seventy years (three score and ten), puts us into the year 2018 as the end of time. Some of those born 1948 may live to eighty, ninety, possibly longer, however, it needs be known we are on borrowed time after 2018!
Those with a passion for The Word know living in the coastal areas is very careless! Such can surely expect to lose their lives suddenly if The Word of God is not heeded to have prepared! That we need to have made ourselves ready for our Lord’s 2nd coming is a very certain message in scripture! Moving up the hill will not be enough. We need to get at least 2500 feet above sea level if we think to survive what is coming. How we understand this is by knowing the ultimate fate of Jerusalem, that Jerusalem will finally be destroyed by flood, Daniel 9;26, and Jerusalem, is 2500 feet above sea level!
Expecting things to happen very rapidly as the age closes, the signs we are to watch for building up to the end of the age are equally clear. First the falling away occurs. 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Universally, humanity abandons religion, politics, and false governments. Refraining their financial support, the “unfruitful works of darkness”, Ephesians 5:11, are abandoned. Religions lose congregational support, churches, empty, and false Christs arise to entice men back to recover the religious revenues. This gospel of the kingdom is preached in all the world for a witness to all nations, Matthew 24:14, and the raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom arises, to soon be destroyed. Daniel 11:20.
A cataclysmic event then takes place. Damascus, the center of Islamic culture, is destroyed, Isaiah 17:1, and Daniel 11:44, This is likely to occur after New York has suffered another terror attack, and America retaliates, and causes all men small, and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their forehead or in their right hand, that no man may buy or sell except those who receive the mark, or the number of his name. The Revelation 13:16. The final sign being the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not, Matthew 24:15, is a papal palace being built between the seas in the glorious holy mount. Daniel 11:44 and 45. When this is seen, there are truly only seconds left in both God’s time, and man’s time! Matthew 24:16 to 22.
Seeking to “utterly make away many”, Daniel 11:44, the 2nd woe of The Revelation is fulfilled. This is the great slaughter of those following religion thinking they are on the right path. Those following the interfaith religious movement are particularly at risk as are all churchgoers, and the 3rd woe comes quickly. Revelation 11:14. After the day of great slaughter, (the 2nd woe), the ten kings who have one mind, (Islam) Revelation 17:12 to 18, destroy Rome! This is known as Armageddon, and the greatest earthquake the world will ever know, strikes! Our planet shrinks, and every valley is filled, and every mountain is laid low, Luke 3:5, as the seas rush in to take them all away. Ezekiel 39:6, Matthew 24:39, Amos 5:8, and 1 Thessalonians 5:3.
“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety; then sudden destruction come upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. 1 Thessalonians 5:1 to 4.
By Lester Oliver Thomas Flock © 2020