Sermon Tone Analysis

*8 Compelling Reasons Why Christ Is Coming Very Soon \\ *The following was an advertisement in the Dallas Morning News---June 26,2000 \\ \\ The evidence for the soon return of <Jesus Christ> is overwhelming.

It could be any moment.

One scholar lists 167 converging clues just in the last few years of the millennium.

The following are eight: \\ \\ \\ *1.** Israel's rebirth.*

\\ As Jesus prophesied, the Jews were scattered during the <Jewish-Roman war of A.D. 70> (Luke 21:24).

Also prophesied to occur before Christ's return, the nation of Israel was miraculously reborn on May 14, 1948.

Israel is called "God's time clock."

The Rebirth of Israel

Sign #1: The Diaspora

The Bible prophesied the Jewish diaspora.

The Nation of Israel would dwell for many years outside of their country and promised land.

After this time had elapsed they would return to their ancient possession.

The predictions were exact and complete making the nation's return a supernatural happening of our age.

A modern miracle.

They were dispersed for over 1,900 years.

They are there again today.

*/Hosea 3:4-5/*/ - "For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol.

Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king.

They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days."/

*/Hosea 6:1/*/ - "Come, let us return to the LORD.

He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds."/

To see the rest of the passage fulfilled, Israel needs only to turn to God.

For David to become their king once again, there will be a resurrection from the dead.

Sign #2: The Return

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Bible passages predict the return of Israel to the land of Palestine.

Here are only two.

*/Ezekiel 20:34/*/ - "I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered -- with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath."

/

*/Isaiah 11:11-12 NIV /*/- "In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.

He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth."/

Sign #3: Buying back the land

The prophet Jeremiah prophesied about 600 years B.C. just as the nation of Judah was being destroyed and the people taken captive into the land of Babylon.

He spoke of a day when Jews would once again purchase land within the ancient territory.

That is precisely what returning Jews did, starting nearly a century ago - they bought back the land.

*/Jeremiah 32:44 NIV/*/ - "Fields will be bought for silver, and deeds will be signed, sealed and witnessed in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the towns of the hill country, of the western foothills and of the Negev, because I will restore their fortunes, declares the LORD."/

Sign #4: Israel - Reborn in a day

Israel, a nation that had not really existed as a separate nation for nearly 2,500 years, was declared a new sovereign state by an act of the United Nations on May 14, 1948.

The nation was born in a day.

*/Isaiah 66:8 NIV/*/ - "Who has ever heard of such a thing?

Who has ever seen such things?

Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment?

Yet no sooner is Zion in labour than she gives birth to her children."/

Sign #5: The order of the return

The first returning Jews to Palestine came primarily from eastern Arab countries.

The next major movement came from the western countries of Europe, especially Germany.

Then they came in great numbers from Russia (north) during the end of the 1980's.

The last great migrations of Jews returning to Israel came from Ethiopia in the south.

This precise order of return was predicted by Isaiah the prophet.

*/Isaiah 43:5-6,21/*/ - "Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.

I will say to the north, `Give them up!' and to the south, `Do not hold them back.'

Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth..."/

/"... the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise."/

*/Psalm 107:2-3 NIV/*/ - "Let the redeemed of the LORD say this -- those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south./

*2.** Plummeting morality.

* \\ Studies show a shocking breakdown just since mid-century (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

(Matthew 24:12)

Think about how kids now are walking into schools and shooting teachers and classmates.

Never heard of this before!

Fifty years ago you would never see a man and a woman on TV in bed together, now they do much more than that and even on commercials.

Homosexuality was never spoken about and now we have TV shows about it and people standing in picket lines trying to win rights to get married and receive all the rights that go with married couples.

\\ \\ *3.* *Famines, violence and wars.

* \\ Like birth pangs that intensify, Jesus said that the days just before His coming would see increased famines, violence and ethnic wars, a clear picture of our planet (Matthew 24:6-8).

One of six people on earth suffer from hunger.

Violence is epidemic and a study of wars since 500 B.C. shows a recent, dramatic increase.

Of more than 82 world conflicts since just 1990, all but three have been civil or ethnic.

\\ * \\ 4.** Increase in earthquakes.

* \\ A recent study shows a dramatic increase in worldwide earthquakes, just since the decade of Israel's rebirth.

Like increasing birth pangs, in the 1940's, there were 51 above Richter 6.0; the l950's 475; the l980's, 1,1085; and in the 1990's at the current rate, a projected 1,540 (Matthew 24:7).

a recent study shows a dramatic increase in earthquakes worldwide, just since the decade of Israel’s rebirth.

Between 1920 and 1990, a 70-year span, there were 10 major earthquakes.

But in 1990 to the year 2005, a 15-year span, we have had 13 major earthquakes."

(Associated Press) The U.S. Geological Survey data shows in 2000, there \\ were 22,,256 recorded earthquakes worldwide but steadily increased to 31,199 earthquakes in 2004.

(WorldNetDaily) \\ \\ *5.* *Explosion of travel and education.

* \\ Two key conditions described about 2,500 years ago for the <Second Coming> are that "travel and education shall be vastly increased" (Daniel 12:4, Living Bible).

In all of history, the vast increase in travel has come just since mid-century with the explosion of both ground and air transportation; in education, with the advance of science and computers.

\\ \\ *6.* *Explosion of cults and the occult.

* \\ Counterfeit spirituality is everywhere with cults and false Christs (Matthew 24:24) psychic phenomena, spiritism, satan worship, witchcraft, nature worship and the New Age movement (I Timothy 4:1).

What is a cult or the occult?

When we use the word "cult" and "cultic teaching", we are making reference to distorted teachings and abusive groups that redefine the Biblical, historical Person of Jesus Christ and the essential doctrines of the orthodox Christian faith.

Dictionaries reveal and Grammarians know, that words mean what they mean, by definition, and in context.

To reject word definitions in any given culture inevitably leads to grammatical suicide.

Such is the case in the world of the *cults*!

*Cults* and culktic systems ALWAYS redefine Biblical terminology.

This is what we call, 'The Language Barrier'.

Due to this 'Language Barrier', all *cults* end up attacking the real historical Jesus Christ.

They ascribe to Him that which is contrary to His character, His nature and His very own claims.

To redefine Jesus Christ, Biblical terminology, and the essential doctrines of the Christian Faith in this way is to produces double-think perversion.

Confusion, delusion and spiritual abuse follow.

Let us never forget the very sobering words of the Apostle Paul, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7which is really no gospel at all.

Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!

9As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!"

(Galatians 1:6-9)

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

(Galatians 5:1)

Halloween may be a celebration of all things creepy and macabre, but a growing number of US communities are shunning traditional ghoulish festivities, seen by some as tainted by association with paganism and the *occult*.

*7.**

The New World Order.

* \\ Increased centralization of world financial and political power is a prelude to the soon-coming world power system in the hands of "<Antichrist>", who will be the incarnation of satan and who will deceive most of the world (Daniel 7-12, Matthew 24:15, Revelation 13).

Beware of the "<mark of the beasts>."

\\ \\

February 22, 2009 Germany (CNN) – “The world needs a "global New Deal" to haul it out of the economic crisis it faces, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom said Sunday."We need a global New Deal -- a grand bargain between the countries and continents of this world -- so that the world economy can not only recover but... so the banking system can be based on... best principles," he said, referring to the 1930s American plan to fight the Great Depression” (CNN.com