7 Events indicating Christ's coming.570
SEVEN EVENTS INDICATING CHRIST’S COMING
Ref. 570
BIBLE READING: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
INTRODUCTION: About one third of the Bible is taken up with Prophetic Subjects, and the greater part of this relates to the Second Coming, yet in spite of this fact, it is the one subject that we do not hear too much about. There are approximately 320 references to the Second coming of Christ. There are three distinct references made to His coming in person:
First, Jesus said `I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also’ John 14:2-3.
Second, the Angels on the mountain said: ACT 1:11 “. . . . , Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Third, Paul said: 1 THESS. 4:16 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:” No teaching could be clearer than these quotations, which are just a few out of hundreds. The world’s chaos demands it, His coming is the only solution for the present day world conditions.
From a glimpse at Matthew 26, it will be seen that when our Lord was asked a threefold question in verse three, He replied to the effect that prior to His coming again certain definite events would be an indication that His coming was near. These are the indications:
1. False Christ’s, (Messiahs) to deceive many
2. Wars and rumours of wars
3. Famines
4. Pestilence’s
5. Earthquakes
6. Anti-Semitism
7. General Apostasy
In a very remarkable way these seven foretold events have marked the past years in a remarkable way. It is interesting to note that in the Old Testament, God never left man in doubt, preceding every great event of judgement, God revealed His plans to someone, who acted as God’s mouthpiece. e.g.
The Flood was revealed to Noah - GEN 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. Israel’s bondage in Egypt to Abraham - GEN 15:13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to Abraham - GEN 18:20-22 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.
Israel’s captivity in Babylon to Jeremiah - JER 25:2 The which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, JER 25:9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolation’s.
The destruction of Ninevah to Jonah - JONAH 3:2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. JONAH 3:4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
In view of these facts, is it likely that God would leave His Redeemed people in ignorance concerning the greatest event in history, i.e. The coming of His Son to reign as King of Kings?