Apathy and the Endtimes

Apathy and the Endtimes
A Wakeup Call to the Church
Matthew 24:1-44

Wayne J. Edwards, Pastor

Over 300 prophetic signs were given in the Old Testament regarding the first coming of Jesus Christ to this earth.

• 109 specific signs that were repeated by the prophets.

Over 500 prophetic signs are given in the Old Testament regarding our Lord’s second coming to this earth – that’s one out of every twenty-five verses of Scripture or about 27%!

• Over half of those specific prophecies have been fulfilled, and some are being fulfilled today.
• These remaining prophecies are converging together upon one point – the second coming of Jesus Christ!
• This generation will soon experience the convergence of Biblical History and Biblical Prophecy, as God brings this age to a close, culminating in the return of Jesus Christ to this earth as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, to establish His Kingdom upon this earth and to rule and reign for 1,000 literal years.

• We are living in the last days of the “Church Age.”
• The next event on God’s prophetic calendar is the “Rapture of the Church,” followed by the “Time of Tribulation” and then the “Revelation” of Jesus Christ.
• The Tribulation will last 2,550 days – 3.5 Jewish years.
• Midway of the Tribulation, or 1,260 days, the Antichrist will desecrate the new temple, establish himself as “god,” and demand to be worshipped.
• 1,290 days after that event, Jesus Christ will return to this earth as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
• We cannot know the exact time of the rapture of the church, but we can know its “season” because we are not living in “darkness” as the unbelievers are.
• No prophecies are yet to be fulfilled before the rapture of the church, and there will be no warning regarding the rapture of the church – it could come at any moment!

There are six major categories of end-time signs, and they are converging together to point to our Lord’s soon return:

1. The Signs in Nature – Luke 21:11 – “There will be great earthquakes and in various places plagues and famines and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”

• The rate of earthquakes per year, larger than seven on the Richter scale, has more than doubled since 1979.
• 2024 has the “highest rate of great earthquakes ever recorded” – God is shaking the nations.
• Even though the world produces enough food to feed everyone, 1 out of 8 people are undernourished.
• New diseases are surfacing for which there are no cures – the next threat is “The Bird Flu.”
• Between 1991 and 2024, the US experienced the most costly “natural disasters” in its 200+ year history.

2. The Signs in Society – 2 Timothy 3:1-4 Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…”

• The love of self is humanism – I don’t need God!
• The love of money is materialism – money is my god!
• The love of pleasure is hedonism – a godless lifestyle
• When people choose humanism and materialism as a way of life, it always ends up in nihilism – utter despair
• The “sins” of our day reflect a culture so obsessed with itself, trying to fill that God-sized vacuum.

3. The Spiritual Signs – 2 Timothy 4:3-4 – “The time will come when they will…turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.”

• False teachers/preachers/prophets – the rise of the “new-wave” mega-ministries – not traditional, biblical churches, but rather commercial businesses for profit.
• Counterfeit preachers – those who preach a “form of godliness (humanism) but deny the need for the Holy Spirit to live on that high, spiritual plane.
• Cultic/demonic worship – using the devil’s methods to attract lost people to the church.

4. The Signs of World Politics – Matthew 24:6-7—“You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars… for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom…”

• Of the 162 nations being monitored, only 11 of them are free of internal or external conflict as of today!
• More people were killed in wars in the 20^th/ 21^st centuries than in all the wars throughout recorded history.
• Ezekiel 35-37 says the closer we get to the end of this age, the more the nation of Israel will be threatened by her Arab neighbors, leading up to the Battle of Armageddon.

5. The Signs of Technology – Luke 21:26 – “Men will faint from fear over the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

• The development and proliferation of nuclear weapons explain the plausibility of Luke 21, Revelation 6-8, and Revelation 16.
• The development of television, satellites, computers, the Internet, and AI give plausibility to the prophecy of Revelation 9, 11, 13 and Matthew 24.

 6. The Signs of Israel – Zechariah 12:3 – “It shall come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.”

• The nation of Israel is “God’s Prophetic Time-clock.”
• For the final prophecies to be fulfilled, the Jews must be back in their land and occupy the Old City of Jerusalem, for this is where Jesus will return and establish His Millennial Kingdom upon this earth.
• Soon, we will see the prophecies of Psalm 83, Ezekiel 38-39 and Isaiah 17 manifested in the Middle East; perhaps before the rapture of the Church.
• We are living on “borrowed time” – are YOU ready?