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One of the loudest sounds the world has ever heard was the terrific volcanic explosion of Krakatoa in southwestern Indonesia in 1883. The blast was the equivalent to about 100 megatons of TNT and could be heard over 3,000 miles away on islands in the Indian ocean. More than 36,000 people were killed and 165 coastal villages destroyed, mostly from the 120-foot high tsunami that rolled in at over 300 miles an hour. This devastated everything in its path, hurling huge coral blocks ashore.
The tremendous explosion also blew five cubic miles of debris into the atmosphere, creating a dust cloud that blocked sunlight, cooled climates, and, for a few years, produced brilliant red sunsets that were so intense, people often thought there was a fire on the horizon. The eruption of Krakatoa was one of the loudest and most powerful visible events in modern times, but did you know the book of Revelation pictures the second coming of Jesus as even louder. It says there’ll be a trumpet and a roar and a shout. So join me now as we take a closer look at what the Bible really says about the return of Christ.
So, our study today is talking about when the King returns and we’re going to talk about some of the signs of Christ coming – we’re not going to give you a date for the Lord’s return, but we are going to talk about some of the misunderstandings in the Christian world regarding how Jesus is coming back, because that is going to set many people up for a major deception. And so, we need to understand this subject.
First question: What solemn warning does Jesus give about His second coming? “For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” Now, that verse can be understood a couple of different ways and still be correct. Some are going to come and they’re going to claim to be Jesus. And then there’s going to come and say, ‘He is Christ,’ but they’ll deceive people. Many will come, they come in His name, they say he’s Christ, and then they deceive.
And then there are some that come and they say, ‘I am Christ.’ And Satan is going to impersonate Jesus in the last days and you can also read on, it says, “For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and they will show great signs and wonders.” Now, I’m not so worried about kooks that say that they’re Jesus. There’s probably thousands of them walking the world today. I saw a National Geographic report about half a dozen people around the world that have a small group of worshipers and they claim to be Jesus. You’ve got one in South America, you’ve got one in Europe, and other places and they have their followers.
I met somebody that claimed to be Jesus and it was a little unnerving because I was living by myself in the mountains in a cave and a guy came hiking up into my cave yard – I had a yard – (laughter) and – I mean, you came over the rocks and you’re in my yard. He was about six feet tall. He had shoulder-length brown hair, hazel eyes, mustache and a beard. And I’m friendly, I sat down, we talked a little bit. In the process of conversation he asked me if I was a believer. I said, ‘Well, yeah, I just read the Bible. I just accepted Jesus.’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus.’ (Laughter) and I wasn’t sure I heard him right and he says, ‘I am Jesus.’ And then I thought, ‘Well I’ve got some Spanish friends named Jesus. I said, ‘You mean your name is Jesus? (Laughter) He said, ‘No, I am Jesus.’ And that was a little trouble because I thought, ‘This guy’s crazy and I’m up here in the mountains by myself.’ And then I thought, ‘Well, I don’t want to call him crazy because what if he is Jesus? I’d like to know. I’ve got a lot of questions.’
And so, I started saying, ‘Well, now, doesn’t it say in the Bible when you come, like every eye’s going to see you coming in the clouds?’ (Laughter) He said, ‘That’s how I’m coming for the world at large, but I’m coming for certain individuals first.’ And he had an answer for everything. He was trying to recruit me as a disciple. (Laughter) And so, I humored him for a few days – you know, nice and, you know, he stayed with me. He ate all my food. He was a slob. He didn’t clean anything up. And, finally, I had to evict Jesus from my cave. (Raucous laughter) a few days later I saw him in town and he had found an apostle. He was walking around – and I felt much better because about two weeks later, I saw him again. He had gotten in a fight with somebody and they knocked out his front tooth and we all know Jesus has all His teeth, so that settled it for me. (Laughter) I felt much better at that point. So I’m not worried about those kooky people, but when Satan impersonates Christ, it’s going to be very compelling and there’ll be an emotional power and there’ll be signs and wonders and he’ll quote the Bible.
What’ll prevent the righteous from being deceived? You read in Isaiah 8, verse 20 – it’s going to be in the Bible – according to the law and the testimony, if they speak according to His Word, there’s no light in them. We’re going to have to judge everything by the Word of God. That’s why I’ve told you that we need to really know our Bibles because Jesus tells us that the deception is going to be so compelling that, if it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived. So we’re going to have to be carefully rooted in what we believe. Well, if you heard that there was somebody out there and they’re claiming to be Jesus, would it be safe to go and see them? No. What does the Lord say? He says in Matthew 24, verses 26, “wherefore, if they say unto you, ‘behold, he is in the desert.’ Go not forth.” Don’t even look. ‘Hey, turn on channel 13 – Jesus has just appeared in Jerusalem.’ I wouldn’t even turn it on because the devil can hypnotize. And, you know, you hypnotize a person with their audio and their visual nerves. The optic and the auditory nerves and television kind of reaches both. And now they’ve got TV it’s like high resolution. They’re getting 3D – I mean, it’s going to be very powerful. Don’t do it.
What can we know about the time of Jesus’ return? Now, I’m going to spend some time on this question so just get comfortable because I want to make a few things clear: first of all, regarding a specific time of His coming, Jesus could not be misunderstood: “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man.” That should settle it for everybody. So, if someone comes to you and they say, ‘Well, I know most people don’t know, but near the end we’re going to figure it out. And I’ve done some calculating and I don’t know the day and the hour, but I know the month.’ And I’ve heard all kinds of strange things. Why would you try to pick the day? Would you wait ‘til the last minute to get ready? He said He’s coming back. He could come for you tomorrow. Because if you die, your next conscious thought is the resurrection and so we need to be ready how often? Always. Jesus said, ‘Be ready always lest that day overtake you as a thief.’ And a lot of people have been overtaken as a thief already. And so, we need to be ready.
Some of you remember Harold Camping – Family Radio – I talked to him once or twice on the radio. Matter of fact, Amazing Facts interviewed him not too long before he died, because he was setting a date. And, you know, I think he was sincere, but he was wrong. A lot of people gave everything they had – they invested in his ministry to get the word out that Jesus was coming. What was it, May 21, 2011? And, of course, it didn’t happen. That was the second or third time he had predicted the day and the hour of the Lord’s coming. And, you know what? I’ve got a surprise for you. Every pastor and evangelist that has picked the date for the Lord’s coming has been wrong so far. (Laughter) You realize that? I’m talking about the dates that have passed. And so, you don’t want to be going down that road.
But while we don’t know the day and the hour, can we know when it’s near? Amen. Yes. Jesus is pretty clear. Matthew 24, verse 33, “When you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” There are going to be signs where we can know that it is near. And what are some of those signs? Well, there’s quite a few. First of all, Jesus says, in Matthew 24, there’ll be wars and rumors of wars. Well, we’ve had wars all through history and certainly, now, we’ve got rumors of war. Do you know, just a little amazing fact for you, that the world spends over 100 million dollars an hour on soldiers, ammunition, and war machines? Wouldn’t you like to have just a little piece of that? 100 Million dollars an hour on international military expenditures.
The Bible says there’ll be political instability – people’s hearts will be failing for fear – the sea and the waves roaring. And we see that now. There’s just so much volatility and political instability and problems in the middle east and there have been for years. Jesus said there’ll be pestilence – that’s plagues – and various kinds of disease. And we all know about the Ebola crisis that they had a little while ago.
But, you know, I think, really, what the world needs to be concerned about when it comes to a plague is something as simple as a flu. Do you know that during World War I, what killed the most people was not the battles – and they were brutal – of World War I, it was the 1918 flu epidemic that killed 40 million people that year. And, right now, they say that there’s the potential of another strain of that that is resistant to [treatment] and the ability for us to spread that with international travel – you get on an airplane in a tin can with all these other people and it’s hard not to pick something up and to transmit it everywhere. I don’t worry about those things, I’m just saying these are some of the signs.
He said there’ll be plagues, there’ll be natural disasters. Between 2004 and 2014, 18 – and this is from the geological society of America – 18 earthquakes with a magnitude of 8.0 or more rattled subduction zones around the globe. That’s an increase of 265 percent over the average rate of the previous century.” And so, they’re seeing an acceleration of the problems.
Now, before I go any farther, let me tell why these signs matter. We’ve always had wars. There’s always been plagues – you had the black death – you’ve had problems in the environment. There’s, you know, problems with earthquakes and natural disasters, but the Lord said it’ll be labor pains. Paul refers to it as the whole creation groans and travails – it compares it to a birth. Now, we have five children – seven grandchildren – I know something about how this works. Wife says, ‘I’m feeling some pain.’ You rush her off to the hospital and he listens and says, ‘How far apart are they?’ ‘About a day or two.’ He says, ‘Oh, go back home. Those are Braxton-Hicks contractions. That doesn’t mean anything. Your body’s just getting warmed up.’ But, eventually, those pains will start coming and he’ll say, ‘How far apart are they? How severe are they? As they increase in frequency and intensity, you know there’s going to be a birth eventually. And what we’re seeing in the world cannot be denied that with all of these problems there is an increase in frequency and intensity that tells us that the coming of the Lord is going to be soon.
Doug: Don't go anywhere, friends, in just a moment, we'll return for the rest of today's presentation. Are you familiar with the prophetic signs of Christ’s return and just how close we really are to the most extraordinary cosmic event in history? Will we be suddenly and secretly raptured as millions are left behind? Or will Jesus’ return be as loud and bright as lightening from sky to sky? Well, there might be a million different theories out there, but there's only one bible truth, and Jesus promises if we seek, we will find. That's why amazing facts wants you to have the rock-solid facts on this subject with our newest bible resource. It's called "The Day of the Lord." This colorful, fully illustrated magazine contains every fascinating fact you need to know about the when, where, and how of Jesus’ soon return. To get your free copy, call the phone number on the screen and ask for offer # 825, or visit the web address. And after you read this incredible resource, be sure and share it with a friend. Let's return to today's presentation and learn some more amazing facts from the Word of God.
Another problem is just what’s happening to the environment. Half of the world’s wildlife species, National Geographic says, have been lost in the past 40 years. Can you imagine that? Half of the wildlife species have been lost in 40 years.
The Bible says there’ll be violence in the last days. He said, ‘As it was in the days of Noah, where people’s thoughts and there hearts were only evil continually and violence filled the land.’ Every day, more American youth die in gang violence than fighting in foreign wars. That statistic has been true for several years. Jesus said, ‘As it was in the days of Lot, so will it be in the day when The Son of Man shall return.’ – Meaning there’ll be tremendous immorality. I don’t know about some of you that heard there’s a website that encourages people to have an affair. They say, ‘Life is short. Have an affair.’ You notice the girl has got a wedding ring on? And someone breached their database – they claimed to have 60 million people globally – that’s pretty sad. And they were going to release it all if they didn’t bring down their site. They didn’t bring down their site and a lot of these very personal details of people who had been either having affairs or contemplating affairs.
Likewise, as it was, Jesus said, ‘In the days of Lot, so shall it be in the day when The Son of Man is revealed.’ And I think we all know that one of the signs in Lot is they had trouble knowing that God made male and female different. Is it just me or do we have a problem with that in the world today? You notice I’m having to be careful how I say it? But the Bible’s pretty clear - and now it’s not just – you can identify as whatever you want. It’s not just you say, ‘Well, I’m going to identify as a man’ or ‘I’m going to identify’ – ‘I’m going to identify as something else in between.’ And they’re getting drivers licenses where you can have, you know, 50 different options for what your sexual identity is. I’m sorry, God made two. Amen.
And that’s it. Over population – it took about 5,000 years to get the first billion people in the world, then it only took 130 years to get the second billion. Then it took 30 years to get the third billion, 15 years to get the fourth billion. I remember when there were 3 billion. Now they’re pushing towards 8 billion people.
You know, for me also, one of the amazing signs that Jesus is coming soon is found in Daniel chapter 12. It says, ‘But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro,” – and people are running to and fro: National Geographic magazine said, a couple of years ago, people are travelling far from home more than ever before in human history.” And there just – the international travel – as much as we complain, it’s happening more and more. All the planes are full that I’m on. And He said, going back to Daniel, “Knowledge will increase.” Look at the explosion of knowledge. Now, you can have a lot of knowledge and no wisdom. Wisdom is knowing what to do with knowledge. You can have knowledge and make an atomic bomb and not have the wisdom to not use it. So, man has certainly got a lot of knowledge.
I don’t know if you’ve heard about the hadron accelerator – I think that was on the screen just a moment ago. It’s the largest scientific experiment in the world. 17-Mile tunnel underneath France and Switzerland – 500-feet below ground – 10,000 scientists and they’re trying to isolate and discover what they call the ‘Higgs-Bossen’ – the God particle. They’re trying to figure out how the universe was developed and they spent all this money to try and find out, you know, what does everything come from? And, I don’t have time to go through all of the amazing inventions that have taken place in the last century. Some of you here, you grew up with kerosene lights. And there’s still people here who remember when you rode a horse to get from point A to point B. Look at how the world has changed in one generation.
But, for me, the most amazing sign is in Matthew 24, verse 14. Amen. Jesus said, “And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world for a witness unto the nations and then the end will come.” The end might come? Will. He said the end shall come – it will come. Is the Gospel being preached in all the world? Yes. Never before – I mean, even as I speak right now, this is going up by satellite, it’s on at least three different satellite networks, it’s going through the internet. There’s people who are watching in New Guinea and Australia and Norway and just all over the planet. In China, Amazing Facts had the privilege of being the first Christian ministry of any denomination to do a public evangelistic meeting in China – amen! Since – in the last 59 years – and we videotaped it and Hope China did it and it’s being broadcast around China – it was translated. So the Gospel is going around the world. We get internet – we get e-mail from people who say they’re watching our program in Middle Eastern countries – they say, ‘I can’t tell you my name because if this got out my life could be in danger.’ But they’re watching. The Gospel is going in all the world. Amen. And so, that’s why I think Jesus is coming. He didn’t say everybody would believe, He said, ‘As a witness to all nations, then the end will come.’
So are we getting ready for Jesus’ coming? Amen. What will the angels do at the second coming of Jesus? The Bible says He will send His angels and they will gather together His elect from the four winds of heaven – that means north, south, east, west – and they’ll bring them to the Lord – they’re going to be caught up together with the Lord. Now, since we’re living just before the Second Coming, how should we relate to this solemn and glorious event? He says, ‘Therefore be ready, for in such an hour you think not, The Son of Man is coming.’
I did a program like this back in 1999 and there was millennial fever and everybody thought the world was going to end with Y2K. Any of you remember that? Yes. That was the mother of all false alarms. And I knew people sold everything and moved up into Montana and, you know, lived on garbanzo beans or whatever and they just cut up their credit cards and said, ‘We’ve got to get off the grid. The world is going to end with Y2K. Everyone thought, ‘2000, something’s going to happen.’ You can listen to my old tape, I said, ‘I don’t think it’s going to happen now.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because everybody’s looking for it now.’ (Laughter) Jesus said, ‘As such an hour as you think not.’ And who’s He talking to? The church. You notice that when Jesus tells parables about His second coming He said, ‘Before it happens a lot of people are sleeping.’ There were ten virgins – five wise, five foolish – all asleep, right? Right. And then the Bridegroom shouted that He’s coming – they had to wake up. Jesus said, ‘If that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My Lord delays His coming.’’ – Even if he says it in his heart – and we’re asleep at that critical moment.
What were the disciples doing just before the cross? Sleeping. He said, ‘Pray with me.’ They went to sleep. On the mountain when Moses and Elijah appear and God speaks, the disciples fell asleep. So Jesus said, Mark chapter 13, “Watch. Watch. Watch.” How do you watch? You have to be sober. You have to be vigilant. You have to be careful that you are not allowing yourself to doze off. Do you have a relationship with Jesus? Are you spending regular time with him? Do everything you can do. Make a note, set it on your computer, have an alarm go off. But if you take time to pray, if you take time to read His Word, if you take time – share your faith. And you need to be studying. Know what you believe. Be ready always to give an answer to anyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
So how will people be rewarded at the Second Coming of Jesus? There’s going to be two groups. The Lord says, ‘Behold, I come and My reward is with Me to give to every man according as his works shall be.” What will the righteous say when Jesus comes? “Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him and He will save us.”
Do you live for the Lord? Are you waiting for Him? Yes. You know, a few years ago, a captain, Scott O’Grady, was flying over Bosnia during the war there, and his jet was shot down. And he parachuted off into enemy territory. And he knew that if he was captured that – they had been doing bomb runs and that he would be either killed or tortured or both. And so he had to hide. Cut loose his parachute, went under some bushes – he knew when he was shot down that others saw his parachute come down and he was hiding under bushes. He put his camouflage gloves over his face. He saw people walking right by the bushes. He heard the soldiers with guns talking and walking around him and he had to stay perfectly still. For six days he hid, terrified – he’d try to sleep and stay still during the day. About midnight – he’d get up during the night and he’d run – trying and get further and further and try and get out in the wilderness – didn’t even radio for a few days because he knew they’d be listening for his radio frequency. And he caught rainwater in a sponge and ate bugs and put all of his training into practice.
You can read, where he said in this time magazine a pilot’s story, “I prayed to God and asked Him for a lot of things and He delivered me throughout the entire time.” O’Grady told Time in an interview. “When I prayed for rain He gave me rain. One time I prayed, ‘Lord, let me have at least someone know I’m alive and maybe come rescue me.’ And guess what? That night T.O.” – That’s a fellow F-16 pilot, Thomas O. Hanford – “came up on the radio.” At that moment O’Grady knew his ordeal was coming to an end. Amen. What he didn’t know is that they had a fix on him. They knew he was shot down and they mobilized the entire U.S. Air force, Marines – NATO was all preoccupied with rescuing one soldier. That’s how much one soldier means. And when they finally came and he had to run up on this hill – he knew they has just a very short time – the Marines came in with the helicopters – they saw his smoke – they landed and they picked him up and he was so thankful to be caught up and saved from enemy territory.
Well, we’ve been down here for 6,000 years, has Jesus forgotten about us? No. We’re in enemy territory. If you’re a Christian, you’re a citizen of another kingdom, amen? Amen. And He is not going to neglect His promise. Christ has told us very plainly, ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it was not so, I would have told you. I will come again.’ Amen. He came the first time just like He promised. He’s going to come the second time. Do you believe it, friends? Yes. Amen. And He wants to take us back to a world where there is no more pain or sorrow or suffering.
Only thing that matters in this life is knowing Jesus and sharing Jesus. This world is not going to last. You and I know about one that will last forever, that is better than anything we can imagine. It is not a fairy tale, it is one of the only things that is real, is the message of the Gospel and we need to get that out to the world, amen? Amen.
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Doug: People everywhere are wondering about the future. They see that the governments of the world are polarized. They see that there's the threat of war and even nuclear war. Natural disasters seem to be coming at an accelerating pace, and they wonder what the future holds. The most exciting product that Amazing Facts has ever produced was called "The Final Events of Prophecy" DVD. People have asked us, "Please put that in a magazine form." Well, it is done now. We're so excited to tell you that it's here. Your friends, your family, even strangers can now better understand what is coming in the future and how they can prepare. This beautifully illustrated 32-page magazine shares the final signs of the end time. It talks about prophecies fulfilled, the world crisis on the rise, and it includes a special section giving the four steps to eternity to help a person make decisions to follow Jesus. This is the perfect resource to get and share with your friends so they can understand the final events of Bible prophecy.
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