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As we begin the 21st century, the evidence around us would suggest that the World is hurtling headlong into disaster. Daily on TV and in newspapers people are alarmed at what they see. In almost every country in the World lawlessness is on the increase. In the United States of America alone, there are over thirty thousand murders per year and the numbers are rising. There are one thousand five hundred abortions and a thousand teenage pregnancies every day in the US. Rape, violent crime and drug abuse is rising daily and tearing apart the very fabric of society in countries worldwide. From wars to famines, from nuclear threats to global warming, the evidence of imminent danger surrounds us.
Scientists tell us that the World cannot support the growth in population. The amount of children born in China every three months is equivalent to the whole population of Ireland, about four million. By the year 2040, the population of the World will have doubled from what it is today, to almost twelve billion people. At the same time we are beginning to feel the effects of global warming because of the expansion of the hole in the ozone layer. Only ten years ago this hole was the size of Holland; today it is bigger than the whole of Europe. As a result, skin cancer and other related diseases are on the increase in many places and governments are warning people to use sun barrier creams or to stay out of the harmful rays of the sun.
Diseases that we thought we had conquered forever are reemerging. These include cholera, TB and malaria, which are spreading and killing in great numbers once again. Doctors are alarmed that antibiotics are becoming ineffective because of over-use. The spread of Aids is rapidly increasing in most countries and is endemic in others. Scientists have predicted that by the year 2020, sixty million people will have full blown Aids in Africa alone. To date, 25 million have died of Aids in Africa alone.The threat of a Bird-Flu pandemic has the World medical community on high alert. Add to this the rise in the number of people dying from cancer and heart failure and we have a gloomy picture of a sick planet that is getting worse.
War and violence surround us. It seems that almost daily our news bulletins show graphic images of nations waging war on their neighbours and other tribes, slaughtering men, women and children with an evil that is hard to contemplate or understand. At present, there are hundreds of conflicts going on all over the globe and the potential for war is evident in the hatred that is simmering beneath the surface in many other areas.
Famine and death stalk the ravaged landscape in the Third World. While the developed world is so rich that we could land men on the moon, millions live in squalor and die for want of a little food and fresh water. It seems the World is like a great ship; while the rich eat, drink and dance on the upper deck, they seem oblivious to the poor and depraved who wallow in the hold beneath, impoverished in the dark night of the soul.
How long can our small planet endure the endless pursuit of profit at the expense of our natural resources? The rain forests are vital to the air that we breathe, yet every 5 minutes an area the size of a football pitch is cut down in the name of profit. Many of our rivers are so polluted that nothing can live or survive in them, and in certain countries most of the rivers are little more than sewers used only as dumps for industrial waste. In Norway there are lakes so dead that no trace of living organisms or plants can be found in them. This is because of the pollution caused by the environmental disaster of Chernobyl. Traces of nuclear fallout can still be found in trout caught in the small mountain lakes of the West of Ireland because of the same accident. The late Mr Jacques Cousteau, world renowned marine biologist, recently said that marine life deteriorated by fifty per cent in his lifetime because of the damage done to the oceans by man.
Add to these all the other ills that we witness in society today; the rise of marriage breakup and suicides, murder, widespread crime, pornography, child abuse, lack of discipline in schools, widespread promiscuity and the lack of morals...the list goes on.
Can the World avoid the holocaust that appears to be inevitable or is there any solution to the destruction which seems to be ahead? Is there any hope for mankind or are we doomed to failure? Jesus Christ and other biblical prophets have told us exactly what is going to happen in the future. Some of the things they said would happen include:
On the following pages I will endeavour to show you that there is hope for those who want it. These are the prophecies of Jesus Christ the Son of God and other prophets such as the apostles Matthew, Luke and John.
To most people the Bible is a closed book. We have been told it contains fables and stories of men that bear little meaning to our day and time. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible told us that much of what we see happening today would happen. For instance, it was prophesied by Jesus Christ (and by Daniel almost five hundred years before him), that the Jews would be driven out of Palestine and Jerusalem would be trodden down. The Bible prophesied that the Jews would be scattered over the face of the earth, that they would be despised, persecuted and hated above all nations. It also said that in the latter days (or End Times), God would bring them back to Israel and establish the Jewish Nation once again in Jerusalem. God said He would do this as a sign to other nations. Looking at history we can see the following facts:
There was a noted biblical scholar who lived and preached in Dublin around 1850. His name was Grattan Guinness and he was related to the famous Guinness family. He said that the Jews would return to Israel and establish their nation once again. He was scorned and laughed at by critics who told him this was impossible as no Jew had lived in the land for over one thousand eight hundred years. Today, there are over six million Jews in Israel and more are returning all the time from the countries that God prophesied they would return from (see Isaiah 11: 11-12).
Jesus Christ and the Hebrew prophets said that there would be a generation of people, somewhere in time, that would witness the signs of the last days. They told us that one of the first signs would be the return of the Jews to Israel. At the same time they told us there would be other signs that we were close to the end times. We were told that:
Daniel prophesied over two thousand five hundred years ago that the ‘last’ generation would experience a huge increase in knowledge. If we look at the speed of change in the last eighty years or so this rings true. We have come from the first flimsy plane made by the Wright brothers to landing on the moon, to space shuttles. We have come from horse-drawn carriages to racing cars and from the Pony Express to cyberspace and the internet. It is difficult for us to imagine a God who knows what is going to happen before it does, but this is our limitation. As a noted Bible teacher once said 'old Henry understood the Ford but the Ford did not understand Henry'. God is not bound by space and time. When He looks down on us He sees the past, present and future all at the same time. That is why He was able to prophecy hundreds (if not thousands) of things throughout the Bible, sometimes hundreds and thousands of years before the event occurred. The Book of Revelation is still future yet it was written by John on the Greek island of Patmos almost two thousand years ago.
The first prophecy concerning the Messiah was in Genesis 3:15. All throughout the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah are everywhere. For instance, in the last twenty four hours of Jesus Christ's life, twenty-five specific Old Testament prophecies came to pass.
It was prophesied that the Messiah would be: sold for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11: 12), betrayed by a friend (Psalms 41: 9), forsaken by his disciples (Zechariah 13: 7), accused by false witnesses (Psalms 35: 11), be dumb before his accusers (Isaiah 53: 7) and scourged (Isaiah 50: 6). He would have his garments parted; (Psalms 22: 18), be mocked by his enemies (Psalms 22: 7-8); be given vinegar to drink (Psalms 69: 21); have not a bone of his body broken (Psalms 34: 20) and die with malefactors (Isaiah 53: 12). It was also said that the price of his betrayal be used to buy a potters field (Zechariah 11: 13) and that he should be buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53: 9).
All these prophecies were made from five hundred to one thousand years before Christ was born, yet they were all fulfilled in a twenty-four hour period. Is this coincidence or Divine revelation? Almost one third of the Bible is prophetic. These are a few quick examples. There are multitudes of them. When you start to put these prophecies together, that’s when you begin to see the jigsaw falling into place.
We are now ready to see a summary of what the Bible tells us will occur in the Last Days and the signs that will illustrate that these days are at hand.