How is today different than yesterday?

In my study of Revelation I’ve learned that this generation is not the only one that thought they were living in the end time. Martin Luther thought he was living in the end time. He thought the Pope was the antichrist and that the end of time was near. Many thought that the Turks were the scourge of God, that the Black Death was a final judgment.

Going back further, those living under the terror of Nero and Domitian thought the end was near. John in the Revelation of Jesus Christ said the, “time is near.” as did Paul in several of his epistles. When the Muslims began their conquests many thought the end was near. Thinking that the end is near is not new it is as old as the Christian faith. So why is now different than all those time when our ancestors thought the end was near? Are we even supposed to concern ourselves with the end of the age and if not why is so much in the old and new testament concerned with the day of the Lord? Why does the Lord in Matthew 24 when asked what will the signs of the end of the age be describe it in such detail?   

Matthew 24 is a road map in a sense because Jesus lays down some conditions and warnings. He says we must “watch out that no one misleads” us. He says “many will come in” His name and will mislead many; this has been and is being done. He says there will be wars and rumors of wars; again this has happened and is happening. “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom”; this is nothing new it’s been happening and is happening now. “There will be famines and earthquakes in various places”; still nothing new it has happened and is happening now. Jesus tells us that these things are just the beginning of “birth pains.” From this statement I believe we can agree that we have been in the beginning of things for quite a while.

Jesus then tells his disciples that they will be persecuted and killed. This obviously happened after His crucifixion and is happening now around the world. Nothing new here either. Christians real Christians have always been persecuted for their faith. We’ve been beheaded, tortured, enslaved, made fun of, marginalized, called heretics throughout history. This has happened and is happening now around the world.  There is nothing new about this in fact those who follow the Lord have always been persecuted just look at the prophets of the Old Testament, look at the disciples and apostles of the New Testament and how organized religion of the Dark and Middle ages persecuted Christians in the very name of Christ! Further there have been many, many false prophets and teachers throughout the ages. Nothing new here either. Jesus goes on to tell us that lawlessness will increase again nothing new, laws both God’s and man’s are enforced at the whim of the government (s). Just think about the immigration laws of this country and how political correctness has trumped law.  He says that the love of many will grow cold. Again history shows that this has happened and is happening though maybe a little more than before.   What is interesting here is that Jesus links lawlessness with the love of many growing cold.

Jesus tells us that, “the person who endures to the end will be saved.” and adds, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” This is new in that the gospel, the true gospel has not been preached throughout the inhabited earth until this last century even today there are places where the gospel has not been preached.

Jesus tells us in verse 24:15 that, “when we see the abomination of desolation” it’s time to get really worried. The abomination of desolation is simply the desecration of the Holy of Holies, (more on this in later writings). When this happens we are to flee Jerusalem. Kind of like Lot did when he left Sodom, run don’t look back just run. There are those that say this has happened already and indeed it has, Rome laid siege to Jerusalem and then left because of a civil war.  This gave those in Jerusalem time to get out of town. When the Romans returned they destroyed Jerusalem and there was not a stone left of the Temple one on top of the other. Gold is a prime motivator, seems the gold from the dome melted, because of the great fire, down into the very cracks of the stones of the temple. Romans loving gold had to tear down each and every stone to get at it.

So far in this writing a good case may be made for this time of ours not being the so called, “end time.” However, Jesus adds one little statement that gives one pause, Chapter 24: 21-22, “for then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen. And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” Let’s consider this statement. We have always had cities destroyed to the last man, woman and child just look at the Israelites when they conquered Canaan!  Consider the Mongols when they moved west, Rome and Carthage, the Christian, (I know the crusaders were not Christians but conquers.) sack of Jerusalem during the crusades all of which types had happened before and since the time of Christ. Imagine what it was like in Europe during WWI and WWII, the holocaust. Clearly, the world has had times worse than the fall of Jerusalem in 70 BCE both before its fall and after. What is different? We now have the capacity to destroy whole cities with one bomb! We can eliminate whole populations with a spray can of nerve or biological agents! Terrorists can destroy hundreds and even thousands in a matter of minutes. That is the difference between today and yesterday!