By Oscar Pimentel, General Overseer
There is an apprehension in the minds of people of the world. They can hardly express what they think, but they seem to feel that something of a serious nature is at hand. Some tremble at the unknown and others invent excuses for the many strange happenings of our day. Restlessly they wait and watch as they sit in darkness, not understanding that we are living near the rapture of the Church and the final scenes of earth’s history. But Paul said to the saints, “ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (1 Thess. 5:4). The Spirit-filled minister and member of the Church, who walks in the light of God’s Word, understands the day of the Lord is at hand. These men and women are working, waiting, and watching for our Lord’s appearing. The apostle Peter said, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night…” (2 Peter 3:9, 10).
Paul, Peter, John, and the angels joined the Lord to speak of His impending return. Addressing His Church, Jesus said, “…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 14:3). The “two men” of Acts, in white apparel, said, “…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” (Acts 1:11). Although thousands of years have passed since His promise, we know of a surety that Christ is coming again. At that time, the Church will be without spot, wrinkle, or blemish and shall be changed from mortality to immortality to meet Him in the sky. Not everyone on earth will witness this first part of His second coming, only those who are prepared, awake, working, watching, and waiting for Him. Christ will come to honor those who’ve loved Him and kept His commandments. This will be that glorious moment in which He descends from heaven with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, to resurrect the sainted dead and rapture away His Church to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Just a little while longer, saints, and we shall see the King! Just a little while longer and we will fly away! Just a little while longer and our pilgrimage will end! Just a little while longer and He will wipe away every tear from our eyes! Just a little while longer and we will be at home with friends! Just a little while longer and a new day will begin! Just a little while longer and we will live with heaven’s throng! Just a little while longer and we will take our heavenly journey! Just a little while longer and the Saviour will present us “faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 1:24).
“But of that day and hour,” said Jesus, “knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matt. 24:36). Christ stated plainly that He could not make known the precise time of His second appearing; it is God’s mystery. But He instructed His disciples to “learn a parable of the fig tree. Just as men know when summer is approaching by the tender branch putting forth leaves, so we can know His coming “is near, even at the doors” (Matt. 24:32, 33) by the evidence of prophesied events, lawlessness, and the immoral state of a world that finds its counterpart only in the days of Noah and Lot.
The predominant conditions of the world in the last days are depicted in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 17 and 21. They mention false messiahs, who would arise and say, “I am Christ,” and deceive many. Josephus speaks of several of these imposters appearing even before the destruction of Jerusalem. The same deception practiced then has been attempted through the centuries as many have claimed to be the Son of God reincarnated. I’ve read of at least seven men around the world today in the countries of England, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Zambia, Japan, and the Philippines, who claim to be the Christ. Many of them have deceived a great number of people. Consider too the growing counterfeit religions that falsely cling to the name “Christian” but say, “…we will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach” (Isa. 4:1). These are those who eat their own nonspiritual food, wear their garments of human righteousness, and are full of seducing spirits and doctrines of devils to draw away the masses.
No surprise then, when asked by the disciples for a sign of His coming, the first thing Jesus said was, “…Take heed that no man deceive you” (Matt. 24:4). His appearing will be nothing like that of the pretenders. The first part of His second coming will take place suddenly and without warning, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52), “as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24:27). Then He will return with His saints, after the marriage supper, and His feet will touch this earth again. “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south” (Zech. 14:4).
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record Christ’s mention of wars, rumors of war, and nations rising against one another as signs of His second coming. The twentieth century was dominated by conflict and the twenty-first doesn’t seem to be faring too well either, with the spirit of war all around us as news headlines tell of emerging technologies to develop weapons for deployment globally. Nations are now swelling their standing armies as though they expect to engage in bloody conflicts and see catastrophe and destruction at any moment.
The New Testament writers tell of famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. Throughout history there have been many famines and even today, desperate hunger exists in many countries. Because we may live in a place not adversely affected by food shortages we may tend to be ignorant of this fact, however, populations suffering from a lack of food are widespread. Since Christ spoke of it as a sign to indicate the last days and His soon return, it behooves us to be conscious that hundreds of thousands
of people die of hunger each year and many millions teeter on the very edge of famine even now.
The entire world has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the last few years. Who could expect how quickly “normal” circumstances would change or how they would affect our daily lives? In His discourse, Jesus spoke of pestilence as one of the indicators of His return. Despite giant steps by medical science, public health officials around the world are worried about the outbreak of new and different epidemics and pandemics. Just recently, the World Health Organization announced that monkeypox is a public health emergency of international concern. And then there are the many old diseases that have scourged and tormented mankind, such as malaria and tuberculosis, that regardless of medical breakthroughs to combat, are on the increase, along with worsening diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. All of these and many others seem to be intensifying as the end approaches.
In the last several years, most of us have realized that there have been earthquakes more frequently, sometimes in unusual places. In some places, they are a common occurrence with such a small magnitude that they don’t make headlines. But “earthquakes in divers places” means earthquakes happening outside of places that normally have them. Jesus was not simply prophesying of a greater frequency of earthquakes leading up to His second coming, but that they would occur in places not expected and with unparalleled magnitude, some of which will cause the “sea and the waves” to roar (Luke 21:25). Have we not seen these things around us in many parts of the world today?
While it’s true these things have occurred in different generations since Christ, a most telling sign of the times is that the preaching of the gospel as a witness to all nations would also take place. Wars, earthquakes, and pestilences would not usher in the coming of the Lord, the gospel would also need to be preached everywhere! Jesus Christ said that the “gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matt. 24:14). He does not say all the world will be converted, but that the gospel will be preached in all the world. The gospel of the kingdom has reached many, many nations. There are various means by which the good news of salvation is being proclaimed in our day. Through digital platforms, books, newsletters, articles, and even films and radio. There is hardly a nation that has not been given the gospel. The tiny Micronesian nation of Kiribati, that one would be hard pressed to find on a map of the Pacific Ocean, even on that little-known island, the gospel of Jesus Christ arrived many years ago.
As the Saviour continued describing the world’s condition at His coming, He said, “as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man… Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot…” (Luke 17:26, 28). What was the world like at the time of Noah? We are told “that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). The inhabitants of that world turned their backs on God and forgot about their Maker. They followed after their own unholy imaginations and violent ways and were destroyed as a result. The days of Lot were not much different. The Bible says of Sodom and Gomorrah that their sin was “very grievous” (Gen. 18:20). Although other sins were undoubtedly present in those cities, they were also engaged in the grievous sin of homosexuality. Their saturation with untamable passions, wickedness, and perversion was the cause of their overthrow. Today’s world has similarly plunged deeper into sin, brazenly indulging unrestrained fleshly freedoms to such a degree that they’ve established something called “Pride Month,” but the Scripture warns of the unnatural and wayward course of those who reject the gospel message.
In Luke’s gospel, the Lord further describes the day of Lot by saying, “They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage… they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded…” (Luke 17:27, 28). This could describe our world right now. In countries of prosperity and abundance, it seems that man is still completely absorbed in eating and drinking, planting, and building. Christ didn’t say these were all bad things or that they were all bad people, surely there must have been some decent people from a moral standpoint. But decent people are not always righteous people. Even they can forget about God and walk according to the course of this world. Some will go as far as to say, “Why be concerned about a life to come when the present is so satisfying and improving every day?” The lure of earthly gain has many occupied with buying and selling, yet entirely unresponsive to God’s program and without concern for eternity. Their indifferent attitude will be their demise. This world is following the same path as the old one. Man rejects the truth and loves himself and pleasures instead of God. He is without natural affection, fierce, and a despiser of those who are good.
This world eagerly seeks knowledge but disregards God’s Holy Word that says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge…” (Prov. 1:7). The prophet Daniel said, “knowledge shall be increased” (Dan. 12:4), but not the knowledge of God. While science and technology have made great strides to benefit humanity, much of their advancement hastens a time in which God will be entirely pushed out of the picture and replaced by secular, material, and humanistic ideology. The tragedy is that some who profess to be Christians are also living by these same impulses. They don’t have time for God who loves them, yet they carelessly chase after earthly ambitions. They sing “This world is not my home; I’m only passing through,” but it seems the comforts and conveniences of this present life have made the world a delightful place for them to inhabit. The warning of our Lord is, “…take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:34-36).
Christ and His holy apostles exhort His Church to an attitude of constant expectancy with a setting of “affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:2). Let us hear them a little more: “Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is… Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping” (Mark 13:33, 35, 36). “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thess. 5:6). “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord… Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching…” (Luke 12:35-37).
If we are asleep, oh Lord, stir us and wake us! Those who truly believe the return of Christ for His Church is not delayed will not let themselves be snared by the excesses and cares of this life or be negligent to what is most needful in this day; to watch for the Lord and purify their souls by obedience to His Word. In Matthew 24:45, Jesus asks, “Who then is a faithful and wise servant…?” The faithful and wise one is persuaded that His Lord is at the door and declares it, not so much by words, but by actions and zeal in the vineyard of the Lord. He labors to see lost souls saved and gives warning to his generation as he readies himself. Jesus says, “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing” (Matt. 24:46). But Christ brings into view another class of servant whom He calls “evil.” This servant does not deny that his Lord is coming but his heart says, “My Lord delayeth his coming” (Matt. 24:48). Doubtless there are many who are tempted to think that His coming is not so near at hand, but it is near, “even at the doors.”
I want to solemnly encourage every minister and member of The Church of God to be in a constant state of expectation and readiness. Satan sees that his time is short and he has set all his powers against the beautiful Bride of Christ to try to deceive, delude, occupy, and absorb as many individual members as possible, until their persuasion of the Lord’s soon coming is banished from their hearts and minds.
“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (1 Thess. 5:1-4).