RECOGNIZING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES

What’s with all the crazy things happening in our world today?  What does the future hold, or one could ask, is there a future at all for mankind?  Bad things are happening all around us and our world often seems to be spinning out of control.  Dangerous drugs, murder, rape and terrorist attacks are becoming more and more common.   Such things used to be done only in secret, but now occur in broad daylight.  Criminals used to try and hide their evil deeds, but not so much today.  Added to that are outbreaks of new diseases, significant changes in weather patterns, threats of war and nuclear attack, dramatic increase in immorality, the structure of the family under attack like never before, etc., etc. There appears to be something major brewing in this unstable world we live in.  But all these things are signs that are telling us something about our society.  

The Necessity of Discernment

In the gospel of Matthew we see Jesus Christ rebuking the spiritual leaders of His time:  

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Him asked Him to show them a sign from Heaven.  But He answered and said to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’  And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’  Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?” (Matthew 16:1-3 - NASV)

Jesus held the people of His day accountable and expected them to discern the signs of the times and to understand that the Scriptures pointed to Him as the Messiah.  But through their unbelief and their hard hearts, many missed the signs and missed the “time of [their] visitation” (Luke 19:44) and rejected the Messiah!  So, if THEY were expected to recognize the signs of the times in their own day, why would the same not be expected from US today?  In fact, it is said that there are far more Bible verses pointing to Jesus’ second coming than His first coming.  So, how much more accountable are we today to recognize the signs of His return?

Indifference

These signs of our day should be obvious to Christians.  But there is so much indifference, such a great lack of concern for the gospel, even in the church today.   And because of this lukewarm attitude, many Christians don’t study the Bible and are spiritually weak and vulnerable.  They are in a state of spiritual sleep, rather than a state of alertness (Mark 13:35-37; 1 Thessalonians 5:6) and, with no discernment, they are so easily deceived.  Being deprived of personal study of Scripture makes it easier to miss the signs altogether.

Early Warning System

In our advanced society today, we want, even demand, the security of early warning systems.  We have equipment failure alarms, smoke alarms, fire alarms, hurricane and tornado warning systems, railroad crossing warning lights, and even engine warning lights on our vehicles to let us know when there is a problem coming up.  Many of these things are required by law and are meant to protect us from great harm or expense.

 

And God, in His mercy, has given mankind the ultimate “early warning system.”  It is the most important (and dependable) early warning system of all time – Bible prophecy.  And these signs that we are seeing today (that even unbelievers can hardly miss), do confirm the truth of God’s promises.  They point to a cataclysmic time period, known as “the Day of the Lord.”  It will be a time on earth of destruction, chaos, confusion, terror, and trouble such as the world has never seen.  It will be a time of judgment, and it is on the horizon.  For more details on that topic, see here:

http://theresurrectionstillspeaks.blogspot.com/2014_09_01_archive.html

Birth Pangs

Jesus said that the signs that lead up to the Day of the Lord would be like “birth pangs” (Matthew 24:8; Mark 13:8), i.e., the labor pains a woman has before giving birth.  This means that they would increase in frequency and intensity as that time approaches.  And that’s exactly what’s happening today. 

  

The purpose of these signs is not just to have something to talk about, but to put the fear of God in us and to cause us to conform to His will.  It should cause every Christian to want to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible before that “great and terrible Day of the Lord” arrives (Joel 2:31).

The purpose of this article is to alert everyone to the signs around us, and to show that it is by God’s grace that we are allowed to see where the world is headed.   Our intention is to offer hope in these troubling times and to warn the church to wake up.  We urge all Christians to pray for discernment.

 

Note that it is not our purpose in this article to list every specific sign.  There are many very good articles out there that detail these signs.  Here are just a few of those articles:

http://www.lamblion.com/articles/articles_signs3.php

http://www.end-times-bible-prophecy.com/signs-of-the-times.html

http://www.end-times-bible-prophecy.com/signs-of-the-end-times.html

http://laymanswatch.com/LaymansWatch_files/Overviews/TheCrucialPerspectiveTheTimesoftheSigns.htm

“I Don’t Believe It!”

Many are saying, “This world is not that bad.  We can make it.  I have faith in mankind.”  Sorry to say, but man is NOT getting better and better, as “evolution” might try to suggest.  There may be great advances in technology, but the heart of man is still wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).   As a whole, our thoughts and intentions are not getting better, but worse… and the signs of our time prove it.

And many will say, “I don’t believe in all that religious hype used by Christians and their Bible-based scare tactics.”  But why does no one ever call fire alarms and railroad crossing lights “scare tactics”?  Don’t these things also warn us in case of trouble, just as the Bible does?  Getting caught in a fire is a possibility, and colliding with a train is a possibility, but rest assured that the Day of the Lord is not a mere possibility.  There is no “in case it happens.”  According to Scripture, it WILL happen.

The Bible speaks of those who will mock and say, “Where is the coming of the Lord?  They’ve been talking about that day for centuries; it ain’t happened yet, and it ain’t gonna happen!” (2 Peter 3:4)  But whenever it does happen, some of those very same people will be saying, “But why didn’t anyone tell us this was going to happen?!!!”  Well, we’re telling you now…  The signs are everywhere.  One need only look at the daily headlines.  What will YOU do about the signs of our time?

   

Will you be ready?  Study the Bible and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust in HIS work on the cross (and that alone) for your salvation, and let Him change your life.  This is the only escape from the Day of the Lord.

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 21:36)

THE CURSE OF THE JUDAIZERS

Imagine living in a time when travel pretty much consisted only of walking, boat, and horseback (or other beast of burden).  You travel many miles on foot, risking your health and even your life, bringing the good news, the gospel message of Jesus Christ to a mostly pagan and barbaric country.  You convert many to Christianity there and start a number of churches along the way.  Your message has been clear and direct, mincing no words, yet, spoken in love.  Before you leave this faraway land, the churches there are showing a lot of promise.  Ok, great.  But you find out some time later that the teaching for which you risked so much, and fought so hard to share, has been twisted in a manner that voids the whole message and puts their souls at stake!

Such was the situation in the Apostle Paul’s case.  On his first missionary trip, he traveled through the region of Galatia, preaching the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, Who (mercifully) came to pay the full penalty for our sins.  But the message got distorted somewhere along the way.  Paul’s famous question to the saints in Galatia jerked them back into reality… “O foolish Galatians, WHO HATH BEWITCHED YOU, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” (Galatians 3:1) 

 

No New Testament epistle has a stronger message than the one to the Galatian churches.  Paul states that the message that he first brought to them is, and always will be, the true gospel.  He says that if ANYONE (including himself) would preach a different gospel, that messenger is cursed:

“But though we, or an angel from Heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.  As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8-9)

Sobering words!  But what was it, exactly, that grieved Paul so much?  What was this other gospel that had crept into the Galatian church?  It was the message of the Judaizers.  It was simply a message that accepted Jesus’ work on the cross for salvation, but also added something else to it.  It was salvation “by faith plus works.”  The works that the Judaizers added were circumcision and the Law of Moses (Acts 15:1, 5).  Ok, so what’s wrong with adding the Law of Moses?  Wasn’t this law directly from God, and therefore the ultimate guide to righteous works?  Absolutely.  And wasn’t the Mosaic Law summed up in the Ten Commandments?  Indeed it was.  And did not Jesus, Himself, condense all these even further into only two commandments, i.e., love God and love your neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40)?  So, what’s the big deal?  What could possibly be wrong with any work that would fit in the category of these two commandments? 

 

The fact is, ALL good works fall under this category.  So, nothing is wrong with the Mosaic Law itself, it’s the fact that it was added to the cross.  Therefore, any time we try to add good works…. any good works…. to the work of the cross in order to be saved, we are saying that Jesus’ work was just not quite enough.  But there is only ONE work that can save us… and it is HIS work, HIS suffering, HIS paying the penalty on the cross.  We can do nothing to add to our salvation at any point in our Christian walk.  In fact, if we even try to, we are insulting Him and we are cut off, we are severed from Christ and fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4)!  We have deserted Jesus for another gospel (Galatians 1:6)!  Any mixture of God’s grace and man’s works to be saved is fatal.

But the error of the Judaizers is not just a problem of the past.  We have many today who claim to be Christians, yet who strongly embrace this evil doctrine.  The Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and even many Protestant churches all claim to believe and trust in the work of Jesus, yet try to add some type of work(s) to the cross in order to be saved.  This creates a false gospel.  It may be water baptism, it may be speaking in tongues, or perhaps performing the “moral aspects” of the Mosaic Law, helping your neighbor, giving to the poor, becoming a martyr (dying for your faith), etc., etc.  All these things can be good, but they cannot be trusted in to save us, even partially.  They cannot contribute to our justification.  Salvation is a gift, and you don’t work for a gift (Romans 4:4-5).  There is no amount of suffering or work that can be “added to” Jesus’ work for salvation.  To add even one of these works is to say that Jesus did not completely pay the penalty for our sins (John 1:29; Hebrews 9:12; 1 John 2:2).  This is blasphemy.  No wonder Paul was so severe with the Galatians.

 

Are we claiming that Christians should not do good works?  No, we are not at all saying that.  But we should simply do good works out of a love for God, and in appreciation for what Jesus has done.  And we will be rewarded for our good works which are done in the right spirit.  The wrong attitude would be, “I am doing these good works to help my chances of getting into Heaven.”  But if Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross wasn’t enough BY ITSELF, then surely nothing could save us.

Put your faith, your trust, in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone.  Don’t put yourself under the curse… don’t be a Judaizer.

See also this article:

 http://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2010/08/sola-fide-revisited.html