BE WATCHFUL OF END TIMES

“Take ye head, Watch and Pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” - Mark 13.33-37

       We are living in the end times. Jesus is speaking about himself in these verses. He says, “I am going to leave this world and go to a far country but I am going to come back at anytime, any hour, any year, which is unannounced. So, Be Watchful.” But something quite human is happening now. There are two groups of people in our midst. The first group of people think that it has been 2000 years since Jesus said these words and he still did not come. Because his coming seems to be postponed indefinitely, some of us have gone to a state of sleep. Knowing this, Jesus himself said us to be ‘Watchful’. Another group of people are scoffers. {2Pet 3.3-5} Of course, they are not the people of the world. These people are the one who have scripture knowledge, but still mocks at the coming of Christ. Why are they mocking? Because they want to walk according to their own lusts. Thus, they are willingly ignoring Christ’s coming.

       Now, the first thing, I want to tell you is that Christians are not the only one who say that these are the last days. Some people think that, by saying about the coming of the Lord, we can scare the people and bring them into Christianity. It is not so. I am going to present some facts both from science and from the Word of God. So, you can make your own judgements and see whether the coming of Christ is true or not.

1. Doom’s day clock:

 In 1947, a clock was setup in a university of Chicago. This clock was made by Scientists; it is not the usual clock that we have at our homes. It is manually shifted. It is not a clock which shows the time of the World, but points you how close this world is to its end. So based on wars, natural calamities, nuclear weapons and epidemics in the world, the scientists made some calculation, whereby they shift the clock manually. When this clock strikes 12.00, it means the doom’s day. That is when the world ends. In Jan 2020, the scientists set the clock at 11.58.20, just 100 seconds to 12.00. So, who is saying these are the last days? not just the Word of God, the scientist themselves are saying that we are living in a world that can explode anytime 

Doomsday Clock time:

2. Development:

“But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge – Dan 12.4”

Here the phrase ‘Time of the End’ refers to the last days. So, in the last days, two things will happen. I want to point out to you, how these verses are being fulfilled today more than ever before. 

• Transportation:

The first point here is, many will go here and there. This shows the development in transport. When George Washington was the first President of independent America, he travelled 200 miles to New York in 1789 (i.e., 230 years ago), it took 8 days for him to travel those 200 miles. Now what has to be noted was, 230 years ago it took 8 days to travel 200 miles, but Julius Caesar who lived on around 100BC, also travelled the same 200 miles on 8 days. What does it mean? Over a span of 1800 years, from Julius caesar to George Washington there has been no development at all in transport. But now, in just a period of 200 years, in these days, what did not happen for 1800 years has happened in just few years. Today, we have spacecrafts that can travel around the world in 18 minutes. Just imagine the difference, 200 miles in 8 days years ago, but now you can go around the whole world in just 18 minutes. Isn’t the word of God being fulfilled? Is this not the clear indication that Jesus is coming soon? Is this evidence not enough that these are the last days?

Development of Transportation from the year of 1960 - 2016

• Knowledge

Here is one more piece of evidence. Of the entire scientists, who ever lived in the history of men, 90% of them are alive today. What does it mean? The remaining 10% alone exists in the previous years of history, 80% of others are alive today living in this present. Today knowledge is available on internet; you can sit in your room and learn everything. The bible says, knowledge is increasing. But today we use the term ‘knowledge explosion’. So it is such a vast increase in knowledge, that is why they call it explosion. That is why we have to understand that these are the last days.

Development in knowledge (PhDs ) from 1900 - 2010

3. Earthquakes and Tsunami:

....there shall be Earthquakes in diverse places… - Mark13.8

Jesus is pointing as a sign that he is going to come in those days.
A tsunami is caused by an earthquake under the sea. Earthquakes were known only in other parts of the world earlier. But now it is coming closer and closer that we have witnessed it in our own country. Scientists say earthquakes are taking place because of stress release. But what stress can earth possibly undergo? Are the buildings getting heavier and heavier on the earth, so the earth is getting unsteady? Point to be noted is that all the materials used to make these buildings are taken from the Earth itself; it has not come from another planet to make the Earth heavier. So what is the stress?

“The Earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again - Isaiah 24.20”

The Earth is going to reel to and fro like a drunkard because the transgression or Sin is heavy upon it. From this, we understand that sin has a weight, which cannot be measured here on Earth but Heaven measures that. In some mysterious way, as the weight of sin increases, it impacts physically on earth itself. As sin increases, the earth gets more and more unsteady and it starts reeling to and fro like a drunkard. What was called sin some years ago is called fashion today. Sin has become part of man’s lifestyle. It is no more a sin for them. Remember, man might change the rules, but God’s rules are still the same and when he judges us, he will judge us by his rules and not by any man’s rules. So be watchful and resist the demon that tempts you with the sins that has become more common, nowadays.

Earthquakes from the year 1995 - 2013 :

4. Famines:

“….there shall be famines and troubles… Mark 13.8”

Today in the world, 1/3 of the population is well-fed, 1/3 of the population is starving and the rest is somewhere in the middle. In Somalia, 80% of babies die before the age of 2. Although there are famines in one part of the World, there is enough food for every human being in this world on the other part. We cannot say that, “it is God’s fault and he is not able to produce enough food for the increasing population.” There is enough food for this 7.9 billion of population. But, sad to say that one part of the world is starving for food and the other part of the world is wasting food in tons and tons. In the country of Canada, 60% of food produced is wasted annually. In Denmark, there is excess of milk produce every year, so the excess tons of milk is poured into sea and wasted. Why this imbalance? Because of bad management and because of people occupying high offices are greedy for gain. Instead of helping the fellow human beings, they are turning all that money into their own pockets.

Food wastage per year in tonnes: 

Famine risk in 2021:

Now there is even worse famine than this, which is the famine for the word of God:

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of Lord, and shall not find it. – Amos 8.11, 12”

How many of you are reading your Bible every day? Today we are so concerned of our material needs that sometimes our spiritual needs go inattentive. How many of us are hungry for the word of God? We eat 3 times a day to feed our bodies, how many of us are concerned about feeding our soul? Now if we do not get used to hear the voice of God every day, this verse says in the tribulation, there is going to be a famine for the word of God. If so, how will we be living in those days then? Maybe, I think this famine is already started; the churches are being closed for months due to lockdown. So be watchful and read the word of God every day.

5. Wars:

"And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. - Matthew 24.6"

In the last days, there are going to be many wars. The First World War in the history of mankind took place in 1914; this is just 100 years ago. It has not taken place before that. The Second World War took place 30 years after that. Two successive world wars, one after the other, in these times. No such War has taken place in the first 19 centuries after Christ. And the Third World War can take place anytime. Even today so many wars are taking place in different countries. Just as Jesus said, we are living in the last days where wars are taking place everywhere.

Conclusion:

       We have seen different factors which make us to be aware that Jesus is coming in our times. Now, how to prepare ourselves?

“Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be over past. -Isaiah 26.20”

So, God is saying here that some indignation or some terrible thing is going to happen. And he is calling his people and saying, “come my people I have a hiding place for you to hide till all these things are finished.” Jesus is coming very soon. And when he comes, he will take a group of people who are ready to meet him and they will be hidden till all these indignations are passed. Now when thinking about second coming, it might sound very unscientific. In this modern age, no one believes that people will vanish in no time. But that is what God who wrote the Bible has Prophesized that, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, we shall be transformed. It might sound foolish, but remember all that Jesus predicted as signs for his second coming, which he mentioned 2000 years ago, are happening now before our eyes. "Now if that is true, why is it not possible that his coming is also true as well?"