Doomsayers throughout the ages have been trying to convince the world that 'the end' is here - or at least, very near - because of the weird weather patterns, wars, famines, new diseases, etc. What's different now?

The answer is: Never before has the world seen the accumulation of events as we have today. Although no one knows the day nor the hour that Messiah will return, no generation has had as many signs of the times as our generation. We have more reason to believe that Yeshua could come in our lifetime than any other generation before us.

It seems most pastors prefer to avoid the topic of "end-time" and end-time prophecies altogether. They simply don't want to talk about it and, what's more, most people don't want to hear about it, either. That's because, many people "go to church" simply to sing, have a good time, and have their ears "tickled" by feel-good stuff (i.e., "God is good," "God loves you," "He wants to prosper you and make you happy all the days of your life," blah, blah, blah....Yes, our God is "good", but there is also an end to His patience with us!)

Zephaniah 1:18 - Neither their silver nor their gold Will be able to deliver them On the day of the Lord's wrath; And all the earth will be devoured In the fire of His jealousy, For He will make a complete end, Indeed a terrifying one, Of all the inhabitants of the earth."

Whether or not pastors choose to talk about "the end times", and whether or not congregations of people go to "have their ears tickled," or just to warm the pews, the fact remains that Yeshua IS returning and, when He does, things are going to change. The Bible says so.

Matthew 24 tells us that no one knows the exact day or hour of Jesus' return, but that we are to be aware and to prepare for it. In the meantime, we need to keep up with what's happening in the world, because the signs are all around us.

The Bible predicts many things for the end times. Please note, for the sake of space and time, only a few of many scripture verses have been listed in each category:

Whether we choose to believe it, or not, God DOES have an ultimate purpose for us, and there WILL be an end to the world as we know it:

• Deuteronomy 32:23-25 - I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
  
  
• Luke 21:10-12 - There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
  
  
• Revelation 6:7-9 - I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
  
  
• Revelation 18:7-9 - Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.
  
  

Anything else?

Daniel 12:3-5 says "...many will rush here and there as knowledge increase": 2,500 years ago the prophet Daniel foresaw a generation where knowledge would suddenly and explosively increase. (This could be referring to knowledge of Torah, God's Word in general or, perhaps technical knowledge, i.e., computers, cloning, DNA, etc...) Please remember not to confuse "Knowledge" with "Wisdom". There's a major difference! Knowledge can be a very dangerous thing in the wrong hands and if used for evil or "worldly" purposes. Here are a couple of examples:

(March 13, 2001) The London Daily Telegraph reports: "Secret human cloning experiments have been taking place in Australia for the past two years. In 1999, researchers implanted a cell containing human DNA in a pig. The cloned embryo lived for 32 days before it was terminated.....

(May 18, 2002) Techreview.com reports: "Human cloning will almost surely happen. In the past, other new reproductive technologies were denounced at first; but then they were adapted to serve human procreational needs and ultimately became commonplace practices. Human cloning already has advocates. According to polls, six percent of adult Americans support human cloning....

Global warming, tornadoes, fires, earthquakes, dramatic weather changes:

• Mark 13:7-9: - "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains."
  

UPI reported: "Tue Feb 20,2001 - Ice caps in the world's tropical regions are melting at an alarming rate and may disappear in the next 10 to 20 years....

Independent Foreign Service - In southern France, record high temperatures were recorded in June 2003, with maximum temperatures exceeding 40C in parts of south-west France. This resulted in June average temperatures of 5C to 7C above the long-term average. In the United States, there were 562 tornadoes during May, which resulted in 41 deaths. This was a record for the number of tornadoes in any month. The previous record was 399 tornadoes in June 1992. In India, this year's pre-monsoon heatwave brought peak temperatures of more than 45C. At least 1,400 people died because of the hot weather. In Sri Lanka, heavy rainfalls from Tropical Cyclone 01B exacerbated already wet conditions, resulting in flooding and landslides that left at least 300 people dead..."New record extreme events occur every year somewhere in the globe, but in recent years the number of such extremes have been increasing ... the increase in temperature in the 20th century is likely to have been the largest in any century during the past 1000 years."

National Geographic News, December 26, 2004: The earthquake that generated the great Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 is estimated to have released the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Giant forces that had been building up deep in the Earth for hundreds of years were released suddenly on December 26, shaking the ground violently and unleashing a series of killer waves that sped across the Indian Ocean at the speed of a jet airliner. By the end of the day more than 150,000 people were dead or missing and millions more were homeless in 11 countries (including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Maldives and Myanma and Somalia), making it perhaps the most destructive tsunami in history.

In New Orleans on September 2005, Hurricane Katrina turned out to be one of the worst disasters in U.S. history - And it followed on the heels of President Bush's approval of and involvement in the "Gaza Disengagement." Please take note of the fact that, immediately after the Gaza disengagement, Hurricane Katrina hit and displaced "tenfold" the number of people that were displaced in Gaza....

October 2005: Magnitude 7.6 Earthquake on the Pakistan/India Border Killed tens of thousands and left thousands homeless.

California fires: Eight people died and 40 firefighters were injured in Southern California the week of October 25, 2007 as seven counties were destroyed by raging wind-driven fires that caused $1 billion worth of damage. The fires caused the largest evacuation in California history, and the largest in the U.S. since hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005. Please note: This devastating event happened approximately one week after California Governor Arnold signed another "pro-gay" bill. When will our leaders start paying attention to GOD?

Mysterious diseases caused by "beasts of the field/earth":

In 2001 FoxNews.com reported on "Foot and Mouth" disease: "Countries in the European continent are taking drastic measures to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious disease. While it does not effect humans, it can be deadly to livestock and spread like wildfire in the air, on clothing and even spread on vehicle tires. The outbreak began in the U.K. and other European countries are scrambling to prevent it from crossing the channel. (In the Spring/Summer of 2001, Great Britain killed and burned many of its beef cattle to keep the disease from spreading. To this day, there are still outbreaks in different parts of the world.)

The 2002 Pig Health.Com reported that the Nipah virus epidemic, which began in October 1998, 258 people (mostly pig farm workers) developed encephalitis and 104 died. One million pigs were slaughtered to control the virus. The virus affects rats, cats, dogs and horses as well as swine. Reported findings in 2004 included the fact that Fruit bats - which had been forced to move closer to civilization due to their habitats being destroyed - were to blame. It appeared that some of the infected bats feeding on fruit trees near pig farms, would drop some of the fruit into the pens, thus causing the pigs to become ill with the virus.

Great Britain also suffered through "Mad Cow" Disease, which was thought to have been caused by feeding cows meat proteins. Bubonic Plague, a disease which killed thousands in Europe during the Middle Ages, has again reared its ugly head in certain spots around the globe, including parts of the US. AIDS, caused by the Green Monkey Virus, has been around since approximately 1987, with still no cure in sight....

June 10, 2003: CNN reports: "Mormon crickets are chewing their way through southwestern Idaho at an alarming rate, devouring crops and creating road hazards in what locals say is the worst outbreak since World War II....

ROME, Reuters, Aug. 26, 2004: Locust swarms infesting Mauritania and other African nations could develop into a full-scale plague without additional foreign aid, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (news - web sites) said Thursday. The region is facing its most serious locust crisis in 15 years, with swarms of desert locusts moving from northwest Africa into Mauritania, Mali and Niger, where many people are subsistence farmers. The FAO said there was also a moderate risk that swarms would reach Darfur, Sudan, where violence has left 2 million people short of food and medicine. Desert locust swarms usually contain millions of insects per square mile and can travel more than 90 miles a day. They can devastate entire crop fields in minutes, with adult locusts munching their own weight, about 0.0755 of an ounce, a day. The swarms are stoking fears of famine, and the Rome-based U.N. agency said the situation was deteriorating in countries like Mauritania and Mali.

2006: Avian (Bird) flu: The current outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, which began in South-East Asia in mid-2003, are the largest and most severe on record. Never before in the history of this disease have so many countries been simultaneously affected, resulting in the loss of so many birds....Despite an advance warning that has lasted almost two years, the world is ill-prepared to defend itself during a pandemic. WHO has urged all countries to develop preparedness plans, but only around 40 have done so. WHO has further urged countries with adequate resources to stockpile antiviral drugs nationally for use at the start of a pandemic. Around 30 countries are purchasing large quantities of these drugs, but the manufacturer has no capacity to fill these orders immediately. On present trends, most developing countries will have no access to vaccines and antiviral drugs throughout the duration of a pandemic.

2007: Birds mysteriously fall from the sky according to a January 10, 2007 Daily Mail article which said, in part: Three weeks ago thousands of crows, pigeons, wattles and honeyeaters fell out of the sky in Esperance, Western Australia. Then last week dozens of grackles, sparrows and pigeons dropped dead on two streets in Austin, Texas. As birds continue to die in Esperance and the town's dawn chorus remains eerily silent, vets in both countries have been unable to establish a cause of death - despite carrying out a large number of autopsies on the birds. Wildlife officials from Western Australia's Department of Environment and Conservation said they were baffled by the "catastrophic event"....

Mark of the Beast:

• Revelation 13:16-18....so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.
  
  
• Revelation 14:8-10..... A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand,
  
  
• Revelation 14:10-12.... And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."
  
  
• Revelation 16:1-3.....The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.

What is the "Mark of the Beast"? No one knows for sure, but chances are excellent that it is Islam. Why Islam? For one thing, because the Book of Revelation tells us that many believers in Christ will be beheaded (not shot or stabbed or choked, but BEHEADED):

Revelation 20: 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years..

Islam as a religion is completely "anti-Christ". The goal of radical Islam is to force the world to convert or die. Islam's "mark" can be noticed by the fact that they worship an entity called Allah (which is a mere title for "God"). They pray five times a day while facing Mecca (not Jerusalem). They pray in mosques (not churches or synagogues), and they lead an antiquated way of life that includes keeping their women subdued and clothed from head to foot. Although their "final prophet" Mohammed "borrowed" Scriptures from the Torah (first five books of Moses), NOTHING they do or believe in any way resembles YHWH's original teaching and instruction. (Please see our complete study on the Mark of the Beast.)

(May 12, 2002) The Associated Press reported: A Florida family on Friday became the first to be implanted with computer chips that researchers hope will someday become an easy way to provide emergency room staffers with patients' medical information....Jeff and Leslie Jacobs, along with their 14-year-old son, Derek, had the tiny chips implanted in their arms. Each chip is about the size of a grain of rice, and insertion takes about a minute under local anesthesia....The chips, called the VeriChip, were designed by Palm Beach-based Applied Digital Solutions Inc. They are similar to chips implanted in pets to identify them if they are lost.....The chips used by the Jacobs family contain only telephone numbers and information about previous medications. The data can be read by a hand-held computer and printed out....

The world will turn against the Jews and Israel with a vengeance:

• Isaiah 60:15 - "Whereas you have been [Is 1:7-9; 6:11-13; Jer 30:17] forsaken and [Is 66:5] hated With no one passing through, I will make you an everlasting [Is 4:2; 65:18] pride, A joy from generation to generation.
  
  
• Joel 3:2 - ‘I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, for they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.’
  
  
• Ezekiel 36:8-10 - "'But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home. I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown, and I will multiply the number of people upon you, even the whole house of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.”
  
  
• Matthew 24:9 - "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.

For centuries everybody has been fighting over this tiny country to claim it as "their" holy place. It seems that the whole world has always "had it in" for Jews in one way or another, and some (i.e. Hitler) have even tried to annihilate them completely (see "A Study of Israel's Past and Future"). The bottom line is, this issue dates back to the conflict between Isaac and Ishmael, and will not be resolved until Yeshua returns....

Still not convinced?

The Book of Revelation shows hint of nuclear war (although God does NOT need our man-made weapons to make His end-time scenario happen, and only HE knows what will actually transpire):

John, the prophet on the island of Patmos, sees a vision far into the future. (Revelation) Could this be a description of a thermonuclear holocaust?

• Rev. 8:6 - "And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them.
  
• Rev. 8:7 - The first sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
  
  
• Rev. 8:8 - The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood,
  
  
• Rev. 8:9 - and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.
  
  
• Rev. 8:10 - The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters.
  
  
• Rev. 8:11 - The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.
  
  
• Rev. 8:12 - The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way."

Since one third of the earth was repeatedly mentioned with the destruction of the earth, trees, grass and contamination of the waters making all of them poisonous, and darkening of one third of the atmosphere, a nuclear holocaust seems most reasonable (although God certainly does NOT need to use "man-made" devices to make His end time scenario happen!).

Dennis Pollock in his paper "Does the Bible Predict a Nuclear Holocaust" (The Lamplighter Vol.XIX N.9 Oct.1998, page 5) states: "It should be evident that what we are talking about is a weapon unparalleled in human history; a weapon with the capacity to obliterate huge cities in seconds. This is a scenario that perfectly fits with the kind of swift, mass destruction spoken of in the book of Revelation. Indeed, considering the widespread death predicted by John, it would be hard for us to imagine anything other than a nuclear holocaust which could come close to producing such carnage."

"The basic power of the universe has been harnessed. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed." (President Truman, July 1945).

Wars and Rumors of Wars:

• Matthew 24:5-7 - You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.

March 5, 2001: The Middle East Newsline reported: "The United States sees war as an increasingly likely prospect in the Middle East. U.S. officials and diplomats said a major aim of the administration of President George Bush is to prevent the outbreak of a regional war. But they said an escalation of the current mini-war between Israel and the Palestinians appears likely.

March 5, 2001: The Middle East Newsline reported: "South Korea appears concerned over North Korea's continued missile buildup. (In 2003 the threat has greatly increased....)

September 11, 2001 will be remembered as one of the most horrific and unbelievable days ever experienced in the United States. That is the day that Islamic terrorists crashed stolen airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and another into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A third, headed for a unknown destination, crashed at Shanksville, PA, when passengers fought the hijackers who had stolen and taken over their plane.

April 2003: The US invades Iraq in order to oust dictator Saddam Hussein, to continue the search for weapons of mass destruction, and to continue the search for Osama Bin Laden. We're now almost at the end of 2005, and we're still Iraq - as is the ever-increasing violence by Muslims!

These are only a few examples of "rumors of wars" around the globe - but, please be aware of this: In the entire known history of man, there have only been approximately 300 years of peace, total!

Violence will increase and difficult times will come:

The Book of Revelation talks about children doing evil against their own parents in the end times; about widespread violence and chaos everywhere. (See our article The growing trend of stupidity and violence among our young people.) We need only to listen to the news to hear about the latest school shooting, "road rage" incidences, etc. - things we never used to hear about in days gone by. Just take a look at what happened after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans: Rescuers were SHOT AT by the very thugs they were trying to save! Violence has become a world-wide epidemic, with everyone seeming to take the law into their own hands.

• 2 Timothy 3: 1-2 - But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy....

Conflicts, disputes, and fighting over the Temple Mount:

• Isaiah 2:1-3 - In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

The temple mount is presently occupied by the Muslims because they claim it as their holy site. (I challenge anyone to find a defensible basis for that!) It is, in fact, the very site in Jerusalem where, upon God's command, Abraham was going to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Biblically and historically speaking, the Land has never belonged to the Muslims, as God gave it to His Chosen People, the Jews! (See Genesis 15:18, Genesis 12:3, Jeremiah 30:11, Joel 3:2, and Ezekiel 36:8-10.) (The only reason the Temple Mount "belongs" to the Muslims now is because it was taken by force - the principle on which Islam apparently prides itself....) The bottom line is, Islam is simply doing God's will by making war and sending out their terrorists. Bible prophecy speaks about the struggles the Jews will encounter in order to keep their Land and how, in the end times, all the world will make war against Israel.

There will be a "Babylonian Spirit" in the End Times:

The Bible warned us of the revival of the old Babylonian spirit in the last days in the 17th and 18th chapters of the book of the Revelation. In Jeremiah 51:7, we find a perfect description of the very condition of our day as follows: "Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad."

Only a selection of scripture passages have been given here to make the point. There are dozens and dozens more that were not quoted. Perhaps this is a good place to include a few more "eye-openers" to show that God isn't kidding around. To wit, every time the US meddles in Israel's affairs, our Creator lets us know He isn't happy - yet most people pay no attention! For instance: On January 8, 2008 the day that President Bush left the USA for Israel in order to lay the framework for the establishment of a Palestinian State and the division of Jerusalem for its capital, a freak 'January' tornado swept through a city in Bush's own country. The place hit was 'Jerusalem', Arkansas. Coincidence? “Mt. Zion” Community Church...

Same thing happened when we helped in the Gaza "disengagement" (also see Wikipedia article)- in the same timeframe Hurricane Katrina "disengaged" New Orleans...during which, by the way, American "displacements" numbered approximately the same as in Gaza. Coincidence?

Okay, so is there any GOOD news?

The "end" times, though having much bad news, do have a happy ending. YHWH (Yahweh) promised the Second Coming of His Messiah, who will put an end to wickedness and evil. He will rule and reign for a thousand years upon the Earth after He defeats the Antichrist at Armageddon. After that, on Judgment Day, every soul that has ever lived will stand before Him to give an account of his/her life. Most will end up in the Lake of Fire with Satan, but the rest will get to spend eternity with YHWH in "the new heavens and the new earth." Read the Bible for yourselves; it's all outlined there!