Are you watching the news? Are you watching the weather? Are you watching your neighbors? What is going on? Have you wondered? Or do you know? This country, this world for that matter, seems to be going crazy. As I’m typing this, the 10th named hurricane is bearing down on the US coast. We have been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic since March. Just about all of us know someone that has died. Our lives have been turned upside down. Most, if not all of us have had our financial lives affected. Is this just random? The most insane presidential election that we’ve ever witnessed? Climate change as some might have us to believe? I think not.

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”‭‭ Matthew‬ ‭24:7-8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬.

Jesus told his disciples that in the end times that these kinds of these things would begin to happen, then the end would come. Certainly we could label COVID 19 as a pestilence. If you study the news there are earthquakes around the world where there haven’t been before and we really don’t hear much about famine anymore, but it’s happening. Especially here in the US. Not in the way you think either. How many families are going hungry because of the loss of jobs due to current events? How many children go hungry every summer when school is out? My friends, that’s famine.

So what does that mean for us? If you’re like me, you’ve grown up all your life hearing “the end is near”, “Jesus is coming soon”, “get right or get left”, and many others. Many people of my generation have even gotten “end time fatigue”. Peter warned us that this would happen in the last days.

“knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”” II Peter‬ ‭3:3-4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

This semester in our life group we have been studying end time events. It’s a topic I’ve been fascinated with for many years and I’ve done many hours of study and research and accumulated lots of books and videos on the subject. As I spent the summer refreshing my knowledge on what the Bible is telling us about current events it has amazed me how the Bible continues to unfold before our eyes more and more every year.

So then what should we be looking for? We are the generation that will see the ushering in of the end of this current age and Jesus setting up His kingdom on earth. In 1948 Israel became a “nation in a day”, (Isaiah 66:8-10). That event started the clock ticking in which the current generation would see the return of Jesus.

There is a lot of debate as to the order of events left to happen. All these events are going to happen, it’s just the speculative order that causes some divisiveness. I will list the order of events in which I believe they will be happening. If you wish to meet me and discuss I will be happy to do so. That however is not the purpose of this post. The purpose is to get the information out so my friends can make their own decision about the events and their future. One thing we have to remember about end time events and the Bible is that they are centered around Israel and the Middle East. America isn’t really mentioned in the Bible, although there are a couple of possible inferences. I also do not believe this timeline of events is immediately consecutive. There may be years between events.

I believe the next major end time event that will happen will be the war of Gog and Magog which is in Ezekiel 38-39. This is where an Islamic and Russian coalition of forces will invade Israel and be supernaturally destroyed by God without Israel having to fight back. No one even comes to help Israel, not even the “young lions” which may be America. The only scenario that I can imagine in which that could happen is where we have a totally democratic leadership that will refuse to help Israel, which is totally possible in this next election. But God doesn’t need our help and He supernaturally destroys the invaders and the weapons of war burn for seven years.

I believe after this will be the “catching away” of the church. This is probably the most controversial of the end time event subjects. The word “rapture” is the word generally used and the argument is used that the word isn’t in the Bible. We won’t debate that at this time. Of those that believe in this event the controversy deals with the timing of it in relation to the seven year tribulation. My personal belief is that we will have a “pre-trib” rapture. The other major views are “mid-trib”, “pre-wrath”, and “post-trib”.

After this “catching away” of the born again believers of Jesus, the world will obviously be in chaos. Millions of people will be left behind, families will be devastated, cities and countries will be affected and economies will be shattered. The world will break out in major wars and eventually ten major kingdoms or world powers with ten rulers will be formed. Out of one of these powers will arise a leader who will overthrow three of these other rulers and take over the entire world. He will sign a peace treaty with Israel. This event will signal the beginning of the seven year tribulation.

The tribulation will be the most devastating time in the history of mankind. In the interest of time I won’t say any more about it in this post. This is more or less the “Cliff Notes” version of end time events. If you’re interested in learning more about this, I would be happy to meet with you or you can just read through Revelation. In any event, I recommend you take a hard look at this. If you happen to be reading this I care about you and your future. We all have a decision to make, the decision to spend eternity with Jesus or without Him. What will your decision be? Are you ready?