Will You Be a Survivor of the Last Days?

To that question, will you be a survivor of the Last Days, what is going to determine whether we will survive or not? First of all let’s talk a little bit about humans and what we tend to do. Humans for some reason tend to discredit warnings. If somebody gives a warning about an event or a place well, we have a couple of questions. Who said it? By what authority? Is it really going to happen?

Allow me to illustrate, on every package of cigarettes we have the Surgeon General’s warning. Basically it tells you if you use this product you are going to die, to put it real simply! Yet, people read that warning and continue to smoke. Perhaps they reason, sure, that’s not going to happen to me. I’ll be in that little percentage that it DOESN’T effect.

For whatever reason, perhaps thinking well, I’ll enjoy the pleasure for now and when I start to cough I’ll worry about the warning. That’s how we tend to think.
What did you do the last time a tornado siren went off? You know what most of us do? We stop, we look at the sky, “It isn’t that bad!” We just go on with what we were doing previously.

If we really think about it, the National Weather Service says, “Take cover!” That’s why the siren went off. For some reason we tend to feel, “I’ve been looking at the sky all of my life, I know what’s dangerous and what isn’t!” So, we at times ignore the warning and go on about our business.

It helps us to illustrate the way that we tend to think as humans, we always ask that question. Who gave the warning, by what authority did they give it, and is it really going to happen? Then we start trying to make our own decision about how bad it really is and then we decided whether we’re going to listen to it or not.

The Bible tells us that this has happened quite a bit in history, in times past. People would look at a warning, decide whether they wanted to pay attention to it or not, sometimes with really bad results. Romans 15 verse 4 tells us that all things were written aforetime for our instruction, for our benefit. What this tells us is that we can look at history and see how people reacted to different things and compare it to our day and see what we would do. Would we repeat the history or are we going to make a different history? How is it going to work for us?

With that said, let’s look at a warning that was given to people in the First Century. This will be found in our Bibles at Luke Chapter 19 verse 43 and 44. Here it is actually Jesus, the son of God speaking. “Because the days will come upon you when your enemies will build around you a fortification with pointed stakes and will circle you and distress you from every side and they will dash you and your children within you to the ground and they will not leave a stone upon a stone in you because you did not discern the time of your being inspected.”

There’s the warning! This IS going to happen! How would you have reacted? Let’s say you lived in the First Century and you heard this man Jesus give this warning. What would your reaction have been? While we’re living in the First Century let’s think about a couple of pieces of knowledge that those people had.

The Jews were serving Jehovah God. You recall that Jesus at one time walked into the Synagogue, he picked up a scroll,(it was Isaiah) and he read a part of it and he said to everyone in there,“Today this scripture has been fulfilled.” He then replaced the scroll. You recall that event. That gives us a glimpse of how the Jews worshipped on the Sabbath. The Synagogue was open for anyone to come in at any time. Particularly on the Sabbath you made sure that you spent some part of that day in the Synagogue. That is basically how things were conducted there.

People would sit, and if you were a male you may get up, get a scroll, read a part of it, and talk about it a little bit. That was not unusual for that to happen.
The point that we’re making is that the Jews had access to the scrolls of the earlier writings. They would discuss them. A lot of times that was done on the Sabbath in the Synagogue.

Turn to Daniel Chapter 9 and verse 25. This would have been a piece of information that a Jew living in the First Century would have had. They could take the scroll of what we know as Daniel and they could read this. In verse 25 it says, “And you should know and have the insight that from the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the leader, there will be seven weeks also sixty two weeks, she will return and be actually rebuilt with a public square and a moat but in the straights of the times.”

Being that that is written in prophetic language a person may look at it and be a little confused. Basically, looking at the prophecy, it just asks us to get two pieces of information. A starting point and a time period; that is all it’s asking. To illustrate, if you had a treasure map and it said that there was a treasure 50 rods east of the well in the town park, how would you find it? It’s simple; you would need a starting point. Where is the town park and where is the well? Once you found that, then you would have to discern how long a rod is. From there, you go 50 rods east and you find the treasure.

That is simply all that is in Daniel. Where is the starting point? It says there in verse 25, “…the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem…” that would be the starting point. That happened in 455 B.C.E. Then it gives you 62 weeks and also 7 weeks, which is if you add the two together, 69, sixty nine weeks. A person might automatically assume that, that is so many days. You just take 69 and multiply it and you will find that it comes up to almost a year and a half. Nothing happened at that time period.

The Jews, (we mentioned the Sabbath earlier) were very familiar with the idea of every seventh day being a rest day. They were also very familiar with the law that every seventh year was a rest year. They were able to think 6 years work/seventh year rest. Six days work/seventh day rest. It isn’t too hard to see that years and days have a similarity. When you take the same time period and apply it to weeks of years you will end up with the time 29 C.E. or 483 years.

What would that mean for you? If you were a Jew living in the First Century and you happen to read the scroll of Daniel Chapter 9 and you came across this time prophecy you would go, ‘Oh, it’s 27. This time prophecy says in two years something is going to happen.’ Or it’s 28. It is going to happen next year! Or it’s 29, ‘I’m looking forward to it happening.’

Now, that’s easy for us living in the year 2009 to look back and say,‘O.K., Jesus was baptized in the year 29 and that’s what they were looking for and here it is.’ It’s very easy to look back and say well, they should have known that. Let’s go into their time period and see what they did know.

Turn with me to Luke Chapter 3 and look at verse 1, we actually find a marker on the calendar. There it says, “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was district ruler of Galilee, but Philip his brother was district ruler of the country of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was district ruler of Abilene.” What we find here is particular people ruling in particular jurisdictions. You start with Tiberius Caesar, you go to Pontius Pilate, you go to Herod, you go to Philip. That’s four rulers.

It is like saying when Bush was president of the United States and so and so was governor of Alabama and so and so was over the county. You see how you can follow through and you can definitely start to pick what time period that would fit. It could only be a few years when all of those people held those particular posts.
Luke does us one better. The first part of the verse says,“In FIFTEENTH year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Historians have uncovered coins that bear the head of Tiberius Caesar put in circulation in the year 15 C.E. which would fit with the idea that they have already put forth, that he actually began to rule in the year 14. He ruled, had some coins minted and they were in circulation a year later. If you take 14 and add 15….29! All these people were actually ruling these provinces at that time. That time marker tells us this is the year, 29 C.E., the same year that as the Jews looked at the scroll of Daniel they would have come up with something is suppose to happen THIS year!

What were people thinking? Were they actually thinking that way? Or are we just trying to make this fit to something in history? Look at verse 15. Here’s is what was on people’s minds. It says, “Now as the people were in expectation and all were reasoning in their hearts about John: ‘May he perhaps be the Christ?’”

Think about it. It’s the year 29, there’s a man living out in the wilderness, and he doesn’t eat food like normal people. Rather he eats locust dipped in honey. He’s dressed in camel hair and he’s baptizing people telling them to repent. What would you think? That’s the conclusion they came to but, why? Because they understood Daniel Chapter 9. They KNEW that in the year 29 the Messiah was to appear! They thought, well, there he is, it’s John.

Time would tell and helped them to understand that that wasn’t the case but, we can see that they definitely understood the prophecy. That’s the point. Let’s go back to Daniel Chapter 9 and let’s read the rest of that prophecy. Let’s see what else they had in store. We’ll pick up there with verse 26. It says, “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah will be cut off with nothing for himself. And the city and the holy place the people of a leader that is coming will bring to their ruin and the end of it will be by means of the flood. And until the end there will be war; what is decided upon is desolations.”

Did we read that right? Not only did they pinpoint the year 29 would be the coming of the Messiah but, right afterward what would happen. There would be war. There would be an end. Verse 27, “And he must keep the covenant in force for the many for one week; and at the half of the week he will cause sacrifice and gift offering to cease. And upon the wing of the disgusting things there will be the one causing desolation; and until extermination, the very thing decided upon will go pouring out also upon the one lying desolate.” Wow!

Imagine yourself living in the year 29! You just read that the Messiah was going to appear and that that would be a marker in history. After the appearance of the Messiah there would be an END, a flood, and war. Verse 27 tells you how it is going to happen, “…upon the wing of a disgusting thing.” WOW! The Jews understood the year 29 would mark not only the Messiah but the beginning of the Last Days of their system of things, the year 29.

If you told a Jew something was disgusting that would mean to loath, to be repugnant! In particular they would think about their way of worship, their entire life revolved around their worship to the True God Jehovah. When done correctly, Jehovah appreciated that, he approved of it. They understood under the Law that you must NOT make a carved image. Anyone who had an image of something that they gave honor to was loathing or disgusting to them.

So, you’re living in 29, you’re under Roman domination, quickly you would start to notice that the Romans as they marched around with their military standards that would identify the company or the legion that they were with (maybe we should use that word) and it gave honor to Rome, to the Caesar. It’s like in the United States you are suppose to follow the flag to death in the battle. In the middle of the battle you see the flag and that’s the direction that you go. That is what you do. In fact, a lot of men have been given honor for doing just that. It was the same thing under Roman rule. You followed your standard, or your signet to the death. It represented the Caesar which was given divinity.

It was actually a disgusting thing. Many of these standards were animals. That made it doubly disgusting! They were actually worshipping an animal that represented their government and they would follow it. If you were living in 29 C.E. you would begin to reason; oh, there is going to be a disgusting thing that causes…there it is! I see it! I see it all around me! You may actually have started to put that together.

Just a little study of those verses tells us what the Jews actually had, the knowledge they had when Jesus appeared. Did they really understand that Jesus was the Messiah? It would help identify further that their Last Days had begun. Think about some of the things that had happened in times past.

Moses was given power by God to perform miracles. You had Elijah, you had Elisha, you have many different prophets that appear throughout history that were given power to perform miracles. Jehovah did that so that they could recognize that they were working under Jehovah’s hand. If a person just walked in and said, ‘I’m a prophet of Jehovah, do what I say’, you’re going to say, ‘Yeah, right!’ We tend to be cynical as humans. Anybody can walk off the street and do that but, if like Moses they came in and took a rod and threw it down and it became a snake, you might start to pay attention to him, you see. That’s why Jehovah gave them the ability to do that.

What about Jesus? What kind of signs can you think of that he performed, miracles? There’s an account where Jesus actually healed a man born blind! That is a miracle by today’s standards. Medical science cannot cure someone born blind. They can correct vision problems in people that are almost blind and reverse the process but, a person BORN blind given sight; they are working on it; they’re making strides that way. They do it with some computer generated images but they have NOT YET cured a person born blind, given him full sight. Jesus did this!

When the Pharisees found out about it they tried to discredit it. They were pretty sure it was a trick. They got onto the parents about it. The parents refused to comment because the parents realized that the Pharisees could kick them out of the Synagogue. So they said, ‘There he is, why don’t you ask him?’ When they asked the man, he says, ‘It’s a wonder that you don’t know these things! From of old this has never been heard of. Certainly this one is from God!’ He did get kicked out of the Synagogue which in the Jewish society meant that you just lost all rights and privileges in society. It wasn’t just not being allowed to go to the building but you were a complete outcast! It was a very heavy price to pay. But this man KNEW that it was a miracle, that this man was from God! He was able to correctly identify him.

Think about the evidence. You have Daniel Chapter 9; you have a man who is doing things that are unbelievable, performing miracles. Would it not seem obvious that things are starting to happen? Even what Jesus said, what he spoke and taught tied in perfectly with the prophecy of Daniel. For example, go to Matthew Chapter 23. We’re going to look at verses 37 and 38. Notice what Jesus says here. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem the killer of the prophets and the stoner of those sent forth to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings but, you people DID NOT WANT IT! LOOK your house is abandoned to you.”

Go back to Daniel where it said it would end by the flood. Their whole way of life would change. What Jesus said fit in with what was already prophesied in the Bible. The disciples wanted to understand this a little bit more. Let’s continue on in Matthew 24, “Departing now Jesus was on his way from the temple but his disciples approached him to show him the BUILDINGS of the temple.” Think about the buildings of the temple. Josephus writes that the temple itself that Herod had built, was one of his greatest architectural achievements! It was plated in gold. You couldn’t even look upon it!

When the sun shone it was too bright to look upon. It would hurt your eyes! You had to turn away from it. Where the sun didn’t shine on the gold it shone on the marble. The whole thing was bright and beautiful.Some of the stones that put that building together, some of them were 35 feet long, 15 feet high, 10 feet wide. One stone would have difficulty fitting in an auditorium from wall to wall and up to the ceiling. The stones would weigh at a minimum 50 tons, some of them way over 400 tons! What a beautiful, beautiful building that was!

Notice what Jesus says, “In response he said to them…” see, the disciples showed Jesus this temple…look at this beautiful building…Jesus says, “…do you not behold these things? Truly I say to you by no means will a stone be left here upon a stone and not be thrown down.” Think about it. You were very proud of your temple even though it was built by Herod. Here it was! It was beautiful! This was the center of worship. This was it! You actually show someone the stones. You know how you do that, perhaps you take a guest with you and you show them parts of your town.

You can imagine the pride they had when they pointed this out to Jesus, which he had seen all his life on earth, too. Look at these stones, look at this dome, look at this, look…and he said, “I tell you not a stone will be left on a stone.”

Would you have some questions? They had a few. They knew better than to ask them right there. They just let it set. They had gotten to know Jesus pretty well by now. They left it in their mind for a little bit but, look what happens in verse 3. “Now while they were sitting on the Mount of Olives the disciples approached him privately saying,(that question, they couldn’t let it go). Now it’s later, they have left the temple and are climbing up to the Mount of Olives and they’re stopping to take a break),“…tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of this system of things?”

Even though that three part question has a far reaching future which we’ll get in to that later, they were concerned with what he had just said about those stones! When is this going to happen? That was part of their question. So, Jesus gives them the answer, starting in verse 4. He says, “Look out that no one misleads you for many will come on the basis of my name saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.”

History tells us that there were many, many false Messiahs. Not people claiming that they were the resurrected Jesus but people claiming to BE the Messiah! In other words, Jesus had nothing to do with it at all! I’m the Messiah, follow me! Josephus himself writes about three of them that claimed to be the Messiah. In the Bible at Acts 5:37 we find that Gamaliel reminded his followers in Jerusalem there,“…Judas the Galilean rose in the days of the registration, and drew off people after him.” This was one previous that claimed to be the Messiah.

Gamaliel was making the point, let this work out and we’ll see what happens. Others have made that claim. If it’s from God it will last, if not, it won’t. History lets us know that there were MANY that claimed to be the Messiah. They were there. In fact, that is why Rome subjugated Jerusalem further and completely destroyed it at Messada. Those events may come to mind because of what the false Messiahs had whipped up giving people false hopes. They encouraged them to be militant. The fact is there were false Messiahs.

Jesus goes on in verse 6, “You are going to hear of wars and reports of wars, see that you are not terrified for these things must take place but the end is not yet.” He says you are going to hear of wars. Again, HISTORY TELLS US that that time period after the First Century was one of dissension. Rome had gotten so big they had difficulty keeping everything under control. There were a lot of wars all around Jerusalem. There were actually the reports of wars coming in daily and what had happened and who died and what area was conquered and what was going on. Not only that but sometimes the wars would be so close that you could hear the sound of armor on armor! They literally heard it! It wasn’t uncommon, this was the ‘hear’ of war, as well as the report of a war in that time period.

In verse 7 he goes further. “Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom; there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another.” You are aware from your reading of the Bible of the great famine where the brothers had to take some of their money and help others in another area. It’s not just Biblical; history tells us that there was, indeed a famine throughout the land at that time. It was brought on by various reasons.

Consider these locations (this is beginning the year 33); there was an earthquake in Jerusalem in 33, 46 in Crete, 50 in Philippi, 51 in Rome, 53 in Imperia, 60 in Laodicia, and 63 in Pompelli back to 67 in Jerusalem. These were earthquakes that history has recorded. It happened!

Move forward a little bit. We’re still looking at what the Jews actually experienced at that time. Go to Acts with me in Chapter 2 there’s a particular account about the Last Days, as if there isn’t enough happening already. This happened very soon, in the beginning of their Last Days at Pentecost 33 C.E. You are aware of the account where there were 120 in the upper room, holy spirit, tongues of fire and they began to speak in different tongues. Imagine yourself in that position. If you were in Jerusalem and these people that you knew were Jews were making unintelligible speech, what would you think? What would be the logical conclusion? This guy has spoken English his entire life (we can put ourselves in that position). All of a sudden, what he is saying no one can understand. It sounds like ‘gibberish’ to me!

What’s happened to him? Here’s the conclusion that they came to, if you’ll look at verse 12. It says, “Yes, they were all astonished and were in perplexity, saying one to another, ‘What does this thing purport to be?’” In verse 13 of Acts Chapter 2, “However, different ones mocked at them and began to say, ‘They are full of sweet wine.’” It is obvious that if you spoke Hebrew all of your life and all of a sudden you are just not making sense, you’re drunk! That is the conclusion that some of them came to.

Peter opens his mouth and he tells them, no, they’re not drunk because of what is going on in verse 17. “And in the last days…” (he’s quoting from Joel), “…I shall pour out some of my spirit upon every sort of flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams.” He goes on to talk about holy spirit being poured out but, the point we wanted to get is what Joel said, as Peter quoted in verse 17, “…and in the LAST DAYS…” this would happen!

We almost start to put some things together here. They had Daniel to tell them that the Last Days would BEGIN in the year 29. They had no scripture, no prophecy, no date telling them when it would end. It just told them when it would begin, the year 29. He said these things would mark it. There would be false Messiahs, there would be wars, there would be famines, there would be earthquakes. They could see this happening all around them. There was this man Jesus who did these miracles and the time period for the Messiah so this prophecy MUST be happening!

We’ve got Acts Chapter 2, in the last Days the spirit would be poured out…this is happening! ALL AROUND THEM they can see these signs letting a sincere person know…they can just LOOK and SEE that what is prophesied here in the Bible is happening. THIS IS THE LAST DAYS that I’m living in!

When you turn to Luke Chapter 21 and you hear this warning in verse 20, “Furthermore when you see Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies then know that the desolation of her has drawn near.” What was prophesied in Daniel 9 is about to happen! “Let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains, and let those in the midst of her withdraw and let those in the country places not enter into her.”

Stop and think about this! What Jesus was telling you, when you see all these signs indicating that you are living in the Last Days this is going to culminate by a particular event. There are going to be pointed stakes all around Jerusalem. He said do something! GET OUT and don’t come back in! Does that make sense to you? How do you leave something that is surrounded? Do you see that in verse 20? “When you see Jerusalem surrounded…” Get Out! It doesn’t make a bit of sense! Since you’re living in the First Century you’re probably puzzled over this. What does this mean? How is this going to happen? How is this going to be fulfilled? History tells us what happened, how this was fulfilled in detail.

Because of some of these false Messiahs Cestius Gallus was sent by the Romans to conquer Jerusalem or to subjugate it. The idea never was to completely destroy Jerusalem. Think about it, Romans exacted taxes. If you destroy the city, what happens to your taxes? It’s very simple. The idea was just to get them back in line.

Cestius Gallus starts to attack Jerusalem. By the way Herod had built a third wall around the city so there’s actually three walls. They started doing really well. They got through the first wall and the second wall and almost made it into the third wall where they were right underneath the city gates. It seemed like victory was certain. Cestius was not really into victory apparently. History tells us that there isn’t any explanation, but he just leaves.

What does that tell you? Jerusalem was surrounded with encamped armies. There they were, the disgusting thing and they left! The false Messiahs said Jehovah has given us the victory! You had to deal with that! People were saying your God’s name and saying he has given us the victory. Then they started chasing them! They chased them for thirty miles and they took casualties. They went back to Jerusalem and minted up a bunch of coins to commemorate the event that Jehovah has thrown off the Roman yoke finally! Jehovah has done this!

BUT, if you had looked at the signs and listened, you would have known, ‘Oh, now it makes sense!’ You saw them surround Jerusalem and then leave. I understand. Hopefully, you left. You went up just as Jesus said, into the mountains and you didn’t enter into her.

The problem is that you stayed up in the mountains for the month of November and December and you look back down and guess what? Everything looked the same. In fact, things looked better! Things looked prosperous. But, Jesus said stay up there. So, you stayed up there through the winter, it becomes spring, you look down and guess what? It looks great! Your house that was vacant is now somebody’s business. YOUR BUSINESS, somebody else has it! It’s wonderful down there. People are getting educated, people are moving forward in the world, people are marrying, things are just GREAT!

If you were smart you stayed up there in the mountains. Let’s say you stayed there until fall. Now you’ve been there a year and you look down and it’s even better than it was last year! It took 3 ½ years and every time you checked Jerusalem was making more money, people were building bigger houses, they had nicer chariots, it look like things were just wonderful.

Three and an half years, what would you have done? It would SEEM from a logical standpoint that somebody made a mistake. Somebody misinformed us about the beginning of the Last Days. Somebody misinformed us about the interpretation of the sign because it is obvious, look things are wonderful. I’ve been up here three years in these mountains in this tent doing what Jesus told me to do and it’s cold up here! What would you have done?

In the year 70, Titus comes back. This time it is to subjugate Jerusalem again. He starts just like Cestius Gallus did. He gets the first wall, he gets the second wall, he gets the third wall and actually starts to get up underneath those temple gates, he’s right there! There it is! The disgusting thing and then he realizes something. The Jews have gotten pretty good at killing Romans. He says: This is not working; we’re taking way too many casualties. He holds a war council and he says: What can we do? They came up with the idea to build a fence of pointed stakes all the way around Jerusalem. They competed against each other and got this task finished within just three days! It was 4 ½ miles long this fence that they built.

They cut the wood and everything, making them into points. They built this thing completely around Jerusalem in that time period, in just three days! Now the people were stuck! Titus waited and waited and waited and when the time was right he gave the order to attack. They were too hungry to fight now so we won’t take as many Roman casualties. DO NOT destroy the temple! That was his orders. He knew that if they destroyed the temple it would break them. If they were broken, no more taxes for Rome! DO NOT destroy the temple!

Somewhere during the attack some unknown soldier, history calls him, accidentally, they say, threw a fire brand into the temple and it caught fire. When Titus saw what had happened he said raze it to the ground! Remember what Jesus said? “Not a stone upon a stone…”

One million some Jews died! History tells us that after his being able to subjugate Jerusalem he said, “We certainly had God for our assistance in this war! It was no other than God who ejected these Jews out of these fortifications. What could the hands of men or any machines do toward overthrowing these towers?” Titus himself indicated that, yes this was God’s work. He felt he was just being used by him. How about that! Exactly as prophecy said!

Now, back to the question, where would WE have been? We would like to put ourselves up there in the mountains doing exactly what the prophecy said that we should do. But, REALLY, where would we have been? Let’s go back to Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 24. We’re going to compare a couple of scriptures here that will help us to answer the question, ‘Will WE be a survivor of the Last Days?’

There are a couple of key things that did NOT happen within the context of Matthew Chapter 24 in the First Century. This lets us know that this prophecy has to have a further fulfillment. Here’s one, look at verse 6 where it says, ‘You are going to hear of wars and reports of wars see that you are not terrified these things must take place but the end is not yet.” And then verse 7 indicates a different kind of conflict, he says, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.”

That didn’t happen in the First Century, not in the sense that it changed something more than ordinary wars. “Nation against nation…” The context is that if you hear of wars don’t worry about it but, this conflict will be different. It was SO DIFFERENT; you can look it up in your library. Historians called it World War I. Wars, don’t worry about it, nation against nation, now you need to start getting concerned.

World War I, 1914 actually marks the beginning of the Last Days of another system of things, the one that we are living in now.Just like the Jews, we have a marker for the start. There isn’t any date as to when it is going to end. It is not given in the Bible. Just like the Jews who didn’t have a date. It did not say that in 70 C.E. it is going to be destroyed. It said you do these certain things when you see these things happening. That’s exactly what Matthew 24 does.

In fact, we can take what is written in Matthew 24 and compare it to what is written in Revelation Chapter 6, if you would like to turn there with me, to Revelation 6. This is the writing of the Apocalypses as many people call it. Think about the time period though. Revelation was written in the year 96. That would be 26 years since the destruction of Jerusalem. It’s very obvious that what was written in Revelation does not apply to literal Jerusalem. It was destroyed 26 years ago.

What other things are going to happen? In verse 4, “Another came forth, a fiery colored horse and the one seated upon it was granted to take away peace from the earth so that they should slaughter one another and a great sword was given him.” Have we seen that? Have we seen peace taken away from the earth? Go back to Matthew 24, it says wars, don’t worry about them. We’re still going to hear of wars.

It didn’t say they were going to end. What does this apply to? What do you see?
Then you look at verse 5 in Revelation Chapter 6 and we find a rider on a black horse and he has a pair of scales in his hands indicating food shortages. Do we see food shortages? Have you ever seen a picture of a starving child? Was this referring to Jerusalem? Absolutely not!

You can continue to go into verse 7 about the pale horse and there would be all kinds of manner of death that would happen. You can flip your Bibles from Revelation 6 to Matthew 24. They are so similar that it’s the same prophecy! It obviously cannot apply to Jerusalem. What DOES it apply to? The time since 1914. The evidence is there. Do we need more?

Turn to 2 Timothy; this will help us with more. Paul wrote his letter to Timothy just BEFORE the destruction of Jerusalem. Anything written in Timothy again would not apply to Jerusalem. If you’ll look at verse 1, it says, “But, know this in the Last Days critical times hard to deal with will be here.”

Now, stop me if I read anything in this description that does not apply to people living in your area or people you know or have known. “Men will be lovers of themselves…” any takers? “…lovers of money, self assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection…” by the way that’s what allows school shootings, parents to kill their children, children to kill their parents. “…not open to any agreement, slanders, without self control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God…” Does anyone want to stop me and say that doesn’t apply to people who live in our area, people we know or have known?

Go back to verse 1, “Know this that in the…” what time period does it say? You got it! Last days!!! This is the kind of people you would see. You either have to pick one of these out and say that doesn’t apply to people or you have to accept what verse 1 says. That is the only two choices open to you or you can say I don’t want to believe anything in this book. That is the third option. It doesn’t change what is written here. It still stays written just like it is. So, what time period are we living in?

Further proof, if you want to go to Matthew Chapter 13, Jesus gives that illustration of the weeds and wheat. What that means is that there would be apostate Christianity. Now, look at verse 5 of 2 Timothy Chapter 3 and I’ll show you a real neat parallel. You would think that all of these terrible people right here would be the kind of people that have no religion. They have no natural affection; greedy…they have no religion.

Look at what 5 says, “…having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power.” These people that act this way that we just read in the list go to church on Sunday! They read their Bibles! They claim to have religion but it has no force in their lives. Matthew 13 said that in the Last Days there would be apostate Christianity.

How did people learn to live this way? Their apostate ‘Christian’ teachers taught them that that is O.K. They taught them by not saying that it is wrong. We end up with people acting just like that. What do you think? Let’s put it together. Living in the First Century, you had a starting date and you had the signs. 1914 is the starting date, what do you see? What time period do you think we’re living in?

There isn’t and never has been an ending date. It just says that this is what it is going to be like and this is what you should do! Jesus gave explicit instructions. Our question is, what are our instructions? What should we do? If we come to the realization that these are the Last Days should we sit around and look and say, ‘You know what, people are getting smarter, their getting educated, they are getting out of school, and they’re getting these $200,000 careers.

The same people that I thought would have been destroyed years ago are the ones living in that $300,000 house! Those thoughts could happen to us. But, it doesn’t change what is written in the Bible. IT IS STIIL THERE! The words have not changed! It says these ARE the Last Days. What should we be doing with our time?

It is very simple. Let’s look at 2 Peter Chapter 3, which, by the way, the context of Chapter 3 is all about the culmination of the Last Days, the destruction of this system of things. Verse 11; look at the way it is written. He says, “Since ALL these things are to be dissolved…” It IS going to happen! The evidence is there. “Since all these things are to be dissolved…”here’s the question, “…what sort of persons ought you to be in holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion?”

Jehovah didn’t say, o.k. since these things are going to happen go live up on a mountain and stay there. He simply asked a rhetorical question, ‘What kind of person should you be?’ The answer is there. “…holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion while we are doing…” what? “…waiting and keeping close in mind the presence of the Day of Jehovah.”

What does that simply mean? Holy acts of conduct would simply mean adjusting a person’s way of life to reach Jehovah’s standard of what is holy. We can do that as imperfect humans. Whatever adjustments we need to make, we want to do it. Deeds of godly devotion…remember, those in Jerusalem could not just sit there and say, ‘You know, I see it, it is the Last Days. I agree, everything Jesus said was right, I will make sure that everything that I do reaches God’s standard of holy conduct. What would have happened to them? They would have DIED! That’s what would have happened!

There is more than just recognizing it and saying I’m going to be a good person. What’s the ‘more’? It says deeds of godly devotion. You have to DO SOMETHING! What would deeds of godly devotion be? It’s very simple. It is involving ourselves in sharing the Kingdom preaching work that Jesus foretold for our time. That’s a deed of godly devotion.

It is very possible for a person to look at things, look at what is going on in this system, and agree, yes, I’m living in the Last Days and say, “I HAVE to keep my full time job.” “I HAVE to achieve this!” “Don’t ask me to go talk to people; I talk to people when I meet them on the street, that’s good enough!” No, it said DEEDS of godly devotion. It is very simple, very clear.

The encouragement for us is to be people who involve our entire life in deeds of godly devotion. We don’t have to leave and go to a mountain we just have to live every day doing deeds of godly devotion. That is all Jehovah asks of us. We should think about what it means to be living in the Last Days.

Think about a watchman, he’s guarding the city. How would you feel, living in this area, if the tornado siren never went off? Would you feel like somebody is not doing their job? You know that every time that tornado siren goes off we say I’m glad they’re keeping track of things. What about a watchman in the city? It is his job to warn! Every time he saw something that looked like danger he was to point it out.

You know he can’t tell if that’s an invading army or just some dust that is blown up by the wind. If it LOOKS like an army, he blows that horn. You have to stop what you are doing, come into the city, close the gate, close the door, and prepare for battle! An hour later he says, “Sorry, it was just some dust the wind blew up.” Would you look at the watchman and say, “You idiot! You made me change my whole life and it didn’t happen!” No, you would say, “Thank you for being on guard. Thank you for watching.” That is where we’re at in this time period!

The Slave class has been watching, and they have been watching, and they’ve been warning; they’ve been telling us and they’ve been telling us! Those who have been around Jehovah’s organization have heard it again and again and again. They see it! Just because we’ve heard the warning over and over and over again doesn’t mean we can keep smoking! Do you see the point! I sure hope you do.....

Till Monday, have a great weekend.