The Last Days | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: The Last Days | Previous Challenge Entry
By Dee Kyalo
03/05/14
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A lot seems changed over the last four or so decades but in fact, there’s nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV). Jesus foretold the future; mentioning the signs of the end of the age and if we’re paying attention we’ll observe that those signs are beginning to come to pass in our day. Could this age in which we live be described as the last days? You can hardly sit through a 30 minute television program without noticing some of the signs.

For anything to sell or have any appeal, it must be laced with sex, drugs and violence. Doesn’t it somehow take us back to the 1960s when many of the young people there took drugs and believed in sexual freedom; often changing partners at random? Nonetheless, between then and now there has been a significant unacceptable increase of evil. Is there a relationship between an increase in population and increase in wickedness? I’m thinking about The Flood (Genesis 6:1 NIV) - humans multiplied and suddenly in Genesis 6:5-6 NIV their wickedness became so great that it grieved God!

Over the years, there has been a growth in population which may be a contributing factor to crime and evil but what has that got to do with the signs that Jesus talked about: wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes (Matthew 24:6-7 KJV)? Famines in Africa and other parts of the world are not new to most of us. We give our finances to help feed some in those areas but since famine is one of the end-time signs, it cannot be eradicated. The “seas and waves roaring” (Luke 21:25 NIV) makes me think about Tsunamis as another sign. Last month, I listened to Cable News Network reporting an astonishing World Health Organization’s prediction; that cancer cases are expected to surge 57% worldwide in the next 20 years – they stated it as an imminent “human disaster” that will require a renewed focus on prevention to combat. If that is not a pestilence of the end times, what is it?

The aforementioned signs give the impression that these are indeed the end times yet we haven’t even touched on the false prophets (2 Peter 2:1 NLT) and false Christs (Matthew 24:5 NIV) that have mushroomed lately. Did you hear about the church in Virginia that allows nude worship? The idea is to ‘equalize’ everybody in front of God with claims that Jesus was naked at Bible's most important moments. How about the South African Pastor who had instructed his congregation to eat grass so that they can “be closer to God”? And just last night, a friend of mine from London sent me a perplexing article about a Kenyan who has introduced a form of worship at his church in which female members of the congregation are banned from wearing underwear so God can enter their bodies easily! Isn’t this a mockery of the truth (2 Peter 3:3-7 NLT) and an abandonment of faith (1Timothy 4:1-2 NIV)? While we are on the matter, who can deny seeing a lot of the following: worship of self, love of prosperity rather than love for the
One who Prospers, arrogance, entitlement, disobedience of children to their parents, and so forth (2 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV)? We definitely are in the end times!

All of the signs that Jesus said would pave the way for His return seem to be currently happening, yet these are just the “beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8 KJV). In other words, what we see now is compared to soft cramps in child birth. It is going to get intense and there’ll be suffering and judgment. How then shall we escape God’s wrath? As believers in Christ, our part is to “look up and lift our heads” – as a posture of confidence, “because our redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28 NIV). Despite the end times being perilous, we are assured of salvation and not wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9 NIV). Salvation is the only way to escape God’s wrath (John. 3:18 NIV).

Nevertheless, it is not too late for anyone that hasn’t received salvation through Jesus Christ. Won’t you come into the “great escape” (John 3:16 NIV) that God has provided? It is as easy as ABC – Accept, Believe and Confess His Son as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2 NLT).

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