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Many of you will
have heard accounts claiming that we are approaching the end of the
world; that the Biblical signs of the times are making themselves
manifest in our age and the events mentioned in the Book of Revelation
concerning the end of the world and the new creation of heaven and earth
are imminent. Our talk today will be to see some of the signs mentioned
in the Bible and compare them with events that have occurred in history,
but especially in our times.
Many people
watch for the signs of the times but what is actually meant by this
phrase? The words are taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew where it says
that the Pharisees and Sadducees desired that Christ show them a sign
from heaven to prove that he was the expected Messiah, Christ told them:
"When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair
weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather
to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern
the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"
(Matt. 16:1-3) The signs of the times that Christ is referring to are
the signs in the Prophesies which foretold that it was the right time
for the appearance of the Messiah. The signs of the times were given
them to be able to recognize the Christ when he came. During the time of
Christ, the Pharisees and Sadducees did not study the signs of the times
in order to see that Christ had come; that the Son of God was already on
earth.
There were signs
that they should have recognized. For example, in the book of Daniel in
the Old Testament, there is a prophecy that gives us the approximate
period in which the Messiah would come. King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream
which he couldn’t remember and Daniel told him the dream and its
interpretation. The interpretation concerns four great kingdoms or
dynasties that will come after Nebuchadnezzar. These are probably the
Medes and Persian Empires, the Greek or Macedonian Empire and the Roman
Empire After these God will set up a kingdom that will grind to powder
all other kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. This kingdom that will
come is the coming of the Messiah who kingdom shall be for all eternity.
But there is another prophecy from Daniel concerning the seventy weeks
of years, which means that the Messiah was to come about 490 years from
the time of Daniel. Those Jews who read their scriptural books very
carefully knew exactly what these prophecies were all about, and at
about the time that Christ came they knew that it was time for the
Messiah.
But these
were outward signs. More importantly, the Pharisees and Sadducees should
have been watching for the inward signs. If their hearts had been right
with God, and if they had not been merely trying to fulfil the outward
commandment of the law, their hearts would have responded and recognized
God in the flesh when He came. And many of the Jews did—the apostles,
the disciples, and many others.
Christ
continued to say: "An evil and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto
it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah." The events of the Old
Testament contain prefigurations of events in the New Testament. When
Jonah was three days in the belly of the whale, this was a prefiguration
of our Lord being three days in the tomb. This sign he gave that even
after his death and Resurrection they might recognize that he was truly
the Christ.
Our Lord
told the Pharisees and Sadducees that an evil and adulterous generation
seeks for a sign. What he is saying is that they sought for spectacular
events, that is, fire coming down from heaven, or the Romans being
chased away, angels manifesting themselves and banishing the foreign
government of the Romans, and things of that sort. Christ told them this
kind of sign would not be given. An evil and adulterous generation seeks
after this, but those who are pure of heart seek rather something more
spiritual. Thus, from our Saviour's words, we know that we are not to
watch for spectacular signs, but we are rather to look inwardly for
spiritual signs. Also, we are to watch for those things which according
to Scripture must come to pass.
We Orthodox
Christians have already recognized and accepted the signs of Christ's
First Coming. The very fact that we're Orthodox Christians means that
we've done this. We know what these signs mean: for example, the sign of
Jonah, the 490 years of Daniel, and many other things which our Lord
fulfilled. Our Orthodox Divine services are filled with Old Testament
prophecies which were fulfilled in the coming of Christ. These we all
see and recognize and the prophecies all seems clear. But now we have to
look for different kinds of signs, that is, the signs of the Second
Coming of Christ. The whole teaching about the Second Coming of Christ
and the signs which will precede it is set forth in several places in
the Gospels, but especially in the 24th chapter of St. Matthew.
This chapter
tells of how our Lord departed from the Temple, and how his disciples
came to him to show him the buildings of the Temple. Of course, in those
days the Temple was the centre of worship. Every Jew had to come to the
Temple at least at Pascha, the Passover, for this alone was where God
could be worshipped in the right way. Our Lord looked at the Temple and
told His disciples, "See ye not all these things?
Verily I say unto you: There shall not be left here one stone upon
another, that shall not be thrown down." To tell a believing Jew
at that time that the whole Temple is to be thrown down, that nothing is
to be left of it, is like saying it's the end of the world, because the
Temple is precisely the place where God is supposed to be worshipped.
How are you going to worship God if there's no Temple? So these words of
our Saviour made the disciples start thinking about the end of the
world. They immediately said, "Tell us, when shall these things be? and
what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" In
other words, they already knew that He was going to come again and that
this would be bound up with the end of the world.
Then our
Lord gives a whole set of signs which are to come to pass before He
comes again. Let's hear these signs from the Gospel reading:
"Jesus said, Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive
many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not
troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not
yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers
places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver
you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all
nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall
betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets
shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound,
the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end,
the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall
the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation,
spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth,
let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the
mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any
thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return
back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to
them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not
in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day: For then shall be great
tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this
time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened,
there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days
shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is
Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs,
and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch
that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I
have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he
is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers;
believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth
even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For
wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall
fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And
then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall
all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall
send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather
together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the
other."
The first
thing we must have if we are going to have the true interpretation of
the signs of the times is something we can call basic Orthodox knowledge
or understanding. That is, knowledge of the Holy Scripture, both the Old
and New Testaments (and not just according to the way it seems, but
according to the way the Church has interpreted it); knowledge of the
writings of Holy Fathers; knowledge of Church history; and awareness of
the different kind of heresies and errors which have attacked the
Church's true understanding of dogma and especially of the last times.
If we do not have a grounding in sources such as these, we will find
ourselves confused and unprepared. That is precisely what our Lord tells
us: to be ready, to be prepared. Unless we have this basic knowledge, we
will not be prepared and we will misinterpret the signs of the times.
The most
important thing we need to gain knowledge is the virtue of spiritual
discernment. The last times will be about discerning between things that
seem identical or very similar to each other, but one is true and the
other false, one has the spirit of Christ while the other the spirit of
the Antichrist.
Antichrist
does not merely mean someone who is against Christ but also "in
imitation of, or in place of Christ." The Antichrist, as all the Holy
Fathers say in their writings about him, is to be someone who imitates
Christ, that is, tries to fool people by looking as though he is Christ
come back to earth. Seeing the figure of Antichrist, many people will be
fooled into thinking that it is Christ.
So let's
take each of the signs given us by Christ and see how these apply to us
in our times. "Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive
many." Here Christ is not specifically referring to the
Antichrist who will come in the last days. Christ is the Church; he is
the head of the Church and we are the members of his body. Throughout
the history of the Church many have risen up against this Church. Many
have cut themselves off from this body claiming that they are the true
church, which is like saying they are Christ. The many heresies that
abounded in the first few centuries, but especially in our times, the
thousands of denominations who come in the name of Christ claiming to be
Christian, are all shouting out I am Christ and have deceived millions.
"And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars:
see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but
the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom
against kingdom."
There have
always been wars and rumours of wars so this sign is rather vague in its
meaning. Certainly the frequency and intensity of wars in the last
century have increased and more people were killed in the two Great
World Wars, the Russian Civil War, the Congo War, Korean War, Vietnam
War, Iraq and others, than in all the wars of past centuries put
together. Already in this century more than 40 conflicts and wars are
raging all around the world. But Christ tells us that we should not be
troubled by these wars because the end is not yet. There is much more to
come and we cannot imagine what would happen if there was a Third World
War. With nuclear and biological weapons, poisonous gases and all kinds
of destructive weapons now on the scene, a Third World War would be
catastrophic and bring tribulation as has never been seen before. In its
first few days, these weapons will be responsible for more damage and
deaths than all the wars in history. Wars and rumours of wars cannot on
their own be seen as a sign of the last days unless they are seen
collectively with the other signs Christ has given us to recognize the
last days.
"And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and
earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."
As the
population of the world has grown, many countries have seen an increase
in poverty; this with the consequences of war and an increase of world
food prices has lead to many famines around the world. We have all seen
images of the famines in Ethiopia and Somalia and many other African
countries where famines have killed thousands upon thousand. Less
remembered is the Great Chinese famine of 1959 to 1961, which because of
poor planning by the former Communist Party Leader Mao Zedong, famine
claimed an estimated 45 million lives. It is expected that in 2013 the
African countries of Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as
well as Burundi, Chad, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Comoros, and
Sierra Leone will all be at extreme risk of famine. With the global
economic crisis now looming over the world, less money will mean less
aid will reach these countries and we can expect a higher death toll
than in previous years.
Pestilences refers
to diseases, but is not confined only to diseases affecting humans.
Crops are constantly being infected with pestilences and all it needs is
for the crops to fail in the great crop growing countries like Canada,
Australia, America, Russia and India, which are already at risk from
rising temperatures, for the world food markets to collapse and effect
the world like a domino chain reaction.
As for
humans we have seen in past centuries many diseases that took the lives
of millions. For many of these diseases man has found a cure, but in
recent years new bacterial and viral diseases are appearing which are
affecting millions around the world. Various cancers are also on the
increase possibly caused by preservatives in foods, pestilent killers
and radiation in the air.
Like wars,
earthquakes have been happening in various places around the world for
centuries. Christ's reference to earthquakes as a sign of the times
simply means that there will be an increase in the frequency and size of
earthquakes not only in the places which are known for such activity,
but also in other places that would not be considered normal. Certainly
in the past century we have seen an increase of earthquakes and possibly
more catastrophic than at any other time.
In the
Gospel of St. Luke, the same signs of the times are also given but we
are also told that the sea and the waves will be roaring. (Luke 21:25)
Great earthquakes in the sea cause the waves to rise as though roaring
and in recent years we have seen the destruction caused by these waves
which we have come to know as Tsunamis. Even in the past week the 7.7
earthquake in Canada triggered a tsunami which beat the US eastern coast
and a super storm named Sandy with winds more than 100mph working itself
inland. All these Christ says are the beginning of sorrows. Before the
end is near there will be a lot more sorrow and terrifying things for as
Christ says in Luke: "For men's hearts failing
them for fear." (Luke 21: 26)
After the
beginning of sorrows Christ says: "Then shall they
deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be
hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be
offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And
many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many."
This
persecution of Christians could be referring to the first three
centuries of Christianity when persecution was at its height against the
new religion, but Christ is talking about the last times. In the past
century we saw the persecution of the Christian faith in Russia where
under a communist regime, millions of people were killed for their
belief in Christ. Could the prophecy be referring to the Russian people
or are we to expect a new persecution of Christians in the future? This
is a very real possibility and if the prophecies recorded in the Book of
Revelation for a new world order and a world ruler, the Antichrist, are
interpreted correctly, the world is already setting the stage in
preparation for total globalization. With each passing day more and more
nations are ceding their sovereignty to larger institutions such as the
European Union, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and
the World Court. Given the current global financial crisis and the
potential catastrophe of a global war, more and more diplomatic leaders
and world politicians are calling for global government. If this were to
happen the leader of this global government will be the Antichrist who
will solve all the worlds' problems concerning war, famine and disease
and will be honoured by the peoples of the world as their saviour. All
the religions of the world will become one and he will be worshipped as
Christ come again into the world. Only the true Christians who recognize
the signs of the times will know him for what he really is and refuse to
be part of his global kingdom. Then can we expect for a new and
terrifying persecution of those Christians who remain steadfast in faith
and are not deceived. Many will be killed and true Christians will be
hated of all nations because they don't worship the false saviour of the
world. There will be mistrust with people betraying even their own
family members who have not accepted the new world order.
In those
days many false prophets will rise, and deceive many. Who are these
false prophets? Like the Antichrist who with the power of Satan will
perform many miracles, he will have the elite members of his government
around the world keeping order and possibly also performing miracles in
his name.
"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of
many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same
shall be saved."
Another sign
of those days is that iniquity will abound. When the true Christ comes
iniquity will come to an end, but Christ gives us a sign to recognize
the Antichrist. He will not bring an end to iniquity, but rather it will
increase and by this we will know that he is not the Christ. In our
times sin has increased to a level unimaginable in previous centuries.
In the Old Testament Sodom and Gomorra were destroyed because they had
practiced immoral sexual behaviour. In our times these immoral sexual
practices have become common practice and have been accepted by society
as normal behaviour. Add to this greed, selfishness, lies, thefts,
aggression, violence and the meaningless killings, our world today can
be interpreted as a sign of those last times. Our movies and TV programs
portray all the evils imaginable and the majority of us are happily
entertained by them.
Christ says
that the love of many shall wax cold. True Christian love is a rarity in
most societies. Gone are the days of giving hospitality to a stranger on
his journey. Gone are the days of helping someone in need. Violence has
brought fear into the hearts of people who now lock their doors securely
to isolate themselves from the dangers of the outside world; to protect
themselves from people who commit crimes for no reason other than for
the thrill they receive because they do not have God inside them. On a
larger scale we have seen people exterminate nations for some idealistic
notion. Hitler had more than six million Jews killed because he
supposedly blamed them for Christ's death. In 1975 the Pol Pot's regime
in Cambodia killed off more than two million people quite ruthlessly,
based on some abstract idea of getting the people back to the rural
countryside. Everyone had to leave the cities. If they couldn't they
were killed. It they were educated they were killed. An incredible one
third of the entire population were massacred in the four years from
1975 though 1979.
The sign of
cold-heartedness is probably the most deadly of all the signs because
Christ tells us that the sign of Christians is that they have love for
each other. When this love grows cold, as it has in our times, this
means that even the Christians are beginning to lose Christianity.
"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached
in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end
come."
This sign of
the Gospel being preached unto all the nations we see about us now. The
Gospel itself is produced in hundreds of languages now to almost all the
tribes of the earth, and Orthodox Christianity is being preached in
almost every country of the world. In Africa there are great missions:
in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, the Congo, and spreading out from there. New
technology like satellite TV and the internet allow us to communicate
with people on the other side of the world right from our own homes,
churches and offices. Through this new technology, Christianity can
reach even those remote places that in the past missionaries couldn't.
But probably this sign is not just referring to the outreach of the
Gospel but also to its acceptance. The great religions of the world like
Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism will embrace the Christian faith,
but as we have already mentioned in the possibility of the World Order,
the majority will be deceived into thinking that the Antichrist is the
Christ of the Gospels. Then Christ says the end shall come.
"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of
desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,
(whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea
flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down
to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the
field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with
child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your
flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day: For then shall
be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world
to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be
shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake
those days shall be shortened."
What is the
abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel that we are supposed to
understand? Daniel speaks of a king who shall pollute the holy covenant
and blaspheme greatly against God and even magnify himself above God. It
is interpreted that this self proclaimed god is the Antichrist who will
stand in the holy place meaning the temple of Jerusalem and proclaim to
the world that he is Christ.
But this can
only happen if the Jerusalem temple is rebuilt. In 70AD the Romans
destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and the Jews were dispersed among the
gentile nations of the world. The Romans renamed the area Palestine, and
for almost two thousand years the Jews lived in exile. Throughout
history the Jews have wondered from nation to nation suffering
persecution all over the world. But God had promised to bring the Jews
out of exile and bring them back into the Land of their fathers. The
aftermath of Hitler's Holocaust of the Jewish people created these very
conditions for their return and in May of 1948 the nation of Israel was
re-established. For the first time in history rebuilding of the Temple
has now become a possibility.
This was tried only
once before, in the fourth century. St. Cyril mentions it, as do several
of the Church historians at that time. Because of his passion to
overthrow Christianity, Julian the Apostate, decided that, since Christ
had prophesied that not one stone of the Temple would be left on the
other, if he rebuilt the Temple, he would prove that Christ was an
impostor, and therefore paganism could be restored. So he deliberately
invited the Jews back to Jerusalem, and they began building the Temple
with the blessing of Julian the Apostate. They would build a little in
the daytime, and the next morning they would come and all the stones
would be on the ground. They tried again and balls of fire began to come
out of the earth. All the historians agree on this. In fact, modern
rationalist historians, because they see that they cannot deny the texts
and that something did actually happen, begin to say things like, "They
must have struck oil," or "There were underground gas flues." It was
obviously a miracle of God to keep the Temple from being built, because
it was not the time—the Temple is to be built only at the very end of
the world. Anyway, they finally failed in their attempt and gave up the
operation. Of the few stones that remained, not one was left on the
other. So the prophecy was fulfilled in the time of Julian the Apostate.
But now, since
1967, the site where the Temple was before is now in the hands of the
Jews. Therefore for the first time, it becomes quite possible that the
Temple could be rebuilt. The only thing interfering is the great mosque
which the Moslems have there. If that's destroyed, there will probably
be a war.
This sign
involving the Temple is in fact a very big sign and when we see the
Temple being built, then we will know that the time is at hand, because
that is definitely one of the signs of the very end. So far, of course,
it's not being built, but there are all kinds of rumours that plans have
been laid, that stones are being gathered, etc. It's obvious that the
Jews are thinking about it. It is also said that the vessels and
priestly garments for the Temple have all been prepared. Probably when
all the nations including the Muslim nations accept Christianity the
great Mosque will be of no consequence and the once Muslim countries
will give their blessing to have it destroyed to make room for the
Temple.
Many
Protestant churches are joyfully anticipating the rebuilding of the
Temple: they talk about the Temple as though it will be built in order
for Christ to come back and reign over the world for a thousand years.
But nowhere does it say that Christ will come back to reign from the
temple. On the contrary, the temple has been destroyed and Christ will
no more come to it. The only one who will come to the Temple is the
Antichrist so what they are joyfully anticipating is the coming of
Antichrist. The millennium, according to the Protestant interpretation,
as being a special thousand-year reign at the end of the world, is
actually the reign of Antichrist. Christ comes only at the end of the
world to begin the eternal kingdom of heaven.
Therefore
Christ tells us to beware of false Christs. If any man say to you he is
here or he is there, believe it not, even if someone comes showing great
signs and wonders, such miracles that will deceive many even the very
elect if it were possible. And Christ tells us of his true coming so
that we will not be deceived. "In those days the
sun will be darkened, the moon will not give her light, the stars shall
fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then
shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:" that is, the
sign of the Cross will appear in the sky. "And
then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son
of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."
The nations of the earth shall mourn because they worshipped the
Antichrist and didn't take heed of the signs of the times. And Christ
will "send his angels with a great sound of a
trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds,
from one end of heaven to the other."
After
telling all this about the signs of the end, our Lord gives a final
command, saying, "Watch, therefore, for you know
not on what day your Lord cometh.... Therefore, be also ready, for in an
hour that you think not, the Son of Man cometh."
All these
signs of the times can be very negative and depressing. They are signs
that the world is collapsing, that the end of the world is at hand and
that the Antichrist is about to come. As Christians we must be prepared
for these times, but at the same time not to remain indifferent to the
sufferings of people just because we expect these things to come and
much worst. Not to become cold hearted because Christ said they would
happen so why should I worry or be concerned, let the prophecies be
fulfilled. This is falling into the sign of hearts waxing cold. We have
to be, rather, all the more Christian, with love for all people,
thinking about other people and trying to help others in their
suffering. We must be Christian until the very end for as Christ said:
"he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall
be saved."
The Bible
has many more other signs for the last times both in the Old and New
Testaments. We have been given these signs to watch and be prepared but
not as most people believe to watch for the times of the Antichrist.
That's rather a secondary thing. We watch the signs of the times so we
can know when Christ is going to come. Amen.
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