"Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."
In every era since the church began, there have been those who have been convinced that the signs were right for Jesus’ return. It is a natural instinct for Christians to watch for the signs of His second coming, for Jesus’ return for us is one of the great hopes the Bible teaches.
Here in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus taught in His parable of the fig tree that as His reappearance nears, that generation that is alive at that time will see the signs but not know the moment:
We learn from Jesus’ parable that as Christians we will be aware as the time approaches, because we will see the signs, but that no one but God the Father will know the exact day and moment of Christ’s reappearance.
In the passages preceding the parable of the fig tree (verses 4-31), Jesus identifies some of the signs. Well, you may think, all we need to do is study His list and we will know when the time is ripe. It’s not quite that easy, because many of the signs Jesus identifies in Matthew 24:4-31 have been present in every generation. This is part of the mystery, I believe, which the Holy Spirit intentionally left for us to ponder. Why?
Because:
God wants us to be always vigilant and always ready to come face-to-face with Jesus, and always faithful as if that might happen today. This is the important message of Matthew 24:42-44,
"Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."
He wants us to remain faithful, to be prepared to meet Him when He comes!
In Matthew 24:4-31, Jesus describes many signs of His imminent return. It was in response to the question from His followers asking when He would return and what would be the sign of His coming and the end of the age:
We see there will be what we might call natural events that will signal the time is near, including wars, international strife, earthquakes, famines, disease, and so forth. In addition, even then Jesus seems to be warning us not to be preoccupied with the exact day and hour, because those who will say they have seen the Christ will have seen false christs. The signal of His return is shown to us in verses 30 & 31:
"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."
In other words, we will know He is coming when we see His angels and see Jesus Himself returning on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and not a moment before!
Yet, Jesus in this passage does indicate there can be an awareness that His reappearance is very near. Taken just by itself, this passage gives us what we might call a general outline. But God gave us a complete Scripture, and when we look elsewhere in the Bible we can find quite a bit of corroborating information and more clues for what many Christian writers call the terminal generation of Christians—that is, the Christians who live in the era when His second coming is close.
Before we look at a few of those, however, I want to remind all of us that these are general signs of the age of His return, and we by no means should attempt to identify a day or time from the clues we find in Scripture. In addition, we do not want to look at our Scriptural references with such a narrow focus that we begin to see all the events around us as definite signs of His reappearance. Christians throughout the ages have tended to do that and lost sight of the fact that our awareness of His imminent return is not an intellectual exercise, but a reason for a holy walk with Him so that we are at all times ready to meet Him.
I Thessalonians 3:13, says,
"To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints."
Signs of the Times from the Prophets:
Let’s look at just a couple of important Old Testament Prophecies that indicate what will be happening at the time near to Christ’s return.
1) The rebirth of Israel as a Nation with Jerusalem as its capital:
Most of the Old Testament prophets dwell on the rebirth of Israel as a nation, the regathering of the dispersed Jewish people to the land of Israel, and Israel regaining control of the city of Jerusalem from the gentiles. I want to focus on two of those prophecies, from the prophets Jeremiah and Zechariah.
Jeremiah 23:7-8 says,
"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land."
Zechariah 14:11 says,
"And men shall dwell in it (Jerusalem), and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited."
The rebirth of the nation of Israel with Jerusalem as its capital under control of the Jews who have returned to their land is a key characteristic of the age in which Jesus will return. The Jewish people lost their homeland in A.D. 70 when the Romans destroyed the temple and drove most of the Jews out of Palestine. Then in 1948, for the first time since A.D. 70, the nation of Israel came back into existence.
In the New Testament Gospel of Luke Jesus prophesied about the destruction of Jerusalem in Luke 21:24,
"And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."
This passage in Luke 21 refers to the destruction of Jerusalem and Israel by the Romans, which was to take place about 40 years after Jesus spoke these words recorded by Luke. The last part of verse 24 is an interesting prophecy because it singles out Jerusalem. The times of the Gentiles is fulfilled (that is, comes to an end) when Jesus reappears. This prophecy of verse 24 indicates Jerusalem will be back under Jewish control at the time of Jesus’ reappearance.
Even after Israel came back into existence in 1948, Jerusalem remained under Gentile/Muslim (the term gentile means non-Jewish) control. But Israel did regain control of Jerusalem in the 6-day war in 1967 and vowed never to relinquish it. Those of us who lived through that time period will remember Moshe Dyan marching to the Western Wall of the temple when the battle for Jerusalem was over and proclaiming Jerusalem would never again be lost. Today, political control of Jerusalem is perhaps the most important issue between the Israelies and the Palestinians, with the nation of Israel determined never to give it up again.
2) A Marked Increase in Knowledge:
When we think of Old Testament prophecies about the day of the Lord’s return, the prophet Daniel is one of the first who comes to mind. Daniel gives us interpretations of his own visions, which accurately predicted the course of human governments in the ages to come.
Daniel 12:4,
"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."
This short passage is profound and tells us three facts.
First, some details about the delivery of God’s people into Jesus’ presence at His reappearance are not yet revealed. This is consistent with Jesus’ teaching that we will not know the day or the hour until He actually reappears.
Second, the passage teaches us that in that era people will be searching for His appearance (running to and fro, a picture of earnest or even frantic searching).
Third—and this is what I want to focus on for a moment—the time of His reappearance will be a time when there has been a marked increase in knowledge. The Hebrew text of this section indicates either a marked increase in knowledge or perhaps could be regarded as an explosion of knowledge, understanding, and learning.
So God has given Daniel two signs that will occur when the time is near:
(1) an explosion of knowledge and
(2) a marked increase in learning and seeking knowledge. The emphasis of the text is that the increase in learning and knowledge is very or unusually great in its scope.
It may be that he is describing our age, an age in which human knowledge doubles every few years. We should note that there was a slow progress of increase of knowledge in science, industry, transportation, and so forth from the time of Daniel until about the middle of the 19th century.
Do you realize people have lived not too much differently throughout history up to the mid-19th century from the way people had always lived—with basic homes heated by fire, a general lack of medical knowledge and treatments, transportation by foot and animal, and so forth?
In just the last century, however, mankind has experienced an explosion of knowledge and technological development.
I have read medical knowledge alone is doubling every 3 years.
So what we can apply from Daniel 12:4, in light of Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 is that we, indeed, may be that generation that will not pass before Jesus returns.
But there is more . . .
3) Weapons of Mass Destruction:
Another prophecy from Zechariah seems to predict some weapon or force of mass destruction as another characteristic of the present age:
Zechariah 14:12,
"And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth."
Notice that the physical description of destruction of the body is consistent with modern weapons of mass destruction and reminds us of the effects of a nuclear holocaust. Since the development of nuclear weapons in the 1940s, mankind has had the capability of causing this very effect.
4) Instant Worldwide ability to Communicate:
Turn to Revelation 11:3; 7-10 and find another condition which exists that seems to indicate an event of prophecy can take place in the present era when it could not have taken place in prior eras.
Revelation 11:3, and also 7-10,
"And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth,
And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth."
It seems from this description that all parts of the world will have visual access to Jerusalem and will watch the bodies of the two witnesses, a fact which is possible in our age of satellite television which can give us live video coverage of events practically anywhere on the planet. Also, today live photos can be seen anywhere in the world via the Internet.
What does all this mean for us as believers? Look again at Matthew 24:42-44. Jesus tells us that we have two assignments with regard to His next appearance:
(1) Watch, because we do not know what hour He will come, and
(2) Be ready. We must live lives consistent with our relationship with our Savior, so that when He comes for us, he will find us faithful.
Matthew 24:42-44,
"Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."
Illustration:
During one of his expeditions to the Antarctic, Sir Ernest Shackleton left some of his men on Elephant Island with the intent of returning for them and carrying them back to England. But he was delayed. By the time he could go back for them the sea had frozen and he had no access to the island. Three times he tried to reach them but was prevented by the ice. Finally, on his fourth try, he broke through and found a narrow channel. Much to his surprise, he found the crewmen waiting for him, supplies packed and ready to board. They were soon on their way back to England and he asked them how they knew to be ready for him. They told him they didn’t know when he would return, but they were sure he would because he told them he would. So every morning, the leader rolled up his bag, and packed his gear and told the crew to do the same thing saying, "Get your things ready, boys.
The boss may come today."
Christ could come at any moment. Are you ready?
If you’ve never trusted Christ today, you are not ready! Come today and have your sins forgiven and be ready to meet Him.
If you are a believer and you have been idle and not serving the Lord the way that you know He would have you, come and pray and ask the Lord for forgiveness and get busy! Jesus said "Occupy til I come"!
Let’s bow in prayer.
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Friday, April 15, 2005 Commentary | Home |
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The Top Ten Technologies: #10 Superlearning Systems |
The advancement of modern civilization will require a quantum leap in the approach of public education. It's not simply about giving more money to the schools, raising teachers' salaries, or buying textbooks for students; it's about changing our entire approach to teaching our next generation of human beings the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in tomorrow's world.
Superlearning systems offer the ability to rapidly accelerate the learning process for children and adults alike. But what is a superlearning system? Today, it's a largely fictional technology that's perhaps best described in the sci-fi movie Brainstorm, released in 1983 and starring Christopher Walken. In Brainstorm, a brain monitoring device could record the thoughts and sensory experiences of one person, then replay them into the brain of another person. The promise of the device was perhaps best described by one character in the film who said, "How would you like to learn the entire fifth grade in ten minutes?"
It may have been science fiction in 1983, but today the exploration of superlearning is underway. In the last two decades, there has been a tremendous amount of research conducted on multi-sensory learning theory. Researchers have found that the human brain learns best through multi-sensory association, not rote memorization. A child will learn best, for example, when she is engaged in a learning activity that uses sight, sound, emotions, tactile feedback, spatial orientation, and even smell and taste.
Superlearning with augmented reality
Augmented reality can provide a multi-channel, high-immersion learning experience that teaches new concepts to children or adults at many times the speed and efficiency of today's standard teaching approaches. Augmented reality systems can provide the imagery, sounds, user feedback mechanisms (like using your hands to control virtual objects that appear to be floating in front of you) and even the tactile sensations that accelerate learning. Properly programmed, these wearable augmented reality systems could guide students through an unlimited series of educational exercises that are experiential, multi-channel, self-paced, fun, and highly effective.
As one example, consider the walkthrough history lesson : with augmented reality systems, students could physically explore historical events, hold conversations with historical figures, and see, hear and feel history with their own senses.