>>This presentation is brought to you by the friends of the Amazing Facts ministry.
>>Contrary to the popular belief that lightning never strikes the same spot twice, it's actually been known to strike objects, even people, multiple times during intense electrical storms. During one storm, for instance, the Empire State Building in New York was struck 15 times within 15 minutes. Sometimes a single bolt of lightning will really consist of as many as 42 discharges striking the same spot in such quick succession that it appears like a single flash, but it all happens in less than one-quarter of a second.
Lightning, from one cloud to another, is also very common and it's been recorded to jump as far as 20 miles between clouds. But whether lightning is moving from cloud to cloud or cloud to ground or ground to cloud, it's hard to miss the brilliant blinding flash that illuminates the sky. In Matthew 24 Jesus said, "For as lightning comes from the East and flashes to the West, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." In spite of His words, some still believe that His return is going to be a secret. Well, what is the truth? Join me now, friends, as we take a closer look at what the Bible really says about the return of Christ.
>>People know that something unusual is happening. In 2010 the Pew Research Group did a survey and in that survey they explained that by the year 2050 - 50 about 60 percent of the people believed that Jesus would come. I think 40 of those 60 percent were absolutely sure. 20 percent said 'probably' and that's in North America, of course. And that's why we're going to be talking tonight about the pinnacle of prophecy and signs of Jesus' coming.
You know, it's very interesting, we're going to be finding that the book of Daniel is a partner book for Revelation. So we'll be going back and forth. Revelation does a lot of referring to the book of Daniel. You look in Daniel chapter 12 and he says, in verse 4, "But you Daniel shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end." So no question about what he's talking about. And he goes on to say, "Many will run to and fro."
First of all, I think they're going to run to and fro through the Word of God and discover truth. But you can't miss the point that people are running to and fro faster - do you realize, for about six thousand years, people - the fastest thing you got is a horse? Just can't even imagine the change that's been seen.
National Geographic, back in 2006 - I know it's an old article but it still bears the point. That's the magazine cover, if you want to reference it. There's a quote in there. People are traveling far from home more than ever before in human history and knowledge will increase. This is a picture here on the screen of the Great Hadron accelerator. It is - it's the largest experiment in the world. It's the biggest machine in the world. It's under the ground about 500 feet - a 17-mile tunnel in Geneva underneath the ground where the - all these European governments got together and they poured like 13 billion dollars into building this testing equipment to understand physics. And as they hyper accelerate these particles they smash them and then measure what they find to try and figure out what is the base core of what life is made of? What is the stuff of life?
Now actually the nickname is the machine has been built to discover - they call it the God Particle. Have you heard that before? They said it's going to try - 'We're trying to find the answers of where everything came from.' - that's a big investment of technology, not only from under the ground there in Geneva but up in the sky with the International Space Station - knowledge is increased just in in one lifetime. I should actually say in about a century - you look at just some of the changes - incredible inventions - automobiles, airplanes, radio, television, smartphone, computers.
A lot of young people today, they can't imagine a world without a smartphone. And you know it's - I get - Karen and I got a rental car and it was a fairly new one - we got lucky - got a low mileage rental car and I've nearly wrecked it three times trying to figure out how to run the thing. (laughter) I sat in the car when we got there and I sat there and said, 'Oh, this is great, low mileage', you know, and I figured out, finally, you don't have to use a key, you just press the button because it knows the key's in my pocket - I keep trying to figure out where do I put the key?
I’m one of these old people, I want to put the key in somewhere. And I keep taking the key out when I walk up to the car, but it doesn't need the key, it just opens by itself and I said, 'Oh, what a waste of energy.' I had to find it. And I’m trying to figure out how to shift the thing. I’m looking at all this and finally Karen reaches over - she turns a knob. Is that like a volume - you shift gears with a volume button. I’m a man, I want to grab something and hear it clunk, you know? When - it just - you turn a little knob. So it bothers me. Just things have changed.
Can you imagine trying to explain a smartphone to the apostle Paul? (raucous laughter) He would think you're demon possessed. (laughter) Paul would say, 'Look, let me find that in my scrolls.' Say, 'No problem, Paul, I’ll google it.' 'What?' Can't you just see it? Things have changed.
And another one for me that I think is a tremendous evidence of the nearness of Christ coming is global evangelization. Matthew 24, verse 14 - this, to me, I think, is one of the most powerful prophecies that really makes me believe we are living in the last days. Jesus said, extremely clearly, "The gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations." And then He said, "Then the end will come." He didn't say it might come, or it could come or it may come. He said, very emphatically, the end will come. He did not say the gospel'll be preached there will be a great global revival and everybody will believe; He said 'For a witness.' Give them an opportunity. And then what they do with that opportunity is up to them. But the end will come.
Well is the gospel going in all the world? Just this last two days we've had an invitation to return to China. Amazing Facts was very blessed. We were one of - if not the first - Christian organization in over 50 years invited to preach publicly a whole series of meetings that was broadcast on television in China. (clapping) And that was such a thrill and then the neat thing is they made copies of that and they continue to multiply that. I just got a call from our headquarters there and they said, 'Can you come back? And so, the gospel - and it's - it's now on satellite.
Karen and I are going next month to New Guinea and they tell us there'll be - about 100,000 people at this one meeting that we're going to in New Guinea. We're going to be in Australia. And I’m just one of thousands of missionaries that are out there doing it. It's not like we're doing it - Jesus said the gospel would go to the world - it's going the Middle East. Amazing Facts gets e-mail from all these people in the Middle East that are watching online. And so, people are searching and the gospel is going and missionaries are going. And Jesus said, 'Then the end will come.' And so we're seeing, I think, the fulfillment of that in this generation.
Now I need to pause at this point and delve into a very important part of our study. I've been talking about signs of Christ's coming. Now I want to talk about how He's coming. About what?
>>How.
>>How He's coming - because there's a lot of confusion about how. Now there's going to be a lot of people in Heaven that misunderstood how He's coming. Did the apostles misunderstand how the Messiah was coming the first time? They'll be in Heaven. But they had the scriptures wrong. They thought when the Messiah came He was going to come on a white horse like King David He was going to destroy all of the Romans like Samson or something. And they were going to be a world empire like Solomon - and they just had all these great, glorious ideas about when the Messiah comes and Jesus said 'No, no, no.' That's when I come the second time - first time I’m coming like a lamb, second time I come like a lion.'
Well, the devil's doing the same thing to the church today. Lot of good people are confused about how He's coming so they won't be prepared to receive Him. A lot of Christ's people - the Jews - did not receive Him when He came the first time because they said, 'Nazareth? Who? There's no prophet in Nazareth. And a poor carpenter. How can this - can't be Him.' They misunderstood that He was coming first as a sacrifice.
Well now there's a lot of misunderstandings. There are principally three views. When you read Revelation there's one group that's - they're called Preterists and just think of the word pre. They believe that all of Revelation was pretty much fulfilled by 100 A.D.. They think Nero is the antichrist and that it's all behind us - good people. I respectfully disagree.
Then you have Futurists. Futurists are the ones who have popularized the version - the left behind scenario where most of Revelation chapter 4 - when John says 'I heard a voice and a trumpet' - that's all future.
Then you have, where I fall in, what they call Historists. And I am in the company - this is - used to be the old view. It's not as popular as it used to be but it's what the Protestant Reformers believe it means Revelation is covering a panorama of history, from the first coming to the second coming, and you can kind of track the history of the church and God's people across that horizon.
And so I’ll just tell you right now that you've got the two main views are the Futurist view - there's not as many Preterists - and the Historic view. The Futurist view is a fairly new view. It was really popularized by Hal Lindsey's book - I don't know if any of you remember a book called The Late Great Planet Earth. And in that book he predicted that, because Israel was established as a nation in 1948, in 1981 the secret rapture will take place; in 1988 seven years later after seven years of tribulation Jesus will come. And none of it happened. And he's still selling books. But it became very popular then.
I am with the group that believes that the tribulation comes before Jesus comes. The other group believes that we are caught up before the tribulation. I'd love to believe that but I don't think that's what the Bible teaches. And we want to know - and I’m going to give you biblical scripture here. If you disagree with me then we can still love and respect each other, but you owe it to yourself to at least understand your brothers and sisters that may believe differently, amen? We can disagree and still be agreeable, right?
Will Jesus come quietly? Let's look at what the Bible says. 1 Thessalonians 4:16, "For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. And then" - it tells us - "the dead in Christ will rise." A trump. You read in Jeremiah 25:30 - it tells us, "The Lord will roar from on high. He will utter His voice from His holy habitation. He will mightily roar upon His habitation. He will give a shout." Jesus' coming is a very loud event. You read in Psalm 50 - if this was the only one it would be pretty convincing - it says there, "Our God shall come and He will not keep silent and it will be very tempestuous" - stormy - "round about Him." It's a great climatic event.
And someone might be thinking, 'Well, Pastor Doug, the Bible says He's coming like a thief. Doesn't that mean He's coming quietly?' I don't think so. You can read in the Bible where it says in 2 Peter chapter 3 it says, "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise" - what happens in the day that he comes like a thief? Notice, "Heavens pass away with great noise" - there's a noise again - "and the elements will melt with fervent heat. And the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up."
So, when Jesus comes as a thief, does it sound to you like life goes on here on earth? He's coming like a thief. That just means it's a surprise. Now, I don't know how much to tell you, but I've not always been a Christian. I used to be a thief. I would break into houses and steal - right here in Florida, actually, because I used to live in southern Florida. Not your neighborhood so I don't owe you anything. (raucous laughter) but I never sent out an announcement and said 'I’ll be coming just one to let you know.' It was a surprise. So that's what Jesus is saying it's going to surprise people - but when He comes. They're going to know.
>> Don't go anywhere, friends. In just a moment, we're going to return to today's presentation. Have you ever wished that you could be in a world where there's no more pain or sorrow; to be delivered from this world of suffering, heartache, and grief? Well, it's true, Jesus is coming again, and we have a special beautifully illustrated resource we'd like to give you. It's called "The Ultimate Deliverance." This resource, filled with scripture, tells us about the signs that precede the second coming of Jesus, how to avoid being deceived by false christs, and how you can be ready for the Lord's return. To get your free copy, call the phone number on your screen and ask for offer #105, or visit the web address. And after you read this incredible resource, make sure and share it with a friend. Let's get back now to today's presentation and learn some more amazing facts from the word of god.
>>Now who is going to see Christ when He returns? Is it only a select group that disappears and - listen to what it says. I can give you several verses here - Matthew 24:30, "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 in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory" - they're going to see Him coming - great power - great glory - means brilliant splendor.
And again, Revelation 1:7. Behold, He comes with the clouds and every eye will see him. Who will be with Jesus when he comes? He's not coming alone. The Bible says the Son of Man will come in His glory - that's that splendor - and how many?
>>All.
>>all the holy angels with Him. Well how many angels are there? Let's think about that for a minute. Most of us have a guardian angel. Bible says Jesus said, speaking of children, their angels do behold the face of my Father' - implying that they've got an angel watching them. Seven billion people in the world - God's angels not only watch over people, they're doing His work. They're the ministering spirits. They're the army of God - they're called the heavenly host - very real creatures with individual personality - billions of them.
Now one angel came down from God, you read in the Old Testament, in the days of King Hezekiah - the angel of the Lord went through the army of Syria - one angel killed 185,000 enemy soldiers in one day. The angels that were guarding the tomb of Jesus - I’m sorry - when the angels came to the tomb of Jesus at the resurrection, the Roman soldiers that were guarding the tomb were so frightened by the glory of that angel that came down and rolled away the stone, they fell over as though they were dead.
One angel. Can you imagine the Heaven being filled with the brilliance of billions of angels? He didn't say we're leaving any of 'em behind. He said all the angels. All the angels have been involved in our salvation. They are going to be very interested in us being redeemed and you'll see, they play a part in our being collected, so to speak.
What will the brightness of the glory of Lord's coming and all these angels do to those who are not ready? "When Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God." and, again, that was 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verses 7 and 8. You can read in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 8, "And then shall that wicked one be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming." The wicked one's destroyed by the brightness of his coming.
Have you ever seen when you're out the field on a nice sunny day and you just curious, you pick up a stone, you turn and you see all these crawly things start running for the dark. And at night you can light something out the woods and all of the moths come to the light. You've got two kinds of bugs out there. You've got bugs like cockroaches that run from the light, and you've got moths and butterflies that love the light. And that's the kind of people you got when Jesus comes. You've got your cockroaches and your butterflies. (raucous laughter) So those that are - it's really - if you don't have the Lord in your life, you are going to be terrified by His coming. But if you love the Lord, the Bible calls His coming the blessed hope.
>>Amen.
>>But have you been living a life of selfishness and sin, it's going to frighten you and it should. God wants you to have peace, but He doesn't want you to have peace if you're on your way to destruction. He wants you to be troubled until you repent and come to Him. The brightness of His coming will destroy them.
So what happens to the righteous who are dead at Jesus' coming? First we'll start with the righteous who are dead. You read there the dead in Christ will rise first. That's where we read in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 "The Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout;" - the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God. Someone once said that is the loudest verse in the Bible and the dead in Christ rise first. So does that sound like a secret still?
At this point, what happens to the living who are - when the Lord comes? The living and the resurrected saints, I should say. So you get the dead in Christ they rise. Some of us we hope to be alive when Jesus comes - I'd like to if I can, avoid death. Woody Allen said one time, 'I’m not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens.' (laughter) So most of us are prewired by God that we'd like to stay alive right?
So what's going to happen to those who are alive? It says the dead in Christ are raised incorruptible and those of us who are alive will be changed in a moment. It tells us this corruptible will put on incorruption - corruptible means our bodies - we, you know, get old, they decay, they die. We're going to get these glorified bodies - like the kind Adam and Eve had before sin - before the light went out. 'This corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal will put on immortality. Then we which are alive and remain will be caught up together.' What direction do we go?
>>Up.
>>That's when it's talking about the rapture. We will be caught up, or raptured up together with them in the clouds. We meet the Lord in the air. So Jesus' feet don't touch the ground when He comes next time, we meet Him. And Christ said this is how it would happen. He said, 'I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself - that's when we're caught up - 'that where I am' - He takes us where? Back to Heaven - 'you may be also' - right? We've read where it says the Lord's coming is literal, personal, visible, audible, physical, vitality - vitalizing, glorious, climatic - there's an earthquake.
Every sense in your being will know when Jesus comes. You're not going to text someone and say, 'Did you catch it?' 'Catch what?' 'Jesus came with all the angels yesterday did you?' - 'I missed it. I did notice some planes going down and cars careening off the road, but - there was a clump of clothes in the bed next to me when I woke up. I think it was my spouse but they're gone now.' Yeah, I know I’m teasing maybe. I don't mean to be unkind but, to me, I actually know people who think 'Well, if I’m not ready when Jesus comes, no big deal. If my spouse - they're Christian, they believe, if they disappear then I’ll get serious. I might have to go through the tribulation but then I’ll know it's true.”
And you'd be surprised how many people out there are thinking they're going to get a second chance. That's why it's a very dangerous thing to not understand the how of His coming. Another reason was because the devil’s got a lot of impersonators out there.
What solemn warning does Jesus give about the second coming? As you start reading Matthew 11 - first thing He told - I’m sorry - Matthew chapter 24. First thing He says is be aware that no one deceives you. He repeats it over and over. 'Many will come in My name saying I am Christ and deceive many.'
And I remember baptizing a young lady that was in Jonestown with Jim Jones. She escaped just before things all went sideways there and told horrible stories. He started out Methodist preacher - good church - preaching from the Bible and just - but he was a false prophet. See, he said, ultimately, he was Christ. Jesus said there will arise false Christs. They will show signs and wonders. Are miracle, signs, and wonders the evidence of who is real and who's not? Can the devil do miracles?
>>Yes.
>>He can. We'll talk more about that. And they'll do this to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. In other words, you need to know what the Bible says because the devil's going to have powerful deceptions in the last days.
Some of us remember the Heaven's Gate group. Marshall Applewhite - 39 people believed this poor deranged man who said that he was a reincarnation of Christ and they needed to commit suicide so they could get on a spaceship that was behind the Hale-Bott comet - Hale-Bott comet - and they took this deadly cocktail. 39 people committed suicide. And he said God was sending messages through Star Trek. There may have been a God sending messages, but it wasn't Jesus.
What's going to prevent the righteous from being deceived in the last days? Isaiah 8:20 - that's why we want to know your Bibles. I hope you check on everything I’m saying. You can take notes. The Bible says, 'To the law and to the testimony’. That's how the Bible refers to the Bible - the law and the prophets - 'if they speak not according to this word it's because there's no light in them.' You measure everything by the scriptures you need to know. Jesus said, 'Seek and you'll find.' amen?
What will the wicked say when Jesus returns? 'And the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men in the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every free man' - speaking of the lost - 'they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne. For the great day of His wrath is come and who shall be able to stand?''
I told you, once again, two kinds of people - you've got the ones who know Christ and He's in their heart. You have those who have resisted Him and they become His enemies. You've either got the love of God or the wrath of the Lamb. I want Him to come as my Lord and my Savior not as my adversary. Amen?
What is the prime reason for Jesus' Second Coming? Is He coming to get even with the lost? No, He's coming to redeem His own. John 14:3, "I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am you might be" - where I am you might be. Revelation says God, Himself, will be with us. We will see His face. Can you imagine that? "Now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face." 1 Corinthians 13. What a privilege that we can see God face to face.
You know, friends, God is giving us the signs along the way and I just want you to know that there are some difficult days ahead. I believe there's going to be a tribulation. See, I believe the Lord is coming. I believe we'll be caught up, but I believe the tribulation comes before the rapture.
>>That's right.
>>Does God save His people from trouble or through it?
>>Through it. Did God save Noah from the flood or did He save him through the storm?
>>Through the storm.
>>Did God save Joseph from his trials or through them? How about Job? Was he saved from tribulation or through tribulation? Doesn't Paul say 'It is through much tribulation we will enter the kingdom of God'? God is coming for a church without spot or wrinkle or any such things. You get out the spots and the wrinkle with a hot iron and hot water. So the idea that the church is not going to go through any kind of purging or purification before that - when does a church shine the brightest, in the light or in the darkness?
There is going to be a time of great darkness. Jesus said it was at midnight the cry was given. Behold the bridegroom comes. And so there are some difficult days ahead. I don't worry about that. You know why? God said if you make the most high your habitation you don't need to be afraid.
>>Amen.
>>He has given us signs. And some of Christians are losing hope, right here on the borders of the greatest event in history.
You know, I love history. I remember reading about Christopher Columbus when he was crossing the ocean, you know, and he just went launching out and he said, 'We're going to go discover a new passage.' None of the explorers from Portugal or Spain went very far into the Atlantic as they had rumors you were going to sail off the earth, there were dragons out there, and all these scary stories. And he said 'We're just going to sail West until we find our objective.'
And, you know, after two months in August and September, those sailors were ready to mutiny. And Columbus - you - read his diary. He prayed a lot. He believed he was on a divine quest. He finally told his sailors, ‘Give me three more days. If we don't see land we'll turn around.' Can you imagine what was at stake? But as those days passed they began to see signs - overturned canoe went by and they saw coconuts float by - some tufts of vegetation. Water began to change color and saltiness changed in the water. They noticed when they were sounding that it was getting shallower. They - songbirds came by - they couldn't see land but they saw the signs that they were nearing shore. And they were all encouraged by the signs to press on.
Finally, at the end of the third day, at night, they saw a fire in the distance. Next morning they spotted land - San Salvador. Well, friends, we see the signs. Jesus is about to come. I want to be ready. How about you?
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Announcer: Don't forget to request today's free offer. It's sure to be a blessing. And thank you for your continued support as we take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. We hope you'll join us next week as we delve deep into the Word of God to explore more amazing facts.
>> This presentation was brought to you by the friends of the Amazing Facts ministry.