Let us go to Ezekiel 7. I just want to read a couple of verses in Ezekiel 7, but we are not actually going to stay here. We read in Ezekiel 7:1-6:
Moreover the word of JEHOVAH came unto me, saying, Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land. Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations. And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am JEHOVAH. Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come. An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come.
I just wanted to read this because I wanted all of us to be clear that the Bible teaches that there is an end. This is obvious to us, but I think that there are a lot of people out there who do not believe this. I do not think that they believe that the Bible teaches that there is an end.
I remember handing out tracts in Ireland. There were several men who were standing on a corner and handing out literature for a tour bus guide. They were just trying to get some people to take the tour bus to see Belfast. I gave a tract to one of them. His friend was standing there and I think that he also took a tract, but he said, “The world is not going to end.” I said, “Yes, it is.” Then he kept repeating, “No; the world is not going to end.” At this point, I asked him, “Does the Bible not say that the world will end?” The one guy said, “Yes, it does.” The other one said, “No, it does not.” Then I said, “Do we not qualify for the end of the world? Does our time and our generation not qualify to be that last generation and the generation at the end?” The one guy said, “Yes, it does.” Then the other guy said, “No, it does not.”
There might be some people out there who might not know what the Bible says, but I think that pretty much everyone knows that the Bible says that there is an end. Even so, they certainly act as if the Bible does not speak anything about an end. An end of the world is so ridiculous and so far-removed from the realm of possibility that people laugh and joke about this. The biggest joke there is is that someone could really believe this.
Have you ever had anyone ask you, “Do you really believe this? Are you serious?” I normally respond, “Well, if not, I would not be wearing this hat and this shirt and this jacket. I would not be standing here in the freezing rain, or whatever weather conditions can be out here, if I did not believe this 100%.” They do not know what to say about this. They kind of look at you to see whether or not you are crazy or something.
Have you ever had someone whom you are handing a tract to stare you in the eye? They see the shirt and the hat as they are taking a tract from you and then they stare you in the eye. Why do they do this? They do this because they want to see whether or not you really believe this and whether or not you might be crazy. They want to make sure that this is something serious, number one, because the people who are proclaiming this to the world do not fit the stereotype. In most cases, the stereotype is of a crazy old man with white hair carrying a sign, like a cartoon that we have seen in many papers with a man holding up the sign, “The end is near!”
This is the stereotype, but what the world is seeing is people of all ages, people of both sexes, they are seeing children, they are seeing teenagers, maybe not from here, but there are children and teenagers who are true believers out there and they are working at getting the Gospel out. They are also seeing young adults and middle-aged people, they are seeing the aged, they are seeing people black, white, Indian, Hispanic, of all nations and of all tongues, who believe this and who are taking a stand for it. This is just as we sang in the hymn, “Dare to be a Daniel; dare to stand alone!”
These are God’s people because God is giving His people this desire. He has actually given us the task of being a watchman to sound the trumpet. We do not have any other recourse. We have to sound the trumpet. We have to warn the people and let everyone know.
Getting back to this question of the idea of an end of the world, the Bible does say this. We just read in Ezekiel 7:6:
An end is come, the end is come…
We could go to a lot more verses because there are a lot more verses that speak about the end of the world, and yet people really live as though this world will be eternal. They live like this world will continue forever and that there is no possibility that it could ever be destroyed, certainly not on a date as close as May 21, 2011. For them, they think that this is not even remotely possible.
If they at least recognize that the Bible says that there is an end of the world, then they need to realize that the Bible also gives indications of when the end will be. The Bible gives signs and says that certain things must occur before the end comes.
The next time you are handing out tracts and someone is looking at you in disbelief, ask them if they think that there is an end or ask them if the Bible says that the world must end some day, because a lot of people will at least admit that the Bible does say this, then ask them, “Do we not qualify to be that last generation? Do we not qualify to be that generation, since there must be a last generation upon the face of the earth when the end comes?”
Actually, would it be possible for there to be a more wicked generation than our generation today? Well, yes. If this evil generation were to continue, it would probably still increase in wickedness; but this generation is no comparison to any generation in the past, absolutely none.
As man has multiplied upon the face of the earth, so has evil; and, today, evil is everywhere. In a million different ways, there is sin and evil and wickedness. Because of this, an honest person, even an honest atheist, would have to say, “Well, you know, as we look at the world, if there was a God, we would certainly qualify with all of the sin that is out there.”
Let us go to Matthew 24. We read in Matthew 24:3:
And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
What will be the sign of Christ’s coming? This is also carried over to “the end of the world.” What will be the sign of the end of the world? Plus, they are one and the same. His coming and the end of the world are one and the same.
So what should Jesus have said when asked this question if He is “the Son” spoken of in Mark 13:32? He should have said, “Do not ask me. I do not know.”
This is what the churches are saying. This is what many professed Christians are saying. They believe that Christ does not know. If Christ does not know, then how dare we to say that we can possibly know the date of judgment. Since they claim that Jesus does not know, then they also claim that we are putting ourselves above Jesus.
Hold it! What they are thinking and saying is that Jesus, who is eternal God, the Almighty, does not know when He is coming for His people! Is He not the Saviour who is going to save His people? Is He not going to save the very last of the elect? When the last one of His elect is saved, will He not put in the sickle to gather “the precious fruit of the earth”? Are we to understand that He does not know when this is going to happen? Does He not know this? If Jesus did not know when the end of the world would be, how could He know “the sign of thy coming”? How could He continue in Matthew 24 to go on to speak about these signs and indicators?
With only two and a half months left, we have to stop playing around. Christ knows; of course He knows. He is eternal God. His name is “the end.” His name is “Omega.” His name is “the last.” Are we to believe that He has the name of “the end” and He does not know when the end will be?
He also has the name of “the beginning” and “the first” and “Alpha.” Does He know when He created the world? Yes; He does. Does He know when He will end the world? Yes; He does. He does know. This is why Jesus does answer the disciples’ question in Matthew 24 concerning “the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world.”
So If Jesus knows, and He does, and if you have been thinking wrongly that “neither the Son” knows, then maybe you are also wrong about other things concerning Mark 13:32. Maybe you are also wrong in thinking that no man can know. If this is what you think, you are wrong; you are definitely wrong.
I would suggest to anybody who thinks that “the Son” is a reference to Christ - who are flat-out wrong - that they now go back to the Bible and read it again. Study it again and use the whole Bible. Do not just use a couple of verses, like Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32.
Someone told me a good analogy that they had heard from Mr. Camping maybe a few years back. I thought that it was good, also, because it actually describes what people are doing. He said that it was like a detective who goes to a crime scene. There is a murder and there is a lot of evidence everywhere about who committed the murder. The detective goes over and picks up one piece of paper. From this, he claims that he has solved the murder. Then he leaves the crime scene and goes and arrests someone. They have a trial and they execute someone. But what about all of the other evidence? What about everything else? Was it a good detective who would do something like this?
Then what are the pastors and the theologians of the churches doing and the individual members of the congregation doing when here is the witness of God, a whole big Book called the Bible, and they come and look at an isolated verse here and an isolated verse there, like “of that day and hour knoweth no man,” and they forget to search all of the rest? They do not check out everything that the Bible has to say, so of course they are going to come to a wrong conclusion. Of course they are not going to know the teaching of God, because God says that we must compare Scripture with Scripture, “here a little, and there a little.”
This is as it says in Isaiah 28. This is God’s hermeneutic or the hermeneutic that He gives people in order to come to truth. We read in Isaiah 28:9:
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
This has to do with our day. We could show this, but we cannot get into this for now.
Then we read in Isaiah 28:10:
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
In other words, we are to compare “spiritual things with spiritual,” Scripture with Scripture, “precept,” the Law of God, “upon precept.” We compare here in Isaiah with there in 1 Corinthians. This is how we come to right doctrine and this is why it is in this context, because God is asking:
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?…
Then He tells us how we are to do this, and it is not like a lousy detective. We are not to superficially come to the Bible, skim the surface, quickly grab a conclusion, and then declare, “The Bible says that no man knows.”
What percentage of the Bible did you read to come to this conclusion? How many verses did you look at? How many verses did you miss?
Do not be a lousy detective. The Bible is like a mystery. It is a riddle. It is like the many pieces of a puzzle, which is another good analogy. Can you grab a couple of pieces of a puzzle and then claim that you are done after only putting a few pieces here or there? You are missing all of the other pieces. How could you say that you have solved the puzzle? How could you say that you have put the pieces of the puzzle together? You have not even begun. Unfortunately and sadly for the congregation, this is what is going on today.
Then we read in Isaiah 28:11-13:
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of JEHOVAH was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
This is because they do not know how to read the Bible or how to understand the Bible and come to right doctrine. This is God’s Law and He has given truth that has to be uncovered through this methodology of “here a little, and there a little.”
The churches have heard about this methodology, but they do not follow or practice this. As a result, the judgment of God “that they might go, and fall backward” will come upon them and they will be snared.
God speaks of this in Luke 21. We read in Luke 21:34:
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
This word “unawares” is the same word for “sudden” as in “sudden destruction” that we read about in 1 Thessalonians 5:3.
Then it says in Luke 21:35:
For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
A snare is a trap. When you lay a trap, it catches the animal.
God indicates that He has given the Bible and that it must be understood properly by following “precept upon precept,” Scripture with Scripture. He gave this methodology to His people and they will understand, because He is going to make sure that they follow these guidelines. But the rest will not understand; they just do not get it.
In speaking to me, some have said, “How stupid are you that you cannot see that the Bible says, ‘of that day and hour knoweth no man’?” I understand this, but they have to understand that there is a lot more that the Bible has to say about this and that this is how God wrote the Bible. This is how He has always devised that people come to truth. We have to follow His rule. We have to follow His way of studying the Bible, or else the Bible becomes a snare.
Part of the end-time snare is that “God shall send them strong delusion” in the churches. Many professed Christians are going to the Bible, which is a good thing, but they think that they are doing this correctly. They are going to the Bible, but they are not understanding that their way of approaching the Bible is wrong and that they can never come to truth and find out these things unless the Holy Spirit guides them.
How does the Holy Spirit guide? We find the answer to this in 1 Corinthians 2 where we can also read verses that explain that “the things of God knoweth no man,” which is very similar to what we read in Matthew 24, “of that day and hour knoweth no man.” We know because God gives His Spirit to help us understand these things, as it says in 1 Corinthians 2:12-13:
…that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost [God] teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
As we follow God’s methodology for coming to truth, we have God’s Spirit guiding us, and then we are safe. We are then doing things His way as we make sure that conclusions harmonize. It is then that we can come to right doctrine.
Let us go back to Matthew 24. Jesus is answering the disciples’ question in Matthew 24:3:
…what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
There are signs, right? There are signs that the Bible gives us. One sign is Israel becoming a nation again. We read about this in Matthew 24:32-33:
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
The “fig tree” is language pointing to national Israel. After almost 2,000 years, they became a nation again in 1948. This indicated that we were close. We are closer now; it is near. This is one of the signs that God has given.
He also gives the sign of “a falling away.” This is also mentioned in Matthew 24. We read in Matthew 24:24:
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
This is the condition of the churches. The unfaithfulness of the churches worldwide is a big indicator that this is it. 2 Thessalonians 2 says that before Christ comes, there must be “a falling away first,” and there is.
There are other signs, like the multiplication of sin in the world, as it says in Matthew 24:12:
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
People are going to have hard hearts. They are going to have cold hearts. They are going to have hearts that are full of sin. Of course, this is the heart of man naturally; but Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” and this tells us that “the love of many shall wax cold.” When we see people having no interest in keeping God’s commandments, this is indicating that their hearts have waxed cold.
We see this when people do not care that Sunday is the Sabbath. We see this when people do not care that God says that there is to be no divorce, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” We see this when people do not care that God says that those who remarry after divorce “committeth adultery.” When people do not care about this Law or about that Law, man’s hearts are waxing cold; and this is an indicator that we see everywhere, absolutely everywhere.
Another indicator is the homosexual movement that is out of the closet. Romans 1 tells us that this will be a big sign. In our day, there is a lot of pride in being gay. When we look at Sodom, we see that this was an indicator before their destruction. Jesus also uses Sodom as an example of His coming at the end of the world.
So there are all of these indicators, as well as many others, but there is also one other indicator here in Matthew 24 that I do not know if we have been thinking enough about. We read in Matthew 24:13:
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Have you ever wondered what we are to endure? Endure what? Endure how? What are we to endure? How are we to endure? Are we just to continue living day after day in a wicked world? Is this what God means?
No; this is referring to those who will “endure sound doctrine.” This is the time when God is opening up the Scriptures and testing those professing Christians who are out there in the world, which are nearly two billion people. Are they going to “endure sound doctrine” when Christ ends the church age, or are they going to fall away? Are they going to “endure sound doctrine” when He opens up the truth about His judgment and teaches that there is no place called “hell” and that He annihilates those who remain unsaved, or are they going to get angry and go away? Are they going to “endure sound doctrine” when He gives the very date of judgment, or are they going to disbelieve this? Are they going to “endure sound doctrine” when He tells us that there will be five months of hell on earth and then finally the end, and so on?
Many have not endured. They have not endured. Some of them have gone back to a church, while others have remained out of the church, and yet many do not continue to “endure sound doctrine.” It is “he that endureth to the end” who “shall be saved.”
We do have to be careful, though. We do not want to think that we are saved just because we are in agreement with these things intellectually. God tells us about true understanding in the book of Job when He says that “to depart from evil is understanding.” If we really know these things, it is not just up in our minds; it is a matter of what is going on in our life. Have we turned from sin by God’s grace?
Then we read in Matthew 24:14:
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 is a sign:
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.
Has this ever been done before? Has anyone ever preached the “gospel of the kingdom” to “all the world”? Obviously not, because the world has not ended. First of all, the Gospel has to go to all of the world, it has to be preached to them, and “then shall the end come.” The end will follow this.
Has the Gospel gone far and wide? Yes; over the course of history, it has. The churches carried the Bible into many countries and into many areas. Still, though, what is the percentage of Christians in India? Not too many. How about Pakistan? What is the percentage of Christians in Nepal or in Japan? Maybe one or two percent. What is the percentage of Christians in many Muslim nations or in many other nations of the world? The conclusion is that the percentage is very low.
Has the Gospel gone to these places in the past? It might have; for example, Turkey started off with the Gospel and then turned into a Muslim country. But, actually, we see through history, even up until today, that the Gospel has not gone into all of the world, that all nations have not yet heard. We know this because the world is still here.
This is why what is going on today is so fascinating. It is incredible! We are actually beginning to see this verse come to pass with the advertising of the Gospel. Family Radio broadcasts into all of the world practically and has for a few years. They have shortwave. They have radio stations in many places, or they have purchased air time. When we think of the Internet, it can go anywhere but we cannot measure this.
As far as Family Radio is concerned, how many people are actually listening to Family Radio today? How many were listening a year or so ago? I am sure that many more are listening now, but how many were listening just a few years ago? Just a small percentage.
Sometimes radio ratings come out. In New York City, I think that they estimate close to one percent. This is a significant number in a city as large as New York; but still, this means that 99% do not listen. They do not care. They just go about their lives. They are either in another religion or they are a secular person, maybe they are agnostic or atheist; they just do not care.
There are a lot of people who do not go to churches. There are a lot of people who have had no contact with the Gospel. How can the Gospel go into all of the world so that every human being hears it? How is this possible?
Well, we are amazingly beginning to see the spread of this information about May 21, 2011, Judgment Day. This is all over the Internet. It is on Facebook, it is on YouTube, and it is multiplying in a great way.
There is one individual who just puts Family Radio videos on YouTube. We have no idea who he is. I recognize his name. Every now and then, I go and just look at a video. I looked at one of his videos and it had about 3,000 hits. Then a few weeks ago, I went back to look at one particular video that this individual had put on YouTube and it had over one million hits. It had over one million hits in a matter of just a few months from the last time that I can remember looking at it. Why is this? This is because interest in this information is picking up.
The Gospel is also being preached through billboards in a big way. The Gospel is being preached on benches. Do you remember the one in Colorado? This young woman who was on unemployment paid for May 21st information to be placed on bus benches in Colorado. The news media made a big deal of this, which I thought was great. When you are on unemployment, you have a limited income; and yet she took some of her money and paid for advertising on ten benches in Colorado. CNN picked up this story; then this information started spreading far and wide. God multiplied it.
How many true believers are doing similar things in the world today that we do not even have a clue about? Did you know that there is a bus driver over in northern New Jersey who used his own funds to put “Judgment Day – May 21, 2011” on 200 buses from his own hub? We hear about things like this and we are not even surprised anymore because we are hearing so many of these types of things.
There are individual believers from all over the world who are doing similar things. There are individual believers in Egypt who are printing banners and posters and putting them on walls. In Ethiopia, there is also a small group going around who are handing out tracts and doing these same types of things.
I wonder about the communist countries. How is the Gospel going to get into China? How is the Gospel going to get into Cuba? How is the Gospel going to get into North Korea?
It is interesting that some of the South Koreans have family in North Korea who have been filling up balloons that they then send over the river. When it gets to the north side, hopefully their relatives get the package and they get the contents of the balloon. Well, 100,000 tracts took a little journey in a balloon that Family Radio sent over to the north, and they have plans to do more.
What is going to happen to them? Who is in charge of this? This is under whose control? We can pray for the people of North Korea. Let us pray that God touched someone from there and that those tracts will begin to be used in a great way.
So when we look at what is going on in the world, this is practically in every country. There are over 400 billboards in India with May 21st information. Plus, there are 2,000 auto tops with this information on their taxis. Those taxi drivers drive like crazy. They jut all over the place. They are going this way and that way though the cities over there. Two thousand of them are doing this and many people are seeing them.
There were 100 billboards in Bangladesh until the billboard companies started receiving complaints; these might come down. There are 40 billboards in Nepal. There are 100 billboards, Lord willing, going up in Poland. There are 30 in Guatemala. There are 133 going into Brazil. There are buses in Ecuador that have this information on them. There are 100 semi-buses, more like pick-up trucks made to be like buses, in Thailand that will have this information. Each bus will have a little container that will hold Family Radio tracts for people to take. We plan on sending them 40,000 tracts, and these are not believers. This is all being done by the advertising company. They actually came up with this idea and presented it to Family Radio.
This is in many places across the face of the earth. We are not everywhere yet, but has South Africa heard? They keep putting this in their main newspapers, and they are the ones who are doing this. The Kingdom of Lesotho just had a council to discuss taking down the billboards, which is okay because these billboards have done their job. I would have to say that everyone in Lesotho knows about this now.
In Ghana, they just took down four billboards because of complaints to their city council, but this is alright because I would have to say that everyone in Ghana knows. We have been sending stuff to Ghana for years now. We have sent them many Bibles, tracts, and CDs. Plus, they have had many billboards. They have been greatly blessed. Really, this is all over the earth.
I was watching when the earthquake hit New Zealand to see if we could see the billboards that we have up in the city where the earthquake hit, because there are billboards up in Christchurch, New Zealand. They are everywhere. They are in Samoa. They are in Papua New Guinea. They are in Indonesia. They are all over.
I know that some people might be getting tired of hearing this. I am sure there are those who are tired of hearing Family Radio talk about May 21st every day. Maybe you are consistently bringing this up with someone in your family. They might even be trying to turn away and get away from this information. Maybe they think that they can just turn off Family Radio or avoid someone in their family or possibly a friend who keeps bringing this up. Maybe they just keep seeing someone in the family who is wearing these hats or these T-shirts with May 21st on them and it is just too much.
Well, people can avoid others. They can turn off the radio. They can choose not to look at someone who is wearing one of these shirts. If someone is handing out tracts on a street corner, they can look down to try to get around them. But how do they avoid a date on a calendar? How do they get around a date on a calendar? May 21 is on the calendar. They have to go through May 21. They cannot escape this. They cannot avoid this. They cannot dismiss a date on a calendar. It is going to come and it is going to come quickly.
In just a little while, it will be here and they cannot get away from this. They can try and they can turn off Family Radio and get away from a family member or a friend who keeps bringing this up; but then as they are driving down I-95, they will see this on a billboard. If they are in India and they are standing at a train station, a wrapped train is going to stop to pick them up, because there is a deal in the works to wrap an entire train in India. They cannot get away from this.
There are people handing out pens or calendars. Some people put little stickers on their bills. If someone works at one of these companies where they open the mail, it is going to be right there. If someone works for the Post Office, I am sure that they are seeing the yard signs that are placed in front of people’s houses and they are picking up these letters that have these types of stickers on them. Again and again and again, people are seeing this information. They cannot escape this.
One of my sons was telling me something. While he was in school, he looked at a girl who was next to him. He looked over to see her writing something when he noticed her pen. It had “May 21, 2011 – Judgment Day” on it. He had not given this to her, so he asked her where she got it. She said that someone in the station had given it to her; so there it was right in a classroom next to someone who knows a lot about this.
There is no escape. There is no way around this. God intends to warn the whole world.
Look at Acts 17. Acts 17:24-30 says:
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
Did you hear this? Who is He commanding to repent? He is commanding “all men.” Where are these men? They are “every where.”
God in times past “winked” at this. He allowed men to live and die with their idols, with them having a great distance from Him. Some generations in certain countries lived and died and never had the Gospel. They died in ignorance with whatever thoughts they might have had about the afterlife, about eternity, and they died relatively easily. But God is opening up Acts 17:30-31 at this time, at the end of the world:
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness…
May 21, 2011 is the “appointed” Day of Judgment. Because of this, it is God’s plan that “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Never before in history, never, has there been such a widespread of information being published from the Gospel concerning the date of judgment - and May 21, 2011 is coming from the Gospel.
People like to bring up, “There have been hundreds of failed predictions in the past.” They bring up the Millerites or the Jehovah’s Witnesses, this group and that group. But, first of all, most of these groups were just not grounded in the truth of the Bible. We bear no relationship to these groups. This would be kind of like someone pointing to two bad cops and then concluding that all cops are bad because of those two. No; we have no relationship to any of these groups. They were in times past.
How many people would have heard Miller’s prediction at the time that he predicted the end of the world? How many people would have heard about this in 1844? Maybe some local people heard about this. Maybe in the state in which he lived there were others who had heard. Maybe it spread throughout his church, whatever that was. Maybe a newspaper or two picked it up, but how many people would have heard? How many people heard at the time that the Jehovah’s Witnesses were predicting the end? Did this travel around the world through the Internet? Did radio at that time carry it everywhere? No; this was in the nearly 1900’s. It got carried hardly at all.
Actually, all throughout history, they had a big problem with communication. They could not have sent anything worldwide. There was no way that this could have been done. Now what about 1994?
First of all, this was different because it had a question mark at the end of it. Family Radio was not saying that this was definitely the date like they are saying this today, but there was a little bit of a circulation. There were probably a handful of billboards at that time in the United States. I do not remember any billboards overseas. Mr. Camping was even on a television show, “Larry King Live,” for one interview. There may have even been a few other things, like a few newspaper accounts in September of 1994, but that was it.
There is just no comparison to what is going on today with all of the previous predictions of the end. God has stored up the grain for this period of time, and Family Radio is going for it. They are going for broke, because there is nothing after May 21st. This means that there will be no need for their funds and their money. They realize this. They realize that this is it and that now is the time to sound the trumpet, and so they are bringing the Gospel to all of the world.
Of course, they could not do this on their own. They could not do this at all, but God is doing this. God is going to make sure that everyone hears this, because He is going to give one last command. He is going to give one last command to all men everywhere: repent.
This is indeed what the billboards mean and what all of this information about this date means. It is not just there for people to stare at and wonder about. It is there for a reason. They will then know from the point that they see this information until May 21st that this will be all of the time that they have left, and the command is to repent. Turn. Turn from your sin, which leads us back to God to beseech Him to turn us. This is what He would have us to do.
One last passage that I would like to look at is in 2 Timothy 4. We read in 2 Timothy 4:3-6:
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine…
Remember that Matthew 24 said, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” It continues:
For the time will come…
This is in our day. It continues:
…when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
Whom can the Apostle Paul be a picture of? He can be a picture of the true believers.
Look at 1 Timothy 1:16. It says:
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
Paul is looking at himself and he is saying that God is using him as a pattern, as an example of all who will believe, which would be the true believers.
So in this passage in 2 Timothy 4, think of this as the true believers. Think of the elect people of God, because this is really what is in view. It says in 2 Timothy 4:6-7:
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
The “time of [our] departure is at hand,” is it not?
Then we read in 2 Timothy 4:7:
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
God’s people are about to finish the race, the course. It is almost over. We have come around that last bend and there is the finish line. Do not faint now. Do not get weary now. Lift up those feeble knees. Of course, you had better drop off those heavy weights, those awful heaving weights of sin, if you want to cross that finish line in a good way.
So the finish line is right in front of us and we can see it, and Paul is saying here:
…I have finished my course…
Then we read in 2 Timothy 4:8:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
We can see from these verses that we can relate this to our present day, because this is the question for each one of us. Do we love His appearing? Are we really desirous that He come? Is our prayer, “Come, Lord Jesus; come quickly”? Or is our attitude, “Let us put this off a bit; let us put this off for another 50 years or for another decade or for another century or two, because I am not ready; so dump it on that generation; dump it on those young people; dump it on those teenagers and all of those at another time”?
At some point, there has to be a final generation that is interrupted who does not get to live out their lives, who do not get to complete their education and have a wonderful profession and raise a family. This is the way that it has to be if you believe that there will be an end. If you believe that the Bible is true when it says that there is an end of the world, you must admit that there has to be a last generation and that we qualify. Do we not qualify? Are we not perfectly qualified to be that last generation? The answer is, “Yes.”
Back in 2 Timothy 4:16-17, we read:
At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me…
We do not have time to get into the two witnesses standing on their feet and how the language of Acts 26 fits into this. Acts 26 is the account of Paul when he was on his way to Damascus. He recounted how the Lord stood him up upon his feet and was then commanded to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. This is what is in view here.
It continues:
Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me…
He is referring to the true believers, the elect. It continues:
…that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear…
“Gentiles” is a word for “nations”; “that all the [nations] might hear.”
So there are two things here. First, that “the preaching might be fully known,” and we know that the Book has been opened because the seals have been taken off. Number two is that everybody has to hear. The whole world has to hear. Matthew 24:14:
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.
The next time you see a billboard or you see someone standing on a street corner handing out tracts or wearing a hat at the supermarket, or the next time you see this information that could be found in a number of different ways, think to yourself that this means the end is close at hand.
Right now, a conservative estimate would be that probably one-third of the world has heard, and this is a conservative estimate. This is not even taking into consideration the Internet or the radio or shortwave, all of these invisible means that God has. I am sure that it is a lot more than one-third. Just look at the media who has been picking up these stories, and it is not just the American media. It has been in the Spanish media. It has been in the Taiwan media. There was a reporter from France who contacted Family Radio about this. This is in the media far and wide; and so when anyone sees one of these billboards, it is a testimony and a witness to everyone.
This word for “witness” in Matthew 24 is also translated as “testimony.” In several places, this Greek word is translated as “testimony against,” and the word “against” is not in the text. It is a “testimony against” the people of the world. It is a final witness.
God is going to save His elect, that great multitude. We have always known this; but now He is confronting the whole world, all of the unsaved people. This is a testimony against them, which is just like the ark that God had Noah build. The whole world of that day saw this.
Notice what Hebrews 11:7 says:
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house…
The testimony of God is a “twoedged sword.”
…by the which he condemned the world…
It was a testimony against the world because they did not believe. They did not trust God. They did not trust the information that God was giving through Noah, just one single man.
So this was a condemnation on them and so is all of this information in our day. All of this advertising is a “testimony against” all of the unsaved people of the world. God is going to do both things through this testimony. He will prepare some and He will condemn others.
Let us stop here.