The End Is Near, Jesus Is At The Door

The great day of the LORD is near; it is near and hastens quickly... Zephaniah 1:14

The Lord is coming soon. We have long preached of the soon return of Jesus. The world has reached the point in which events momentarily catch our attention and then become old news. Actually, we are in the same state as the ten virgins who slumbered and slept when the bridegroom delayed.

We have seen the signs occur for many years. The third angel's message was first preached in 1844 which caused a major awakening of Christ soon return that gradually faded away.

Satan is working in the atmosphere; he is poisoning the atmosphere, and here we are dependent upon God for our lives--our present and eternal lives. And being in the position that we are, we need to be wide awake, wholly devoted, wholly converted, wholly consecrated to God. But we seem to sit as though we were paralyzed. God of heaven, wake us up! *1

It's time to wake up! We may easily conclude that another earthquake, another flood, another war, another disease is not alarming.

I have been shown that the Spirit of the Lord is being withdrawn from the earth. God's keeping power will soon be refused to all who continue to disregard His commandments. The reports of fraudulent transactions, murders, and crimes of every kind are coming to us daily. Iniquity is becoming so common a thing that it no longer shocks the senses as it once did.* 1

That is the objective of the enemy, that we reach the point where people will say, "peace and safety." But never in the history of this world have all these events occurred at the same time or at the rate at which they do now.

The time of trouble--trouble such as was not since there was a nation [Dan. 12:1]--is right upon us, and we are like the sleeping virgins. We are to awake and ask the Lord Jesus to place underneath us His everlasting arms, and carry us through the time of trial before us…The world is becoming more and more lawless. Soon great trouble will arise among the nations--trouble that will not cease until Jesus comes. We are on the very verge of the time of trouble, and perplexities that are scarcely dreamed of are before… We are standing on the threshold of the crisis of the ages. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another--fire, and flood, and earthquake, with war and bloodshed.* 2

In the previous study I mentioned how we our world is quickly approaching the state predicted by the second angel's message. Babylon is about to fall and her sins are reaching heaven. Jesus also speaks about famine and pestilence that will fall upon the earth.

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. Matthew 24:7

God has not restrained the powers of darkness from carrying forward their deadly work of vitiating the air, one of the sources of life and nutrition, with a deadly miasma. Not only is vegetable life affected but man suffers from pestilence. . . . These things are the result of drops from the vials of God's wrath being sprinkled on the earth, and are but faint representations of what will be in the near future…Famines will increase. Pestilences will sweep away thousands. Dangers are all around us from the powers without and satanic workings within, but the restraining power of God is now being exercised.*1

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has found that, “There are more hungry people in the world than ever before. More than one billion people, almost a sixth of humanity, are now undernourished” * 3

The organization further stated that, "unless the world responds, we are in danger of losing a generation to hunger and malnutrition." *3

When these numbers first went public it caused great commotion, the months have passed and as usual it has become history as other news takes the spotlight.

The next big headline was the meeting in Copenhagen concerning climate change and global warming. This also caused great commotion and even religious organizations got involved to try and find a solution to this problem. Apparently, some agreements were made but nothing substantial or concrete.*4

However, we did see how nations are increasingly looking for ways to unite and work together be it for convenience or necessity. In the end however, no solutions will be found for it is God who is in control of everything.

If we remember, during this year there was also a pandemic. The latest report by the World Health Organization (WHO) stated:

"H1N1 has now spread to more than 200 countries, with nearly 12,000 deaths confirmed in laboratory, but it will probably take two years to establish the true death toll" * 5

The report also includes several warnings:

"The H1N1 flu pandemic may not be conquered until 2011 and continued vigilance is required against the virus which can still mutate, the head of the World Health Organization WHO Director-General Margaret Chan also warned that although countries have shored up their defenses against the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years, they remain ill-prepared for mass outbreaks of the deadlier bird flu virus (world not ready to combat H5N1 bird flu pandemic)" * 5

But we are not only facing risks of H1N1 and H5N1 pandemics. Recent reports also indicate that older diseases are mutating, becoming drug resistant.

"He is really the future…This is the new class that people are not really talking too much about. These are the ones we really fear because I'm not sure how we treat them… Forty years ago, the world thought it had conquered TB and any number of other diseases through the new wonder drugs: Antibiotics.” *6

“U.S. Surgeon General William H. Stewart announced it was ‘time to close the book on infectious diseases and declare the war against pestilence won’…Today, all the leading killer infectious diseases on the planet — TB, malaria and HIV among them — are mutating at an alarming rate, hitchhiking their way in and out of countries." *6

“Drug-resistant TB is a time bomb”
As if that weren’t bad enough, this too came with several warnings. Lets looks at some of the statistics on infectious diseases:

“Tuberculosis is the top single infectious killer of adults worldwide, and it lies dormant in one in three people, according to WHO. Of those, 10 percent will develop active TB, and about 2 million people a year will die from it…TB germs can float in the air for hours, especially in tight places with little sunlight or fresh air.”*6

“In Cambodia, scientists have confirmed the emergence of a new drug-resistant form of malaria, threatening the only treatment left to fight a disease that already kills 1 million people a year.” *6

“In the U.S., drug-resistant infections killed more than 65,000 people last year — more than prostate and breast cancer combined. More than 19,000 people died from a staph infection alone…”*6

I ask, are we not coming to the end?

The signs in the sun, moon, and stars have been fulfilled. Since that time earthquakes, tempests, tidal waves, pestilence, and famines have multiplied. The most awful destructions, by fire and flood, are following one another in quick succession. The terrible disasters that are taking place from week to week speak to us in earnest tones of warning, declaring that the end is near, that something great and decisive will soon of necessity take place. * 7

John and the other prophets also were witnesses of the terrible scenes that will take place as signs of Christ's coming. They saw armies mustering for battle, and men's hearts failing them for fear. They saw the earth moved out of its place, the mountains carried into the midst of the sea, the waves thereof roaring and troubled, and the mountains shaking with the swelling thereof. They saw the vials of God's wrath opened, and pestilence, famine, and death come upon the inhabitants of the earth. *8

Already the restraining Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the world. And hurricanes, tempests, disasters by sea and land, follow each other in quick succession. Science seeks to explain all these. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause. Men cannot discern the sentinel angels restraining the four winds that they may not blow until the servants of God are sealed; but when God shall bid his angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of his avenging wrath as no pen can picture. * 8

And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Romans 13:11, 12

JESUS IS COMING, AMEN, YES, COME LORD JESUS!

1 * Last Days Events, "Signs of Christ’s Soon Return, Ellen White
2 * Last Days Events, "Earth’s Last Crisis", Ellen White
3 * "Number Of World's Hungry Tops a Billion" http://www.wfp.org/stories/number-world-hungry-tops-billion
4 * "We must not accept Copenhagen's failings" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8432927.stm
5 * "UPDATE 1-May take a year to conquer H1N1 pandemic flu - WHO" http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE5BS13J20091229?type=swissMktRpt
6 * "First case of highly drug-resistant TB found in U.S." http://news.yahoo.com
7 * The Southern Watchmen, "December 1, 1909, par. 1 ", Ellen White
8 * The Southern Watchmen, "December 25, 1906", Ellen White