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“I Was Told There'd Be Dragons...”
Categories: DOCTRINE, NEW TESTAMENT, RELIGIONS, WORLD EVENTSI have a question about the end times. I have been looking online, and I get a ton of websites or even videos that talk about what the Bible says are the end warning signs. Most websites and videos agree that the end is very close. Do you agree with this? I know that no man will know the exact time, but I guess we could know about when if the signs are met. I think that the world is getting so bad and that the end would have to be getting close, but I could be wrong. However, I do see the world getting worse and not better...and it scares me...
Sincerely,
Forecast: Unknown
Dear Forecast: Unknown,
There are a great many people – as you have noticed – with many opinions about when the world will end, but the truth is nobody knows because God doesn’t say. God told the Thessalonians that the end would come “like a thief in the night” (1 Thess 5:2). If anything, the one thing you can count on is that it won’t be when people say it is. In truth, a christian shouldn’t worry about when the end will come… we should live every day like the end could be today.
Paul told the Thessalonians (who were quite fixated with the return of Christ) that they should live every day soberly, as if any day might be the day (1 Thess 5:4-6).
People have been using details from the book of Revelation to “predict” the end of time for centuries. Unfortunately, the book of Revelation has nothing to do with the end of time. Revelation is a book dedicated to what would “shortly come to pass” (Rev 1:1). Specifically, Revelation dealt with the coming persecution that the church of the first century was about to face. It is a figurative and symbolic book (Rev 1:1 – notice the word ‘signified’, that means ‘symbolic’) that God used to prepare those saints for the trials they had ahead of them (see our post “Left Behind” for more details). Beware of anyone that uses the book of Revelation to “forecast” the end of time – they are using the book out of context.
The other thing that we must be aware of is that every generation and every individual (us here at AYP included) is convinced that things are getting worse. Every generation has felt that things were getting so bad with the world that the end of the world must be soon. God warns us about the habit of constant pessimism (Eccl 7:10). There will come a time when the world is so wicked that God will destroy this earth, but that will only happen after He has given as much time as is needed for mankind to repent of their sins (2 Pet 3:9-10). Since we do not know when that day is, let us live every day with holy living and godliness (2 Pet 3:11-12).
