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The End Time Forecast
Date: November 20, 2024 - Time: 07:48 GMT
Matthew 16:1-3 says, "Now when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He said, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be fair weather, because the sky is red,' 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, because the sky is red and darkening.' You know how to judge correctly the appearance of the sky, but you cannot evaluate the signs of the times".
Effectively, Jesus had just quoted the proverb, "A red sky at night is a shepherd's delight. A red sky in the morning is a sailor's warning". And he was chiding them for paying more attention to the weather forecast than to the signs that speak of his coming.
In Mark 13:33, he says, "Watch out! Stay alert! For you do not know when the time will come".
So Jesus has told us to watch and stay alert to end time signs, and has likened it to paying attention to the weather forecast.
Of course in his day, weather forecasting was incredibly crude and basic, and was simply a matter of trying to predict the weather over the next 12 to 24 hours. Today, with modern satellites and supercomputers at their disposal, meteorologists can predict the weather with reasonable accuracy up to a week or two in advance. But imagine you are planning a weather-dependent outdoor event for Sunday in a week's time. Each day as Sunday approaches the forecast for that day changes slightly because the meteorologists' computer algorithms are continuously being updated with the latest satellite data. In that respect, eschatology and meteorology are alike, because Jesus expects us to watch and to continuously update our understanding of biblical prophecy in light of the latest data of world events.
I see two major implications in this:-
1) We must be willing to continually adjust our understanding of end times in light of the latest data of world events.
2) The closer we get to the second coming, the greater the advantage we have over previous generations who have studied end times.
As about a 17 year old, I read Hal Lindsay's book, 'The Late Great Planet Earth', even though I didn't actually commit my life to Christ until about two years later. It is one of the reasons that ever since becoming a Christian I have had a keen interest in end times. Hal Lindsay published that book in 1970, and it sold over 15 million copies, becoming something of a classic. I think that in 1970 his perspective was quite reasonable. But a lot has changed since then, and I think that the last 54 years have brought us much much closer to the second coming. Today, we should have a much clearer view of the end time forecast than he had.
Originally I created this website in 2018 when I took a year off work to study end times. Since then I haven't had as much time to work on it as I would have liked, and until recently I have only made minor updates.
However, earlier this year I read 'Witnessing the End' by Christian Widener, published in 2023. He reveals a very significant detail about a decree that was made in 1537 concerning the rebuilding of Jerusalem, which has major implications for our understanding of the timing of Christ's return. But even without that revelation, I think his book gives a great modern perspective of end times that is up to date for 2023. And in 2024 he has produced a series of excellent YouTube videos on various end time topics. He is someone who is really tracking the latest data. I thoroughly recommend his work to you.
One of the things in his book that really struck me was his identification of the sixth seal as the most likely place for the rapture within Revelation. For a long time I had adopted Mike Bickle's position that associated the last trumpet with the seventh trumpet.
However, re-examining the sixth seal has convinced me that not only is Revelation 7:9-17 a portrayal of the raptured church, but Revelation 6:12-17 is the second coming. And so just as in Matthew 24:29-31 we see the second coming first (in verses 29-30), followed by the rapture in verse 31, so also at the sixth seal we see the second coming first, followed by the rapture.
I've had some free time in the last few weeks and I have done a major update of all my commentaries on Revelation. And yesterday I published a complete re-write of my commentary on Matthew 24, which is the most significant chapter on end times within the gospels.
I still need to update many of my other commentaries in order to weed out any inconsistencies between my current understanding, as reflected in my updated commentaries, and my understanding as of 2018. Realistically, that will take me some time.
But please read my Matthew 24 commentary and my Revelation commentaries for my latest thoughts.
Effectively, Jesus had just quoted the proverb, "A red sky at night is a shepherd's delight. A red sky in the morning is a sailor's warning". And he was chiding them for paying more attention to the weather forecast than to the signs that speak of his coming.
In Mark 13:33, he says, "Watch out! Stay alert! For you do not know when the time will come".
So Jesus has told us to watch and stay alert to end time signs, and has likened it to paying attention to the weather forecast.
Of course in his day, weather forecasting was incredibly crude and basic, and was simply a matter of trying to predict the weather over the next 12 to 24 hours. Today, with modern satellites and supercomputers at their disposal, meteorologists can predict the weather with reasonable accuracy up to a week or two in advance. But imagine you are planning a weather-dependent outdoor event for Sunday in a week's time. Each day as Sunday approaches the forecast for that day changes slightly because the meteorologists' computer algorithms are continuously being updated with the latest satellite data. In that respect, eschatology and meteorology are alike, because Jesus expects us to watch and to continuously update our understanding of biblical prophecy in light of the latest data of world events.
I see two major implications in this:-
1) We must be willing to continually adjust our understanding of end times in light of the latest data of world events.
2) The closer we get to the second coming, the greater the advantage we have over previous generations who have studied end times.
As about a 17 year old, I read Hal Lindsay's book, 'The Late Great Planet Earth', even though I didn't actually commit my life to Christ until about two years later. It is one of the reasons that ever since becoming a Christian I have had a keen interest in end times. Hal Lindsay published that book in 1970, and it sold over 15 million copies, becoming something of a classic. I think that in 1970 his perspective was quite reasonable. But a lot has changed since then, and I think that the last 54 years have brought us much much closer to the second coming. Today, we should have a much clearer view of the end time forecast than he had.
Originally I created this website in 2018 when I took a year off work to study end times. Since then I haven't had as much time to work on it as I would have liked, and until recently I have only made minor updates.
However, earlier this year I read 'Witnessing the End' by Christian Widener, published in 2023. He reveals a very significant detail about a decree that was made in 1537 concerning the rebuilding of Jerusalem, which has major implications for our understanding of the timing of Christ's return. But even without that revelation, I think his book gives a great modern perspective of end times that is up to date for 2023. And in 2024 he has produced a series of excellent YouTube videos on various end time topics. He is someone who is really tracking the latest data. I thoroughly recommend his work to you.
One of the things in his book that really struck me was his identification of the sixth seal as the most likely place for the rapture within Revelation. For a long time I had adopted Mike Bickle's position that associated the last trumpet with the seventh trumpet.
However, re-examining the sixth seal has convinced me that not only is Revelation 7:9-17 a portrayal of the raptured church, but Revelation 6:12-17 is the second coming. And so just as in Matthew 24:29-31 we see the second coming first (in verses 29-30), followed by the rapture in verse 31, so also at the sixth seal we see the second coming first, followed by the rapture.
I've had some free time in the last few weeks and I have done a major update of all my commentaries on Revelation. And yesterday I published a complete re-write of my commentary on Matthew 24, which is the most significant chapter on end times within the gospels.
I still need to update many of my other commentaries in order to weed out any inconsistencies between my current understanding, as reflected in my updated commentaries, and my understanding as of 2018. Realistically, that will take me some time.
But please read my Matthew 24 commentary and my Revelation commentaries for my latest thoughts.