THE END OF THE WORLD
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
OCTOBER 11, 2009
“...in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always
being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the
hope that is in you, 1 Peter 3:15 (ESV).
There are a number of reasons why I have been
preaching this series of messages on the End Times. First and foremost is
because I’m firmly convinced it’s what God would like me to do, and I want
to please Him. Although I’m constantly hounded by Satan and his slime ball
cohort’s in their unrelenting attempt to persuade me otherwise, God enables
and encourages me in various ways to continue. Sometimes He does it through
fellow believers who let me know how He has blessed them through one of my
messages. I’m also thankful for and very aware of whenever He providently
arranges circumstances which lighten my burden by giving me unexpected blocks
of time to devote to prayerfully put them together. And I love it whenever
He gives me a special awareness of His presence such as those moments when
relevant scripture verses and other references suddenly pop into my mind accompanied
by thoughts that fellow Christians are continuing to lift me up in prayer.
Finally, since starting this series I’ve been hoping and praying that perhaps
in some small way God will use these messages to bring about the demise of
what I have been referring to as “Millennium Madness” and “End Times Mania.”
Last week, I spoke of today’s “prophecy experts”
as “Doomsday hucksters” who know a “cash cow” when they see one and seem to
be almost immersed in the enormously lucrative “End Times” industry. Regardless
of the state of our economy, this is an industry that thrives because millions
of Americans love this kind of demonic nonsense. When I started this series of messages I had no idea
With all the end of the world hype this movie
is bound to generate, I “predict” the Doomsday hucksters” will jump on the
bandwagon and try to squeeze as much more milk out of their favorite cow as
they possibly can. They will probably use the movie together with all the
current global unrest, natural disasters and all sorts of societal ills to
help them interpret the prophetic Scriptures so they can further enlighten
the “50 million American’s who already believe the Apocalypse is destined
to take place in their lifetime. That’s over 60% of all Americans who believe
in this kind of fatalism. Think about that!
It’s fairly common knowledge that even if they
never opened a Bible, most Americans are familiar with biblical terms such
as Gog and Magog, the Millennium, the anti-Christ and the
“The Old Testament does communicate to
us and it was written for us, and for all humankind. But it was not written
to us. It was written to
As you know, I have been using a fictitious non-Christian
teenage boy to illustrate some of the challenges we may be up against in sharing
the Gospel with unbelievers. He has been diligently studying the Bible searching
for answers. Not because of a movie but rather because of a couple of life
jolting events which were taking place in his life; events such as his favorite
teacher living in the final stages of a terminal illness and his best friend
Rick who recently became paralyzed from the waist down. Obviously the boy
didn’t understand everything recorded in the Bible. But he did know he was
a messed up kid and that the day would finally come when his behavior would
catch up with him and he would have to pay the price. That’s why he loved
the parts of the Bible he did understand. For instance:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” John 3:16 (ESV).
“Jesus
said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes
in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26 (ESV)”
The boy had also been trying to make sense out
of a lifetime of heart breaking experiences his friend Rick will have to endure
as a result of his paralysis. Then he came across the following verse which
gave him and his friend tremendous comfort, encouragement and hope.
“For
this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of
glory beyond all comparison,”
2 Corinthians
4:17 (ESV).
Although the Apostle Paul was referring to what
those early Christians were constantly suffering; the boy concluded it would
also be applicable to someone such as Rick. Rick’s suffering was light years away
from even coming close to the intensity of suffering Christ endured, however,
according to Paul, the suffering those early Christians were experiencing
enabled them to have an intense appreciation for the magnitude of His love
for His people. God had also eternally planned on using their suffering
to prepare them to be able to experience what the Apostle Paul referred to
as being “an eternal weight of glory,” (2 Cor. 4:17). The boy came across
the following on the web concerning this verse: “In other words, God was
using the sufferings of these special children in order to prepare and enable
them to be capable of rejoicing in the Lord Jesus forever, in a way the rest
of His children can’t.” “Bottom line: The degree of happiness Christians
will be able to enjoy in the hereafter will be in direct proportion to the
degree of suffering they experience in the here and now, but only if they
endure it with courageous Christ-like patience. (B)The boy loved Jesus as He is depicted
in the Bible. He really wants to believe in Him, but the fact that He hasn’t
kept His promise to come back and rescue those of His suffering followers
who were still alive before He destroyed
the world as those first century Jews knew it was preventing the boy from
believing in Him.
The boy had been studying the Bible with an open
mind and without any preconceived conclusion about what it was going to reveal.
For example, referring to His disciples, the boy told the teacher and the
rest of them at the Bible study that “Jesus was speaking to those men
a long time ago about some things He promised to do for them. There’s
no way they would have thought He was speaking to them about stuff
He would do for His followers living a couple of thousand years later. There
was also the time Jesus locked horns with those big shot Jews who were
living back then and not guys living today. He sure was ticked off by
them. Look at what Jesus said here, teacher.”
42 Jesus said to them, "Have
you never read in the Scriptures: " 'The
stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the
Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'? 43 Therefore I tell you, the
27 For the Son of Man is going to
come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each
person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there
are some standing here who will not taste death until they
see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." Matthew 16:27-28 (ESV) also Mark 9:1
"Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs
of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our
fathers, we would not have taken part with
them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' 31 Thus you witness against
yourselves that you are
sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your
fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood
of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced
to hell? 34 Therefore
I send you prophets and wise men and scribes,
some of whom you will kill and crucify, and
some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute
from town to town, 35 so
that on you may come all the righteous bloodshed
on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son
of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the
sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly,
I say to you, all these things will
come upon this generation,” Matthew 23:29-36 (ESV).
“Do you see what I’m
getting at, teacher? Jesus is really ticked off by those
guys and He tells them about the punishment
that’s in store for them. If they don’t kick the bucket first; those guys will still be around when He comes back. Those unrepentant Jews who were still alive experienced
the horrible fulfillment of that prophecy when the Roman general Titus lay
siege to Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and ended the “Old Covenant” World
in A. D. 70. Now look at the stuff Jesus told His disciples they were going to see, and what He was going to do for
them.”
Let’s continue to look at some more of this prophecy
as recorded in Matthew.
29 "Immediately after the tribulation
of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be
shaken. 30 Then
will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes
of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds
of heaven with power and great glory. 31
And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and
they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to
the other. Matthew
24:29-31 (ESV)
Now let’s take a look at Marks account of the same prophecy.
24
"But
in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon
will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers
in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with
great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect
from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. Mark 13:24-27 (ESV)
Milton Terry in his classic “Biblical
Apocalyptics informs us that “The texts of Mark and Matthew are so closely
parallel that we may safely accept them as in a portion of the best sayings
of Jesus. The differences of phraseology are too slight to involve any important
difference in meaning. The language is appropriated in the main from the books
of Isaiah and Daniel, but also from other prophets. The following passages
are particularly in point [noteworthy]:
10
For the stars
of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun
will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. Isaiah 13:10 (ESV)
4
All the host
of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host
shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig
tree. Isaiah
34:4 (ESV)
13
I saw in the
night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a
son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.
14 And to him was given
dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not
pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14 (ESV)
11
On that day
the mourning in
12
In that day
from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the Lord will thresh out the
grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. Isaiah 27:12 (ESV)
6
Up! Up! Flee
from the land of the north, declares the Lord. For I have spread you abroad
as the four winds of the heavens, declares the Lord. Zechariah 2:6 (ESV)
“ From these quotations it is apparent that there is scarcely an expression
employed in Matthew and Luke which has not been taken from the Old Testament
Scriptures. Such apocalyptic forms of speech are not to be assumed to convey
a meaning different from that which they bear in the Hebrew Scriptures. They
are part and of the genius of prophetic language. The language of Isa. 13:10
is used in a prophecy of the overthrow of
“The other citations we have given
above show with equal clearness how both Jesus and His disciples were apt
to express themselves in language which must have been very familiar to those
who from childhood heard the law and the prophets “read in their synagogues
every Sabbath,” (Acts 13: 27; 15: 21). A strictly literal interpretation of
such pictorial modes of thought leads only to absurdity. Their import must
be studied in the light of numerous parallels in the Old Testament writers.
But with what show of reason, or on what principal of “interpreting Scripture
by Scripture,” can it be maintained that the language of Isaiah, and Joel,
and Daniel, recognized by all the best exegetes to be metaphorical when employed
in the Hebrew Scriptures, must be literally understood when appropriated by
Jesus or His apostles?”
“... always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who
asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, 1 Peter 3:15 (ESV“
As I have been saying, we must be prepared to
do it in a straight forward believable manner and not resort to a lot of bizarre
scripture twisting doubletalk or elaborately concocted schemes in an attempt
to side step the plain meaning of what the Holy Spirit inspired the Bible’s
human authors to record.
Don’t ever forget, “The Old Testament does
communicate to us and it was written for us, and for all humankind. But it
was not written to us. It was written to
Don’t allow yourself to be snookered by those people who are trying to
persuade folks to interpret portions of the Old Testament prophecies metaphorically
but those of the New Testament literally as the current Doomsday hustlers
do in order to validate their system or opinion of this issue.
JESUS DID COME BACK
a little over two thousand years ago just
as He had promised , and He put an end
to the “Old Covenant” world as those first century Jews knew it with its Temple
worship, Levite priesthood and the
animal sacrifices, and He ushered in the “New Covenant” world that you and
I are living in today. There’s no longer a need for any of these things. The
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,” (John 1: 29, “...was led
like a lamb to the slaughter,” (Isa. 53:7). “Our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed,
(1
The bottom line is that no one living today has
to worry about Jesus returning and bringing about THE END OF THE WORLD.
But the time will come when the world as you and I know it will
end for us and we will enter into the other side of eternity to dwell
either in misery with Satan and his slime ball cohorts, or in peace, happiness
and contentment with the One who once promised a grieving woman, “I am
the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though
he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe
this,” John 11:25 (NIV). And, I must also ask you folks if you believe
it. Do you believe in Jesus who also insisted, “I am the way and the truth
and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” John 14:6
(NIV). Do you believe or reject these teachings of Jesus? Your eternal
destiny depends on what you choose to believe!
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This series of messages are not intended to be
an exhaustive study of the End Times. I just want to whet you appetite and
give you some food for thought. And, challenge each of you to search the Scriptures
with an open mind to determine if what I have been teaching is indeed Scriptural
truth.
Lord willing,
in a couple of weeks...
(A)
http://s128601634.onlinehome.us/sermons/search_truth.htm
(B)
http://s128601634.onlinehome.us/sermons/jesus_seriously.htm