When Does The End Of Times Begin?
Modern culture has confused much concerning the end times. The reality is that it is not complicated to understand. If one wanted to know when the end of times were to begin all we must do is understand basic prophecies within Scripture. What is interesting is that if one were to ask where to look for this many would turn to Revelation. The truth is actually found surrounding the life of Christ Himself.
With the worlds goal of relegating Christ to something more of a mere man the focus has shifted to prophecies which speak more of future events. It may give some a false sense of comfort to imagine that these prophetic teachings are either a distant unconnected future to our time or perhaps a fairy tale. Yet when you can understand the significance behind Jesus Himself and His life it brings a sharp clarity and sobering reality to the time within which we live.
Bio Jesus : 101 Understanding
The first prophecy concerning Jesus is found in Genesis 3:15. It may be hard for some to imagine that the first prophecy is found within the Garden of Eden. This comes immediately after the introduction of sin into the world. It is here that He reveals the intent and purpose of creation, mankind, and His ultimate plan to save us.
In other words God did not mess up. He had foreknowledge of what would happen. At the moment of creation He knew that mankind would need to be saved. Yet in spite of all of sin, and all the pain and suffering He would have to bare because of us, He created us anyway. It was His intended plan from the start to bring us with Him to something greater than this world. We just are not there yet.
To fully understand this principle one would have to research and study hundreds of prophecies from the Old Testament which speak of Christs coming. If one wanted to begin this study Isaiah would be a great place to start. Isaiah was known as the Messianic Prophet for good reason. Throughout the pages one can find that Jesus will come, and that He would die, but to conquer death for us so that we could be saved.
The story of salvation did not come with Christ’s birth. When Christ came to this world He came to complete the salvation story. The beginning of this salvation story began at the moment He uttered the words “Let there be light”. So then what is the significance of Jesus in relationship to the end times?
Jesus Impact Upon The End Times
When one realizes that the beginning of prophecy started with Christ we can also see that its end will also come with Christ. The promise of salvation was completed with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. From that moment forward we enter into the end times. Christ called it the latter days.
You can see the writers of the New Testament speak to their time being the latter days. Peter who walked with Jesus and learned from Him stated that Christ “was revealed in these last times for your sake.” To this end some have taken a wrong path in believing that the Tribulation began in the times of the New Testament. This is not true. So what is Peter and the other Apostles talking about?
Since the time of Genesis at that moment within the Garden mankind had been separated from God because of sin. This sin forever altered the landscape of the world and its generations after.
Jesus with His sacrifice reunited us with Him and the Father. At this point we enter what is often called the Church Age. In other words the Church is in of itself an end times prophecy and this can be seen in places such as Isaiah.
The Church must come before events such as those we find in Revelation. It is a body of believers which can have a personal relationship with Christ as we are no longer separated by sin because of the cross. It is not until the Church is fulfilled that we can see other parts of the end times come into being. It is a series of events across a period of time not a single event which falls upon the world suddenly.
How Can The End Be 2000 Years?
This question makes me smile and when alone if I think about it I laugh a little. Mankind has always associated the end of anything with a single event or a short series of events. Yet I will give several answers to that question. First let me ask why the beginning took nearly four thousand years?
The promise we find in Genesis 3 is further elaborated on with Abraham and then again later expanded in definition through Isaiah. God kept telling us that He is coming. In fact the Jews of the Old Testament believed that Christ would come to conquer and end the Roman Empire. They thought that He would set up His eternal Kingdom in their time. They completely ignored the prophecies of Isaiah and others.
Some today ask how they in their time could be so narrow minded causing them to miss The Christ. Likewise today we are narrow minded in missing the time that we presently live within just as they were in theirs.
I give you the writing of Paul in Romans 11:17-25. Paul speaks of a wild olive tree and the root with the fatness of the olive tree. At the moment of Creation God intended all of us to be His. In other words one people. Yet we have a choice to follow and then also we can make a choice to deny Him. Abraham was chosen as were His children to bare the name of God and yes the very name of Christ when He came.
Just as sin influenced events within the Garden Christ knew that sin would also impact the people of the New Testament. It was within His plan that the Church spread through an unbelieving people, a people that had rejected God for many generations. He knew that Israel would reject Him when He came, Isaiah wrote of it.
The Gentile world is the wild olive tree which is the Church. The Gentile world are Gentile for their rejection of God from the beginning. Yet God is an inclusive God not an exclusive one. If someone is to be excluded it is by their choice not the choice of God. He cannot force someone to accept Him. That is the only thing He cannot do or will not do.
Christ coming to complete salvation gave a second chance for all nations. Gentile and Jew alike could partake within this completion called the body of Christ through the Church. It is at this moment when the beginning has ended and the ending has just begun.
Fulfillment Of The End
The fulfillment of the end is not as complicated as some would make it seem. If we understand the beginning then the end becomes clear. The fulfillment of the Church will be seen at the moment of the Rapture. Yet this is not the end of the full body of Christ.
It will take the Tribulation to fulfill the promises made to Abraham and the nation of Israel. The Tribulation is not a time of torment and destruction just for the sake of punishment upon the world. Rather its purpose is to reach the people who God originally made a promise that He would save. He called them a stubborn and stiff necked people. It will take the time of Jacob’s trouble to reach them.
The end times has two different fulfillment’s. The first is the fulfillment of the Church as we know it today. It is this wild olive tree which will be taken to Heaven within the Rapture. To know when the Church will end is also not complicated. The Church will end allowing the Rapture to take place when the last person that has been predestined to be saved is a believer in Christ.
Indeed I know that is very ambiguous in terms of a time line as we know it. God did not give us His day planner to know date specific events. This though is with purpose. We are to look for His return with immanent expectation. Paul within his time was living this truth as he too expected the return of Christ in his time.
The fact is that the Church is part of the end times. It is a result of the completion of the beginning promises and the fulfillment of those promises with Christ and salvation. This is why it has taken 2000 years thus far to complete the Church. We simply do not know how many are to be a part of this Body of Christ. Despite not knowing this we have seen the Church fulfill other prophecies.
How The Church Impacts Prophecy
If one is looking at end times prophecy they often point to concepts such as are found in Luke 21. Some will point to how Scripture states that knowledge will increase and our present rise in the past 100 or so years of technology. These are what I call micro prophecies. These must come to pass but they are not the bigger picture. Also many of these prophecies when looked at are placed in the wrong periods of time.
Nevertheless to look at the bigger picture of what the Church has aided in fulfilling we need to look further back in time. At the beginning God gave a command for mankind to spread and populate the Earth. Naturally anything God commands mankind has a way of messing it up. Nimrod himself attempts to do just the opposite.
After God judges the people under Nimrod we see the nations of the world form for the first time as nation states rather than tribes by family. Yet mankind still had a long way to go in fulfilling God’s command. It would not be until the 1400’s to 1600’s that we would truly begin to fulfill this as the New World would be settled.
Some would argue that it was already settled by natives to those regions. Yet there is another component which is missed. In addition to populating the world there is a second condition to God’s command. We were to subdue the Earth. We are its caretakers. It is this which finally in the end moves mankind from surviving in a jungle to the micro prophecies being fulfilled such as knowledge being increased. Here we find medical science, space exploration, information technology and other achievements.
How did the Church aid in this? We aided in this by fulfilling the great commission of spreading the Gospel to every land and nation of people. Wherever God is there will be the rains which allow growth and harvest. God blesses His people and those who turn to Him. It is through His people that the greatest achievements were brought into our world.
Our Final Moments
The work of the Church is first to bring people to Christ. Yet we have had many secondary roles which has impacted the world around us. The Church has always existed and lived within the end times. These latter days are for the purpose of fulfilling two fronts.
First we must continue and persist until the last believer comes to know Christ. After this is accomplished then the Church is fulfilled and removed. The next series of events will begin which will be for fulfilling God’s promises to Abraham.
Secondly as the Church fulfills its primary role we also bring the world to the point where all of God’s commands are fulfilled from the very beginning. This includes the micro prophecies such as knowledge being increased or the bigger ones to populate the world and subdue the Earth.
It is the Church which is fulfilling the end. Our role is not to be weak or apathetic in compliance to those who would be judgmental or condemning towards the Church. The final moments are coming which lead to Eternity. We are to preach, warn, speak out to truth and that end. That is our commission. That is our role within the world.
Our final moment will culminate with the Rapture. It is when we are removed from this world leaving it behind that the end of the end will come. The beginning of the end started with Christ. The end of the end can only be fulfilled after the Church is removed. We only go so far.
Once we are removed God’s final promises to Israel will be fulfilled and judgment will fall on the world. God uses this judgment to show Israel who He is. They then see that He is Jesus Christ. Christ will not return at the Second Coming until they bow to Him recognizing Him as Lord.
These Latter Days
We have been within the latter days since Christ fulfilled salvation. We will continue within these end times until the Church is fulfilled. It is a love story which was written with Creation and the intent to save you from sin at the very beginning. While God never wanted anyone to be left out there will be those who do not go with us.
For those who do not make it to Heaven it is not because God rejected them. It is because they rejected God. The individual must choose. The gift has already been given. A gift can never be forced to be accepted. It is your choice to receive what has already been prepared since the foundations of the universe.