Is the World Soon Coming To An End?
Is the world soon coming to an end? If there will be such an "End of Time", then when will happen? In order to help answer such questions, we must look at what the Bible says, since the Bible gives many prophesies concerning the "End Times".
One day, the Antichrist (Anti-Christ) will arise on the world scene, like a star coming up out of the ocean of humanity. (He will "...rise up out of the sea" Rev. 13:1). This event was prophesied by the Bible in the Book of Revelation and in other books of the Bible, such as in the Book of Daniel. Many people in times past have claimed that this person or that person was the Antichrist. Such rumors have come and gone throughout the history of the Church, with such men always eventually dying without becoming the Antichrist.
But just who is this man called the Antichrist? Also, will he reign until the end of time? The Bible clearly states that the number of the Antichrist will be "666". Some have speculated that might mean that the first, middle and last names of the Antichrist will each be six letters long. Others say that this "666" number only means that the Antichrist will be a man, since "6" is the number of man.
Nevertheless, it is not possible for anyone to know just who the Antichrist will be until he does a certain, particularly wicked act. The one who commits this act will be the prophesied Antichrist. This act be will when the Antichrist enters into the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem and then places an idol there, an "image" of himself, thereby polluting the Temple with this idol:
"And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." (Daniel 9:27)
"And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate." (Daniel 11:31)
Jesus himself mentioned this prophesy by Daniel, referring to this future pivotal event as "the abomination of desolation". Jesus declared that this act would start what is called the "Great Tribulation", a period of time filled with great judgments from God upon the Earth:
"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." (Matthew 24:15-22)
The beginning of the Great Tribulation will be preceded by another period of time characterized by deception and a general falling away from the truth, a time referred to as the "Great Apostasy". During this period of time, the various religious leaders of the world will start to dialogue and link up together into a great Ecumenical Movement, as they move back towards the Roman Catholic Church, (also called the "Great Whore" in Revelation Chapter 17). The Roman Catholic Church, working together with the Antichrist, will then start to murder all true Christians, mostly by beheading unless they take the Antichrist's Mark or their hand or forehead.
These beheadings will be similar to those now performed upon Christians by Muslims in various parts of the world -- as such Muslims seek to obey their "holy book", the Koran, which commands them to commit such murders. (Koran: "Strike off their heads till ye have made a great slaughter among them" - Sura 47:4)
The Bible tells about this period of time: a time of trouble, a time of tribulation, a time when God's Two Witnesses will preach to a wicked world, and a time of the rise of the Antichrist and his Great Whore. The Bible says:
"So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth." (Revelation 17: 3-9)
Many Bapticatholics, New Evangelicals, and other compromising Christians are currently unashamed to link up with the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the Antichrist and his Great Roman Catholic Whore will "strike off" the heads of such men and women at that time. Of course, many people will have already died or been raptured by that time as well. Other Bapticatholics and New Evangelicals who are "Left Behind" will take the "Mark of the Beast" and therefore give themselves over to eternal judgment and damnation by God in the flames of Hell.
As has already been mentioned, the Antichrist will enter into the Temple in Jerusalem and pollute it, as prophesied by Daniel the Prophet. Nevertheless, this Temple in Jerusalem has not yet been rebuilt and so this wicked act by the Antichrist must surely come to pass sometime in the future. (The previous Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD.) There are billions of people living in the world today. The Antichrist may have already been born and could therefore be living right now somewhere on the Earth. Nevertheless, we cannot know for sure just who the Antichrist is at this time.
The Antichrist will not reign forever. He will also not be as all-powerful as the world will make him out to be. Nevertheless, "The end of time" will actually come about soon enough. This is because Jesus Christ will come from Heaven down to Earth with His Saints. Jesus will then destroy the Antichrist and those who follow him and then Jesus will reign over the Earth for a thousand years from Jerusalem.
After these thousand years are completed, the current Heavens and Earth will be destroyed. (This old world will indeed soon be coming to an end!) Nevertheless, God will then create a new Heavens and a new Earth, and "time will be no more".
[How to Prepare for "The End"]
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