The Time of the End

There are few things that naturally interest me; one of them is the end time prophecy. I don't have to make an effort to enjoy that, it comes naturally. There was a time when I only read things about that, my spiritual food were strong articles and chapters of the Bible that would deal with that. Then I realized that it was a very narrow diet of spiritual food and would affect me spiritually if I persist on reading and reflecting only on that.

It's easy to strike fear in people's hearts and keep their attention when I talk about that, but what's the fruit? Is it helping the person? Is it bringing faith and freedom to their hearts? The answer is NO! So, how can I teach about the end time and at the same time minister faith, joy, hope and all the fruits of the Spirit? Paul said" Whatsoever things are good..., think on those things" Philippians 4:8. At the same time he didn't avoid speaking about the end time as you can see in many of his epistles like in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 2nd Timothy 3, etc. Peter, James and John talked about the end time. Jesus talked about it extensively (Read Matthew 24 and 25, Luke 21 and Mark 13.)

Besides there are 2 full books in the Bible dedicated to the end time, the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation, not to speak of almost all the small prophets dedicated many words to talk about the second coming of Jesus Christ. I heard there are about 300 prophecies in the Old testament about the first coming of Jesus (already fulfilled) and about 700 about His second coming. It's a great and incredible event, not only the coming of Jesus per se but all the events related to His second coming.

On the book of Jude there's a reference to the book of Enoch. Jud 1:14-15  "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

This book of Enoch was written before the Flood , preserved by Noah and read and studied by the apostles and disciples, then for some reason was taken out of the selected books of the Bible, but it didn't disappeared and it's still available. (Click here to read it if you are interested). It's quite a long book but it starts by dedicating the book to the "elect and righteous who will be living on the day of tribulation... but not for this generation, but for a remote one which is for to come" It sounds like us, doesn't it?

So all this to say that the End times, the times we are living now, are quite an amazing and very important piece on the puzzle of God's creation and redemption plan. There are thousands of people talking about it and some claim they can put a label on the every little horn and know what each verse means. God forbid! They can just make things more complicated and try to shine the spot light on themselves instead of Jesus, who is the Beginning and the End and Alfa and the Omega and the focus of every word written in the Bible. Glory to His name forever!

Written by Carlos Viana, July 2nd, 2012