Matthew 24:26-30 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. Immediately after the distress of those days ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. (Matthew 24:37-39) As with the days of Noah, people will be involved with the necessities of life. The end of time cannot be detected easily by analyzing the activities of mankind. But the condition of the hearts of man is a good presage of the end times. As in the day of Noah, the hearts of men and women will be corrupt, self-serving, self-indulgent, violent. In our day, primarily because of the media in our lives, we can satisfy our self-serving, self-indulgent nature. Our minds can wallow in whatever we desire for the day. Paul’s description of the last days has little to do with the physical aspect of the end times, but a whole lot to do with the hearts of men and women. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. (2 Timothy 3:2-5) The computer and other electronics have allowed mankind’s basic nature to surface: our selfish pursuits in life, our self-indulgence. Our world view can be so self-centered that we eliminate the God of Creation from our reality. In Noah’s time the people did not expect God to intervene in their lives. Their hearts were filled with their own concerns, and sadly they also were filled with ill-will toward others, so God put an end to their existence. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. (Genesis 6:11-12) God said all the people had become corrupt. Adam’s rebellion, the yeast of violence and self-will, had contaminated the whole of humankind. In the flood everyone was destroyed, even the newborn baby. Only because of God’s grace, Noah and his family were spared. Paul writes, humans have always been under the power of sin: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12) Mankind chaffs under this description of his nature. Even Christians are uncomfortable with this evaluation. But Jesus says at his appearance as Lord, ALL will understand immediately the difference between their goodness and righteousness, and the goodness and righteousness of the Holy One. And then ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH WILL MOURN when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. Why not rejoicing, celebrating the entrance of God in their lives? No celebration, no happy greeting for as Isaiah said when he saw the Lord, high and lifted up, “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5) Isaiah realized quickly his human nature was not acceptable to a holy God. In Noah’s time they could not conceive of anything happening beyond their lives of sensuality. What they saw, heard, touched, tasted described the parameters of their lives--nothing else could possibly be real to them. They had rejected the miraculous God who made heaven and earth out of nothing. But one man heard God, believed in the Creator God, and he built an ark. Regardless of the ridicule and mockery, Noah built a way out of the eventual destruction of mankind. He believed the impossible. Today, mankind has made God small, far removed from the reality of life. Today, even the most conscientious, dedicated Christians often have trouble envisioning the soon return of the Lord.
As the days grow darker and as more fear and anxiety arise in peoples’ hearts, do not run to seers or people who claim they know what is happening. Do not seek a false messiah to rescue you from a dire future. Do not seek the gurus of the world; their answers will not help you. The truth of the end times is not hidden. Jesus will return openly and quickly. All will know immediately. This was an impossibility only a few years ago. Now because of satellites and the internet, his return will be seen by all instantaneously. The world will know when He enters our existence, as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. As Jesus describes, east, west, north, south, all will see the lightning, happening quickly and visibly. Noah’s time was full of violence. Our time is full of violence, but now we have the means to destroy all of mankind. God prevented man from going this far in Noah’s time by terminating man with the flood, but because of God’s love for what He had made, He allowed man to continue on even though people harbor violence and competition in their innermost being. Now, after many centuries, we have the ability not only to destroy our neighbors, but everyone else on the planet Earth. Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. This is a very accurate post-war description of a nuclear holocaust. As Peter says, even the elements will be burned up, destroyed. Man’s violence culminates in horrific circumstances in the last days. Of course this propensity towards violence is the opposite of Jesus’ love. He taught us to love our enemies, not to destroy them. However, man fulfills his desires in life through resorting to violence if necessary, even nuclear violence. This madness is an uncontrollable virus; good teaching, good conditioning, good environmental factors will not alter much this spirit of violence. When we see Jesus on the cross, we see the evidence of man’s depravity. Jesus did only good, healing and loving others, telling men to put away their hatred, their rage; instead loving their enemies, doing good to those who harmed them. Jesus’ teaching went against mankind’s self-will, the desire to control others. The leading priests and the elite of the Jewish society turned Jesus over to the Romans to murder, writing again the story of Cain killing Abel.
In our day we discount miracles, including the creation story. We do away with Noah’s flood, Jonah’s whale, the Israelite’s wilderness journey, Jesus’ miracles. Science has proved all the miraculous impossible. We have become very learned. The angel tells Daniel to put away the scroll of the last days. But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge. (Daniel 12:4) People fly around the world, seeking more knowledge, trying to understand the beginning of life and what life is all about. We measure the stars and their existence; we work on how to produce life. We are trying to exit this earth if we need to. Our knowledge is wonderful, marvelous, a credit to our ingenuity and creativity. We are proud of our knowledge; we boast about our understanding of what is. We are in pursuit of knowing everything about existence. We have gurus around the world telling us to go deep into our consciousness, for there we will find happiness and the meaning of life. How far we have come! But the Holy Spirit in Paul describes something different about mankind's wisdom and knowledge. Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” (1 Corinthians 3:18-20) After King Nebuchadnezzar experienced his madness, where he lived as an animal, exposed to the environment, eating grass for sustenance, he came to his senses when he looked up to God. He praised God and glorified him, and said that God was all-powerful and should not be questioned (see Daniel 4:34-35) Before, when he was sitting on his gold throne, with the accoutrements of life, embellished by an environment of precious metals and gorgeous splendor all around him, with servants, slaves, concubines at his beckoning, he thought of himself in control. But after his period of madness, he knew the God of all things was in control on earth. Mankind and all of its knowledge and wisdom is nothing compared to God’s glory. We are nothing compared to God, the creator of all things. His purpose for mankind is for people to become his children, to be as He is: generous, loving, kindhearted, eternal; He sends the rain on his enemies and his friends. Even though most of mankind has written God off as being irrelevant to their lives, God will do what He desires to do in this world. We might have made him small, discounting any miracles in the past, but he will come with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Dear friends around the breakfast table, hold firm to the truth of the Scriptures. Christ will return again. Let the trumpet call be heard by your ears for those who hear the Lord’s call with joy are his.
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