Implosion by Joel C. Rosenberg Read Free Book Online

knew the many ancient Hebrew prophecies describing the coming Messiah (that he would be born in Bethlehem Ephrathah, live in Galilee, teach in parables, do miracles, care for the poor, etc.), they could not—or would not—connect the dots and accept that it was Jesus himself to whom the prophets were pointing. And the stakes were high. This was a matter of eternal life with the Father in heaven or eternal punishment in the lake of fire. As Jesus had said before, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. . . . He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:16, 36).
    The situation isn’t that different today. How many people living in the twenty-first century who are familiar with the many biblical prophecies concerning the second coming of the Messiah are able—or willing—to connect the dots and see what is coming? And the stakes are just as high today as they were in the first century.
    Not all future events are described in advance in the Bible. Nor can the prophecies be used to determine the future of every country. But there are key events and trends that Jesus and the prophets and the apostles said would occur in the last days that would help us know Christ’s return was drawing closer. It is imperative that we know what those are and understand what they mean if we are to properly analyze the signs of the times.
    What Are the Last Days?
    Let us begin by defining some terms.
    Last days is a biblical term used in both the Old and New Testaments in reference to the time leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ. It is described as a time of prophetic signs and wonders, the spread of the gospel, the growth and persecution of believers, and other dramatic events. Also variously referred to in the Scriptures as the “latter days,” the “latter years,” and by the prophet Daniel as “the time of the end,” this period is sometimes known colloquially in the modern era as the “End Times” or the “end of days.” This is not because this period leads up to the actual end of the world but because it constitutes the last days before the Day of the Lord, when the Messiah comes to earth to reign over all mankind in fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
    It is beyond the scope of this book to deal in depth with all the other elements of the last days that the Bible tells us to expect. Many books have been written about topics like the Rapture and the Tribulation and the Millennium, and I will not get into those events here (though I will talk more about the Rapture in chapter 12). But I do want to look a little more closely at the Day of the Lord because that is the culmination of the last days—and arguably the most significant event in human history.
    The Day of the Lord refers to the actual, physical, literal second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth. This is the time when the Scriptures indicate that Christ’s feet will touch down on the Mount of Olives, splitting the mountain in two. The Bible describes this as a time of darkness and judgment, during which no more salvations will be possible. At this time, Christ will cleanse the land of Israel from the horrors of war, oversee the building of a new Temple (the one described in Ezekiel 40–48), and begin his one-thousand-year reign in Jerusalem over all mankind, a period that believers commonly call the “millennial kingdom.”
    The Day of the Lord—including related biblical references to this unparalleled moment in human history such as “the day,” “that day,” and the like—is mentioned more than sixty times in the New American Standard translation of the Bible. The Day of the Lord is synonymous with the second coming of Christ, and the two phrases are often used interchangeably by scholars and commentators. The term Second Coming itself is not a phrase