Crying Wolf for the End Times

Many commentators, including myself, believe that the final week of Daniel's Messianic Prophecy will consist of three and a half years of prosperity followed by three and a half years of extreme suffering, called the Great Tribulation.  The Abomination of Desolation, also called the antichrist or beast, will be at the helm of those seven years.  He will control a global empire, not unlike ancient Rome, Greece, and Persia.

However, let's not raise false alarms about the End Times.  We are not at the end, or even the beginning of the end, but perhaps we are nearing the end of the beginning.  The Holy Scriptures coupled with current events bear this out.

Matthew was a tax collector when Jesus called him to be an Apostle.  He was an eyewitness to Christ’s earthly ministry which he recorded in his Gospel.  In Matthew 24, he quoted the very words of Jesus Christ who stated emphatically that wars and rumours of wars, famines, and earthquakes are not the end but merely the beginning.

Despite third party peace efforts, the wars continue between Russia and the Ukraine, Israel and Hamas.

On March 28th, Myanmar, Burma was struck by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake.  To put that in perspective, the 1960 Chilean earthquake had a magnitude of 9.5, the greatest magnitude ever recorded.

Christ went on to say that there will be martyrdom, apostasy (falling away from the faith), false prophets, and an increase in lawlessness.  People's love will grow cold and the Gospel will be preached throughout the entire world, “and then the end shall come”.

And then Jesus said, "Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place...then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall."

The Apostle Paul relayed the same message.  He said that the day of the Lord will not come unless the apostasy (abandoning the faith) comes first "and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God".

The “holy place” mentioned by Christ and the “temple of God” mentioned by the Apostle Paul are references to Jerusalem’s Temple.  But, at the present time, there is no Temple in Jerusalem.  And of course, a Temple is crucial to the fulfillment of the aforementioned prophecies. 

Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC.  It was rebuilt by Zerubbabel during the reign of the Persian emperor Darius the Great.  Zerubbabel’s Temple didn’t approached the magnificence of Solomon’s Temple.  However, it was renovated by Herod the Great with such lavish splendour that it became one of the wonders of the Roman Empire.  Herod’s Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.  There has never been a Third Temple in Jerusalem.  In fact, Temple Mount a.k.a. Mount Moriah is now the site of Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, two Muslim holy places.

Observant Jews would never share the Temple Mount with Muslims.  The building of Jerusalem’s Third Temple would require removal of the two Islamic sanctuaries followed by the cleansing of Temple Mount by qualified Levitical priests.

The construction of Jerusalem’s Third Temple will be a sign that the end is near.  The building of the Third Temple will occur prior to the final week of  Daniel’s Messianic prophecy.  Exactly when they will break ground, nobody knows.  But one thing for certain.  When Jews start construction on the Third Temple, it will be the time for Christians to stand up and take notice.  And that will be the moment to sound the alarm for the End Times.

“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.  For in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”