6/01/05 & 6/05/05 - “SIGNS”
Victory Ministries International presents:
Awesome Truths and Amazing Facts  
Treasures of awesome truths from God’s Word 
and facts that affect you!

Hello!  This is Richard Vaughn

Today’s subject – “The Signs of Jesus’ Second Coming”
Before we begin, let us seek God’s guidance, “Heavenly Father, we know Jesus is coming very soon. So Lord bless those listening today with the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we pray for wisdom, knowledge and understanding so that we may live in the center of Your revealed will, as we ask in Jesus Name, Amen.”
Right now, I continue to keep my pledge, to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up my voice like a trumpet and to show God’s people where they are transgressing God’s law.

Well just how soon is the second coming of Christ? Friends, based on my understanding of scripture and the events taking place in our world today, I actually believe that we are the last generation living on planet earth. You see 1,974 years ago, in 31 A.D., Jesus ascended into heaven having left his followers with the promise, “I will come again…” in John 14 verse 3. 

Christians have been saying Jesus is coming soon since the apostle Paul’s time, and especially for the last 160 plus years since the Baptist preacher William Miller’s predictions that stirred the world in the early to mid 1840’s. 

But we see that life goes on as usual, with wars, famine, poverty, violence, deadly diseases, and space travel taking the headlines of our daily news. No headline has yet reported the sighting of Jesus Christ with hosts of angels on the horizon. Are Christians chasing an elusive dream? Are the millions of people around the world who call Christianity the opiate of the masses really right? How can we know when His promised coming will happen?

In Matthew 26:63,64 As Jesus stood before the high priest He testified under oath He would come back to this earth again. It reads, “But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
  
In Matthew 24:3 the disciples asked Jesus, “…what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” 

There are many signs that have been given both by Jesus and many authors of the Old and New Testaments. We will now examine 13 of them that have either been fulfilled or are being fulfilled.
1.	The destruction of Jerusalem - Matthew 24:2,16 “And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:” This prophecy was fulfilled 39 years after the cross when the Roman warrior Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

2.	A great persecution or tribulation - Matthew 24:21 “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” This prophecy was fulfilled during the period of the dark ages that lasted more than 1,200 years. The apostate church put to death more than 50 million Christians that were slain for their pure faith. They would not bow their knees to the Papacy.

3.	Signs in the sun, moon and stars - Matthew 24:29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken” Fulfilled May 19, 1780 when a supernatural darkness lasted from morning into the night after which the moon appeared as red as blood. Then November 13, 1833 the great star shower that set the sky ablaze with falling stars that lasted over four hours. Many thought it was the end of the world.

4.	Wars, rumors of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes. Matthew 24:6 “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” There are many reported and unreported wars, famines that plague the earth as many of its occupants go to bed hungry, pestilences seem to come with increased variety and frequency as do catastrophic earthquakes. Especially in the last 50 years there has been a considerable increase in destructive earthquakes and high loss of life.

5.	Capital-Labor troubles – James 5:4,8 “Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” For fulfillment of this prophecy, we need only check the news reports for all the fraud that the mega-rich perpetrate on the poor, robbing them of their savings and pensions.

6.	Unrest, fear and upheaval. Luke 21:25,26 “…upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” Nations are facing the most perplexing problems today for which there seems no solutions and fear is gripping the world as they witness current events.

7.	Much travel and an increase of knowledge – Daniel 12:4 “…the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” We are in the information age where 80% of the world’s total knowledge has been brought forth in the last decade, with knowledge doubling every several years.

8.	Scoffers and religious skeptics who turn from Bible truth – 2 Peter 3:3,4 “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. And in 2 Tim. 4:3,4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” There are many scoffers today, even in the religious world. Many religious leaders are denying the plain Bible teachings of Creation, the Flood, the divinity of Christ, the seventh day Sabbath, the second coming of Jesus and many other vital Bible truths. Psychiatry and the traditions of pseudo-intellectuals have replaced the Bible in many religious circles.

9.	Moral degeneracy, craze for pleasure and a decline of spirituality – Listen to this in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous (lovers of money), boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents (we see everywhere how children have no respect for their parents), unthankful, unholy, without natural affection (mothers disposing of their newborns in plastic bags left in dumpsters), trucebreakers (unforgiving), false accusers (slanderers), incontinent (without self-control), fierce (brutal), despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady (head strong), high-minded (haughty or conceited), lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof (playing church): from such turn away.” America is in the midst of a tremendous crisis as divorce affects one marriage in two and suicides have become a popular solution to problems. The Bible points to the strong possibility that this immoral generation and its fulfillment of God’s Word may be the last.

10.	Increasing lawlessness, bloody crimes and violence – Matthew 24:12 “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” 2 Timothy 3:13 “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” Ezekiel 7:23 “Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.” Many cities across America deal with murders every single day.

11.	An Old Testament prophet named Nahum was allowed to see the very day in which we live, a time that Jesus would be preparing to return. He saw modern warfare and automobiles at night with headlights racing on the highways, hitting telephone poles and having head-on crashes. He saw them and he described them in the language he was familiar with. We look at Nahum 2:3,4 “The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet” (that’s soldiers in battle) it goes on  “the chariots shall be with flaming torches (cars with headlights) in the day of his preparation (that means when Jesus is ready to come), and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken (cars crashing into telephone poles). The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways (head-on crashes): they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.” (Speeding vehicles- remember now, Nahum was used to the horse and carriage).

12.	Then there is a turning to Spiritism – 1 Timothy 4:1 – “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” – So called Christians today, including a large number of the heads of nations, seek counsel from psychics, channelers, and spiritualists. Spiritism has invaded the church as well. There are plenty of warnings in Scripture to have nothing to do with these works of Satan. The battle is for the mind and no true Christian will have anything to do with any of these abominable practices, which include magic, astrology, fortune telling, psychics and séances. Christian parents should particularly guard their children’s minds from such things as the Harry Potter craze that I will deal with in an upcoming broadcast.

13.	A special message to the world in the last days – Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” The last, great, solemn warning message of Christ’s’ second coming is being given to more than 95% of the world’s population in over 900 languages and dialects. Before Jesus comes, every person in the world will have been warned.

Just how near is the Lord’s second coming? Matthew 24:32-34 “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” 

The signs have almost all been fulfilled. We cannot know the day and the hour of Christ’s return, (Mat. 24:36), but we can be confident that we are the people who will live to see Jesus return. Are you ready? Jesus does not force Himself into any person’s life, but He stands at the door seeking an invitation. Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” The door represents the human mind or heart. If invited, He will come in and change the life, as He will erase all of your repented and confessed sins. Then He wants give you the power to live a victorious life. He who said He will come, will come again and soon.

Next Week: We will study the thousand year period called the millennium.

Until next week, Jesus said in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me”. Even so, Come Lord Jesus.