Posted on by Abe Austin

The Offensively Faithful- Do We Live in the End?

Looking to the End of the World)

In my last post I discussed the moral makeup of humanity that we expect for the last days, and that the popular morality of that time would certainly be sinful and depraved. It remains for us to consider whether we now live in those last days, though. For if we do, that would be a strong indictment of the social movements of the world today.

As it turns out, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and as the name suggests, one of our unique beliefs is that God has pronounced this to be the last dispensation, the last days before the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. Because of the testimony I have gained of the other tenets of this gospel, I take this matter of being in the last days on faith. Thus, I do believe that we live in the final age foretold.

But even without adopting the paradigm of my church, I believe there is still a strong case to be made for us being in the end times. And certainly, this is not a very rare opinion among Christians. Many, from all different sects, have also expressed the opinion that the world is ripening for destruction, and that things seem to be aligning for the prophecies given in the Bible.

Of course, Christians have been making these predictions basically since Christ’s ascension. I, myself, make sure to keep a healthy skepticism about any immediate second-coming predictions. Even though I say we live in the latter days, I don’t presume to know whether that means we are 5 years from the second coming, or 500. It will come when it comes, and I will happily welcome it, whichever side of the veil I’m on.

But let us look at a few reasons why now appears to be a likely candidate for the end times.

Reasons to Assume Latter Days)

  1. The depravity of the world. Certainly, the world has always known tremendous evil, including the very worst of what we see in the world today. But what makes this time especially evil is how even so-called followers of God have abandoned His commandments and justified the sins of the world. We slaughter our unborn, we watch videos of strangers having sex, and we cheer for the murder of our political rivals, all while calling ourselves Christian. There have been other times historically where God’s people abandoned Him, and those times have always immediately preceded their destruction. It seems probably that when the current family of God abandons Him, that their destruction would likely be one-and-the-same as the destruction of the entire world.
  2. The fulfillment of prophecies. Perhaps every era of history can lay claim to wars, rumors of wars, and evil abounding, but there are some prophecies of the end which are only fulfilled in these times or are only possible to be fulfilled for the first time now. The most prominent of these is the return of the nation of Israel. Less than fifty years after Jesus’s death Jerusalem was destroyed and the last remaining Israelites displaced, making it then impossible for Jesus to return to them there, though it was prophesied in Zechariah 13 that he would. It was only in the last century that the historic land of Canaan was restored to the Israelites, both fulfilling some end-time prophecies, and paving the way for others. Also, this is the first time when there has been such great global connection, allowing for the war of good and evil to play out on a universal scale, fitting the descriptions we have of the end.
  3. We happen to live in years whose numbers are meaningful. We are around 2000 years from the death and resurrection of Jesus, potentially 6000 years from the beginning of Genesis. If Jesus were to come in the near future, it would fulfill the pattern of six 1000-year-long days, leading into the seventh day of rest. We also see numerous calendars terminating and resetting around this time, including the Mayan, the Essene, the Zoroastrian, and more.
  4. We live in a time of global destructive power and acceleration. Technology and society are evolving at a pace that has never before existed. We have developed weapons capable of the utter decimation of society, and a social culture that changes every year. The potential of catastrophic system failure is only accelerating, and the worldly turmoil only makes that occurrence more and more likely.
  5. There is simply a sense of reaching the end of an era. The world has completely changed multiple times in the last 250 years and seems to be doing so again right now. We can feel the tides turning, the divisions expanding, the gravity shifting beneath us. It feels like we are at least at the end of a world, and given all of the above criteria, it seems it could well be the end of the world.

When I was a child, I only believed that we were preparing for the end, not that we were actually in it. Today I do believe we are in that 11th hour. Again, I do not know how long this period will last, but I believe that the prophecies detailing the end of the world apply to us today, including those that describe a fallen and morally bankrupt generation. Tomorrow I will examine what that means for trends that are current and popular, and how any who live to follow the consensus should immediately reconsider that.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 3:16-22

16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt:

17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

18 And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.

19 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.

20 And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.

21 And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty:

22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.

God expanded dramatically on His instructions to Moses. He reiterated that Moses must go to the elders of Israel and deliver a message from the Lord. Moses was to explain to them God’s awareness of the people’s suffering, and to promise them that they would soon be freed. Moses was to tell the people that God would bring them to the land of Canaan, fulfilling a promise that had been made many years ago to Abraham. God also reassured to Moses that the people would believe him: “they shall hearken to thy voice.”

God then informed Moses of the next step, which was to approach the Pharaoh and lay down the Lord’s demands. God even forewarned Moses that Pharaoh would not agree to this, but God would work wonders until eventually Pharaoh would relent. Then, God assured Moses, all the Israelites would leave, and they would go with treasure and spoil taken from the Egyptians.

In short, God related everything to Moses exactly as it would occur before it even happened. Many times God only illuminates the very next step of our personal journeys, but here he laid down the entire dance. Every setback and every surmounting was detailed so that Moses would know that he followed a predetermined path which God had already seen, and nothing would catch them by surprise. This is an incredibly reassuring gift of knowledge from the Lord, but as we will see in the next chapter, even after all this Moses still had his doubts.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 49:1-2

1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.

2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.

“Gather, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.” This is quite an opportunity! A chance to hear a prophet foretell the destiny of one’s posterity through the ages, to learn what their ultimate legacy will be.

As with Ephraim and Manasseh, these blessings will not be “wishful prayers.” They will be the truth, and some of it will be more positive than others. Not all the sons are going to necessarily receive from God what they want. Some of their people will face affliction from the natural turmoil of the world, and some from the natural consequence of choosing a baser form of life, and some as a scourge to bring them back to the light. Some of them will enjoy prosperity and joy…for a time. All of them will pass through trials of being conquered and enslaved and scattered, but through it all, they will remain preserved and eventually restored by their God.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 42:6

6 And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.

I imagine that Joseph needed to set up some sort of delegation, distributing the work of storing and selling the grain to a whole army of workers. But evidently he didn’t delegate his way out of the process entirely. He was still integral to the operation, apparently being responsible for negotiating the sales with foreign customers.

And here, at last, we find the fulfillment of Joseph’s prophecy from many years ago. We know he was seventeen when he had his dreams, thirty when he was taken out of prison by Pharaoh, that seven years of bounty had already passed, and some amount of time in famine before Jacob’s sons came to buy grain. Thus, over twenty years had passed since Joseph first related his dreams to his brothers, which showed that they would come and bow to him.

Which goes to show that the Lord’s timing is on a far different timescale from our own. There is no sense of “too long” since the promise was given, no expiration, no distance of time or status that render His word invalid. The sequence of events that had transpired to bring this prophecy to pass were impossible to anticipate, there was no “lucky guessing” on Joseph’s part to prophesy of it. This development could only have been foretold by an omniscient being who had already seen all that would be.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 41:9-13

9 Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day:

10 Pharaoh was wroth with his servants, and put me in ward in the captain of the guard’s house, both me and the chief baker:

11 And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream.

12 And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each man according to his dream he did interpret.

13 And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged.

At last the chief butler remembers poor Joseph in prison. Joseph might have wished that he remembered sooner, but if he had, then Joseph might have been exonerated and sent back home two years prior, meaning he wouldn’t have been present to interpret Pharaoh’s dream and save countless lives. In the end, it was all for the best, God had worked things so that Joseph could be where he needed to be, and when he needed to be there.

Also, I think it noteworthy that the butler does not remember Joseph until after all the other wise men have tried and failed to interpret the dream. What an excellent way to prove to Pharaoh that this problem is beyond ordinary man, and anyone who can solve it must be doing so thanks to a higher power. His belief that Joseph is connected to God is critical to his decision to elevate the young man to a ruler.

In the end, the chief butler finally makes it known that two years ago the Pharaoh once walked a foretold path, fulfilling a prophecy that he didn’t even know about. Here was a man who had already known the Pharaoh’s mind once, so perhaps he could know it again.