End-Time Evidence

Six signs in the world that show we are nearing the End Time as we know it.

Political news stirs us to our core. Violence abounds. And natural disasters top the headlines. Do these events reveal that we are in the time of the end?

Everyone can see that the political arena is heating up. But it is not today’s upheaval in world politics that reveals we are nearing the time of the end. The Bible is the thermometer that gives us a reliable gauge of the state of the world. And today the Bible is reading that the winds are stirring and the time of the end is rapidly approaching.

1. The Book of Daniel is now unsealed.
2. God is calling for revival.
3. Judgment must begin at the house of God and this event is coming to a close.
4. The Four Winds of Heaven are being held in order to delay the coming change in world powers long enough for Jesus to finish sealing His army of firstfruits.
5. The succession of world kingdoms is today paused at number 6 out of a total of 7 Kings. The last one will be concurrent with number 8 and they will continue for a very short time!
6. Personal testimony shows that God is giving His people a sense of urgency. He has not only unsealed the book of Daniel, but He appears anxious for us to unravel centuries of error as He presents us with a deeper understanding of Biblical truths.

In the world-wide religious revival surrounding 1844, many people thought the Second Coming of Christ would happen in their day. But they did not have near the amount of evidence that we have today. Yes, in 1844 God was calling a remnant to awaken and prepare for the Second Coming. But He did not come then and the time grew long and the people became sleepy. What is going to wake us out of our stupor? The Bible is calling to us, “AWAKE!”

Here is the evidence that the Bible gives that we are nearing (or in) the time of the end and the Second Coming of Christ is fast approaching. Political upheavals have come and gone, but we have a more sure word of prophecy in the Bible which will show us where we truly are today.
1. The book of Daniel has been sealed for 2700 hundred years. Daniel 12:9 “Go your way Daniel. For the words [of the prophecy of Daniel] are sealed until the time of the end.” But today the book of Daniel is now unsealed with a certainty which we have never had before. (read more) If Daniel is sealed until the time of the end, and God has now unsealed Daniel, we must be in “the time of the end!”  This is a huge, direct message that we are going forward this time!

When the book of Daniel is at last completely unsealed, Jesus will stand with one foot on the land and one foot on the sea and ROAR with the resounding voice of a Lion. The message He carries will be a fresh and profound announcement of the Second Coming of Jesus. Perhaps we have not known everything about Daniel and Revelation that we think we have, because we are told in Revelation 10:11 that we must prophesy again. When Daniel is unsealed we will have a current prophetic message for the world. (Revelation 10)

Jesus outlined the end-time events in Matthew 24. He said “This GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14 This is not the same as the gospel message of salvation that has been preached since He commissioned the Disciples. This “GOOD NEWS OF THE KINGDOM” is the message of Daniel 7 & 8. No matter how bad the Little Horn and the last Beast-kingdom are, the good news for the world to hold onto is that “The kingdom will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High.” Dan. 7:18, 27.

There are many references to Daniel in this Matthew 24 passage, showing that Jesus considers Daniel to be the end-time message. And this Good News of the final kingdom coming swiftly,  and being given to the Saints, is the final message that gives strength to the entire world. When you hear this gospel of Daniel being preached in all the world, then you will know the end is near. back to top
2. God is calling for revival. Like every other true revival in the past, revival takes on certain features: God restores His Law and His true worship. (Nehemiah Chapter 8 is a good place to see this.) The people who begin to understand God’s Law better are discovering that His Feasts are still valid today. This message of the Biblical Feasts is not new to Adventists. Going back to our roots in 1844, the Feast Days, and God’s Biblical Calendar, were very important parts of the message of revival. Today’s call to return to the Feast Days is a huge clue that God is calling a remnant back to His covenant and would like to move forward this time. back to top
3.
The Lord is working His judgment in the church, and has been for some time. And we don’t even see it! There are a lot of definitions of this word “judgment.” But here it means that God is quietly bringing the choice to each person and asking us, “Do you want Me?”

The Book of Joel explains this phase of judgment when the Lord says,

“Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about. …  Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe,… for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” Joel 3:11-14

Here are a couple other ways the Lord defines this time of judgment as a time of decision. 1 Peter 4:17: “Judgment must begin at the house of God.” Ezekiel 9:4-6: “Set a mark on all those who sigh and cry for the abominations that are done…  and begin at My sanctuary.” 

But God’s people can be ignorantly blind that this time of judgment is going on around them. 

“Even the stork, … dove and swallow know the appointed times of their migration, but My people know not the judgment of the Lord.” Jeremiah 8:7

“Unless we are daily advancing in the exemplification of the active Christian virtues, we shall not recognize the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the Latter Rain. It may be falling on hearts all around us, but we shall not discern or receive it.” E.G. White, Testimonies to Ministers, pg. 507.1

For over a 2000 years, Sabbath-keeping churches have contemplated how they would stand to the death for what they believe, go to prison, the dungeon or the stake. But, when it comes down to it, God is not asking for this kind of sacrifice. He is simply asking us to follow Him. He is not asking us to be burned at the stake for the Sabbath truth, but to show our love for the Sabbath by embracing His other Sabbaths. This choice is right in front of our eyes, yet we fail to see this as the judgment of God.

We are waiting for some big, loud conflagration in the political world, but by then the choice will have gone by forever. God does not want to know if we are brave enough to stand up to government powers, but, rather, do we love Him? 

God’s judgment within the Christian churches is a key that we are in the time of the end. Add to this the fact that we see all kinds of evidence that this judgment is now moving away from the Adventist church and into other churches and you can see that we are in the end stages of this part of the judgment. For judgment must first begin at the house of God, meaning, it must start with a people who have an advanced understanding of God. After this, the call from God will go out to the world as the Loud Cry.

This movement through the church and then the rest of the world is “the judgment of the living” in which each person alive needs to make their choice. It is clearly an end time event and we are deep into the middle of it. back to top
4. The vision of Daniel shows us a heavenly entity called the Four Winds of Heaven. They move over the populations of the earth and bring in a new world power. Daniel 7:2-3: “The Four Winds of Heaven were stirring up the great sea and I saw four beasts rise up from the sea.”

In today’s political arena, we see a huge upheaval as world powers are preparing to change. Yet as ominous as things appear, the full turnover has not yet happened. We can see this delay in Revelation. The winds that blow in the next kingdom are being held back for a very important reason. Revelation 7:1-3 says, “I saw the Four Winds of Heaven and they were about to blow…. But an angel cried ‘Hold the Four Winds… until My servants are sealed.’”

The Four Winds are being held until Jesus has 144,000 soldiers who are sealed into the truth and ready to stand with Him. Jesus is numbering His army in preparation for the last battle. While Jesus holds back the winds, the coming kingdom is delayed long enough for Him to train His army. Today we can see both the delay in the coming of the next kingdom, along side the work of revival that Jesus is doing in order to prepare His servants. When the elect are prepared, the winds will blow and the next world power will arise. When these two things are done, the final battle on earth will begin.

In Revelation 14:1-5 we see this army after they are sealed. “I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000….” In the very next verse the last battle begins. (Rev. 14:6 – 15:4) That battle is called by many names:

It is crucial that God has His army before the battle begins. This is why Jesus pleads with His Father to hold the Winds. Ellen White’s vision of the event shows that, even as we speak, the winds are slipping through the fingers of the angels who hold them.

     “I saw four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and were on their way to accomplish it. Jesus was clothed with priestly garments. He gazed in pity on the remnant, then raised His hands, and with a voice of deep pity cried, ‘My blood, Father, My blood, My blood, My blood!’ Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from God, who sat upon the great white throne, and was shed all about Jesus. Then I saw an angel with a commission from Jesus, swiftly flying to the four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and waving something up and down in his hand, and crying with a loud voice, ‘Hold! Hold! Hold! Hold! until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.’
     “I asked my accompanying angel the meaning of what I heard, and what the four angels were about to do. He said to me that it was God that restrained the powers, and that He gave His angels charge over things on the earth; that the four angels had power from God to hold the four winds, and that they were about to let them go; but while their hands were loosening, and the four winds were about to blow, the merciful eye of Jesus gazed on the remnant that were not sealed, and He raised His hands to the Father and pleaded with Him that He had spilled His blood for them. Then another angel was commissioned to fly swiftly to the four angels and bid them hold, until the servants of God were sealed with the seal of the living God in their foreheads.” White, Early Writings, p. 38

What is the Sealing? Ellen White tells us:

     “Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads—it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved—just as soon as God’s people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come. Indeed, it has begun already; the judgments of God are now upon the land, to give us warning, that we may know what is coming.” (Manuscript 173, 1902 and SDA Bible Commentary, Volume 4, p. 1161.6)

RIGHT NOW Jesus is sealing His army and judging the living by their choices. This is exactly where we stand today in the end-time timeline. Are you following the Lamb and being sealed? back to top
5. Daniel 2, 7, 8 and Revelation 17 also show that we are near the time of the end from the perspective of the kingdoms.

• • “Five are fallen”
  1. Babylon
  2. Medo-Persia/Ram (Dan. 8:20)
  3. Greece/Goat (Dan. 8:21)
  4. Judah/Lion (Dan. 7:4; Gen. 49:9) (read more)
  5. Rome/Bear (Dan. 7:5; 9:26; Rev. 6:4; 12:13)
  • “The sixth one is”
  6. United States/Leopard (Dan. 7:6; Rev. 6:5-6; 12:16)
  “The seventh is yet to come”
  7. 10-Horned Amalgamated Beast (Dan. 7:7)
  “The beast that was, and is not, he is the eighth, is one of the seven, and goes to perdition.”
  8. The Little Horn–the Antichrist: “And out of one of them came forth a Little Horn.” Dan. 8:9 “But he shall be broken without hand.” Dan. 8:25
  Today, Kingdom number 7 is next on our horizon and is the last earthly kingdom. Scripture says “It must continue for a short space.” In conjunction with this world order comes kingdom number 8, The Little Horn. (Dan. 7:8; 8:9-12; Matt. 24:15; Rev. 12:17) After this, God passes judgment on the Little Horn for his blasphemy and the Beast is executed speedily (Dan. 7:11). Then the “saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.” (Dan. 7:18)
  Again, this prophecy shows us right where we are in the timeline. How can these words speak directly to us now, saying, “The sixth one is?” Because God knew exactly when He would unseal Daniel and reveal these things to us! back to top
  6. I could cite my own experience as one of the evidences that the time is near. I see urgency with God. He is wasting no time to reveal all kinds of truth and to seal us into that truth. He shows me things as fast as I can take them in. I am clearly the slow factor; God is in a big hurry. Try it yourself. Ask God to show you what He would like you to know.
  One more note: I have used the term “God” loosely here. We should all understand that it is Jesus Himself, called “The Lion of the Tribe of Judah” and also called “Michael the Archangel” (meaning Chief of the Angels), who is doing all this work of bringing end-time events forward. It is Jesus, The Lion of Judah, who opens each one of the Seven Seals on the Scroll. And at each seal we find that a new kingdom comes in and a new phase of His work begins. These seals start with His First Coming (Rev. 6:2) and end with the Final Atonement just before His Second Coming (Rev. 11:15-19). [The 7 Seals are found in Rev. 5 – 11.]
  It is important for us to begin to differentiate the Father and Son and to see their unique acts and roles. God the Father—the Ancient of Days—calls to our hearts through His great love for us. Then He turns us over to the capable hands of His Son who is working out our full salvation—for the love of His Father and for the love of His people. (John 6:44) Christ’s act at the Cross was just the beginning of His work. Scripture shows that He has continued conquering.
  And if you ask, Where are we now in the timeline of the Seven Seals…? “And when He had opened the third seal” there was a black horse and the rider had a pair of balances in his hand. (Rev. 6:5-6) This is a time of judgment and plenty. A time in which God has given us the Land of the Free to promote His truth and justice. He has given His church oil and wine so that His Holy Spirit and gospel message can go throughout the world. But dark times are looming on the horizon as we see that the next two Seals contain Death followed by Hell. (These two Seals, 4 & 5, represent the 10-Horned Amalgamated Beast and the Little Horn respectively.) This means martyrs and worse—Spiritual death.
  What do we need to do NOW in our lives to prepare for what is coming? The answer is, Be sealed into truth and fill our lamps with the oil of the Holy Spirit. Learn to listen to God. We need to get our minds in the game and turn down the volume on other busy-ness in our lives.
  It is good to know where we stand in time. And it is good to continue to lift up our nation and our leaders to God in prayer. But what is most important now is our personal relationship with God. This is what will help us stand no matter what comes at us over the horizon. Jesus told Peter 3 times, “You follow Me.” We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and dig deep into His Holy Word. Don’t let the Devil stir up fear in our hearts through the media. Remember, the deception will be good enough to deceive the elect. (Matthew 24:23-24) And Jesus warned us not to go looking whenever they say, “He is in the mountains or desert.”  If we follow every media event, we expose ourselves to fear and to possible deception, when our time could have been spent more wisely focusing on Christ and developing FAITH instead of FEAR.