Read the startling TRUTH regarding an event that will soon startle this world!
THE visible bodily return of Jesus Christ is not a mere theological "idea." It is a FACT soon to be revealed — an absolute NECESSITY for a world on the verge of human annihilation.
Why God Is Concerned
To Arnold J. Toynbee, the historian of civilizations, the unleashing of atomic energy raises the basic question of man's survival in our time. He says: "Since 1949, when Russia, too, got the bomb, it has become possible for the human race to destroy itself. If we are able to survive, we are going to live in danger from here on."
As reported in a survey of twenty eminent historians in Look Magazine, Professor Samuel Elliott Morrison concluded: "We have got to get used to living without solutions. We have to get wed to living in crisis after crisis, hoping for the best, but expecting the worst."
It is high time you learned why God is concerned with humanity's threat of self-extinction.
Stop and think!
Would the very Creator of heaven and earth allow man to completely destroy this world as we know it — to defeat the great PURPOSE He is working out here below, a purpose of which most men are in total ignorance?
A Religious Theory?
The educated of this world have come to regard the prophecy of the second coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, as a myth or superstitious idea held by a few ignorant folk. They smile knowingly at one another whenever the subject is mentioned.
Very few modern ministers ever speak about Jesus' return. Most of those who do preach on this subject often bring discredit on themselves and their messages by making startling statements to frighten people, or by setting exact dates for certain events for which they have no Biblical basis whatever. Their particular exposition of this subject is so obviously in error that the educated listener usually winds up disbelieving the entire doctrine.
It has come to the place that most so-called "Christian" churches in our time no longer teach their members about the hundreds of passages in the Bible which speak of the second coming of Jesus Christ to rule this world. Most of the larger denominations do not directly deny this doctrine, they just carefully avoid mentioning it, or else they try to "allegorize it away."
Is the "sure word of prophecy" which Peter speaks of to be relied upon as a fact — or can we relegate these prophecies to the rubbish heap as of no consequence? Are these prophecies actually taking place right now? Does the continuance of human life on this planet demand the intervention of God which the prophecies in His Word foretell? Is God's intervention a logical solution to mounting world chaos?
A Startling Historical Admission
The renowned historian, Edward Gibbon, in the fifteenth chapter of his authoritative The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — recognized as a standard work on this period of history — admits that the doctrine of Christ's second coming to earth was taught as a FACT by the early Christian church. He states: "The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. As the works of the creation had been finished in six days, their duration in their present state according to a tradition which was attributed to the Prophet Elijah was fixed to 6000 years. By the same analogy it was inferred that this long period of labor and contention which was now almost elapsed, would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with a triumphant band of the saints and the elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon earth till the time appointed for the last and general resurrection . . . The assurance of such a Millennium was carefully inculcated by a succession of fathers from Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, who conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, down to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine . . . But when the edifice of the church was almost completed, the temporary support was laid aside. The doctrine of Christ's reign upon earth was at first treated as a profound allegory, was considered by degrees as a doubtful and useless opinion, and was at length rejected as the absurd invention of heresy and fanaticism."
NOTICE!
Here are the words of the recognized "authority" on the history of this time. As a historian — not a theologian — he states that the early church taught the doctrine of the second coming of Christ as a FACT — but that it was later gradually rejected or in many cases treated as a "profound allegory!"
Modern theologians have clearly DEPARTED from teaching the people about a REAL. God who can and soon will intervene in world affairs!
Recent world events are beginning to FORCE thinking men to admit that things are "different" now. For if there is a real God in heaven then, NOW is the time for that God to intervene and send His Son Christ back to literally "save" this world from destroying itself!
President John F. Kennedy admitted in his inaugural address: "The world is VERY DIFFERENT now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to ABOLISH all forms of human poverty and ALL FORMS OF HUMAN LIFE" [emphasis ours].
We have reached a turning point in human history where we had better stop and ask ourselves — not what men say — but what are the DIRECT WORDS OF GOD on the subject of Divine intervention in human affairs?
Jesus Christ's Direct Statements
When Jesus Christ was here on earth, His disciples asked Him to describe the signs that should precede His second coming and the end of this world — or age. Study His answer in Matthew 24. In verse 21, He foretold a terrible time of trouble "such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."
Most people who read this prophecy say, "Yes, but there have always been wars and troubles in the world — so how do we know what to go by?"
The answer is contained in the very next verse of this momentous prophecy. It reveals that a time is coming when God will INTERVENE in world affairs and shorten the course of events in this age! He will do this as a Loving Creator to prevent HUMAN ANNIHILATION.
"And except those days should be shortened, there should NO FLESH be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Verse 22).
Here are definite statements in your Bible in which Christ predicted a time of trouble at the end of this age to which no other can be compared — a time when God MUST INTERVENE in world affairs to prevent man from blasting himself into oblivion with hydrogen bombs and rockets.
Could this prophecy refer to any other time than the present and the immediate future? Has man EVER — at any time — had the means to completely obliterate human life so that "no flesh" would be saved alive on this earth?
The Apostle Paul was also inspired to describe the condition of humanity of this end time. In II Timothy 3:1-4, he says that "perilous times shall come," and predicts that at this time men would be traitors, truce-breakers, greedy, coveting the wealth and territories of each other. This condition would not get better but worse, for Paul said: "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived" (Verse 13).
In spite of all our "peace" conferences and high ideals, the lust and greed of carnal men is expressing itself in worse and WORSE depredations against what peaceful society still remains.
Men Reject the Truth
Yet, even though most men can see the "handwriting on the wall" and know that this world is perhaps plotting its own doom, they scoff at the idea that the Creator God should intervene in human affairs. Peter wrote: "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoff err, 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" (II Pet. 3:3-4).
Peter says these men are willingly ignorant of the fact that God has ALREADY intervened once in this world's affairs to send a flood to destroy a corrupt and violent civilization of another day (Verses 5-6). How true this is! In our day above all others, countless scientific findings in the fields of geology and archaeology point conclusively to the absolute reality of the flood of Noah. But carnal men use every clever device and artifice possible to hide their eyes with this FACT.
Contrary to what these "scientific" scoffers think, all things have NOT continued as they once were. Man's basic lust and selfishness is the same — only perhaps a little worse. But the physical means of expressing that lust in war and conquest have radically CHANGED!