The End of the World??

Due to all the drama happening around the world there has been a lot of talk about Matthew 24.  I hadn’t read it in a while so had a look through and thought it was important to post it here so that those who haven’t had a look can see for themselves (NIV translation).

⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Notice in verse 6 it says ‘but see to it that you are not alarmed.  Such things must happen, but the end is still to come’.  These things have been happening and will continue to happen, the end is yet to come. 

⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

you could argue that that is happening now…but I reckon it’s going to be a lot worse than things are now.

¹⁵ “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’^[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. ¹⁸ Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. ¹⁹ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ²⁰ Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great distress, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equalled again.

It continues, but I’ll leave it there.  After reading that I was a lot less alarmed, and will remain that way until ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ is seen standing in the holy place…er…whatever that means, but that sounds pretty specific.