The very first Bible book written was the book of Job. There the afflicted patriarch declared his belief in Christ’s second coming and the resurrection of the righteous. He confidently said, “I know that my Redeemer lives, / and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. / And after my skin has been destroyed, / yet in my flesh I will see God” (Job 19:25, 26).
Some 500 years later, King David wrote, “Our God comes / and will not be silent; / a fire devours before him, / and around him a tempest rages” (Psalm 50:3).
About 700 BC, the prophet Isaiah gave the promise, “ ‘Your God will come, / he will come with vengeance; / with divine retribution / he will come to save you.’ / Then will the eyes of the blind be opened / and the ears of the deaf unstopped. / Then will the lame leap like a deer, / and the mute tongue shout for joy” (Isaiah 35:4–6).
The last of the Old Testament writers concluded by warning the wicked of their doom at the end of the world: “ ‘Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Malachi 4:1).
There are also many predictions indicating in which era we may expect this dramatic event to occur. More than 500 years before Christ, the prophet Daniel was told to “roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge” (Daniel 12:4). So after writing on his parchment sheet, Daniel would have rolled it up, put a string around it, tied a knot, and pressed some damp clay or hot wax onto the knot. He would then have pressed his official seal onto the clay or wax, which would soon harden, making it impossible for anyone to tamper with the scroll without breaking the seal impression.
Daniel and the time of the end
It’s not likely that Daniel would have written his whole book on one scroll. Most of the first seven chapters of Daniel were written in the Aramaic dialect. They are mostly historical, interpreting the meaning of the events that had transpired in Babylon, and Daniel may have written in Aramaic so that the Babylonians could learn of the Divine Providence associated with these dramatic events.
But the last five chapters were written in Hebrew and would have been of little value to the uninitiated Babylonians. Indeed, not even Daniel understood their significance. They were mostly events pertaining to the last days of the world, and he wrote, “I . . . lay exhausted for several days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding” (Daniel 8:27).
It is clear that Daniel’s vision was more than he could handle. His book was rolled up and sealed until the “time of the end” (Daniel 12:4). Daniel 11 gives us some idea as to when this time of the end began—it is an “appointed time” (verse 35) and, as verse 33 refers to the persecution of God’s people during the 1,260 prophetic years of Daniel 7:25, which ended in 1798, it is logical to conclude that the time of the end commenced in 1798.
It is significant that Daniel was told that when the time of the end arrived, knowledge would be increased. Up until then the Egyptian hieroglyphs, which contained a wealth of knowledge, were unintelligible to scholars; but in 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt, and in 1799, one of his officers, rebuilding a fortress at Rashid, more commonly known as Rosetta, found a stone on which was a trilingual inscription— the same record written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian demotic (the same language in a cursive script), and in Greek.
The Greek was readily understood, and by comparing it with the hieroglyphs, in 1822 Champollion was able to decipher the meaning of the hieroglyphic writing, thus unlocking a vast store of knowledge to scholars. The time of the end had arrived, and knowledge has been dramatically increasing ever since.
what to expect
The New Testament provides us with more specific information as to when the end of time could be expected. After Jesus told His stunned disciples that their beautiful temple would be demolished, they came to Him as he sat on the Mount of Olives and inquired as to when this dramatic event would take place. They thought it must be associated with the end of the world and asked, “When will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3).
Jesus didn’t see fit to disillusion them about their combining of the two great events. Verses 4–20 primarily deal with the destruction of Jerusalem. Subsequent verses focus on conditions that would precede His second coming. And they seem particularly apt in today’s world. The book of Revelation also contains prophecies of events that would immediately precede the second coming of Christ, and there is one rather unusual prophecy that I’ll render in full, which has received scant attention from Bible commentators but seems like it is being fulfilled around us.
“The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more—cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves.
“They will say, ‘The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your luxury and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.’ The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn and cry out:
“ ‘Woe! Woe, O great city,
dressed in fine linen, purple
and scarlet,
and glittering with gold,
precious stones and pearls!
In one hour such great wealth
has been brought to ruin!’
“Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, ‘Was there ever a city like this great city?’ They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out:
“ ‘Woe! Woe, O great city,
where all who had ships on
the sea
became rich through her
wealth!
In one hour she has been
brought to ruin!’ ”
(Revelation 18:11–19).
What, then, is the message from these verses?
First, the message is not referring to what people will actually be saying when they see Christ return. Greedy shopkeepers and Wall Street brokers will have more to worry about than the loss of a sale or the failure of a portfolio. Rather, they will be pleading for the mountains and rocks to “fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” (Revelation 6:16).
While it is right that we should hear much about God’s love for our lost world, we need to keep things in perspective. The book of Revelation, written by John, the apostle of love, makes only 3 references to the love of God, but at least 10 references to His wrath and, of all things, to the wrath of the Lamb! Having worked on a sheep farm, I’ve never seen an angry lamb. But here we are warned of the Lamb’s anger.
Second, note that this passage is not the apostle John himself writing about something he saw or heard. He is quoting Christ himself, so Christ’s words must be important. What I see is a prediction of a drastic recession. People don’t have the money to buy staples—flour and wheat, fruits and vegetables—let alone luxuries (see Revelation 18:13). Jobs are scarce and wages low; the world may be near starvation; poverty abounds, and not just in the third world.
No one can say that this describes our present circumstances. The world may yet recover from inflation and crushing debt. But it could also be the beginning of the end. And that end, according to the Bible, will come suddenly. “Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: / death, mourning and famine. / She will be consumed by fire, / for mighty is the Lord God who judges her” (verse 8).
But why fear this end? Whatever the future holds, salvation is ours. And now is the time to seek it. To His faithful people, God gives this promise: “They are the ones who will dwell on the heights, / whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. / Their bread will be supplied, / and water will not fail them” (Isaiah 33:16).
