Prophecies and the Lord’s Return

Preacher:
Date: June 4, 2015

Bible Text: Revelation 22:7 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book. Revelation 22:7

H. L. Mencken, the British writer, whom no one could accuse of being a theologian or a preacher, wrote, “…the New Testament offers precise and elaborate specifications of the events preceding the inevitable end of the world, and a fair reading of them must lead any rational man to conclude that the events are now upon us.”

Shortly before his death, the Yale University historian and former president of the American Historical Society, Kenneth Scott Latourette, wrote, “I believe that our Lord may return at any time and bring this present stage of history to an end. That may well come between now and the year A.D. 2000!” Latourette missed the date, but there’s one thing for sure: The twentieth century brought more changes, faster, than any century in all history. Go back to the year 1900, when there were no radios, no automobiles, no television sets, no satellite dishes, no communication networks spanning the world, and compare it with the world in which you are living.

The manner in which armed conflicts are now fought is such a contrast to the way it was done in World War 2. My wife’s uncle was aboard the U.S.S. Denver, which fought in the battle of Leyte that preceded MacArthur’s landing in the Philippines, but read the history and you will learn that the Japanese fleet played cat and mouse with the Americans, who couldn’t locate the enemy hiding in the fog, only a few miles away. Contrast that with the electronic warfare fought today with lasers and missiles guided by television cameras producing a scenario which looks like something out of a movie a few years ago.

Even going beyond the turn of the century to my lifetime, which began in 1937, we have seen four remarkable events which were necessary to set the stage for the return of Jesus Christ. Actually, these four events have come together in one generation, which makes our day one of the most exciting periods of all history in which to be alive.

And what are those four major events fulfilling prophecies that were given hundreds of years ago? Let me give them to you and then as time allows, I’ll begin to develop them. They are (1) The establishment of the modern state of Israel. (2) The rise of science and technology, (3) Remarkable signs in the heavens and the earth, and (4) Religious apostasy and the rise of a one-world philosophy which supercedes governments, religions, and ideologies.

Now, let me put some meat on the skeleton which I just gave to you. Consider the birth of the modern state of Israel. Long ago, Isaiah wrote that God would set His hand and would gather the remnants of Israel from the four corners of the world and bring them into the land He had given to Abraham. You’ll find that in Isaiah 11:11.

In my possession is an old book whose intrinsic value is not very great. It cost $2.00 when it was new in 1940. Written by Dr. Harry Rimmer, entitled Palestine–The Coming Storm Center, Dr. Rimmer told how the Bible foretold the establishment of the modern state of Israel, and he predicted the future with great accuracy, all based on what the Bible says.

A skeptic who had owned the book before it fell into my hands didn’t believe any of this and in the flyleaf of the book had written comments such as, “Monstrous reasoning; dogmatic, contradictory, silly reasoning.” But eight years later, what Rimmer predicted took place with 100% accuracy.

On May 14, 1948, the modern state of Israel was established. Now, it’s all history!

Resource reading: Isaiah 11:1-11.