Bible Text: Matthew 24:42 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Matthew 24:42

No other generation in all history has seen so much happen in such a short period of time. In the 1860s, a French scientist predicted that man would not only toy with the atom but would split the atom itself. “When that time comes,” wrote the scientist, “God, with his long beard, will come to earth and say, `It’s time to close up shop!'” The time has come when man has not only split the atom but has demonstrated something of its power.

Before the time comes to close shop, certain things have to happen which have largely taken place in our generation.

Peter spoke of the heavens passing away with a great noise and the elements melting with fervent heat, something which people scoffed at until Enrico Fermi and his colleagues at the University of Chicago split the atom and ushered in the nuclear age. World leaders such as Winston Churchill talked about the destructive power of the atom as possibly bringing the end of the world.

Another prophecy regarding the rise of science and technology is found in the Book of Daniel, authored by the Jewish government official in the courts of Babylon who was taken there by Nebuchadnezzar when he first invaded Jerusalem. Surely Daniel had no clear understanding of what the Spirit of God was saying, but Daniel spoke of the time when knowledge would increase and men would run to and fro on the face of the earth.

Dr. Calvin Linton, a George Washington University professor, sees our era as a time of knowledge explosion unlike anything in all previous history. Here’s how it breaks down. From creation to the year 1750 the amount of knowledge doubled in the world. From 1750 to the year 1900, it doubled again. Then in 1960, it doubled again. It doubled again in just five years, and he contends that it now doubles every 3 to 5 years.

The computer has only hastened the compounding of the knowledge explosion when knowledge is rampant and wisdom is scarce. It’s a sign of the age in which we live. There are other indications that it is on God’s timetable, for example what Jesus called, “signs in the earth and the world.”

Note that one of the signs which Jesus specifically mentioned in conjunction with His coming was the increase in earthquakes (See Matthew 24:7b). Are there more earthquakes? Without question! A Harvard University seismologist says that earthquakes are up 2000% in the past 600 years! Even in our generation the number of earthquakes, including Iran, China, Peru, and even the United States have increased phenomenally!

Here’s another sign. The Bible contends that in the last days there will be a falling away from the faith and the rise of a one-world mentality. Consider the proliferation of the occult, the number of clergymen who stand in pulpits and deny the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the rise of the New Age movement which has spawned a rainbow of ideologies promising hope and help but bringing blindness and destruction.

An old farmer was too busy to take his grandfather clock to the repairman when it stopped working, so when the clock began to strike one hot summer night, he was amused and then perplexed as he counted the times the clock started to chime. One-two-three, he counted. Then twelve-thirteen-fourteen. Seventeen times the old clock chimed as the farmer shook his wife saying, “Wake up, woman, it’s later than it’s ever been before!”

Briefly, I’ve given you four remarkable signs which tell us pointedly, it’s later on the agenda of God’s timetable than you’ve probably thought. Think about it!

Resource reading: Revelation 21.