Forty-Forty Vision

Most of my life has been centered around Bible study. About ten years ago I came to an understanding of Scriptures that led me to believe the year 2013 would be a very bad one for the United States of America.

The potentially fateful year is forty years after the year in which were established two abominations: Abortion on demand and Child Protective Services. Both began in 1973.

Nearly fifty-million babies have been murdered in the last thirty-five years, and millions of other children have been run through the miasma of foster care (CPS).

If you don't think foster care is so bad, consider this: At least half of the felonies in this nation are committed by the less than two percent of the population that went through foster care. These kids were shunted from house to house until they felt unwanted and turned bitterly angry.

In the Bible, the number forty is often associated with judgment and punishment. Jesus wept over the impending demise of Jerusalem in 30 A.D. Forty years later the city was destroyed by the Romans.

The Israelites in Canaan worshiped idols and were punished by Philistine oppression for forty years (Judges 13:1). The number of lashes for a convicted man were limited to a maximum of forty (Deuteronomy 25:3).

The Israelites were punished forty years of wandering in the wilderness for disbelieving and disobeying God. Often, there is a forty-year grace period before judgment falls.

Now for the good news.

Even if it God's intention to bring judgment on the USA for this nation's wickedness, He could relent, as He did for the repentant Ninevites after the prophet Jonah preached to them.

God promises in 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land."

Jesus promised in Matthew 24:22: "If those days (of end-time tribulation) had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of (Christian believers) those days will be shortened."

Christians everywhere should pray according to both of these promises, if we want to see the life of our nation sustained beyond the next five years, and if we want the coming time of great tribulation to be shortened.

Pray hard and believe, and there's no reason for fear or anxiety.

Ready for Christ's Return

An excerpt from David Heeren's book, The Sign of His Coming, Pages 1-3:

A few days before His death, Jesus said He would come to earth a second time. His disciples asked Him, "What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" (Matt. 24:3, NIV). The Greek word translated age in the NIV and world in the KJV was aion. The end of this eon refers to the end of time or the end of the world.

It must have surprised them when the Lord answered their simple question with a sermon. It wasn't a one-point sermon, which would have satisfied their request for a sign. It was a sermon in which Jesus mentioned sixteen things that would be going on in the world just before His return. It was a sermon that would occupy two full chapters of Matthew's Gospel and a single chapter in each of the Gospels of Mark and Luke.

The disciples wanted a sign. Jesus gave them much more. He spoke about these things:

• False messiahs (Matt. 24:4, 24)
• Wars and rumors of war (Matt. 24:5)
• Famines (Matt. 24:7)
• Earthquakes (Matt. 24:7, 29)
• Persecution of saints, great distress (Matt. 24:9, 21)
• Apostasy and betrayal (Matt. 24:10)
• False prophets (Matt. 24:11)
• Increase of wickedness, decrease of love (Matt. 24:12)
• Gospel preached worldwide (Matt. 24:14)
• The mysterious abomination of desolation (Matt. 24:15)
• Fearful events and great signs from heaven (Luke 21:11)
• Roaring and tossing of the sea (Luke 21:25)
• Darkened sun and moon (Matt. 24:29)
• People terrified, "for the heavenly bodies will be shaken" (Luke 21:26)
• Falling stars (Matt. 24:29)
• A sign in the sky (Matt. 24:30)

Jesus mentioned the first fifteen things on this list without using the word sign. By referring to the sixteenth as the sign of the Son of man, He seemed to be singling it out as the specific answer to the disciples' request for such a sign. It was as if He were saying, "Look for all of these things, but especially the sign in the sky, because that one will be the clincher."

Jesus went on to say much more. What He said next was so important that, not only did the disciples record it for their own reference, but, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they wrote it down in three books of the Bible for ours: He wants us to be prepared and watchful (Matt. 24:42-44, Mark 13:35, Luke 21:36).

Prepared for what? If we are living in what the Bible calls the time of the end, as it seems we may be, we should expect suffering to result from events Jesus prophesied -- persecutions, wars, famines, and natural disasters.

Watchful for what? Jesus told us to lift up our heads and look skyward for the most conclusive sign of His coming and our deliverance (Luke 21:28). Five of the final six things on the list above refer to visible happenings in the heavens, and He directed our attention to the last of these five.

What celestial sign should we be looking for?

And what should we do after spotting it?