Predictions of Future Events, 2012, The Rapture, Great Tribulation

Predictions of Future Events

Lets examine the Predictions of Future Events and can I Predict my Future to know what is in store for me. Let's examine what the Bible says about the future, and what if anything can be done to alter the future.

The word 'Day' is very significant in the Scripture. It is found in various phrases

"day".........................1397 times
"that day"..................221 times
"last day(s)"..............14 times
"day of the Lord".......30 times

The word 'Day' has many meanings in Scripture

(1) The span of human life. - Gen. 5:4 “And the days of Adam ... were eight hundred years.”
(2) An indefinite time. - Existence in general: Gen. 3:14 “All the days of your life”
(3) A set time. - Gen. 25:24 “And when her days ... were fulfilled”
(4) A historic period. - Gen. 6:4 “There were giants on the earth in those days”
(5) Past time. - Psalms 18:18 “the day of my calamity”
(6) Future time. - Deut. 31:14 “Behold, the days approach when you must die”
(7) The eternal. - In Dan. 7:9, Dan. 7:13, “where God is called “the ancient of days.”
(8) A season of opportunity. - John 9:4 “We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work”
(9) Time of salvation. - Rom. 13:12 “The night is far spent, and the day is at hand.”

PREDICTION - THE DAY OF THE LORD

It is a time of Judgement, Desolation, Darkness

Isaiah 13: 9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it.

Joel 2: 1b Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the LORD is coming, for it is at hand:

Joel 2: 11b For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; Who can endure it?

The conception in the Old Testament is dark and foreboding.
The New Testament gives us elements of hope, joy and victory.
To the unbeliever, it’s a day of terror; to the believer, a day of joy.

PREDICTION - ASPECTS OF THE FUTURE

This Day in the Future - brings the Rapture

The Participants in the Rapture

1 Thess. 4: 15~17 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

1 Cor. 15: 51, 52 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed–– in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed

This Day in the Future - brings warnings and protection of God

Gen. 7:16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.

Jonah 3:4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
-Nineveh heard one prophet, not most affectionate, short monotonous sermon
-A thunderous sermon of impending doom (40days)
-No promise of pardon, no mention of repentance
-The likelihood of redemption was small and yet they did

Jonah 3:5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them

Jonah 3:10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.

Sodom & Gomorrah from Gen. 19

Gen. 18:23~32 Abraham pleaded with God down from 50 to 10

Not just sins of sexual perversions

Ezek. 16:49,50 Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.
(Compare this to society today )

This Day in the Future -is it not near ?

2 Peter 3: 3,4a knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming?

2 Tim. 3: 1~5 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self–control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

There is an end to God's patience.
God is patience and merciful, God's wheels of justice grind slowly
People hear the Gospel of salvation and do not respond, yet God waits
Consider.....His dealings with Sodom and Gomorrah, Herod Agrippa, Ahab and Jezebel.
Consider.....Ahab and Jezebel were powerful, intimidating, and wicked.
But when God stepped in they were helpless to stop His judgment.
God’s justice eventually kicks in, and there is no escaping it.
How many are speaking peace and safety, while over their heads destruction is hovering!
The Coming of Christ will be a great surprise to men and terrible to the ungodly.

This Day in the Future - brings Divine Judgement

Luke 17: 26 ~30 "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: "They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. "Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; "but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. "Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

All Normal daily activities but there was no time or thought of God

Matt. 24: 37 "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
The flood of Noah's day was the greatest divine judgement upon mankind

2 Tim. 3:1~13 But know this, that in the last days perilous (exceeding fierce) times will come...

Prediction of the kind of society which will exist when He comes back.

Wars and rumors of wars Joel 3:9,10; Matt. 24:6,7
One World Unity Rev. 13:4~8,16,17; 17:1~18; 18:1~24
Nation will rise against nation; kingdom against kingdom. Matthew 24:7
Famines and earthquakes in various places. Matthew 24:7
Materialism 2 Tim. 3:1,2; Rev. 3:14~19
Lawlessness Psalm 78:8; Prov. 30: 11~14; 2 Tim. 3:2,3
Population explosion Gen. 6:1
Increase in speed, knowledge and technology Dan. 12:4; Gen. 4:2
Increase in Demonic Activity Gen. 6:1~4; 1 Tim. 4:1~3
False claims of peace 1 Thess 5:1~3 Departure from faith 2 Thess. 2:3; 1 Tim. 4:1,3,4; 2 Tim 3:5, 4:3,4; 2 Peter 3:3,4
Universal Drug Usage Rev. 9:21
Abnormal Sexual Activities Rom. 1:17~32;2 Peter 2:10,14, 3:3; Jude 1:18
Widespread Violence Gen 6:11; Rev 9:21
Rejection of God’s Word 2 Tim. 4:3,4; 2 Peter 3:3,4,16
Blasphemy 2 Tim. 3:2 2 Peter 3:3 Jude 1:18
Self and Pleasure lovers 2 Tim. 3:2,4

1 Thess. 5:1~4 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.

2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Amos 5: 18 Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! For what good is the day of the LORD to you? It will be darkness, and not light.

This Day in the Future - The Great 7 Year Tribulation

This time follows the Rapture, for all unbelievers at the time.

Matthew 24:21 "...For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."
shaking of the universe itself, with signs in sun and moon and stars.
war, civil war, anarchy, terrorism, economic collapse .
natural disasters: earthquakes, shortages and famines, old and new plague diseases.
lawlessness, loveless selfishness, delusions, believing a lie.
false religion, apostate church, false Christianity.

Matthew 24: 29~31: "Immediately after the distress of those days " 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

This Day in the Future - has Death and Hell

Hell is future, to those who are still alive and have not given their lives to Jesus Christ 'YET'

Heb.9: 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment

Matt. 8: 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth

Luke 3: 17 gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.

Rev. 20: 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Matthew 13: 42 cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Luke 16: 24 send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

Matt: 5: 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Predictions of Future Events

2 Cor. 6:2 Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

John 8:24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."

Challenge to believers to be about the business He put us here for.

Rom. 13: 11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

Gen. 19:15 And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot Believers need to be hastened

Obedience -in coming out from the world
We must be about the business of hastening
We must be patient and repeat our pleadings
We must recognize the imminent danger
Sin of loitering when God commands to go

Challenge to unbelievers to come to Christ
Sinners need to be hastened

Sinners are:
Content & settled in Sodom of sin
Do not believe the warnings
Content with Delay . Satan’s chief way of ruin
Supreme importance of immediate decision
Some say that being good, or I have my Church, or baptism, or christening,...
But there is only one way and that is through Jesus Christ

John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.