The Apostle Paul describes the generation that will be on the stage of earth’s history during mankind’s final scenes of this cribes Our Timedispensation perhaps better than any other human author. We’ve gone over his many characteristics of end-times man in a number of commentaries. But Paul’s prophetic words about perilous times to come—except for the very few times he says are him, not God, speaking—are inspired by the One who is the Word. Jesus is the true Author of the Bible (John 1:1).
So when we read words issued straight from the Lord’s own mouth, they have special significance. No one but God knows the end from the beginning. His Word proves that again and again. So Jesus’ words on things to come are profoundly important to read and heed.
With that in mind, let’s consider Jesus’ words as juxtaposed against the issues and events of these troublous times that so often vex us, as Lot, the believer of ancient times who lived in Sodom, might have put it.
Jesus, when asked by His disciples about the signs of His Second Coming, said:
Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:10–11)
The Lord, in other places, described these signs as coming upon the earth in birth-pang-like convulsions. There would be an increase in frequency and intensity of these issues and events. It will be, He indicated, much like a woman when she is having painful contractions in the process of giving birth.
One of the key indicators for us to look at in Christ’s prophecy is the term “nation against nation.”
We’ve pointed out many times that the Greek word for “nation” in this case is ethnos. Jesus was foretelling a time when there would be a tremendous rise in ethnic conflicts. This is one of the key descriptions of our times.
We have to look no further than our own nation, the United States, to determine that we are in ethnic turmoil. And it is contrived turmoil, foisted upon us by globalists who want to move America into a one-world configuration.
The Black Lives Matter and Antifa are proven to be groups organized and funded by the likes of George Soros, a man dedicated to creating a global order.
These organizations have ginned up the ever-intensifying rage of rebellious anarchists within those who harbor racial hatred that has literally brought American cities to ruin societally, culturally, and, most assuredly, economically.
In my view, the so-called COVID pandemic continues to be used by the globalists as a bludgeon against America’s people. The powers and principalities of Ephesians 6:12 are fomenting this nation-against-nation, end-of-the-age conflict.
This brings together the terms in Jesus’ prophecy, “ethnic hatreds and pestilence.” Although COVID and its proliferating strains is a contrived pestilence, it is pestilence nonetheless. It is a precursor to the great, real pandemics that will kill millions during the Tribulation era. What we are seeing now is implementation of a control mechanism that is laying groundwork for the coming Antichrist regime to use.
Jesus, the greatest of all prophets, described precisely this racial hatred that would be prevalent just before He returns to put an end to this wicked, rebellious cabal. God’s Word warns about this evil and its fatal destiny in Psalm 2.
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. (Psalm 2:2–5)
Jesus stated further:
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring. (Luke 21:25)
Although a case can easily be made for astonishing evidence of things going on in space that have people looking into that dark vastness for answers, it is the second part of this prophecy that is profoundly relevant to this time so near the end of the Age of Grace.
Economic turmoil caused by the worldwide COVID lockdowns has the nations in distress with great and growing perplexity. Great Britain, France, Australia, and other major Western economies are experiencing conditions like those described by the Lord.
America, the nation to whose dollar most all the world is intricately linked, is but one event or occurrence away from total collapse.
Although our government and the mainstream media won’t confess this before the American people or the world that depends on the dollar, that collapse could come at any moment, it is feared by many in the know.
Some perhaps not so much in the know, in terms of economic acumen (yours truly, for example), understand in their spirits that the moment that breaks the proverbial camel’s back is about to occur.
I write, of course, about the Rapture of all believers in Jesus Christ for salvation of their souls.
Jesus’ words are recorded, finally, pointing toward that moment of removal from the Tribulation that will follow that great event.
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21: 28)