With tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, wars and calamities of all sorts occurring with ever greater frequency throughout the earth many people fear the end of the world may be near. Are they right? The answer may surprise you.
Wars, natural disasters, droughts, famines, and all sorts of general calamities are predicted just before the second coming of Christ. All these portents are merely a prelude to the second coming of Christ, but they are not signals of the end of the world, they are only signals of the second coming.
When Christ returns the world does not end, what does end, is the world as we know it.
Although not comprehensive here are two lists, one is what will end at the second coming of Christ the other is a list of what will begin. One thing that will become blatantly apparent as you read the lists is that the world does not end.
What will end at the second coming of Christ?
Satan’s rule of the earth and his deceiving the nations. Revelation 20:2
Democracies, monarchies, dictatorships, and all other forms of rule by men. Revelation 11:15
Sorrows, warfare, sickness, hunger, misrule, crime, hospitals, prisons, police forces, fires, accidents, disasters, and barriers of all kinds between nations. Revelation 7:17
Cities as we know them today. Revelation 16:19
Islands and mountains as we know them today. Revelation 16:20
What will begin at the second coming of Christ?
Judgment of the earth and its inhabitants. (Not the final judgment) Revelation 20:2
The physical and bodily resurrection of all the believers throughout time. Revelation 20:6
Beginning of not only Christ’s rule but the co-rule of his redeemed men and women for a period of exactly one thousand years, then eternity begins in a New Heaven and a New Earth. Revelation 20:4
Nature at rest and in perfect harmony for the first time in history. Isaiah 11:6-8, 65:12
Permanent rewards given to believers in accordance with their faithfulness. Isaiah 57:13
The full knowledge of God throughout the entire globe. Isaiah 11:9
This list does not cover the great judgments of God just before Christ’s return or things like the great battle of Armageddon. It is meant only to show that at His returning, Christ will do anything but end the world. I have never tried to scare anyone into belief in God and I don’t intend to start now.
What I would do is urge anyone to make a decision to prepare for these events and look on the good side of it. A world that comes out like it does when Christ returns is a place any sensible person would want to see and live in. That’s the bottom line, so why not be there?
Faith in Christ is the vehicle that gets you to that world and to that day. I can’t make a single person believe this, but I have committed my life to making the second coming of Christ as clear as I can to anyone who is willing to listen. The rest is up to them.
Michael Bresciani – First Published Oct 28, 2005
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