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End of the Age--New Earth

by Wesley Pierce  
9/25/2011 / Bible Studies

Mat 24:3-15
3) As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"
4) Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you.
5) For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.
6) You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
7) Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
8) All these are the beginning of birth pains.

9) "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.
10) At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,
11) and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
12) Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,
13) but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
14) And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
15) "So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel--let the reader understand--

(the "abomination of desolation" is the same as the "man of lawlessness" and "Anti-Christ". See 2Ths 2:1-4 and its comment below)

Mat 24:21-33
21) For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again.
22) If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.
23) At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it.
24) For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect if that were possible.

25) See, I have told you ahead of time.
26) "So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it.
27) For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
28) Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

29) "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.'
30) "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.
31) 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.

32) "Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.
33) Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.

(entries below offer more explanation of the verses above)

2Ths 2:1-4
1) Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers,
2) not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come.
3) Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
4) He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

(the "man of lawlessness" above who will claim to be God is the same as the "lawless one" in the next entry below, commonly known as the "anti-Christ".

"That day will not come until the rebellion occurs" relates to extreme persecution of half-hearted Christians, led by the anti-Christ, causing many to "turn away from the faith and betray each other"--Mat 24:9-15 above. This will occur during the time of Great Distress, also known as the "Tribulation".

It ends with shocking signs in heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, plus the second coming of Christ to earth--see Mat 24:29-31 above, and the much-anticipated Rapture of any true Believers who make it through this period alive--vs. 31--along with those loyal Believers who had been killed during the Tribulation being raised from the dead, all to reign with Christ 1000 years--see Rev 20:4-6 below.

This entire end-time period, with its many horrible plagues sent from God onto non-believers, is graphically detailed in chapters 4-19 of Revelation, often with symbolic language)

2Ths 2:9-12
9) The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,
10) and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
11) For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie
12) and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

(an end finally comes to the period of Great Distress. But there is still one last phase to play out for planet earth in its present form...the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth after his return. He will be joined by those people who are slain for remaining true to him during the Great Distress, stated below in Rev 20:4, plus any survivors, the "Elect", as noted in Mat 24:9-13 & 22 above--their reward, no doubt, for being faithful.

Then after the thousand-year reign and the final destruction of Satan, we will all be raised to stand before the great white throne judgment of God the Father, and receive our own rewards, depending on whether we have acted on the truth of Jesus Christ, or not)

*Entry below describes this final period before heaven and earth are re-created.

Rev 20:1-15
1) And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.
2) He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
3) He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

4) I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
5) (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.
6) Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

7) When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison
8) and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth-Gog and Magog-to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore.
9) They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
10) And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

11) Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.
12) And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
13) The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.
14) Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
15) If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Rev 21:1-5
1) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
2) I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3) And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
4) He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
5) He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

(these verses clearly show all Believers there is a future life awaiting us that will make all previous suffering, whatever its form, worth enduring in the end. "No more death or mourning or crying or pain" are wonderful reasons to keep the faith until our final rest)

*The following entries show what to expect from ungodly people in the years leading up to and including the final end-of-the-age period explained above in this topic)

2Tim 3:1-5
1) But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
2) People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3) without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
4) treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God
5) having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

(a brutal description of what the "cancer of sin" will do after it has spread over the earth for thousands of years, making people more like wild animals than human beings. The question for our time is how much of this selfish, aggressive spirit are we seeing today in current society? How much more to come before God steps in? It's not only worth thinking about, it's worth much self-examination as well) see below.

Luke 17:26-30
26) "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
27) People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
28) "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
29) But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
30) "It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

(the usual daily cares and self-pleasures; not a moment's thought acknowledging God's presence in their lives)

2Pet 3:10
10) But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.



*Note: Researcher comments in parentheses added for clarification.

*To see other articles from this collection, go to categories "Christian Living" and "Prayers" within Faithwriters.com pages.

Wesley Pierce has been a student of the Bible for over 35 years, plus a student of being led and blessed, or taught and disciplined by the Lord's inner Spirit daily, as any sincere seeker experiences.

*Copyright 2011, all rights reserved

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