The Certainty of Jesus_ Return _ Doug Batchelor

Ah ah ah aa, and.

Hello friends, and welcome to Prophecy Countdown. We are delighted

that you are joining us across the country.

And around the world.

We also want to give a special greeting to those

of you here in the Fort Worth area. Thank you

for coming out tonight and joining us. My name is

Jean Ross and we are delighted that you are here.

Over the next few nights, together we're going to be

looking at some of the most important and fascinating prophecies

in the Bible. You will be blessed. Now, we have

some important announcements that I need to bring to your attention,

and the first is that we do have a free

offer one of Amazing Facts's magazines called The Day of

the Lord, talking about the Second Coming of Christ, and

this is a free download. If you'd like to receive

a copy of the magazine, all you need to do

is text the word Secret twenty five to the number

four zero five four four, or if you see on

your screen a QR code, you can just scan that

QR code and you'll be able to get a free

download of the book The Day of the Lord. You

want to read it and then share it with somebody

else well. In addition to the magazine, which of course

is for free, we also have a series of lessons.

Those of you who are hearing person you already have

your lesson, so you're ready for tonight's presentation. For our

friends who are watching, you can download a copy of

the lesson at the website. It's Prophecycountdown dot TV. Notice

the dot TV part, not dot com but Prophecycountdown dot

TV and you'll be able to download.

The lesson so you'll be able to follow along with us.

You can also scan the QR code that you see

on your screen. Now, for those of you are watching

not only in North America but around the world, we

are translating this live into fifteen languages. If you'd like

to see what Pastor Doug sounds like with the help

of AI preaching in Hindi, you can do so. Just

go to the website Prophecycountdown dot tv and there is

a link and you'll see all fifteen languages listed. You

can click on that and I think there's just a

few second delay, but then you'll be able to get

it in whatever language you choose. So for those who

are watching, take advantage of that now friends, We've got

a theme song that we like to sing from night

to night, and I'd like to invite our song leaders

to come out.

We have Jackie Jewel at the piano.

We have Vanessa and Ryan and they're going to be

leading us in our theme song. Let's stand and sing.

The words will be on the screen, and friends, I

hope you join us back at home or wherever you are.

Here's the lords.

Let's sing the song together.

Beautiful beautiful Jesus says, beautiful Jesus page, Beautiful things are

by carefully careful causaying my eyes just see Jesus faces

beautiful things by Let's sing it again.

Beautiful beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Esus says beautiful she us space beautiful things.

By careful.

Touching mecuzing bye. Nice to see cheesus strange beautiful things

of lands.

Next book.

Turn your eyes much cheese.

Us look falling. It is widerful face and on mez

Will grows strap.

Cheese of his lorry.

And let's think that are gonna turn your eyes.

Your cheesus.

What in.

No amen, you may be seated.

You all sound really good, Thank you, and I hope

those of you at home was singing along with us.

You may be seated well. Of course, whenever you study

the Word of God, you need to begin with prayer.

The Bible is God's book.

We need the Holy Spirit to guide us and help

us understand what the teachings of scripture are. So we're

going to ask you just to bow your heads as

Pastor Adam is going to have an opening prayer, and friends,

join us in prayer wherever you are, ask that the

Lord will bless in these meetings.

Let us pray together, Heavenly Father, we are so grateful

to be gathered not only here in this room, but

around the world. We are grateful for the opportunity and

the privilege to start this time together, inviting you into

this place, inviting you into our hearts, into our minds,

and asking that we will understand clearly the truths that

we're being presented this evening. We thank you so much

that your word tells us when we lift up Jesus

your Son, you will draw all men unto yourself.

Lord.

That's what we're doing this evening. We invite you here,

Thank you so much for being with us. You're welcome

here anytime.

In Jesus's name, Amen, Amen, all right, Well have you

been blessed with the music so far? You know, we've

been blessed just in the rehearsal and the sound checks,

and we are just delighted to have such a great

talented group of musicians.

Let me introduce Jackie.

Julie's at the piano and you heard a little bit earlier,

and she has worked with amazing facts on a number

of these propheties seminars. I don't know you were in

New York class year as well when we did this meeting,

so it's just a delight to have her at the piano.

And then we have Vanessa and she will be bringing

us a song entitled suit.

Soon and very soon.

My king is coming, robbed in righteousness and crown with love.

When I see him, I show me made like him.

Soon and very soon, soon and very soon, I'll be

going to the place he has prepared for me.

They're my sinney raised my shame for gotton. Soon and

very soon.

I will be.

With the worm I love with a bilt face.

Saucy, They're my soul will be sadist fine soon.

And very soon, soon and very soon see the process

the angels and the anders round the throne at his

feet on len my crown my worship.

Soon and bay soon I will be with the one

I love. We built based ass.

And my soul will be sadist fast soon and by soon.

I have not seen him. My heart knows him well,

Jesus Christ, on the board of him.

I will be.

With the one I love, with the live pas saucy

him there.

My soul.

Will be sidis.

Fast soon.

Soon soon, non ver reason.

Soon soon, ay man, Thank you Vanessa beautiful. That's what

it's all about, right, Jesus is coming soon and that's

good news. Well, not only do we want to study

the Word of God, we also want to take time

to answer your Bible questions. It's kind of a fun

part of the program. We're going to take your questions. Now,

how do you post a Bible question? It's easy for

those of you are here and also our friends who

are watching. We're going to put a QR code up

on the screen. Pull out your phone. Seems like everything's

QR code nowadays. Right, pull out your phone. You just

scan the QR code and it'll open up an app

and you can type your question right in the app. Now,

the interesting thing is you get to see all the

other questions that people are asking, and you can vote

on the questions and they kind of move up and

down on the list, and we're going to try and

answer as many of these questions as possible. Sometimes we

group the questions in different categories, but take advantage of that.

Right.

You'll see the QR code up on the screen. I'll

probably put it back in a few moments. You can

scan that and also for our friends who are watching,

you can do this at home or wherever you are.

Just scan that QR code and you can type in

your question. Well, it is such a joy to be

to be here this evening in the Fort Worth area,

and it there's a joint to have passed the dog

to lead us in our study of God's word. I've

been working with passa Dub for about twenty years at

Amazing Facts and we have time together on a radio

program called Bible Answers Live where we take live questions

on the radio.

Will pass the Doug. It is a joy to be

hitting Texas.

Amen, looking forward to this series. Friends.

Good evening, so good, Thank you so much for coming out,

and you put on your seat belt.

Thank you.

We're going to I think we're gonna have a real adventure.

Especially this program at this time in history is going

to be extremely relevant.

We'll pass it up before you get into the questions,

and we have some great questions for this evening. Tell

us a little bit about Amazing Facts and we know,

of course we've been working here, but what is the

history of Amazing Facts? What's the focus?

Yeah?

I think Pastor Ross mentioned that this year is the

sixtieth year since the founding of Amazing Facts, and we

just praise the Lord. It is a ministry that started

with an amazing fact from science, History, Nature, and then

it was followed by a fifteen minute spiritual connection program

radio program, and then it went from radio into television

and then Bible lessons and then public evangelists of Vandealism training,

missionary training, and now we're on national program. How many

of you have seen some of the Amazing Facts TV programs.

Let me see your hands on TV O praise the Lord.

See we're getting out there. So we've been doing this

by faith. We're completely supported by people who view for

sixty years now, and so it's just a wonderful privilege

to be able to travel around and share the good news.

We'll pass it.

We've got some questions now, to be honest, because this

is night number one, we haven't really gotten any questions

that's coming from you folks, so watching with those who

are here, so we sort of primed the pump little bit.

But we asking questions that usually get asked opening night

of a Bible prophecy seminar. All right, so passed the time. Actually,

some of these questions are bolso coming from our radio program,

so that's where we get them from.

Passed that question number one.

What can we expect from attending these series of Bible studies, Well,

to be blessed.

There is a special blessing that God promises in Revelation

chapter one on those who read here and do the

things contained in prophecy. There is a transformational power in

the Word of God. Almost thirty percent of the Bible

is prophecy, and the Lord wants us to know what's coming.

And so I think you can just expect to have

a real blessing as a result of this.

Well, talking about that, how does studying Bible prophecy in

particular strengthen our faith and our Christian experience?

Yeah, Well, if one thing it'll strengthen your faith in

the Word of God, because and this is what happened

with me. I was pretty much raised an eighth and

I thought the Bible was a fairy tale. But when

I saw clearly that there were prophecies in the Bible

that we know, you know, we know the Dead Sea skulls.

You can date them.

They were written before Christ. And there's prophecies that were

written hundreds of years before the event, and they are

so specifically fulfilled, especially many of the prophecies about Jesus,

that you realize, how can anyone know the future? In

order for God to know the future, there's something supernatural

happening there. And this is a book that has been

supernaturally preserved. It has remained on the bestseller list since

it's been in existence, and it's because it stood.

The test of time.

And we'll be talking about some of those prophecies that

I think will strengthen your faith. You know, Jesus said

without faith, it's impossible to please God. Faith Romans, chapter

ten seventeen. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word

of God, And especially as you study the prophecies, you'll

be looking at like thirty percent of the prophecies in

the Bible.

All right, we'll take some time later on and pass it.

I will probably talk about the significance of certain symbols

in Bible prophecy. But the next question is to do

with that. How do we determine whether a prophecy in

scripture needs to be interpreted literally or symbolically.

Yeah, by the context.

For one thing, there are several books in the Bible

that we know are written with Well, you got to

Revelation seventeen. You've got a woman sitting on a beast

with seven heads and ten horns. That's usually not what

you see crossing the road here in Texas. So obviously

that's a symbol. There's symbolism there, and all those symbols

have very real meanings. The neat thing about prophecy is

God tells us in the prophecies.

What the symbols mean.

Like in Revelation chapter four talks about a lamb or

what is the lamb? John the Baptist pointed to Jesus, said,

behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin

of the world. Revelation talks about a dragon. These are

the two great opposing forces. Who is a dragon Revelation

twelve makes it really clear the dragon, that old.

Serpent, the devil in Satan? How can you mix that up?

So the meaning for the symbols are given often by

the angels that give the prophecies.

All right, So we've got to let the Bible interpret itself.

We don't just guess as to what these symbols are.

Another important question, why does God use symbols in prophecy,

for example Dani in Revelation. Why didn't just tell us

what he wants us to know?

Well, a few reasons.

One thing, you know, Jesus often taught in parables. We're

visual creatures, and when we see something on our mental screen,

it's a lot easier to remember it, So that's one reason.

Another reason is some of the prophetic books, like daniel

Gil Revelation, they are written while the writers are living

in captivity to enemy countries that did not leave. In

the God of Israel and some of the prophecies talked

about the overthrow, and Daniel's prophecies he talks about the

fall of Babylon and Epykinizar did not like that very much,

so partly to protect the books, God gave some of

it in secret code, but his people can decipher that

with the symbols that are given.

You know, it's kind of issuing pathodic some of the

entities actually spoken of in Bible prophecy because of the symbols,

they didn't really understand the message of the book, and

they ended up preserving the book to some degree. So

these truths sort of hidden in symbols helps to preserve

the Word of God.

Yeah, even some of the prophecies, like Daniel said, the

meaning of this will be understood later in time, which

it has man all.

Right, talking about prophecy, then I like this question, which

Old Testament prophecy gives us the most powerful evidence that

Jesus was the Messiah?

Well, that would be kind of a subjective question. You're

asking me, what do I think? I think most people

would agree that when you look at Isaiah fifty three,

the prophecy about the coming suffering servant talking about Jesus,

and you look at that description that's written seven hundred

years before Jesus was born, describing his sacrifice is suffering.

That's extremely vivid and hard to misunderstand. And I might

mention at this point that I come from a Jewish background,

we were now practicing Orthodox Jews.

My mother's Jewish.

But my Jewish friends, if they read Isaiah fifty three

and they look at the life and sufferings of Jesus,

they're going to go this was written before. The other

one is Psalm twenty two. Well, you know, last words

of Jesus on the cross, My God, my God, why

have you forsaken me?

That's the first verse in Psalm twenty two.

Read down in that Psalm, it says, they cast lots

from my clothing. They pierced my hands and my feet,

dogs have encompassed me. It's describing the scenes of the cross.

And I think when Jesus said that, that's one reason

the thief on the cross next to Jesus suddenly had

an epiphany and realized that Jesus was the Messiah. So

there's a lot of prophecies that are really clear. They

got prophecies in the Old Testament. They talk about what

town he would be bought in, born in, that he

would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, and that he'd

be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. I mean, very

specific prophecies we know were written before the event. The

Bible is a supernatural book. And that's good news because

if God knows the future, he's got a plan for

your life.

Amen, we'll pass it out.

Give us a taste of a prophecy found in the

first book of the Bible, and a prophecy that we're

going to talk about later in the last book. But

where is this first prophecy found in scripture?

And what is it?

You know, the third chapter of Genesis, it talks about

a woman, a serpent, and the seed or the child

of the woman. And then you get to Revelation, it

talks about a woman and a serpent and the child

or the seed the woman, this promised child. And so

the first prophecy is Genesis chapter three, verse fifteen. Will

that you look those up and read them later. But

it's interesting. The first three chapters talk about how the

Tree of life and Paradise is lost because of sin.

Then between Genesis chapter three and the last three chapters

of Revelation, it tells how the serpent is destroyed. Jesus reigns,

we can eat from the tree of life again. Sin

is gone forever. So the Bible is a story book

about how to get back to the garden. It's just

a wonderful book is in those prophecies.

Amen.

All right.

Another questions, why does the Bible say that Elijah the

prophet has to come first before the second coming of Christ.

Yeah, that's something you might call a dual prophecy. And

this is found in Malachi chapter four. It says, remember

I think this is verse four. Remember the law of Moses,

my servant, which I get to all Israel with its

statutes and judgments. Behold, I send you Elijah the Prophet

before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. So

that's before the day of the Lord is a term

for the coming of the Lord, the great judgment day.

I'll send you Elijah the Prophet. If you read in

Matthew eleven, Jesus said it first, John the Baptist comes

in the spirit and the power of Elijah to prepare

for the first coming of Jesus. He wasn't a resurrection

of Elijah. The Angel told John's father he will come

in the spirit and power of Elijah. So John the

Baptist is a partial fulfillment. But there is going to

be a spiritual movement of John the Baptist in the

last days to prepare the world for the second Coming

of Jesus, and I think we're on the cusp of

that right now.

Pass it a revelation twenty talks about a thousand years,

and the question is, how do we understand that? Are

these literal years symbolicures?

Is it just spiritual?

We believe that it's a literal thousand year period. I'll

say a little more about that in the presentation tonight.

But there's a principle that you often use in Biblical

time prophecies where a day is a year. For example,

in Luke, I think it's chapter thirteen, they came to

Jesus and they said, Herod has killed John the Baptist.

You better watch out. You could be next. I'm paraphrasing.

Jesus said, go tell that fox that I teach in,

do cures and cast out devils today and tomorrow, and

the third day I will be perfected or completed. Well,

Jesus was talking about his ministry. He did not preach

three more days. He preached three more years. It was

a prophecy, christ Mate, and you can also find many

examples in the Bible where a day is a year, but.

With the millennium.

Millennium begins with eternity. They're righteous for getting their glorified bodies.

God doesn't need to use the day year principle anymore

because it's a real thousand years, and a day with

the Lord is like a thousand year.

I'll say more about that tonight.

All right, passa time for one quick question here.

This is a question we get on our radio program

usually in the beginning of the year when people start

reading the Bible, and so it's a fairly common question.

Who did Cain marry?

You ever wondered that before?

Says, Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel.

And then you know, Cain killed his brother Abel and

he was separated from his family. He says, Cain took

his wife, and you go, WHOA, where'd she come from?

And there's all kinds of crazy theories I've heard about that,

But the simple answer is Adam and Eve also had

sons and daughters. You can read in Genesis five Cain

took one of his sisters. I know that sounds really

icky right now, but back in Bible times, when man

came from his creator, there were no genetic problems.

Adam married his sister. I mean they have the same

mother and father.

You might say, well, not mother, you know what I'm

saying anyway, that I mean she came from his rib

That's really strange.

Right, So there was nothing.

Wrong Back then Abraham married his cousin or his half

sister Isaac. I'm sorry Jacob married his first cousin. It

wasn't until the time of Moses. He said, you know,

you better not married too close to the family tree.

Caane married his sister.

All right, Well, I'm going to ask how media people

to put up that QR code on the screen one

more time. Now, this is our first night of questions.

We're going to do this again tomorrow. Thank you, passing Doug.

So take your phone, scan that QR code and then

you can type in your question and we're going to

try and answer as many of those questions as possible.

Then you see it it's up on the screen. Those

of you at home, you probably can see it. It

does work. You can scan your television screen and you

can actually type in your questions. It's easy to do,

and we'll try and answer as many as possible. At

this time, I'd like to invite Pastor Ryan Johnson out

and he will bring us beautiful musical item.

Great is thy.

Faithfulness, greaties, thy faithfulness, all God life.

Very is notion.

Dove turn.

The thou changest, not thy compassions.

They fail not.

As thou hast made thou for.

Will be.

Oh great.

Thy faithfulness all God my forther.

No shean.

Turn in.

With the.

Oou changes, not thy compations.

They fail.

As thy usband Thou.

For will be.

Grady my faithfulness, brading thy faithfulness orening.

By bardening neuercyes I see.

All I have me.

Thy hand has prova. Great is thy faithfulness, nor to summer, winter,

spring time and.

Halives, sun, moonland stars in their coursees bo join with

forture in manifold winness.

To thy grand faithfulness, mercy, Oh great thy faithfulness.

Try it is my faithfulness boring.

Of bading neuercy tri see oh I have me, thy

hand has provida, great is thy faith fudness.

Lord to me.

Greaties thy faithfuldness.

Lord to mean.

Tonight's lesson is an important one, talking about the second

coming of Christ, entitled the Certainty of Jesus's Return. For

our friends who are here, I hope you have your

lessons you can follow along also those of you who

are watching you can go to the website Prophecycountdown dot

tv and you can download the lesson. I'm just so

excited to have passa dug with us sharing the word

of God.

Let's give him a warm welcome this evening.

Thank you pastor us, but thank you so much for

our friends here. Want to welcome all of you who

might be visiting this location here in Crawley, Texas. This

is on the outskirts of Fort Worth and we're broadcasting

live on satellite. I want to thank our friends on

three ABN for carrying this program. Good News Television AFTV

and now these days everything goes out via Facebook YouTube

and it is just a marvel to me. I want

to begin by sending regards from missus Bachelor. She wishes

she was here, and she may still be here before

the program's over. But we just got done with a

trip through South Asia for five weeks Australia, Vanawatu, Malaysia,

Indonesia and fifteen airplanes in about five weeks and nine hotels,

and she said, I'm going to take a nap so

and do laundry. So we may be seeing Missus Bachelor soon.

But I want to send my love and greetings to Karen,

and again, thank you so much for coming.

I feel a little bit at home.

I don't know if you know, but I've been doing

these evangelistic programs for about forty five years now, and

my first series was in Texas. I don't know if

there's anyone here that knows where Dickens, Texas is outside

of Lubbock. A little town, no stop sign. You've heard

of a one horse town. This horse didn't have a saddle.

It's just littletown. That was my first evangelistic meeting. And

I've pastored in Santa Ana Coleman, worked as an associate

in Alvato, and so it's like coming home from me

a little bit to be here with.

You in Texas.

And I can switch between New York, California and Texas.

If you don't understand me in one language, I'll switch over.

The amazing thing about this program is, as I speak,

it's being translated right now into fourteen or fifteen different languages.

I tell you, friends, the world is really changing very

quickly right now. And for anyone that wants to know,

if you go to Prophecycountdown dot TV right on the

top right, there's a place that says a language. You

can click the language that you want, and you may

have a friend and say, hey, you need to see

this program, and their English is a second language, they

might enjoy it with the AI translation. AI translation is

not perfect, so I don't want to be held accountable

for all that it might say. But it's ninety nine

percent accurate and getting better all the time. So we

are going to be going through a series of lessons

dealing with Bible prophecies and talking about the times in

which we're living. And I do it the same way

I always do. I like to have a lesson, so

you have something written. I find the best way for

people to remember things is that you read it, you

hear it, you see it, and I hope you take

your lessons and you share it and then you'll remember it.

And so I sort of use a question answer format.

And how many of you have seen one of our seminars,

like going back to ninety nine from New York.

City in the past.

You're going to hear some of the same questions and

the same answers, and you'll have to take that up

with the Lord because the scriptures haven't changed. And I

find this is the best framework for me to make

sure that I cover certain topics. Now I don't have

my messages written out, and it may change a little

bit based on what's happening in the world and the

headlines and what I have for breakfast. But you're going

to be covering the main themes of Bible prophecy. We're

going to be talking about the second Coming of Jesus tonight,

or to talk about the big question why is there

evil in the world? The most amazing prophecies in the Bible.

We're going to be talking about things like the beasts,

the Antichrist, angels, Armageddon.

I mean, we're going to cover all the.

Mountain peaks of Bible prophecy. But I'll tell you right now,

knowing the answer to all these things is not going

to save anyone. The central theme of prophecy is a

personal relationship with Jesus. It's his book first Words and revelation,

the revelation of It's not the Antichrist and the Beast,

the revelation of Jesus Christ. He is the central character

of all scripture. And so if you forget anything that

you learn during this seminar, I hope the primary thing

is that you are drawn closer to Jesus. Prophecy is

something the Lord.

Put in his word. He wants us to teach it

and preach it, and that's why we do what we do.

Tonight's lesson is very important. We're going to be talking

about the certainty of Jesus' return, and I thought i'd

begin with a little amazing fact.

You know, I remember where I was.

You may remember where you were when you got news

of this terrible tsunami that hit there around Thailand and Indonesia.

Devastating nine point one earthquake under the ocean floor created

tsunamis that affected fifteen countries. Approximately two hundred and twenty

five to two hundred and thirty thousand people died. The

sad thing is that many of them could have been

saved if they had heated some simple warnings. There were

signs for one thing. After the earthquake, The waters on

many shores went out, and people that lived locally knew

what that meant. The fishermen went up and down the

beaches in some of these coastal regions and they told

the people run for higher ground. But a lot of

their warnings were unheated or people did not understand, and

tourists could be seen. They thought, oh, look all these

tidal pools, what a rapid low tide. And they all

went out, and the children out, and the picking the starfish,

and the people in the no said leave. Birds all

took off from the trees. Dogs were hitting for higher ground.

Elephants resisted the orders of their masters.

And they began to head inland.

And there were signs and there were warnings, but so

many people waited until the last minute, and then the

water came in with a vengeance, and so many people

were lost because they didn't understand. What does that mean

when you have a freak tide that suddenly goes out,

it means it's coming back with a vengeance. Well, there

are signs given in God's word that tell us about

the last days, and Jesus wants us to be prepared.

One of the main reasons for prophecy is so that

we can know what's coming and prepare for eternity. God

sent his son into the world to save us.

Jesus came for three reasons.

He wants to show us what the Father is like.

He wants to show us how to live and love

one another. And then ultimately to die as a sacrifice

in our place, and all the prophecies point to this

central theme, so we can know what's coming. And a

lot of prophecy is best understood looking back. Jesus said,

when these things come to pass, then you will see,

and you will know, and you will believe. And so

as we look at past prophecies that have faithfully been fulfilled,

it's going to strengthen our faith that the future prophecies

will also come true, and we will prepare. Now, a

lot of people were lost during I've been holding my

lesson and say anything. We have this lesson the Prophecy

Countdown lesson.

This is hot off the press.

It's covering ninety percent of the material, much more than

I'm covering tonight, but it'll cover most of the primary questions.

You can order these, share them with your friends. Hopefully

when we're done with this series, we have fifteen presentations.

Thursday nights are off and you will have a packet

that goes with us. You can then share the things

you're learning with your friends. And Jesus told us all

go into all the world because I'm coming back again.

He wants us all to be involved. Amen.

God told Noah because of the wickedness in the world,

there is a judgment coming. You know, there's a judgment

coming again. Christ said, as it was in the days

of Noah, so will it be in the day when

the sun of man comes and Noah preachs with his voice,

by his example with his hammer for.

One hundred and twenty years.

God is so patient, and even some people who helped

him build the ark did not heed the signs. At

one point, the sky grew black as all these birds

came two by two. Clean birds came by sevens, The

others came by twos, and the animals came. People saw

the signs and oh, that's really strange your ideas in

your mind about Noah going out with his sons and

having no rodeo and rounding.

Up all these creatures.

God raculously brought many of them, and then he gathered

them in the ark. And people saw this, but they thought, well,

when when it starts to rain, then I'll get ready. Well,

at that point the door was shut and it was

too late. Human nature has not changed much. How many

of you wait until a couple of days before it's

time before you file your taxes.

We tend to procrastinate, and so.

God gives us these prophecies so we can be prepared

in plenty of time, and not just to save.

Ourselves, but through our lives we can reach others. Amen.

And by the way, your life as a believer is

a better life.

Jesus that I have come to give you life more abundantly.

And that's one reason we do these prophecy seminars. It's

just not to tantalize people with how we can prove

prophecy comes true. We want you to have an abundant life.

Revelation.

I remember I did a series like this in New

Mexico on the Navajo Reservation and a couple came in

and it was obviously they were terrify opening night, and

I talked to him afterwards and they said, well, we

were very afraid because our pastor told us there's a

curse pronounced in anyone who studies revelation. And I said,

I don't know where he's getting that. The Bible says

there's a blessing pronounced on anyone who studies these things.

So I trust that as you attend, as you watch,

as you share, you're going to be blessed during this seminar.

Now the Bible tells us a name is three verse seven.

Surely the Lord God does nothing unless he.

Reveals his secret to his servants. The prophets.

God is going to tell us what is coming. Now

we have a practice just so you have a feel.

What is sort of the generic idea out there on

the street. What are people thinking about the nearness of

Jesus coming the end of the world? Are there signs

will the world end? So we sent some cameramen out

on the street to get some feedback. We're going to

share that with you right now.

Twenty I guess it would depend on the person's You

believe the world end soon? If so when, but not

not within my lifetime. I don't think.

I think it will, but I'm not sure exactly what

time it will end. Probably when Jesus comes back.

If humans continue to destroy the world with everything that

we're doing, then perhaps it'll happen a lot sooner.

I don't know.

Man, they said that the world's gonna end back in.

Two thousand and seven. I'm sorry, that's twenty six so well.

I don't believe sure the world's gonna end when it's

signed for its.

End destruction and like probably bring the world is a

question like selfishness, It's probably.

Gonna be nuclear nuclear destruction, you know, one of those

great filters I think that are global warming, but nuclear

instruction's much more direct, much faster.

I think that when.

It's time, Jesus says it's ready, I'm not really sure.

I think probably just like an accumulation of things, like

just a lot of things happening.

I mean, I guess, in one word, sin is what's

going to bring our world to the end.

I guess, you know, I actually think that last answer.

I hope you could hear what you were saying. I

think it's gonna be sin. It's actually more profound than

you might think.

That really is what it's gonna be. But you have the.

Answers in our culture all across the map.

Will the world end? Is it going to end? How

is it going to end?

Everything from nuclear, chemical, global warming? One thing most people

agree is it cannot go on the way it's going

much longer. All right, let's jump into our study for tonight,

and I'm gonna start with the question answer format. Jesus

use that sometimes called the Socratic method. You ask questions

get you to think we'll find the answers in the Bible.

I will be giving you many, many scriptures. Friends, this

is a Bible presentation.

I hope you check on me. We do everything we

can in these programs.

To encourage people to read the Bible for yourself. Don't

just trust what preachers are saying. The Bible is not

a mystery you cannot understand. Helps to have preachers teach,

But then we give you an opportunity ask questions. We're

not afraid of any Bible question. We'll do our best

to answer it. We don't have all the answers, but

I think we can help along the way. So question

number one, how positive was Jesus that he would return?

Is this a biblical teaching that he's coming again? John fourteen,

Verse three. Jesus said, if I go and prepare a

place for you.

I will come again and receive you to myself.

That where I am, ye may be. Also he wants

us to be with him. He promised I will come again.

Jesus is not a liar. He is going to come again.

God promised the first coming of the Messiah. It happened

four thousand years after the promise, but he came here

we are now two thousand years after Jesus said I

will come again. You can count on our friends, He's

coming again, Matthew sixteen, verse twenty seven. For the son

of Man will come. It is very definite in the

glory of the Father with his angels, and he will

reward each one according to his works. That scripture is

going to come up again a little later. Question number two,

what can we know about the time of Jesus return.

Now here's where people sort of inch out on the

edge of their seat, the time of Jesus return. Pastor Doug,

are you going to give us a date? Let's find

out what the Bible says Matthew twenty four, verse thirty six.

Jesus said, But of that day.

And hour no one knows, not even the angels of

heaven one place, that says, or the son Jesus in

his earthly existence.

He didn't even know the day in the hour.

Of course, if he had given a date to thecles,

that would have made no sense based on our calendars.

So he does know now clearly he's at the right

end of the Father, but no one knows the date.

Watch out about people who say I've calculated the date.

Most people don't know, but I.

Know the Bible tells us that for most people it's

going to be a surprise. Therefore, you also be ready

for the Son of Man is coming in an hour

when you do not expect, just as it in the

days of Noah and Lot, a lot of the world

was totally taken by surprise. For most of the world,

it will be a surprise. But what can we know

about the time? Matthew twenty four to thirty three. So

you also, when you see these things, what things the

signs that he had given, know that it is. What's

that word up there near? We can know when it

is near. And don't forget. Paul said, most of the

world is going to be taken by surprise. It'll overtake

them like a thief. But he said, you are not

children of the night that that day should overtake.

You as a thief.

He wants us to be looking at the signs. Why

else would Jesus give us the signs except that we

could map that. Hey, we're running out of time and

be mobilized to share the good news while time remains. Now,

we've all heard about different people that have set dates

for Christ coming the Amazing Facts film crew went and

interviewed brother Harold Camping. He was a president of Family Radio,

great radio station. I respect them, but he had some

quirky beliefs. He was the director and he set dates

several times for the Second Coming, and obviously was wrong.

Sad thing is that some.

People believed it.

They quicked their jobs, they sold their homes, they put

all their money into spreading the message that Jesus was

coming May twenty first, twenty eleven.

And nothing happened.

We even made, let you a little secret, We made

a private offer. I knew he wanted to do it

to Family Ready, We said, Amazing Facts will give you

a million dollars right now. If Jesus doesn't come, you

sign over the radio station. If you're sure he's coming,

take the money. You want to take the money, We thought, well,

you know we have a radio station, and if he's right,

then more people get the message.

So we thought it was a win win either way.

Question number three, what are some of the signs of

the nearness of Jesus coming? Now? Friends, these things are

becoming more and more relevant all the time. Let's look

at some of them. Jesus tells us Matthew twenty four,

verse four. He said to them, take heed that no

one deceives you. First thing he tells us, For many

will come in my name saying I am Christ, and

will deceive many. And you'll hear of wars and rumors

of wars. See that you be not troubled, for all

these things must come to pass. But the end is

not yet.

There have been wars all through history.

The wars are a sign, and they will increase with

frequency and intensity.

But just the war doesn't mean Jesus is coming.

People thought Christ was coming after World War One, and

then after the nuclear bombs or atomic bombs in World

War two. But we're seeing a trend. One nation will

rise against another nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will

be famines, and there have been pestilence, such plagues, and

earthquakes in various places. All of these things are increasing.

He says, all these are the beginning of sorrow.

Still in Matthew twenty four, verse four.

Then they'll deliver you up to tribulation and kill you,

and you will be hated of all nations.

For my namesake.

Many will be offended and betray one another, and hate

one another, and many false prophets will rise up and

deceive many. Notice the emphasis false Christ's false prophets. That

means false theology. He's not talking about other religions. He's

talking about those who come in the name of the Lord.

That's why Jesus said in the last days, many will

come and say Lord, Lord, and He'll say, I don't

know you. Because you know, there were out of twelve spies,

ten were unfaithful, two were faithful. It seems like straight

is the gate and narrow his way that leads to

life because people follow the crowd and the devil is

out there deceiving people.

All right.

He talked about earthquakes. Well, there've always been earthquakes, but

they're increasing in frequency and intensity. This is a chart

from the National Geophysics Data Center. You can see between

nineteen hundred and twenty twenty the intensity and frequency of earthquakes.

And even since we've done this, we were in Vanawatu,

had a tremendous earthquake about a year ago, and then

they had this what almost eight point one earthquake in

Russia this year, and we're just seems like things are

shaping up for a real seismic event. Natural disasters between

two two thousand and four. In twenty fourteen, eighteen earthquakes

with a magnitude of eight point zero or more rattled

subduction zones around the globe. That's an increase of two

hundred and sixty five percent over the average rate of

the previous century. This is the geological society of America,

and so people are observing that things are changing, and

their theories are what, We're pumping too much oil and

water out of the ground and it's making things shift.

And there's all these theories, but the fact is intensity

frequency increasing. This is a data assembly that is done

by a Munich Research geo research company. They provide information

to insurance companies about are there trends in natural disasters

that would help you know how much to charge for

insurance because some insurance companies were rendered bankrupt from the

hurricanes and the fires in recent decades. We had a

fire up where we in northern California, biggest one in

state's history, national history, one million acres and it burnt

through some property.

We have it burned for a month.

It was called the August Fire, a million acres and

you could see it from the satellites in almost every category,

these scientists are seen an increase.

How many of you have had your insurance go up?

That's sort of a redundant question, right. Plagues and pestilence,

Jesus said, well, there've always been plagues and pestilence, but

just in the last century they have the plague of

nineteen eighteen, between thirty and fifty million people die. Now,

COVID was also a global plague. It almost did more

damage economically and geopolitically.

Than compared to other plagues with death.

And then there was the Ebola outbreak, and we haven't

figured out how to stop these plagues that are often transferred.

They develop in animals and then are transferred humans plagues

and now with international travel, plagues can spread very quickly

if they have a Norman period. Thousands of people died

from the Ebola outbreak in twenty eleven.

The world was paralyzed.

Another sign Jesus gave there'd be an increase of violence.

He said, as it was in the days of Noah, says,

men's hearts were only evil continually and violence filled the land.

The sad statistic that in twenty twenty two, one thousand

American soldiers died in action in combat. That's our army

scattered around the world. During the same time, twenty one

thousand people died in our cities from gang violence. And

we just we hear more and more about just random

shootings and shootings and schools and shooting, political aggression and violence.

This is one of the signs. And I've got a theory.

Since you asked, I'll tell you what it is.

They're always talking about what laws we can make, can change,

and you know they'd too many guns or what kind

of guns and friends. I'll just tell you that I

think the more and more young people and adults are

entertained by violence, it affects us. The value of human

life decreases. And just the kids of playing games that

are more and more violent, Grand Car, theft, Auto, Call

of Duty, and just the whole game is shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting,

and I think some of them do spend so much

time doing that we become separated from reality and the movies.

You know, it used to be that when a cowboy

got shot and black and white when I was a kid,

he grabbed his chest and fall off his horse.

No blood.

No, Now the head gets shot completely off the shoulders

and everything is I mean, there's like it's become so

grotesque and so violent. To keep the audience, they intensify

the violence. That's what's happening, and even some Christians become

entertained by that. Immorality is increasing, Jesus said, as it

was likewise in the days of Lot, and we know

about Sodom and Gomorrah.

Even so, will it be in the day when the

Sun of Man is revealed?

Jesus said, those conditions back then are going to be

replicated as the conditions in the last days. There'll be

violence like the days of Noah, evil hearts, and then

also the moral decay that we see. It seems like

our friends don't get upset with me. I know this

is politically incorrect, but you need to take this up

with God in the Bible. I did not write the Bible.

I like to be liked, but I also want God

to like me. So I have to be faithful and

tell you what the Bible said. Jesus said, from the beginning,

he made them male and female.

There are two options. The Bible gives us. This is

God's plan.

I am absolutely mystified how the society and the world

had become befuddled over something so basic as the differences between.

Men and women. And I think some people are coming

to their senses now when they have.

Men saying they're really a woman, and then they go

into boxing and they box women. You used to get

arrested for doing that, but you don't see too many

women that want to be men and get in the

ring with men.

Is it just me?

Or is there something wrong there? The mushrooming population? So

I'm going to be very free in telling me to

the word of God because I don't live here. I

can move back to California when I've done population explosion.

Just look at these statistics. It took approximately five thousand years.

I think I've got the exact figures here in the

front of my Bible. It took approximately five thousand years

to get the first billion people in the Bible. Then

it only took one hundred and twenty three years, five

thousand years, one billion, one hundred and twenty three years,

second billion. Then it only took twenty three years to

get the third billion. I remember when there were three

billion people fourteen years later the fourth billion.

Now over eight billion people. And you know clearly that

can't go on forever.

So just the explosion of the population and the resources

that humans are using from the world, it's got to

have an effect on how much longer it can last.

National Geographic did a study a few years ago talking

about the decreasing animal life on the planet. The World

Wildlife Fund, I said, National Geographic, I'm sorry, it's a

World Wildlife Fund said that since nineteen seventy, humanity has

wiped out approximately sixty percent of the animal populations during

a forty year period, fifty two percent decline in wild

life during that time. You know, I love history, and

I read like about the Lewis and Clark expedition when

they first crossed the Great Plains, and they said it

could take two days for one buffalo herd to cross

the river, two days, millions of them, and they just

they sohot them all, and they carry your pigeons they

used to darken the skies. There's none left.

They're extinct.

They're trying to bring back the buffalo right now, a

little by little bit. Now this is happening all over

the world with just the sprawl of our cities and friends,

I'm sharing I've been doing this forty five years, Karen

and I have traveled all over the world. I can

give you a long I think I've been to about

half the countries in the world. There's a lot left,

but we've been all around the globe, and I've just

seen the change in my life one generation. I'm a

pilot also, so i'd fly over places that were used

to be all fields and now it's urban sprawl. And

it's just the planet is changing. It can't go on

like this, friends, if we're thinking.

The finishing resources that are need.

The UN twenty twenty four Global Resource Outlooks said we

are consuming resources and much faster than the Earth can

sustainably provide them or reproduce them. They said by twenty

fifty it will require three earths to meet the world's

demand for everything from silica, the metals they're the rare

earth metals, the glass, things that are in your phone.

It's just.

It seems like we almost wait until it's too late

before we realize, Hey, you know, we're running out of

some things, nuclear weapons, political instability. Right now, folks are

wondering while the war they are in Russia between Russian

and Ukraine is going on so long it's basically Europe

and these other countries are afraid to take some decisive

action because Putin has clearly said we have nuclear weapons,

and I understand that when he said that to President Trump,

Trump said, we do too.

But that's frightening.

But they would even come to the place to say that,

because that's basically suicide if these countries get involved in

lobbying nuclear weapons around the planet. You know what Jesus

said about the last days. Except those days be.

Shortened, no flesh would be saved.

So before we self destruct, Jesus needs to come, which

means it's got to happen pretty soon, right, So you've

got the political instability now. I remember a few years

ago that National Geographic had this program called Doomsday Preppers,

and I kind of enjoyed watching some of that because

I have a place off the grid and I'm kind

of interested in some of that technology. But these were

people who, you know, they're not just thinking about the

time of trouble in the Bible. They're thinking about armagain

or a zombie apocalypse, or they're thinking about asteroids or

tsunami or social unrest, and you know, there's a thousand

different scenarios where the world could end. And folks sort

of laughed at these people that were prepping for doomsday.

But they're not laughing anymore now. It is the most intelligent, influential,

the wealthiest people in the world that are actually prepping.

CNN did a report super rich building doomsday bunkers. They've

got these decommissioned aircraft bunkers that are through Kansas there

and they're being sold now because the army's decommissioned them

and people are finding the most remote places unlikely to

be hit by a nuclear attack, and they're outfitting them

and spending millions of dollars, getting their own systems involved,

and millionaires.

Are buying them.

Man named Larry Hall, he bought these miss what do

you call a nuclear missile silos? If they go way

down in the ground. They were buried and secured on

the top and reinforced, and they've created these apartment levels

and the date three million dollars for an apartment and

the place is completely self contained. They got generator fuel storage,

water purification, air purification systems, and you think, well, that's

really extreme. Or they're selling them and they're very luxurious,

and there are millionaires that see what's coming, and say,

you know, we need a place to bug out where

if things get out of control, we can go. Earthquake,

nuclear problems, social unrest, we can go and we can

hide out for a while until things settle down. People

see that something is coming. You've heard of skyscrapers going up.

These are earth scrapers. They go down into the ground

many stories and it's fascinating the technology they're using to

kind of create self contained It's almost like a space

station on Earth.

And they're pretty luxurious. There is one floor.

I got a swimming pools, and they got clinic, and

I think they even have a jail in case somebody

in the apartment complex gets out of hand. It's like

a whole city billionaire doomsday prep. December News reported Mark

Zuckerberg is constructing a five thousand square foot bunker under

his ranch on the island of Kawai. It's about thousands

of acres there. And he's not the only one. It's

also Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos. A lot of them have

places strategically located and they're spending millions building bunkers under

their houses that are self contained. These are thinking people

that are looking ahead and as saying, we see the

trajectory of society.

The world is polarized.

Historically, something's going to snap, and they're also concerned about

just what's happening environmentally. And the other interesting thing for

me is, now you've got these millionaires like Elon Musk,

Jeff Bezos, doctor Branson, or Richard Branson who are building

space programs. And if you ask Elon Musk, he said,

my goal is to die on Mars. And the US

is sending another mission back to the Moon with the

objective of creating a settlement there. That's pretty desperate because

you've got to bring everything with you.

You can't live outdoors on the moon.

And so why are they investing so much money in

getting off the planet where Jeff Bezos his idea is

you need to get a much more elaborate self contained

space station. I think they just say, if you want

to survive, we need to go elsewhere. Now, this for

me is one of the most startling signs of the

nearness of Jesus coming. And it's this prophecy you find

in Daniel chapter twelve, verse four.

But you, Daniel, shut.

Up the words and seal the book until the time

of the end, many will run to and fro and

knowledge will increase. You notice it doesn't say wisdom will increase,

because man has a lot more knowledge, but he doesn't

have much more wisdom and has knowledge increased friends, knowledge

and with AI is exploding exponentially. I don't know if

that two words that go together, but you get the

idea technology the world over. For years it kind of

just followed this very small trajectory upwards, and then in

the last century it began to rocket forward where knowledge

is accelerating. Here, I think I've got some statistics that

I gathered using AI on my computer. Yeah, it's telling

us that approximately. Oh no, I don't have it there,

I've got it in here.

Yeah.

Here, you've got a chart that talks about the ancient

era is two. Then you get the classical era thousands

of years went by here. Then you've got the Renaissance

hundreds of years, the Industrial age, the Internet age. Then

in the nineteen forties they said that technology is doubling

every forty years, and then they said it's doubling every

ten years. Then it got towards doubling every year, and

now it's a matter of months. And if you buy

the latest new iPhone. You all went out and you

bought one. It's going to be old next year. Technology

is just exploding right now.

And with AI, it's just I, you know, and AI

is not the devil. AI is technology.

You know. When TV first came out, they said it's

a devil well, and you can put amazing facts on television,

right instead of watching the Bachelor, you can watch the

Bachelor on television.

So there's good and there's bad.

But radio books when they first came out, is incredible

technology knowledge. With the printing press, it exploded because communications increased.

And so there's some good things that AI does and

there's some creepy things too.

There's law, you know.

Jesus talked about false christ and false prophets. I'll get

to them in just a minute. One of the signs

that makes me think that Jesus is coming soon is

actually in Matthew chapter twenty four, verse fourteen. Jesus said,

the gospel of this kingdom will be preached in.

All the world, and everyone will believe it's not what

he said.

The gospel will be preached in all the world for

a witness. Then the end will come. People are going

to have it within their reach. They're going to have

an opportunity. God said, my people are destroyed for lack

of knowledge because they rejected knowledge. Many will reject it,

but they'll have an opportunity. Then the end will come.

Jesus didn't say it might come, or it could come,

or it may come.

He said it will come.

The gospel is going to go into the world, and

then the end is going to come. Well, is the

gospel going into the world. Friends, As Jesus said today,

this prophecy is fulfilled in your hearing as you sit

here now and we're here in this auditorium in Texas.

It's going out by satellite two and a half seconds,

bounces off, the satellite, hits ground stations, bounces up again,

goes around the world through the Internet, fiber optic. The

speed of light are just under the speed of light.

Message is going in different languages. Says, it'll be preached

to every tongue in every nation, and it is incredible

to me.

Wherever we go around the world.

Last year, we were in Pakistan, we were in India,

we were in Dubai, and South America, Dominican Republic.

I mean, we travel all over the world.

And you'll go to very poor communities and these people

are living under a blue plastic tarp and they got

a satellite dish poking up out of the tarp, and

they got phones. We've been in Africa where people are

walking down the road and they have no.

Shoes and they got a smart phone.

Absolutely, friends, it is the communication ability globally for this

prophecy to be fulfilled in this generation is here.

It's happening, and Amazing Facts.

Is one of many ministries that is doing it, so

we know if the gospel is getting out there. We

have a lot of people in China, Middle East, places

where you normally can't go in person. They are tuning

in their watching online. They communicate with us very carefully,

so we know it global access US. Daniel said.

Many will run to and fro international travel. It's just amazing.

I took off in Malaysia coming home, and I got

home before I left. I'm actually a year younger than

I say, because at one point I took off on

March eighth and I landed on March tenth. My birthday

is the ninth, and so I keep telling karenon no,

I never had that birthday. So we can just go

around the world. Now, now here's something to think about.

And don't take this please as date setting. This is

just sort of a a thirty thousand foot view of history.

You've got two thousand years biblically from creation. Just adding

up the ages in the Bible. You might not agree

with that, but if you just add up the ages,

you've got two thousand years from Adam to Abraham. You've

got two thousand years from Abraham to Jesus. You have

two thousand years from Jesus to our present day. Right now,

if we go back two thousand years, Jesus is alive.

We're living between his birth and his death right now.

And then Revelation twenty says there is a thousand years

like a sabbath when we live and reign with Christ

the millennial time.

And so you can do the mask.

Six plus one is seven. God uses sevens all through

the Bible. You've got three great epochs here. You've got

the two thousand years where God preaches the Gospel through

the patriarchs Adam in a Noah malthusla the faithful who

lived during that time. Then after Babel Abraham is called

two thousand years God is proclaiming the Gospel through the

Jewish Nation. Paul says that unto the Jews were giving

the oracles of truth through Moses, the Word of God

was now codified before they had fabulous memories, and they

photographically they passed on the Word orally. The Jewish nation

they have the scriptures. That's what made them especially special.

They were the guardians of the Word. That book is

written almost entirely by Jews.

And then Jesus comes.

The great work of the Jewish nation was to proclaim

and introduce the Messiah to the world, which happened at Pentecost.

Now here we are two thousand years after that point,

and then a thousand years we live and reign with Christ. Friends,

I think that we are living right near sundown, so

to speak.

For the world's history.

And you're here, you're watching, you're listening because he loves

you and he wants you to be ready. And you

can't just tread water until it's too late. Friends, You've

got to do something about what you're hearing. We don't

do these prophets, these seminars just to be entertaining. And

I go to the door afterward, and I shake hands

and I ask people how to go didn't make sense,

and they said, well that was interesting.

That always worries me.

I don't want it to be just interesting. I want

it to touch your heart. That's the purpose of it all.

Right Now, I spent all this time talking about signs.

Of Jesus coming.

I've got about fourteen minutes now to talk about how

he's coming. And we need to understand that because there's

a big misunderstanding in how he's coming. And Jesus said,

Satan's going to impersonate Christ and they'll be false Christ.

And if you don't know how He's coming, you could

be fool. So we need to understand both. Question number four,

what solemn warning does Jesus give about his second coming?

For many will come in my name saying I am Christ,

and deceive many. Some will come in Jesus name saying

he is the Christ, but then they deceive. Some will

come in Christ's name saying.

I am the Christ, and then they deceive.

He warns us there will be false Christs and false

prophets that will rise and show great signs and wonders.

They're going to seem to have some real power, so

that if it were possible. It would deceive even the

very elect. I am telling you in advance. You can

read here where he says.

Look.

If they say, look he's here or he's in the desert,

do not go out. Look he's in the inner rooms.

Do what does Jesus say? We've got the answers for

your lesson kind of in a highlighted blue Do not

believe it. Nobody is ever going to have to tap

you on the shoulder and tell you Jesus came, or

turn the channel. He's appearing right now on the news.

And you need to know that, friends, because I'll tell

you with AI now. They are doing some really spooky things.

I go online every now and then someone will send

me a link and say, you got to look at this,

and it's got me.

With my voice.

Saying something I never said, and it looks almost like me,

except it looks better than me, which is really troubling.

So yeah, they'll take Billy Graham's image and Billy Graham's

voice and they'll have Billy grahams saying things Billy Graham

did not believe or ever said. And that technology is

just getting better.

Now.

Actors are worried they're going to be put out of

business because now they can they can make artificial actors

and they don't have all the drama of their emotions

and the big.

Expense, and they can recreate these actors. That's the way

it's heading. And so can the devil use that he's

already using it to some extent.

So when I talk about false Christ and false prophets,

I'm not so much talking about people that are deranged.

I don't know if you ever met anybody that said

they were Jesus.

I did a couple of times.

One time it was really unnerving because I won't tell

you my whole story tonight, but I was raised an atheist,

got into trouble as a teenager, lived up in the

mountains in a cave for a year and a half,

kind of looking for God and purpose.

Found a Bible.

Someone left in the cave, read the Bible, became a Christian,

that's the short version. While I was living up there

by myself, I was a hermit.

I'd go days without seeing anybody.

Someone came hiking up the creek, very steep, rugged mountains.

Someone came hiking up the creek, stepped over the log

that enters my caveyard, I had a yard, I had

a pool.

It was really pretty anyway. And this guy, he's.

Wearing shorts and sandals, and he's got brown hair down

to his shoulder.

He looked like a painting of Jesus had the beard.

A handsome guy about six feet tall, seemed to have

you know, a tinge of intelligence about him. I sat

and I talked to him, because you know, I'm the

only one living up in the hills, and he was

hiking up the Mount Santa sent So and as I'm

talking to he says, I'm Jesus. And when he first

said that, I thought, I've got friends, you know, Spanish friends.

Their name is Likejeseus. And I thought, well, maybe it's

just the English derivative of that. And then he said, no,

I am Jesus. He saw my Bible and he said,

I've come and I have a message for you, and

I'm going I didn't know my Bible that way, but

I knew it said, you know, lightning from the east

to the west, and you know we're going to be

caught up to meet him in the air. And I said,

I thought it says that when you come, it's like

clouds and angels, and he said, that's how I'm coming

for the general world. But I've been sent specially for

a few people in advance, and he knew his Bible.

And I'm thinking to myself, what do I say? You know,

for one thing, I did have a quiet.

Thought, I, well, what if it is Jesus.

I don't want to say no, you're not Jesus, because

then that would make him mad and that wouldn't be polite.

And then I'm thinking, I'm up in the hills with

a guy that's crazy, and I don't want to offend him.

So I'm saying, well, I.

Thought I read that when you come that you know

it's been Oh no, He had an answer, and he

stayed in my cave and I fed him and he

just hung out for like three days. I finally had

to kick him out because he ate all my food,

he did no work, and he started saying some really

bizarre things. I saw him in town a few days later.

He had gotten into a fight and someone knocked out one.

Of his teeth.

And I felt so much better then because I uptill.

Then I thought I had did I kick Jesus out

of my cave? But I know Jesus has all his teeth,

and so that's settled it for me. All right, I've

got to move along here. So if they say he's

in the desert. If someone says Jesus on TV, frind,

don't even look. You could be hypnotized. What will prevent

the righteous from being deceived? Answer to the law and

the test cinnemony. If they speak not according to this word.

We need know what the Bible says, because AI can

change things. If you own a Bible and you know

the word of God, that's.

How you're going to expose the counterfeit.

You need to know the true God's people will not

be deceived if we are studying the scriptures. Jesus said,

study to show yourself a proof. Talking about the Second

Coming in Matthew twenty four, he said, whoso read speaking

of Daniel the prophet, let him understand. Jesus assumes you're

going to be reading if you want to understand, so

you are not deceived. Christ said, false Christ, false prophets.

We must be prepared. Will Jesus come quietly? You know

some people say, you know when the Lord comes again,

that there's going to be a secret rapture.

Now that's a fairly new teaching compared to history.

For years, Christians have understood Christ coming is going to

be the next thing. The tribulation is going to happen

before he comes. Then futurism came in. It said the

church will be raptured before the tribulation. I respectfully disagree.

There's three principal views.

There's what you call preterists, historists, futurist. I'm a his storist.

That's where you have.

You know, Spurgeon and Wesley and Luther, and they all

looked at Prophecy Revelation. It says the time is at hand.

Revelation gives a panorama from the first coming to the

second coming. The futurism is the other big view that

was made popular with the Left Behind series. Hol Lindsay,

who died last year, may have been absolutely sincere but

he said nineteen eighty one and nineteen eighty eight, none

of it happened. And another preacher said eighty eight reasons

Jesus is coming in nineteen eighty eight because they went

forty years after the re establishment of Israel, and he said.

It's going to happen.

None of it happened, and so futurism's really been disproved already.

So we need to go back to the traditional Bible view.

There's not going to be a secret rapture. Will there

be a rapture? Yes, we are caught up, that's what

that means. Will it be a secret? No, Let me

give you some scriptures. The Lord himself one Thessalonians chapter four, sixteen,

The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout,

with a voice of the archangel and with a trumpet.

This is loud, and the dead in Christ will rise.

There's a resurrection. The Lord will roar from on high

and utter his voice from his holy habitation. He will

roar mightily against his foal. He will give a shout,

as those who tread the grapes against the inhabitants, a roar,

a shout mighty Psalm fifty, verse three. Our God will

come and shall not keep silent. It is not a

secret when Jesus comes. But Pastor doug he says, behold,

I'm coming like a thief. He's gonna snatch the church away.

They're not reading the whole verse. Look at two Peter

chapter three, verse ten. The day of the Lord will

come as a thief in the night, in which what

happens in that day, the heavens will pass away with

what a great and the elements will melt. Does life

go on for seven more years? After Jesus comes? The

elements melt with fervent heat. The earth and the works

that are in it are burned up. Malk I says,

there's a day coming that will burn as an oven.

The wicked are destroyed by the brightness of his coming

when Jesus comes again. One danger about this left behind friends.

I know many people listening, and you're maybe here and.

You believed this.

You watch the movie, and you read the books about

the secret Rapture, and I don't want to offend anyone.

I should also mention at this point, when I first

became a Christian, I worship with all of my friends

were charismatics that believed in futurism. And there are godly

Listen carefully, there are godly heaven bound churches in Christians,

in many churches.

Amen.

I believe that there are people from many denominations we're

going to see in the Kingdom. But now, as brothers

and sisters, before the Lord comes, we need to be

studying so that we can show ourselves a proof. We

need to know what the truth is right now, God

wants the Church to pull together on the Bible. If

we're going to take the message to the world. If

Christians are all fractured and scattered with different teachings, it's

going to cripple our work.

So we need to know what we believe.

The elements melt with fervent heat. A common misinterpretation, this

left behind scenario. It's a new teaching that came through.

It was written by a Jesuit priest, Francisco Robera, adopted

by Campbell and Darby, and then it was put in

the schoolfield Bible, and then it was adopted and made

popular by how lindsay.

And it's not biblical.

Number seven. Who will see Jesus when he returns?

Answer?

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear

in heaven. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn,

and they will see the Son of Man coming in

the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

They'll see him.

Behold Revelation one seven. He comes with a cloud, And

how many eyes, every eye of everybody alive will see him.

Someone's gonna say, how can everybody see him at the

same time on a round world? Write that down, send

it in well, answer tomorrow. When he left Acts Chapter one,

Christ ascended. The disciples stood there watching him go up

in the clouds. Two angels appeared. They said, men of Galilee,

why do you stand here gazing up into the heavens.

This same Jesus will come in like manner as you

have seen him go. You saw him go, you'll see

him come.

He left in the clouds.

He's coming in the clouds.

He was real when he left. He'll be real when

he comes. People aren't just gonna start disappearing and planes

and cars crashing. It's not what the Bible teaches. Number eight.

Who will be with Jesus when he returns in the clouds,

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and

all the holy angels with him, how many angels the friends?

I'll tell you, Angels are bright, angels are powerful. For

as lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west,

so will the coming of the Son of Man. Be

I remember in Texas, I was in Dickens, and I

saw a lightning storm that went from horizon to horizon,

and you didn't need to tap anybody and say, did.

You see that?

Even with your eyes closed you could see the lightning

Amen one soldier, or rather one angel at the resurrection,

the glory.

Made the Roman soldiers fall down like they were dead.

Can you imagine all the billions of angels of God coming.

He's coming with clouds of glory and light. And what

happens to the righteous when he comes? The Bible tells

us the Lord and selful descent from heaven, voice of

the archangel the dead in Christ rise. There is a

resurrection in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

At the last trumpet, we are changed for this corruptible,

we'll put on incorruption. The word change their means it's

a metamorphos.

That's First Corinthians fifteen.

We're gonna get these glorified bodies at that point, then

we who are alive will be caught up to meet them.

In the clouds.

Now, that's the rapture. What happens before the rapture, the

whole world is turned upside down. The wicked are destroyed

by the brightness of his coming. Look at what it

says about the rapture it is a literal promise. It's personal,

it's visible, it's audible, it's physical, it's vitalizing, glorious, climatic,

every single sense. The Bible is using every term it

can to tell us that when Jesus comes again, it

is the climax of the world's history. People don't disappear,

life does not go on for another seven years. The

elements have melted with fervent heat. Jeremiah says, the slain

of the Lord will cover the entire and there's no

one to bury them because there's no one alive. There

is no man Jeremiah Chapter four twenty three.

Read it.

Isaiah says, I'll make the earth utterly empty. This world

is going to be avoid As we live in rain

with Christ for a thousand years in heaven, we go

up when he comes back, says I'm going to prepare

a place I will come again, receive you to myself

that where I am ye might be.

We are caught up.

We live in rain with.

Him in glory.

Then at the end the new Jerusalem comes down. Well, friends,

I need to hasten along. I've got more verses, but

these other questions are in your lesson. I want to

jump here to the end and share some very important

points with you before we run out of time.

I'll respect your.

Time every night because we're going out live on satellite

and we can't mess that up.

All right.

Finally, in question fifteen, what will the wicked say when

Jesus returns? They'll call for the rocks and the mountains

to fall on them like cockroaches run from the light.

But God's people will say, this is our Lord. We've

waited for him, and he will save us. He will

not leave us behind.

Friends.

He said, I go to prepare a place for you,

and if I go, I will come again. It's fun

to say his name. Nicholas Ludwig van Zinzendorf, a wealthy

count who gave away his fortune to send missionaries overseas,

loved his wife desperately, Countess Edward Dorthea, But he figured,

I'm sending out all these missionaries, but I'm not going.

So he told his wife, I'm going to go do

mission work at a time when about seventy percent of

missionaries died in the first three years. They're going to America,

go to the Indies. But he said, I will come back.

I love you, don't forget about me. She didn't know when,

but he promised he'd come, and you know what he

did come. Is Jesus going to come for us?

Friends?

You want to be ready, then we can get ready.

That's why He's brought you to these meetings.

Don't forget. We're going to have another meeting tomorrow night.

We're gonna be talking about the greatest prophecy in the Bible.

We want you to be there for that. We want

you to be here for the programs. Invite your friends.

It's not too late, but I've got to tie this

off now with prayer. Friends, Jesus is coming again, Loving Lord,

thank you so much for the promises in your word

that you will come again. I pray that we can

all be ready. I pray, Lord, then not only will

we get ready, that will do our best to share

the good news with others. Bless this group here those

that are watching, and pour out your spirit. We thank

you and asking Christ's name, Amen,