Are We In the LAST DAYS?
by Herbert W. Armstrong
1985 edition
How can you know whether we are near "the end of the world"? Can we
prove it?
ARE we now in the biblically prophesied "time of the end"?
President Reagan, of the United States, spoke of world
conditions seemingly indicating we may be nearing "Armageddon."
The atomic scientists some time ago set the doomsday clock one
more minute forward from four to only three minutes till
"midnight." An editorial in the U.S. News & World Report referred
to this seemingly imminent time, saying it would seem that the
world's only hope now lies in the sudden appearance of "a strong
hand from some place."
Time was, when some wild-eyed freak shouting a "doomsday"
warning was ridiculed as "off his rocker." But today serious world
leaders and scientists are saying grave things about the current
drift in world conditions. Some prominent scientists have said the
world's only hope now rests in a single world government, with only
one military force, yet in the same breath they admit the utter
impossibility of mankind being able to form such a one-world super
government.
Strikingly, biblical prophecy says just such a super one world
government is to appear. But do these prophecies imply that our
present living generation is the one to live into that time?
Even the Original first century apostles expected this end of
the world as we know it to occur in their lifetime. Individuals in
every century since have believed the world was at "the time of the
end" -- that "Armageddon" was near.
But how may we know? How may we be SURE? Or can we know?
Jesus said in Luke 21:28: "And when these things begin to come
to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption
draweth nigh." These things he was talking about include many
prophesied events now occurring for the first time in history.
One cannot look at one or two superficial signs or events and
jump to any sure conclusion. We must comprehend God's overall
PURPOSE and how he is working out that purpose. Many prophecies
must be considered. We must not guess or surmise, or jump hastily
to conclusions.
The Modern World
The modern world really began only about one hundred and fifty
years ago. If we have the chronology of human existence about
correct, the first human, Adam, was created nearly 6,000 years ago.
The Bible shows that God's Master Plan for working out his purpose
here below is a 7,000-year plan with some 6,000 years allotted to
this world of Satan, followed by 1,000 years of Christ's reign over
all nations of the earth. Somewhere around 1,600 years from Adam's
creation came the earthwide Flood. How civilization developed prior
to the Flood we do not fully know. But we may assume the material
civilization progressed no farther than in a similar span after the
Flood. So far as we know, therefore, the development of human
civilization continued on a comparatively even keel until about 150
years ago.
There was little advancement in human knowledge and material
progress until after the invention of the printing press about
1450. Printing made possible the spread and diffusion of knowledge.
This diffusion expanded but slightly until the middle of the 19th
century. Most modern inventions and facilities have appeared since
A.D. 1850. The increase in knowledge and invention of mechanical
facilities has multiplied with constantly increasing momentum since
1850. It is almost as if mankind first appeared on earth about 150
years ago and has been learning and progressing more and more
rapidly since. THE INVENTION of the printing press greatly
facilitated the production of reading material, opening the way for
the mass dissemination of knowledge and information.
End-Time Prophecies
Now consider some end-time biblical prophecies.
The longest prophecy in the Bible is Daniel 11. The 10th
chapter is the prelude and the 12th the completion. In Daniel
11:40, the prophecy comes to the "time of the end" and continues in
chapter 12. The prophet Daniel did not understand what he was being
told to write. The angel said the words of the prophecy were closed
up and sealed until the time of the end when knowledge would be
increased, and people would be traveling "to and fro."
That time has come.
Knowledge has been increased at a breathtaking rate in the
last 150 years. Indeed, it was claimed that the world's fund of
knowledge had doubled during the 1960's -- although this increase was
largely in the areas of medicine, science and technology. Also,
people are traveling "to and fro" on the earth. The mode of travel
from the beginning of civilization until 150 years ago was indeed
very slow. Few people traveled more than 50 or 100 miles away from
their homes. Travel for millennia was by foot, horseback, camel
back, oxcart, rowboat or sailboat.
Construction on the steamboat was not begun by Robert Fulton
until 1806. Then came the railroad. Travel by automobile has all
come within my personal lifetime. I well remember that when I was
eleven years old automobiles were called horseless carriages.
"Horseless carriages" were quite a sight. I remember, at the time,
when I was eleven, my father calling out, "Oh, come to the front
window quick, there goes a horseless carriage." We all rushed to
the front window to see the sight. Sure enough it was a "horseless
carriage." It was a carriage being pulled by a mule!
When I was twenty-three years old, as assistant secretary of
the Chamber of Commerce of South Bend, Indiana, I was given the
assignment of persuading the farmers in a township south of the
city to sign up a petition agreement allowing a new cross country
highway, called the "Dixie Highway," from the Gulf to Canada to go
through their township. It was not a paved highway. It was gravel
and dirt. Paved highways had not yet come. Today people are
traveling to and fro by automobiles railroad and airplanes. Modern
airports are jammed with people "going to and fro."
World-Ruling Kingdoms
In the second chapter of Daniel is a prophecy reaching till the
Second Coming of Christ. King Nebuchadnezzar had framed and ruled
the first empire of nations in world history. He saw in a dream a
most astonishing statue of a man incredibly high. God revealed the
meaning to Daniel. The image's head was of fine gold, breast and
arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass. Legs of iron, and feet
and toes of iron and clay mixed. The head represented
Nebuchadnezzar's Chaldean Empire. The silver represented the
succeeding world kingdom, which proved to be the Persian Empire.
The brass represented a third world kingdom, which proved to be the
Greco Macedonian or Grecian Empire; the forth, represented by the
legs of iron, proved to be the Roman Empire with capitals in
Constantinople and Rome. The feet and toes represented succeeding
smaller empires to follow, leading to the toes representing ten
kingdoms in Eastern and Western Europe. The prophecy dates the time
in which we are living now. We await the appearance of those
ten-toe nations. In the days of those toes, now just ahead of us,
a stone supernaturally is to come from heaven, smite the ten-toe
nations, replace them, and rule the whole earth forever after (Dan.
2:34, 44). This stone represents Christ's Second Coming to set up
the kingdom of God and destroy all this world's governments --
setting up the government of God over all nations. That will be the
end of this world -- the end of this man-made civilization as we
know it.
Full understanding must include Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 and
17. These show the Roman Empire, falling in A.D. 476, replaced by
three kingdoms that disappeared, the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, and
the Heruli. They were the first three horns of Daniel 7 that were
"plucked up by the roots." (verse 8). In other words, these three
peoples disappeared from history and we have no historic record of
what became of them. There were seven more of the ten horns on this
beast yet to follow. The first of that seven was the restoration of
the Empire in the West. This happened when, at the behest of the
Pope at Rome, Justinian, Emperor at Constantinople, reestablished
Imperial authority throughout Italy in A.D. 554. Historians record
this as the restoration of the Roman Empire. There followed a
series of valleys and peaks in Europe. It reached its next peak in
A.D. 800 under Charlemagne, the Frankish head. It reached another
mountain peak about the 10th century with Otto the Great of Germany
at the helm. At this time it was known as the Holy Roman Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire reached another peak with the Habsburg
dynasty in Austria. This was followed by another peak under
Napoleon, who fled into exile in 1814.
In 1929 Mussolini arranged a Concordat with the Papacy. Then,
about 1935 Mussolini, having united Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Italian
Somaliland to Italy, proclaimed it to be the reestablishment of the
Roman Empire. I announced this ninth restoration myself on radio at
the time.
We are now looking for the tenth and last resurrection of the
Roman Empire -- the seventh head of this Beast of the 17th chapter of
Revelation (Rev. 17:12), which is also pictured by the ten toes of
Nebuchadnezzar's image of Daniel 2:40-44. Since these toes were on
the two feet that represented Eastern and Western Europe, there is
strong likelihood that this final resurrection of the Holy Roman
Empire will include Iron Curtain nations of Eastern Europe as well
as nations in Western Europe. (Write for our two booklets "The Book
of Revelation Unveiled at Last" or "Who or What Is the Prophetic
Beast?") They will form a third gigantic world power probably as
great or even greater than the U.S.S.R. or United States of
America.
These ten toes of Daniel 2:40-44 will be destroyed by Christ
at his Second Coming and will be replaced by the world-ruling
government of the Kingdom of God, with Christ at its head and all
the resurrected saints also ruling under Christ.
Jesus' Principal Prophecy
Now consider the principal prophecy of Jesus Christ himself. It is
found in Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13.
But we quote from Matthew's account. Jesus with his disciples
had just come out from the Temple (verse 1). He and his disciples
were looking at the buildings of the temple.
"See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There
shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be
thrown down." That event happened in A.D. 70 in the lifetime of
those disciples.
Then, a little later, as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives with
some of his disciples, they asked him, "When shall these things
be?" They referred to the destruction of the temple, which, I
repeat, actually did occur in their lifetime in A.D. 70. But then
the disciples added another question. "... And what shall be the
sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" The disciples
expected the end of the world in their own lifetime, so they
connected this question with the destruction of the temple. Jesus
knew, of course, the end of the world would not occur for more than
another 1,950 years. So he answered only their first question
first, for the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70.
Jesus then said, "Take heed that no man deceive you." He was
speaking to his own disciples about being deceived in their
lifetimes. He continued, "For many shall come in my name, saying I
[Jesus] am Christ; and shall deceive many." How could they be
deceived by the teaching that Jesus was the Christ? Many did come
in his name claiming to represent him, saying that Jesus was the
Christ and they deceived the many even in that very first century.
Let me explain a very important fact here. Soon after Christ's
ascension to heaven and the founding of the church in A.D. 31, a
violent controversy arose, according to church history, as to
whether the gospel to be proclaimed was the gospel OF Christ, or a
gospel ABOUT Christ. The latter won out. False prophets did arise
in the first century, saying Jesus was the Christ, but omitting
altogether Jesus' gospel which was the message of the coming world
ruling kingdom of God to rule all nations after Christ's Second
Coming.
Different Gospel Preached
In Galatians 1:6-7, we see they were already preaching a different
gospel than Jesus' gospel of the kingdom of God.
The apostle Paul also spoke of these false prophets preaching
a different gospel in II Corinthians, the 11th chapter. To the
church in the very first century, he wrote: "But I fear, lest by
any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so
your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have
not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not
received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might
well bear with him" (verses 3-4).
Of those false prophets claiming to speak in Jesus' name, Paul
added: "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel;
for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore
it is no great thing if his [Satan's] ministers also be transformed
as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to
their works" (verses 13-15).
These were actually the ministers of Satan the devil, but came
in Jesus' name, saying that Jesus was the Christ. However, they
misrepresented Jesus, so that in fact they were preaching about
"another Jesus" -- a different Jesus (verse 4).
Just What was Jesus' Gospel?
Jesus came as a messenger from God bearing a message about the
coming kingdom of God to take over and rule all nations. That was
Jesus' gospel. Notice the gospel which Jesus proclaimed.
In Mark 1:1, it begins to relate the beginning of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. It mentions how John the Baptist prepared the way,
and how Jesus was baptized by John. Then in verse 14, "Now after
that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the
gospel of the kingdom of God" what gospel did Jesus preach? -- "the
gospel of the kingdom of God." That is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That is the gospel proclaimed by the apostle Paul to gentiles (Acts
20:25, 28:23, 31).
Mark this well. That gospel was not proclaimed to the world
for 1,900 years. In the very first century, they turned to a
different gospel -- a gospel about Christ, but not the gospel OF
Christ. Read that again. To this very day, nearly all churches and
evangelists preach their own gospel ABOUT Christ, but not the
gospel OF Christ about the coming kingdom of God to rule the world.
For 1,900 years traditional Christianity has failed to preach
about. Jesus as coming KING and world ruler in the coming kingdom
of God to replace Satan on the throne of the whole earth. A FALSE
GOSPEL has been universally proclaimed.
Now with all this in mind, return to Jesus' prophecy in
Matthew 24. He was warning his own disciples about false prophets
coming in his name saying he, Jesus was the Christ, and deceiving
the MANY -- not the few, but the MANY. That started in the very first
century soon after the church was founded and has continued to this
very day. It is true almost universally in a professed Christianity
to this minute.
True Gospel Withheld 1,900 Years
But in January 1934, Jesus Christ began proclaiming through me for
the first time in 1,900 years the true gospel of the kingdom of
God. It spread coast to coast across the United States and Canada.
Nineteen years later, January 1953, that gospel went out on the
world's most powerful radio station, Radio Luxembourg, to all
Europe and Britain, and almost immediately after that on other
radio stations in Taiwan, Radio Ceylon, Radio Monte Carlo, stations
in South America and elsewhere. Soon it was going to Australia, New
Zealand and many other parts of the world.
And now, at last, we can say that gospel has gone into every
nation on earth.
Now proceed with Jesus' prophecy: Matthew 24:5, Jesus had said
many would come in his name pretending to be his ministers, yet
deceiving the many. That did happen in their lifetime in the first
century and has continued even since our program went on the air in
1934, and the same gospel Jesus and the apostles preached began
going out in the PLAIN TRUTH magazine, which now has reached into
every nation on earth, with a circulation of over eight million
households every issue. Notice, now what Jesus said in verse six,
"And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not
troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end
is not yet." In other words the end of the world was not yet in
their lifetime. In verse seven, "For," continuing, "nation shall
rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be
famines and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places." Verse
8, "All these are the beginning of sorrows."
All these thing have continued from the first century. Verse
9. "Then they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill
you ...." These things did happen to those very disciples. Most or
all of the apostles were martyred except the apostle John.
The Sign of the "End of the World"
Then in verse 14 Jesus comes to answer his disciples' second
question: "... and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the
end of the world?" (verse 3). In verse 14 he answered that
question, Jesus himself knowing it would not happen until some
nineteen hundred years later. Here is Jesus' own answer to when the
end of the world would come.
"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the
world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."
That gospel was not preached to the world from about the middle of
the first century until near the middle of the twentieth century.
Jesus was speaking, not of the end of the earth's existence,
but of the end of this world this age this present civilization in
a world ruled by Satan, who still sits on the throne of the whole
earth. However, remember Satan sits on that throne only because God
allows it. But God shows us in Bible prophecies, not the date or
the year, but the approximate time when he will send Jesus Christ
to end this world.
Basic Law of Coming World Government
At that time, Jesus Christ will come in all the supreme power and
glory of God to sit on earth's throne and rule over all nations. He
will then set up the kingdom of God, which will be the government of God (not of Satan) in the hands of the born
family of God under Christ, ruling all nations with the government
of God.
All governments are based on foundational laws. The
foundational law of the government of God over the whole world will
be the law of God. That law may be expressed in the one word
"LOVE." Jesus magnified that law to mean love toward God and love
toward neighbor. This, in turn, was magnified by the Ten
Commandments -- the first four giving four broad principles defining
love toward God, the last six commandments defining in broad
principles love toward neighbors.
This very work of God, from which you have received this
booklet, is one of the evidences that the end of this world of
Satan and civilization as we know it is very near its end.
The Great Tribulation
In these days, after the proclaiming of the gospel of the kingdom
of God, "... shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the
beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And
except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be
saved [alive]: but for the elect's sake those days shall be
shortened" (verses 21 and 22).
Many other scriptures show that conditions will become more
frightful than ever before or ever shall be again on earth. Such
conditions are rapidly escalating at this moment. Person is against
person, even within a large proportion of families. Group is
against group. Nation is against nation. Violence is escalating as
never before in history. Terrorism is throwing fear and
consternation into people all over the world.
Apostle Paul's warning
Truly we have come to the time warned of by the apostle Paul, in II
Timothy 3, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times
shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous,
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors'
heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof: ... ever
learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth"
(verses 1-5, 7).
This is a prophecy, as it plainly states, for the last days.
When I was a little boy, ninety years ago, those conditions were
not true or escalating as they have been within the last twenty or
thirty years.
Now notice again, Jesus said in Matthew 24:22, that except
these terrifying days should be cut short, no flesh would be saved
alive. Not a human being would survive.
A prophecy in Ezekiel 6:6 states, "In all your dwelling places
the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be
desolate ...." That prophecy is speaking of this same time. The
weapons have never existed in all history that could have laid all
cities waste until the hydrogen bomb of some thirty years ago. How
significant that this became possible only during the time while
this gospel of the kingdom was going from nation to nation into all
the world for a witness to all nations.
Great Tribulation Cut Short
But, here comes the world's one and only great and supreme hope.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:22 that "... for the elects' sake [his one
true church] those days shall be shortened." In other words, God
will not move to cut short the continuation of this present
civilization as we know it, until humanity has come to the very
brink of its last gasp. If God delayed longer, human science,
technology, engineering and government would be the Frankenstein
monster that would blast every living person out of existence.
God is not going to intervene or send Jesus Christ to set up
a better civilization and the wonderful, happy, peace-loving world
tomorrow, until humanity and its leaders have had to admit their
utter failure in providing peaceful, happy and useful lives on this
earth. Even today, most people in the Western world do not want to
hear much about God. They want God to "keep himself out of their
lives."
The very first man God created. Adam, rejected the tree of
life which meant reliance on God and the gift of eternal life from God. Instead he chose to rely on himself and his own mind
to guide his life and solve all his problems. To this very day, the
nations and the leaders of this world still try to rely on
themselves and human attempts at solution of their escalating
problems. The world still refuses to rely on God.
It is only when the world and its leaders have come to the
place where they have to realize their utter helplessness before
their own problems and that their only hope from here on is
reliance on and obedience to God, that God will intervene and bring
about the end of this world by sending Jesus Christ.
When Jesus does come in all the dazzling splendor and the
power and the glory of the great Creator God, as the King of kings
and the Lord of lords, humanity is going to be forced to realize
that only reliance on God can save humans alive and bring in peace
with happiness, joy, and invigorating productivity.
Also Foretold by Daniel
Now once again back to the 12th chapter of Daniel. Just after he
spoke of the time of the end (Daniel 11:40), Daniel speaks also of
the same great tribulation -- a time of trouble greater than ever
before or ever to come." And at that time shall Michael [a great
archangel standing against Satan] stand up, the great prince which
standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time
of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that
same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every
one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
life ..." (Daniel 12:1, 2).
This is speaking of the Second Coming of Christ when the dead
in Christ shall rise first. "For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, and with
the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we
[the saved of God's true church] which are alive and remain shall
be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in
the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4:16,
17).
Meeting Christ in the Air -- Where Then?
And where do we go from there? In that same day Jesus' feet will
descend on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem on the east
(Zech. 14:4). (Write for our free book "The Wonderful World
Tomorrow -- What It Will be Like, which explains in detail the world
to come.)
We read in Revelation 20:1-2 that at the time of Christ's
coming, Satan shall be removed from the throne of world rulership.
Jesus Christ will then sit on that throne over the whole earth. In
Revelation 3:21, Jesus said to those in his own true church, that
if we overcome Satan and the evils of this world, he will grant
that we will sit with him on that throne.
Jesus also said in Revelation 2:26-27 that if we, his own
people, overcome we will be given power over the nations, and we
shall rule them, under Christ. In Revelation 5:10, he says that we
who are true believers in his own church shall be priests and
kings, and we shall reign on the earth. .