My dear readers,

Answering Remaining Questions from Calvary Pandan Church Camp 2025 (5)

Question: Throughout church history, people have thought their time was the end times based on the signs (eg: world wars). In hindsight, however, there was more to be fulfilled regarding the end-time signs that had not manifested at those points. In applying that to our times today, we constantly speak of being in the end times and the generation that would likely witness the rapture. How confident are we of this reality relative to those in the past? Are there still signs that have yet to be fulfilled? Relatedly, is this exercise in speculation biblical?

Answer: The last days began with the first coming of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1:1-2:“¹God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, ²Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” God emphasised the doctrine of the last days when He inaugurated the local church witness in Acts 2. God also revealed that the last days had begun and will end with heaven's destruction. Acts 2:16-21: “¹⁶But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; ¹⁷And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: ¹⁸And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: ¹⁹And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: ²⁰The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: ²¹And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

The meaning of “last days”:

• For the past four thousand plus years, since the end of the global flood in Noah’s time, man has been permitted to rule one another. Man divided God’s earth into many parts that they call “nations”. They have been fighting and killing one another since then. God commanded man to disperse and replenish the earth, but God did not call that period the “last days”. The “last days” countdown only began from Christ’s birth. The end of the “last days” will be at Christ’s return. The entire period from the beginning to the end is known as the “last days”. When Christ returns, the Millennium will begin, where Christ will rule the world for 1,000 years. At the end of the Millennium, this old heaven and earth will vanish away, i.e. cease to exist (cf. Rev 20:11), and God will create a new heaven and new earth (cf. Rev 21 and 22). The “last days” refer to the last days of man’s rule.

• The “last days” also refer to the end of the local church witness. The local church witness will end when all believers are raptured; all who remain behind are goats. The Antichrist will hijack the local church, and it will be under His evil control as he deceives the world into believing that he is Christ.

• The “last days” also means that the sins of the world are full, and God will judge and destroy this world by fire! Everything that man built will be destroyed by fire. 2 Peter 3:7: “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

• The “last days” also means the destruction of this heaven and earth. God will create a new heaven and new earth before the Millennium begins, for the old heaven and old earth will be unliveable because of the fiery destruction by God. Isaiah 65:17: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”

The last-days doctrine warns every believer to stop living for the things of the world as they are no better than the filthy rubbish that is burned by fire at the refuse dump. Believers must live for Christ. Just because the return of Christ will not happen in a particular generation of believers’ lifetime does not mean that the doctrine of the last days is meaningless to them. The doctrine of the last days is part of God’s prophecies. It is a specific kind of prophecy known as eschatology. God gave prophecies specifically for His children and not so much for the world that rejects Christ. God’s children must understand prophecies as their Heavenly Father informing them of what He will do in the future so that they will live their present life in light of their guaranteed future. God rejects the belief that is only in the heads, and lives are not lived accordingly. Those who believe this way are lying to themselves and are living in delusion. Their witness for Christ will be sinful and carnal. They do not live in preparation to meet the Lord. They cannot say like Paul: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21)!

Believers today are two thousand years nearer to the return of Christ. The return of Christ is divided into two parts. The first part is the return of Christ FOR believers. It will comprise:

-- the 1^st Resurrection for believers who have died in Christ (all Old and New Testament saints), they will receive the glorified body. When Christ returns, He will bring the saints in heaven (in spirit) with Him, and their bodies will be resurrected from earth and united with their spirits in the air;

-- the Rapture for believers who are still alive; they will be caught up, i.e. raptured. 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17: “¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. ¹⁵For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ¹⁷Then we 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.”

These two groups of believers will receive glorified bodies as they meet Jesus Christ in the air, and Christ will usher them into heaven to be with God.

The second part is the return of Christ WITH the church. Jesus Christ will descend from the clouds with myriads of angels and glorified saints to fight the Antichrist at the battle of Armageddon (cf. Rev 19). He will defeat them with a word that comes out of His mouth. The Antichrist and the False Prophet will be cast into the Lake of Fire in their mortal bodies, and Satan will be cast into the Bottomless Pit and remain there for 1,000 years (cf. Rev 20) while Christ rules for 1,000 years.

Signs that would take place before the return of Christ FOR the church:

• The Gospel will be preached in all the world -- Matt 24:14; - FULFILLED
• There shall arise false Christs and false prophets showing great signs and wonders -- Matt 24:24; -- FULFILLED, namely the Charismatic Movement;
• A Falling Away – 2 Thess 2:3; Rev 13:8; -- FULFILLED, namely the Ecumenical Movement;
• Days of Noah -- Matt 24:36-41; -- FULFILLED, namely a world that ignores these signs and live as if life on earth will never end;
• Days of Sodom and Gomorrha – Luke 17:28-30; -- FULFILLED, namely the global acceptance of fornication and homosexuality as a normal way of life.

Signs that will take place before the return of Christ WITH the church, including all the above and the following (all not fulfilled yet, after the seven years of Great Tribulation):

• The Abomination of Desolation stands in the Holy Place -- Matt 24:15;
• The Great Tribulation -- Matt 24:21; Rev 6, 8-9, 11, 15-16;
• Darkening of the sun and moon, and stars fall from heavens -- Matt 24:29; Acts 2:19-20;
• Rapture and First resurrection – 1 Thess 4:13-17;
• Identity of the Antichrist revealed – 2 Thess 2:4, 7-9; 1Jn 2:18; Rev 12, 13, 17;
• One World Church -- Rev 13:8;
• The Battle of Armageddon -- Rev 16:15-21;
• Unleashing of the seven Trumpet Judgments and seven Vial Judgments – Rev 8, 9, 16;
• The Destruction of Babylon (capital city of the Antichrist) – Rev 18.

It is not speculation when preaching and watching, for the signs are based on the Holy Bible. However, when what is not mentioned in the Bible is preached, it becomes speculation. For example, God and Jesus told us that man does not need to know the date and time of Christ’s return, but the event of His return is guaranteed. However, some preachers have set dates and times for Christ’s return and Christ did not return as they had speculated. These preachers did a great disservice to the cause of Christ when they speculated. Those who believed these false prophets have been devastated to the point of not wanting to believe in Christ or have given up Christianity entirely.

All prophecies are to be viewed as our heavenly Father’s revelation to His children so that they live their present lives in light of what they believe their heavenly Father will and can certainly do in the future. In this manner, prophecies reveal the reality of their faith. Believing in the head and agreeing with the lips without transformed lives in light of the prophecies is not true faith but false. For example, the prophecies that pertain to the New Heaven and New Earth of Revelation 21 and 22 will be fulfilled after the Great White Throne judgment. Other prophecies will be fulfilled at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, i.e. after Christ’s 1000-year reign. They are all beyond everyone’s lifetime! Prophecies are usually designed for the future, and some are beyond the recipient’s lifetime, like the prophecies God gave Abraham that one day his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in heaven. Abraham believed God, obeyed God, and lived the rest of his years in the land of Canaan as God commanded him, even though when he died, Canaan was full of Canaanites. God allowed him to live long enough to be with his two grandsons, Esau and Jacob, for 15 years before he died. 

Do you live in holiness and righteousness according to the Holy Scriptures, believing that this world is not your home, but the New Heaven and New Earth is? Amen.