Survival Guide For Life In Days Leading To The Apocalypse

“Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.” [1]

The idea that humanity stands on the brink of annihilation is an ancient one. Nearly every culture throughout history has held some kind of doomsday theory. Among previous doomsday cults known and studied even to this day loom such figures as the seer Nostradamus, the Nineteenth century American preacher William Miller and the apocalyptic cult of Jehovah's Witnesses. Add to these numerous Christian apocalyptic groups throughout history and you realise that prophecies concerning the end of time are not a product exclusively for these early days of the Twenty-first Century.

Unsurprisingly, the occult serves as a frequent prophetic source for predictions of apocalypse, and many of the apocalyptic cults witnessed in history, and also in this present day, draw heavily, whether on purpose or through ignorance, on occultic sources. Shifting our focus to the present day we witness a number of cults presenting doomsday messages. Among these cults arising in recent decades are such groups as Heaven's Gate and the Branch Davidians. Add to these any number of “patriot” and “militia” movements with associated dangerous groups such as the neo-Nazis. However, no one should imagine that North America has a monopoly on doomsday cults. Even a casual awareness of recent newsmakers will lead the perceptive reader to recognise apocalyptic groups that include entities such as Arum Japan and the Order of the Solar Temple in Switzerland and Quebec.

Paul, writing almost two thousand years ago, penned a missive to the young pastor of the assembly in Ephesus. In that letter, the Apostle warned of the rise of such apocalyptic groups. The text before us addresses this issue, as does an earlier warning provided the same young preacher in his first letter. “The Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” [1 TIMOTHY 4:1-5]. Consider, then, how we who follow the Saviour are to respond to the challenge of the last days.

What we can say is that as revealed in the Word of God all history is moving toward a cataclysmic conclusion—this present world will end in fire, and God’s new world will begin. Without a doubt, it is this revelation that serves as the basis for uninformed and ignorant people who purport to have secret knowledge concerning what is surely coming. Let’s present an overview of events as revealed in the Word of God.

Peter spoke of this day of transition when he wrote in his second letter, “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.