I had a vacation last week with some significant time to reflect and the one thing I have been reminded of is that when The End draws near, it will be God Himself shaking the world.
"As he [Jesus] was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately and said, "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" Jesus answered them, "Watch out, that no one misleads you. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will mislead many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of birth pains. "Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations because of my name. Then many will be led into sin, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many, and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold. But the person who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." Matthew 24:3-14
Is this the 'end times'? Honestly, who knows. I see some Christian talking heads discussing it and saying "this is it", but they don't know any more than you or I know. The End is coming, I know that much, whether these are signs of it or not. What stood out to me when reading and thinking about this passage again was the sentence "Make sure that you are not alarmed". God is the one who is shaking things up, and not because He is some kind of sadist, but because He wants us to reach for him. He is the one who is going to bring about the return of the Kingdom...because its on his time, He must be the one who brings it about. In His great mercy, He has told us that before its too late, he is going to give us one good last shake...
