WHAT ARE THE COMPOSITE SIGNS JESUS TOLD HIS FOLLOWERS TO LOOK FOR AS PROOF OF HIS PRESENCE? (Finale) A Time to “Begin Fleeing” God’s greatest Prophet, Jesus Christ, pointed to other detailed features of the composite sign that should be heeded by those who would escape destruction. What are they? He said: “Therefore, when you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, as spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place, (let the reader use discernment,) then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains. For then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again.”—Matthew 24:3, 15, 16, 21. 16 That prophecy had a preliminary fulfillment when Roman armies invaded Judea and Jerusalem in 66 C.E., returning again to desolate the Jewish system in 70 C.E. However, Jesus’ words carry an even more ominous message for all of us living in the 1980’s. How do we know? Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 C.E. was not the greatest in history. There have been far worse disasters both before and since then, involving more suffering and loss of life. But this prophecy speaks about a tribulation that has no equal. It is in fact the last, the climactic, tribulation, for such tribulation ‘will not occur again.’ What, then, is the “disgusting thing”? We are told to look for this “standing in a holy place.” Do we see the modern-day fulfillment? In modern times a “disgusting thing” opposed to God’s kingdom and far mightier than Imperial Rome stands in a “holy place.” It is the U.N., made up now of 157 nations and including superpowers that possess enough nuclear armaments to blast mankind off the face of the earth many times over. This successor to the League of Nations is “disgusting” to Jehovah God and Jesus Christ and his disciples because it presumes to stand in the place of God’s kingdom in the hands of his installed King Jesus Christ, in the heavens. (Matthew 5:35; Mark 13:14) But Christendom also claims to have a “holy place.” It is her realm of operation that has already been taken over in large sections of the earth by radical members of the U.N. Soon Christendom’s religious systems, and any claims she makes to being a “holy place,” will be desolated just as completely as was the anti-Christian Jewish system in 70 C.E. As Revelation 17:5, 16, 17 shows, all segments of false religion worldwide—“Babylon the Great”—will be devastated at that same time, preliminary to the war at Armageddon, the finale of the “great tribulation.”—Revelation 16:14, 16; 19:11-21. Jesus also foretold that, amid these worsening world conditions, a concentrated and global preaching campaign would be carried on by his faithful followers. Recall his words: “And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth, for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14) No such earth-wide activity is being conducted by Christendom’s clergy, for they are friendly to this world’s system of things. (James 4:4) Who, then, is fulfilling this command? Have not Jesus’ loyal followers on earth, who are not part of the world, been busy preaching that Kingdom news publicly and from house to house for more than 100 years now, introducing themselves since 1931 as Jehovah’s witnesses? (Isaiah 43:10, 12) And have they not blanketed the earth with billions of pieces of literature containing the “good news” that soon now the Kingdom, or government, ruled by Christ from heaven will completely replace all imperfect and selfish human rulerships? Their activity not only has brought good news by pointing out the meaning of the signs of the times but has served also as a divine warning of God’s coming day of vengeance.—Isaiah 61:2.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 02:16:04 +0000
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