What End Of The World Timeline Would The Apostles Support?

If you want to talk about something that stirs a lot of interest, end-time prophecies are high on the list.  I hear about it from my coworkers, on podcasts, sometimes in the news even.

Theories abound about what people say is going to happen, and when.

But manmade theories are not really going to get us anywhere in our knowledge of God.  As Christians, we need to pull our ideas directly from scripture, and within the full context of the complete word of God.

So, since the writers of the New Testament were directly inspired by the Holy Spirit, and since the apostles were witnesses of what Jesus Himself did and spoke, I think we should endorse the end time prophecy timeline that they used.

So, drumroll please, the end of the world will be……..when God decides it’s time.

Matthew 24:36 – “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.

We’re in the last days.  We’ve been in the last days since Christ ascended back into heaven, and we’ll be in the last days until Judgment Day makes an end of the earth (II Thessalonians 1:8-10, Acts 17:31, I John 4:7, Matthew 12:36, Romans 2:5).

God always acts as the time is right.  He sees everything, He knows everything, and is Sovereign to act as He chooses.

He’s waited this long on purpose, but Jesus is still going to return.

II Peter 3:9-10 says “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”

So is that it?  Since there is no timeline and fancy charts from the apostles, are we just left without instruction?

No, God still has plenty to say about it in His word.  We don’t know the time, but we do know the steps to take.  And here they are:  1. Be ready (Matthew 13:33-37); 2. Be holy (II Peter 3:11); 3. Warn people (I Corinthians 4:14); 4. Pray (James 5:16); 5. Strengthen each other (Romans 14:19).

All of us will see the Day of Judgment.  It’s unavoidable.  But if we are in Christ, we can pass through it by His blood and grace.   So, let’s do everything we can to build up each other to draw nearer to Christ, and trust in God to handle the “when”.