1. Signs Convergence

• Matthew 24:25 See, I have told you beforehand.

 

A. The Signs:

• Old Testament – The Seven Feasts and Seven Sabbath year

The Seven Feasts is a prophetic rehearsal of our Lord Jesus first coming and His second coming.

• Spring (Christ 1^st coming) & fall or autumn (Christ 2^nd coming).
• Christ first returned has fulfilled the spring feasts; this means He will also fulfil His second return.
• In other words, the fulfilment of the spring feasts (Passover, Unleavened bread, First fruit and Pentecost) which is Christ first coming, has ushered us into summer signifying harvest season.
• Today most prophetic teachers believe that harvest season is coming to an end and we are at the end of Elul entering Tishri, that is the second coming of Christ.

The Seven Sabbath year

Shemitah

• 7 day week leads to a Sabbath (Friday evening till sunset on Saturday).
• 7 years culminating in a Sabbatical year.
• Every seven years is a Shemitah.
• A Super Shemitah is a 7^th 7 Shemitah, a total of 49 years.
• 50^th year is a Jubilee year.

As taught by teacher Jonathan Cahn, he found out that the greatest collapse in Wall Street history took place on Elul 29. He called it the Law of the Shemitah by which the nation’s financial accounts must be wiped clean.

He also observed some interesting statistic –

• 70% of all historic to-the-day crashes are linked to the Shemitah.
• 60% of all of the greatest percentile crashes happened within 18 days of the Shemitah’s conclusion
• 100% of the greatest stock crashes since World War Two happened in a Shemitah year.
• 100% of all point crashes happened in the wake immediately following a Shemitah year.

A brief summary of the world economy and the financial market

• 1937/1938: Recession of the Great Depression; Hitler and the Holocaust.
• 7 Years later – 1945 – End of WWII Atomic bomb hits Hiroshima, America rise to power.
• 21 Years later – 1966/1967 (Jubilee Year) – World Trade Centre materialized, 6-Days War leading to Israel taking back Jerusalem.
• 7 Years later – 1973/1974 – Abortion Legalized in America, Recession, America lost their war to Vietnam, WTC buildings were dedicated on April 4, 1973, Currency and oil crisis.
• 7 Years later – 1980/1981 – 2^nd Recession.
• 7 Years later – 1987/1988 – Stock Market Crashed.
• 13 Years later – 2000/2001 – Dot-Com Bubble Crashed, Sept. 11^th 2001, Wall Street/Stock Market.
• 7 Years later – 2007/2008 – The Great Recession.
• 7 Years later – 2014/2015 – Market Collapse 14^th September 2015.
• 2014/2015 The Feast of Trumpet (Yom Teruah) marks the beginning of the 7^th Shemitah and Yom Teruah 2015 is the end of Shemitah.
• 2015 Year of repentance.
• 7 Years later leading us to 2021/22…

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A. The Signs:

• New Testament – The Seven Churches and Seven Signs

The Book of Revelation – Apostle John was about 95 years old when this book was written. He was the only Apostle left alive.

• Revelation 1 to 3 – The Seven Churches.
• Revelation 4 to 5 – The judgement of Christ.
• Revelation 6 to 18 – The Tribulation.
• Revelation 19 – The Second coming of Christ (War of Armageddon).
• Revelation 20 – The Millennium reign of Christ
• Revelation 21 & 22 – The new heaven and new earth (Eternity with Christ).

 

SCRIPTURE	CHURCH	DESCRIPTIONS	CHURCH HISTORY
Revelation 2:1-7	Ephesus	A legalistic church – A church that had lost its love.	From 30 A.D. to 95 A.D. – Started off as an Apostolic church but slide into a preoccupation on organization and doctrine resulting in being legalistic.
Revelation 2:8-11	Smyrna	A persecuted church	From 95 A.D. to about 312 A.D. – The persecuted or the martyr church.
Revelation 2:12-17	Pergamum	A liberal church – A church that is more concern about power rather than sound doctrine.	From 312 A.D. to 590 A.D. – The apostate church where emperor Constantine was converted and the church and the state were joint together, ended u becoming a corrupt church.
Revelation 2:18-29	Thyatira	A pagan church – A church that is full of cultic practices.	From 590 A.D. to 1517 A.D. – The dark pagan period when the Papacy developed and the church became full of Babylonian occultic practices. Though there was a time of reformation in 1517, it was really only partial. The Reformation produced the Protestant state churches of Europe, churches that had a reputation for being alive but were really dead because of their union with the state.
Revelation 3:1-6	Sardis	Dead church – A church appears to be alive, but actually dead.	From 1517 to about 1750 A.D. – The post-reformation period where churches were dead church and only with a reputation for being alive.
Revelation 3:7-13	Philadelphia	The true church – A true church which Jesus has nothing against her.	From 1750 A.D. – 1925 A.D. – The mission focused period where church history records the sending of missionaries out all over the world.
Revelation 3:14-22	Laodicea	Worldly and apathetic church – A lukewarm church that is “neither hot nor cold”.	Then till today – Many churches today are worldly, apathetic, apostate where they say to the world, “I am rich, I have become wealthy and have need of nothing.” But Jesus says to that church, “You are wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked.” Sadly it represents churches that have mastered the art of entertainment that rouses emotions but shuts Jesus outside.

• Today we can find all the seven kinds of churches around us.

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A. The Signs:

• New Testament – The Seven Churches and Seven Signs

Two passages of Scriptures that shows the seven signs and it is taken from Matthew 24: 4 to 14 (Luke 21:5-33) and Daniel 12:4.

Seven Signs:

1. Iniquities and Apostasy
2. International Conflicts
3. Impetuous Natural and Manmade Disasters
4. Internet world of Global Communications
5. Inception of Israel in 1948
6. Increase in Global Travel
7. Increase in knowledge and Information

 

1. Iniquities and Apostasy

False Christ and false prophets; Deception in churches and compromising Churches, hatred for Christians, demonic manifestation (1 Timothy 4:1-2), etc.:

• Matthew 24:4-5 ⁴And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
• Matthew 24:11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

1. Lawlessness and loveless resulting in hatred against God and Christians:

• Matthew 24:8-10 ⁸All these are the beginning of sorrows. ⁹“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. ¹⁰ And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
• Matthew 24:12And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

 

2. International Conflicts

• Matthew 24:6 to 7a ⁶“And you shall hear of ²wars and rumours of wars: see that you are not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. ⁷For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:

 

3. Impetuous Natural and Manmade Disasters

• Natural disasters, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, locusts’ invasion, tornados, drought, etc.
• Matthew 24:7b and there shall be ³famines (droughts & locusts), and ³pestilences, and ³earthquakes, in divers places.
• Three conditions to be called a lethal pandemic: 1. Novelty (New), 2.Mobility (Highly Contagious) &  3.Highly Lethal.
• Tuberculosis – Highly infectious.
• Ebola – Highly lethal with 90% of people died within a week. No treatment, no cure.
• With the outbreak of Covid-19 right from Wuhan, one may think that the world would have learned her lesson and stopped al eating of wild lives. Unfortunately, this is not the case like a documentary “60 Minutes” which filmed a wet market in Thailand, shows that people are still selling and eating all these wild lives. Of course, this happened not just in Thailand, but also in different parts of the world.

 

4. Internet world of global communications

• Gospel preached to all the world – Today we are able to know what is going on around the world with modern telecommunication and internet.
• Matthew 24:13-14 ¹³ But he who endures to the end shall be saved. ¹⁴ And this ⁵gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

 

5. Inception of Israel in 1948

• Parable of the fig tree – The birth of Israel in May 1948.
• Matthew 24:32-35 ³² “Now learn this ⁶parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is³³ So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! ³⁴ Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

 

6. Increase in Global Travel

• Daniel 12:4 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro,
• The number of scheduled passengers boarded by the global airline industry from 2004 to 2020 rose into the billions. The year 2020 has seen 723 Billion travellers (statista – https://www.statista.com/statistics/564717/airline-industry-passenger-traffic-globally/)

 

7. Increase in knowledge and Information

• Daniel 12:4; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
• Not only advance knowledge of science and technology, but also Spiritual knowledge.

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B. The Steps

• What do we need to do?
• Matthew 24:45-51 (Luke 21:34-38) ⁴⁵ “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? ⁴⁶ Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. ⁴⁷ Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. ⁴⁸ But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ ⁴⁹ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, ⁵⁰ the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, ⁵¹ and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• The steps are for us to determine, but the key is to be found doing the will of God.
• It is time to be serious with our walk with God, to get right with God by doing His will. We do not want to just know His word but be doers of His word.
• Why do we need to do? Because Jesus has warned us and He has already told us about all these signs.
• Matthew 24:25 See, I have told you beforehand.
• The signs have converged and we do not want to presume that we still have a lot of time, because Christ return is imminent.
• Let us be found faithful doing what He wants us to do.

 

Application

• FAITHFUL TO DO: Let us take time to care for our…
• Spirit (Our walk with God) – TRUST GOD besides the reading of the Bible, prayer, fasting, etc.
• Heart, soul and mind – Guard it well and fill it right…
• Body – Exercise, eat right, water, air, sunlight, rest…