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The Culmination of the Ages

Acts 2:17 –And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.
We are living in what the Bible identifies as the last days. Some would question if we are really living in the last days. In Acts 2:14-18 the Apostle Peter preached the inaugural sermon of the New Testament Church.  In his first sermon he quotes the Prophet Joel in verse 17, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh.”  In the opening moments of the birth of the New Testament Church Peter is identifying these are the last days.
In these days of political division, confusion, wars and rumors of wars, and natural disasters, we can rest in the fact that God has the times and seasons under His control.  The God we serve is the sovereign God of the universe. He is unequaled in power, wisdom, majesty, and knowledge.  Revelation 4:11 says, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for you created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.”
The disciples came to Jesus privately in Matthew 24:3 which much the same questions we are asking today. Let’s join the conversation. “Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” 
Jesus answers this question in Matthew 24:4-8, “And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
I believe we are living in the culmination of the ages. Jesus is coming.  The next event of God’s prophetic calendar is the Rapture of the Church.  Jesus made this promise in John 14:1-3, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Rev. Francis W. Dixon writes, “If we discarded all the other references in the Bible to the second advent in the Old Testament, in the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles, and the Revelation.  And if we were left with this one passage only, it would surely be enough.” We are living in the culmination of the ages. 


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