What will be the sign of Christ's coming? (6)

Read Luke 17:26-30.

1)    Signs of Christ’s return in the realm of morals.  The earth will experience extreme wickedness in the days before Christ’s returns.

a)     As in the days of Noah, Gen. 6:1-13.  People’s lives will be consumed with eating and drinking (the over-indulgence of the God-given desires), marrying and giving in marriage (taking lightly the most fundamental of all human relationships), extreme sinfulness (as in Romans 1:30 perhaps, inventors of evil), increased violence, evil imaginations and great moral corruption.  

b)    As in the days of Lot, Gen. 11-9.  Sin will be business as usual with no thoughts about God or the judgment to come.  Not only will there be the indulgence in eating and drinking but the Bible makes a note of increased participation in and acceptance of homosexuality (cf. also Rom. 1:26-28 where this is the end result of man’s turning from God.

c)     In addition the Bible speaks of family disintegration (Matt. 24:38; 2 Tim. 3:2; Matt. 10:21), hatred (Matt. 24:10,12) and selfishness (2 Tim. 3:1-5) as defining the moral structure of the last days.  

Note particularly the description of morality in the 2 Timothy passage and also of the admonition of the apostle: from such people turn away.  The extreme wickedness of humanity is to be contrasted in the last days to the godly lives of the people of God!  There is another description of this sad state of affairs in 1 Tim. 4:1-5 followed by instructions to Timothy to warn believers of this and to call them to holiness.  

Likewise Peter, in 2 Peter 3, warns of difficult times when scoffers will deny the return of Christ (v1-7).  He assures believers that Christ will indeed return (v8-10) and then asks, in light of all this, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness (v11)?  The answer is clear: Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless (v14).  And then note: You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (v17-18).

We will conclude our study of the signs of Christ’s return in our next Saturday blog by considering the signs that have to do with the nation of Israel.