7.1. Parts of the "sign" showing the presence of Jesus' kingdom has come to power are identified in Matthew 24:4-14. vs. 5 says, "for many will come on the basis of my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many" The explosion of false religion claiming to represent Christ, currently known as professed Christians, claim to represent this kingdom, but their teaching is far from the truth as explained in the Bible. These professed Christians are the ones identified in Matthew 7:21-22 ) “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. 22 Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ 23 And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew YOU! Get away from me, YOU workers of lawlessness" And also in 2Timothy 4:3 says of them, "For there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled". Further in Romans 10:2 it says, "For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God; but not according to accurate knowledge; 3 for, because of not knowing the righteousness of God but seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God".
• False Prophets – Fulfilled throughout the entire generation stemming from 1914 through the present when masses of individuals and organizations proclaiming messages that they attribute to a superhuman source but that do not originate with the true God and are not in harmony with his revealed will and purpose. I have learned that of them, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not claim to be inspired prophets.
7.2. Matthew 24:6-7 YOU are going to hear of wars and reports of wars
• Nation against Nation – Since 1914, over 100,000,000 lives have been slaughtered in war. 93% of the world was involved. Since 1945 up to 1982, there have been 270 international wars fought. It is estimated that 10’s of thousands of nuclear warheads are immediately ready for deployment. That it would only take a fraction of them to eliminate mankind from the surface of the earth. Sub-marines travel the ocean floor with enough warfare power to annihilate entire nations. An interesting website on wars and various statistics is found at http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/demowar.htm and another site is http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100925230308AAMX9ln
7.3. Matthew 24:7 Food Shortages
• Food Shortages – Nearly ¼ of the worlds population is considered as starving. The Reasoning on the Scriptures book says that 450 million people go to bed in a starving condition each night. 40-50 million die annually from lack of food. Revelation 6:6 says: “A quart of wheat for a danarius.” This scripture implies that a full days wages would be required simply to provide for a days basic food supplies.
7.4. Matthew 24:7 Earth Quakes
• Earth Quakes & other natural disasters – In just two quakes along since 1920, over 420,000 died. From 1914 up to 1991, there have been 30 major quakes. With the sensitive equipment now available, there are more than 1,000,000 quakes recorded each year. And this is with a tabulation of at least 7.5 on the Richter scale or that resulted in $5,000,000 or more in damage or that caused 100 or more deaths. On record, only 856 such quakes occurred before 1914 for the previous 2,000 years. In the 69 years after 1914, there were 605 such quakes. Therefore the average quakes since 1914 has been 20 times as great. An interesting phenomena is whether or not this scripture applies to other natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes and the like. For example there are now an average of 1,000 tornadoes alone in the U.S. Over half of them are considered major in the F3 category or above. An F3 category tornado has wind speed up to 180 mph. A category F5 tornado has a wind speed up to 260 mph, which apparently is the strongest wind speed man currently has the ability to measure.
7.5. Matthew 24:9 Persecution
• Objects of hatred – Persecution of Christians was to come, not because of political meddling but because of obeying Christ over any earthly ruler. See data on Hitler’s attacks during WWII. Matthew 13:13 says, "and YOU will be objects of hatred by all people on account of my name. But he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved."
7.6. Matthew 24:12 Increasing of lawlessness
It should be noted that the calculations of these statistics into the varying categories did not begin until the 1970’s when laws and punishment for various crimes began to be refined to what they are today. Nationwide (or across the US) since the middle of 1997, the number of people in prison was 1 in 155 citizens. Prison overcrowding is out of control nationwide and is continuing to be a burden on the governments. The cost to build one prison in Hawaii today is $120,000,000 for a prison to house only 1,000 body’s. That’s an average cost of about $120,000 per bed. From the source Justice Files, it was stated that $18,000,000 per day 365 days a year is spent in the U.S. building new prisons. There are over 125,000 elderly (over 70) people in prison in the U.S. and it costs 3 times as much to care for the elderly than for a younger person because of the medical. It costs $20,000 per year to care for a young person in good health and over $60,000 per year to care for each elderly person. To care for those elderly people in prison each year for cardiac care is $94,000,000. In Hawaii the overtime needed to pay the guards averages over the last 7 years $8,500,000 - $9,000,000 per year and on the news tonight 1/25/98 the Governor mentioned that he was perplexed about the problem and didn’t know what could be done about it except to build more prison space with money that didn’t exist. That in California in 1996, there have been 20 new prisons build, but not one new university. In years before 1914, it is true crime existed, but criminals have never been so pervasive as today. Children from age 11-14 have been known to commit crimes on a regular basis in front of a society that is helpless against them, due to existing laws. According to CNN in an April 1998 report, in the US alone, there have been more than 102,000 crimes committed by children under the age of 16 and 1 in 10 schools have experienced violent crimes in their classrooms. Included in these offenses are various types of crimes, so I have chosen 8 of the most categorized crimes taken from the Baltimore County Police Department, a major U.S. city, statistics are from 1996 for the sake of this report. Crimes in this report have not been sorted out by ethnic background, gender or age of the assailant.
1. Homicide: 34 cases per month
2. Rape: 274 cases per month
3. Robbery: 2,427 cases per month
4. Aggravated Assault: 4,673 cases per month
5. Burglary: 6.858 cases per month
6. Theft – General: 25,743 cases per month
7. Motor Vehicle Theft: 4,720 cases per month. There are 1.4 million vehicles of one sort or another being stolen each year across the nation or an average of 2,333 per month per state or as in the case of Baltimore nearly twice the nations average.
8. Arson: 403 cases per month
• Other crimes such as embezzlement, fraud, trafficking, gambling and drug related crimes have not been included in this report simply because they are too numerous to calculate for the support of this data. There are 8 major cities in the US which report more violent crimes than New York. That from 1935 to 1980 reports of violent crime has increased 1,000% while the population has increased only 78%.
9. Suicides: The highest rate in the nation is in Las Vegas where 272 were reported in 1997. This rate is nearly double any other city in the Nation which almost averages nearly one per day. The main reason quoted is a failed relationship with a potential mate. (Source: Associated Press 4/5/98)
10. Divorce: Where before 1914, divorce was unheard of, since 1914 divorces have increased to the point where records show 50% of all marriages end in divorce. It began to be taught as an acceptable answer to marital problems. Divorce was no longer a bad thing. Divorce was liberating. Extra-marital affairs were accepted and divorce’s were only natural. Child protective services came into existence in the 1970’s out of necessity to protect children from violent parents and other family members who were by now out of control.
11. Abortions: Especially fulfilled towards the end of this generation in that abortion clinics are set up without a concern as to the murdering of the unborn. That abortions are common in the marketplace of doctors and those who consider pregnancy an inconvenience. Statistics show that worldwide some 60,000,000 abortions were performed in 1992 alone. Using this average, since 1990 through 1997 there were 420,000,000 +/- abortions world wide in only 7 years. Again statistics show that the trend to agree to abort an unborn child is increasing rapidly.
12. Homosexuality: Especially fulfilled towards the end of this generation, in that many known celebrities and entertainers in any and all fields of entertainment, sports, government and religion have openly admitted to being homosexual. In many parts of the Orient, homosexual activity is rampant and openly practiced without reservations. In today’s world it is considered popular, even prevalent and is viewed as normal.
13. Good News of the Kingdom to be preached – Through 1995 end Jehovah’s Witnesses have increased to 5,199,895 members world wide and last year had 338,491 baptisms each year with approximately 4,865,060 on going bible studies world wide, with 13,147,201 attending the memorial of Christ’s death. These numbers are increasing each year. Although, increase in numbers means little on a scale of concern other than the fact that many now living have been able to discern that something is going on and they wanted answers. But Bible truths appeal to those seeking to establish a relationship with Jehovah, quantity of worshipers would not be part of the criteria in identifying the true religion.
7.7. Matthew 24:14 Good News Preached in all the inhabited earth
• Isaiah 43:10-11 – Identification of Jehovah’s Witnesses as his people. Fulfilled sometime in the mid 1930’s when the name of Jehovah’s Witnesses was adopted and accepted by the Remnant of Anointed Ones and the Great Crowd then in attendance.
• John 10:16 – Identification of the Other Sheep. Fulfilled sometime in the mid 1930’s when the separation of the Anointed and the Other Sheep were identified. Perhaps at the 1922 Cedar Point Ohio Convention.
• Isaiah 60:22 – Jehovah would speed it up in its own time. Fulfilled to a greater degree as the end draws ever nearer. Today, time seems to have been shot from the guns of expectation and anticipation as today’s hurried climate races to accomplish yesterday’s tasks tomorrow. To the point where large blocks of time seem to have faded into oblivion without so much as a recollection of remembrance. The old are wondering “what happened to my life” and “where did it all go so fast,” while the youth see no end in sight. Yet another feature of the “speeding it up” fulfillment of the prophecy was that the “little one” would become a thousand and the “small one” a mighty nation. See the section above from Matthew 24:14 and Haggai 2:7.
• Zachariah 8:23 – We will go with you people, because we have herd that God is with you people. Began its fulfillment when Jehovah’s people began actively pursuing the ministry. This scripture continues its fulfillment until the end of this system of things.
• Isaiah 2:4 – People would beat their swords into plow shares. Began its fulfillment when Jehovah’s people began actively pursuing the ministry. This scripture also continues its fulfillment until the end of this system of things as more and more people worldwide take in enough knowledge according to Jehovah’s purpose to lay down their sword of anger and choose to wait on Jehovah to address the issues of this world in a way He chooses.
• Haggai 2:7 – Jehovah will rock the nations and the desirable things will come out. Fulfilled from the mid 1930’s through the present.
• Revelation 14:6 says, "And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, and he had everlasting good news to declare as glad tidings to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people, 7 saying in a loud voice: “FEAR God and give him glory, because the hour of the judgment by him has arrived, and so worship the One who made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.”"
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