Matthew-110

 

The subject of this camp, “Waiting and Preparing for the Coming of the Lord” is a very difficult subject to tackle, as a matter of fact. There are two messages, and what I would aim to do in this first message is to draw a picture of the events leading up to the Lord’s Coming. It is very hard to prepare for something, when you don’t even have the general idea. So we need to have a picture of what all these events are that lead up to the Lord’s Coming. Then tomorrow, the Lord willing, we will speak about what the Lord Jesus teaches on how to prepare for his coming.

I am not sure if many of you want to hear that. My messages are never like honey-coated pills; they are rather hard to swallow, as some of you who know me already know. It’s not because I want to make them difficult, but because those are the words of the Lord Jesus; and you can evaluate them for yourselves. As the Lord Jesus’ disciples, we fight a very intense spiritual battle, and you will dis­cover how intense this battle is especially in these days prior to the Lord’s coming. So we need to pay careful attention to the Word of God because it has to do with our survival. My words are not worth anything; it is the Lord Jesus’ words that you have to listen to. But it is precisely his words that are so hard to swallow. He said, “The road to salvation is a very narrow one; the gate into the kingdom is very narrow” (Mt. 7:13-14). I hope you will begin to get a picture of just how narrow they are by the end of this message.

The Lord Jesus’ coming is like the dawn, the light that is ahead of us, but the night before the dawn is the darkest. Many will not survive the night to see the dawn. I wonder whether you will be among those who will be able to come through to the dawn. That will depend on the extent you are prepared to prepare. This will be tomorrow’s message.

 

We’re certain the Lord Jesus is coming, but don’t know exactly when

This subject is difficult to handle in its details. I am an exegete of the Word of God. Anyone who understands exegesis, that is, the detailed examination of the texts involved, will understand how difficult some of these texts are. We want to be very faithful to the Word of God. So the general picture is clear, but the details are much more difficult to handle. In the time available to us, it will be very difficult to discuss the details.

What is clear is that the Lord Jesus is coming! We can have a general idea about when he is coming, but we cannot be specific about the day and the hour. As I said, some of the exact details are difficult, and some are impossible to work out. The effect of all this is to keep us on our toes the whole time. The first problem in dealing with the subject of the Lord Jesus’ coming is he already said no man knows about that day and that hour. His coming will be like a thief in the night (Mt. 24:43; Lk. 12:39; 1 Thess. 5:2). How do you prepare for something when you don’t know when it will happen? How exactly do you prepare for the coming of a thief in the night?

 

After the war, I looked for my father to return as a small boy

One of the earliest things I could remember as a very young boy, when the aggression from Japan started the war, was the screaming of artillery shells fired over Shanghai from the guns of Japanese ships. My father, who was a very patriotic man, was intensely in­volved in the defense of the country. As the Japanese ring tightened around Shanghai with their war ships in the harbor, he slipped out of Shanghai through the attacking forces to continue the battle from Chongqing, the wartime capital. That left my mother and myself stranded behind enemy lines in Shanghai. In other words, he was prepared to leave his family, employment, everything in order to fight this war. Such was his devotion to the country! The war dragged on for years and years in China. When he left, I was just about five years old. I still remember waving him off on a small boat, as he slipped down the harbor and I did not see him again until six years later. So I was about eleven by the time he returned.

As a young boy of five, of course, I almost had no impression of my father. Six years later, I did not even know what he looked like. I remember the day my mother said, “Daddy is coming back. We have to welcome him.” There was victory! I saw these Japanese soldiers kept under the bayonets of Chinese troops after the defeat of Japan, but where was Dad? My mother said, “He is coming.” I said, “When?” She said, “One of these days.” I said, “Why can’t you tell me when?” She said, “Because I don’t know.” Right after the war, the country was chaotic. Boats did not run on schedule because it was wartime. Nobody knows which boat arrives, if it arrives at all. As a matter of fact, we didn’t even know by what means he was coming. Would it be overland? Or by boat? So how do you prepare for something that you don’t know when it will happen?

I think God already taught me this lesson as a little boy about the Lord Jesus’ coming. I remember standing on the street looking left and right for anyone who I imagined might be my father. I had a vague idea of what he looked like because my mother showed me a small photograph. In those days, the photographs were black and white or gray, not in color. I looked at the photograph and then at the men to see if that was my father. It was a bit hard to identify. Of course, I didn’t know how tall he was, and even if my mother told me, it would not register. And would he still have the same hairstyle? Or would he be bald? I might be looking for someone with a lot of hair when he was some bald person! There I was, looking up and down the street without any clue of what I was supposed to be looking for. I still remember that I would stand there from morning to night, looking left and right at every man who was carrying a little bag coming by, and wondering if that was my father. I doubted whether my father would have any idea of what I looked like. A big change had happened between a boy of five and a boy of eleven, so there was also no way for him to recognize me. We could have walked past each other without any idea that we were father and son. I don’t know how many days I stood on the street looking for someone I didn’t know, but I stood there faithfully, wondering which one was my father.

I heard that my father had become quite a high government official. As I stood on the street, I could perhaps look out for someone es­corted by a number of soldiers, and they all wore shining helmets and nice uniforms. So I might see my father if I see a group of soldiers coming down the street. But he was not in the military, so I thought maybe he would arrive with plainclothes police. But if they are wear­ing plain clothes, how could I tell? Maybe I’ll see a group of people walking close together, but I don’t know what plainclothes police are supposed to wear. Maybe they wear suits, or maybe just shirts. I didn’t even know what to look for. Certainly, if there were any soldiers, they would not have come into the house. I would still have been taken by surprise. I suppose if I saw a few soldiers, I might say, “Oh yes, this must be my Dad,” but I didn’t see any soldiers. In the end, I don’t know whether my father arrived with soldiers or with­out soldiers, because he was alone when I saw him in our home.

One early morning, my mother dragged me out of bed. I could hardly open my eyes. My mother said, “There is Dad!” I opened my sleepy eyes with great difficulty, and looked at someone whom I didn’t have a clue who he was. He came and hugged me and I was thinking, “Ah! This is the one!” He must have been very disappointed because I stood there like a piece of wood. I had no idea how to react; I just stared at him in a very blank way. So he had to spend the following days and weeks trying to gain my friendship. First, I had to look at that picture and look at him again and thought, “Is he really my Dad? He is not kidding me, is he? Maybe my mother was thinking I have waited so long and would be so disappointed, that perhaps a substi­tute could make me feel a bit better.” Gradually, I realized that this was indeed my father.

Now I feel a bit this way again about waiting for the coming of the Lord. I am sort of standing there every day asking, “When is he com­ing?” Of course, I know that we don’t know the exact date, but do we even know what we are looking for?

 

A general outline of terrifying events leading to the Lord Jesus’ coming

When I study the New Testament, I am having the same problem because the details are not clear although the general outline is clear. Scripture says, “When he comes, he will come with tens of thousands of his angels” (Jude 14). That should make him easy to identify. The problem is that if you look more carefully at the details, this comes at a later stage. When he first comes, it may not be in that fashion, for you cannot say that he comes as a thief in the night with tens of thousands of his angels! It means there is an element of secrecy and surprise! We thought he is coming at dawn, but he has already come as a thief in the night!

In the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Mt. 25:1-13), when was the announcement that the bridegroom has arrived? It was at midnight, not in the morning. Clearly, there are two stages of his coming, and this complicates the whole issue. All ten were waiting for his coming but unfortunately, five were caught unprepared. Perhaps they thought all they had to be prepared for was to hear the trumpets sound, and the tens of thousands of angels. Surely, all that cannot fail to wake them up! When the Lord Jesus first came, he also took everyone by surprise. The king came but he did not come in the way the people expected. He was born in a manger! God who sends the Lord Jesus knows how to surprise us.

As I said earlier, it will be difficult to work out the details because for one thing, we don’t have the time, and the other thing is you might find it hard to understand. But I will try to make the picture easier for you to understand without oversimplifying, because oversimpli­fication is misleading, and the last thing we want is to be misled in a subject like this. With this warning in mind, let me try to picture the events leading up to his coming for you based on the Scriptures. I hope that you can at least get the overall picture.

 

1. Love of many in the church will grow cold

Let us start from where we are now, or attend to the events that are very soon to happen, or have actually already started. The picture that we have from the Scripture is that the night gets darker and darker. And I am afraid that in the simplifying process, I cannot convey to you just how terrifying—and I use the word “terrifying” advisedly—is what waits for us in the immediate future. If you cannot grasp how terrifying this whole thing is, then I have failed. The Lord Jesus’ Coming will be at a time to bring these terrifying events to an end, but I fear many will not survive until that point in time. Many will die in that process, perhaps through persecution on a level that you cannot even begin to imagine. Many will not survive spiritually. That is what Scripture is warning us about. It is a terrible picture that is portrayed for us if we have any eyes to see and any ears to hear.

How can I portray this for you? Let me turn to some textual difficulties. (I am going to avoid giving you a lot of Scriptures although I can go on and on with Scripture alone, but as I said, I will try to keep it simple since we don’t have the time.) Take for example, Matthew 24:12 says, “And the love of many shall grow cold because of lawlessness.” This means you might be very enthusiastic at this present time, but that enthusiasm will vanish. For those of you who have served God in the church for many years, one of the things we see is this phenomenon of people whose fire disappears, whose love grows cold.

 

2. Lawlessness in the church

The Lord Jesus says that it is because of lawlessness. Exegetically, this is very difficult to handle. From the point of view of exposition, what lawlessness is being referred to here? If it refers to lawlessness in the world, then why should lawlessness in the world affect your love for God and for his people? Here is another attempt to show you some of the difficulties in dealing with details. If we look at actual situations in the world, does it mean that when there is lawlessness in the world, then the love of those who love God grows cold corres­pondingly? Is that the case? When law collapses in society, does that result in people no longer loving God? Does it follow logically or factually that when there is a high level of law and order in society, that the love of people for God increases? The Scripture is not talking about whether religion increases; it is the genuine love for God which is affected by this lawlessness.

This should be easy to examine empirically, for example, in China. Let us take the most chaotic period, the Cultural Revolution, which dragged on for a very long time. That is really lawlessness at a very high level. Did the Christians’ love for God grow cold during that time? No, in fact, it was the opposite. Often, when there is lawless­ness in society, people turn to God. They discover that in the midst of total disorder in society, there is still order among his people in his church. In fact, many people come to God in time of lawlessness in the society. According to such reports as we have, multitudes in China turned to God during that time.

So I would like you to consider this important question: Why should lawlessness in society cause any loss of love for God? Of course, by the time you look at these questions and you look at the text, you will realize that the Lord Jesus is not talking about lawlessness in the society.

Do you know where this lawlessness is? It is in the church, among the people of God! The Scripture warns us that one of the features of these last days is that people will be turning away from the true faith in God, and when you look at all these references to apostasy in the pastoral epistles—meaning First and Second Timothy, Titus, and as I said, we cannot go through all the Scriptural texts—and put the picture together, the great shock is to realize that the lawlessness that may be in the world now controls the church.

 

Lawlessness is: Sins of commission and omission committed by Christians

What is lawlessness? Lawlessness is the turning of one’s back upon the righteousness of God. I notice many people have almost no con­cept of righteousness. Do you have a proper grasp of righteousness in your life? Does sin bother you at all? Maybe not much, and that is the disaster, because lawlessness creeps into the church slowly but surely, like a cancer. There are people doing all kinds of things in the church which is a shame to mention even in the world! Some were broadcast: very well-known church leaders in the United States, who consort with prostitutes, and cheat church brothers and sisters out of vast amounts of money. Certainly, it’s not that only cheating vast amounts of money matters, but cheating whether small or big is all unrighteousness. We see full-time co-workers decide to marry non-Christians no matter what the Scripture says, and yet, they want to insist that they are Christians. The list can go on and on.

Is there nothing in your life that you are ashamed of? If you want to prepare for his coming, start right there. See whether your life can stand up to examination. See whether your life is pure for he will judge! And when sin happens in the church, do you take a very soft approach? When you see church workers committing sin, does it bother you? I don’t mean whether you like their style or not; that has nothing to do with sin. When a Christian leader marries a non-Christian, does it bother you? Or do you say, “Oh well, let’s take it lightly. It’s not that serious”? I take a very serious view of such things, because love without holiness or purity is not the Biblical love. But how many sins in the church are just waved away with the word “love”? “Let’s love! Let’s love!” That is not love. Love never sacrifices purity and holiness as far as God is concerned. And the coming of the Lord Jesus is linked with his judgment against sin.

Have you noticed in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, on what is the distinction based? It is sins of omission. We have not even handled the matter of the sins of commission, never mind the sins of omission. The standard is that high, brothers and sisters! What was the difference between the sheep and the goats? One was stealing money and the other was not stealing money? Not at all! “When I was in prison, you did not visit me.” It is a sin of omission. It is not that they committed some sin, but they did not do what they should. “When I was hungry, you did not give me anything to eat. When I was cold, you did not give me anything to wear.” There is no reference to committing sins! It is the things you did not do that you are held responsible for. Can you think of all the things you ought to have done and you did not do? When you are judged at the standard of omission and not commission, do you still dare to meet the Lord Jesus?

 

First, put right your sins of commission

First, think of all the sins you did commit and have not put right yet. You are not even in the “sheep and goats” category yet, to talk about sins of omission. What about the sins you have committed and have not dealt with?

 

Discern your sins of omission

When the Lord Jesus says to you, “When I was in prison, you didn’t visit me.” Did you visit and comfort those who suffer for God? What have you done? When have you visited or comforted anyone who suffered for God? You might say, “I don’t know anyone who suffered for you, Lord. It has nothing to do with me.” “Oh, really?” Do you know how many of brothers and sisters in China suffered for God? And do they have nothing to do with you? Do you want to know how much suffering and poverty many of them endured? Of course, you don’t want to know because if you know, it will put you under obliga­tion. So, plug your ears and close your eyes. Don’t look at it because the moment you see that, you may say, “Oh! Here comes the obligation!”

Some of you here, have been to Burma (Myanmar) and you have heard the reports of those who returned from Myanmar: the intense hunger for the Word of God! Is that your responsibility? You have been through Commitment Training, Basic Discipleship Training, and some of you have been through Intermediate Discipleship Training. In Myanmar, even the pastors have not even had Commit­ment Training, the most basic level in our church! So you have the training. Have you got some money? Oh, you are not rich, but Myanmar is not far away. Can you afford the trip? I’m sure most of you can. Probably, it doesn’t cost much more than coming to the camp, does it?

You will say, “I knew I did the wrong thing by coming to this camp. I was going to listen to this pastor and he is going to give me trouble now. So tonight, I can’t sleep anymore!” I told you it’s not going to be easy. So what are you going to do about Myanmar? Let’s just start there. Do you speak Mandarin? They also speak Mandarin in many parts of Myanmar. You don’t speak Mandarin or English? They have translators for you! Then you will say, “The weather doesn’t suit me too well.” Since when was the weather good in prison? When you go and visit in the prison, the conditions are not that pleasant. The smell, the hygiene isn’t that good, especially when we are talking of the New Testament days. Many of you speak Mandarin. Is China too far away? It’s a few hours away by plane. But you don’t want to know about their problems, right? You’ll say, “I have enough problems of my own. Do you sit in prison? Stay there! My home is almost a prison to me! Perhaps you should come from China and visit me!”

Do you see how we think? That is our problem. So on that Day, the Lord Jesus will say, “Whatever you do to these my brethren, you do to me.” Will you be able to answer? Would you even qualify as a sheep? No, maybe not even as a goat. That’s the problem! I remind you, the charges brought against the goats are not sins of commis­sion; they have already passed that.

Here I want to show you that we are talking about lawlessness in the church. This is what is immediately in front of us, and this situation will get worse. The standard of God’s righteousness is too high for us. I stress again, we are not talking about sins of commission but sins of omission, the things we should do but did not do, and that is God’s standard of righteousness. If you grasp the nature of the sin of omission, it’s enough to make you fear and tremble, unless you have still not grasped the problem.

It makes me fear and tremble when I think to myself if there is something I have omitted to do to God’s people on his behalf. Some­times, I drive myself very, very hard, and God has to teach me to relax a little bit. Can you tell me how much time is enough for studying his Word in a week? “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word from God’s mouth.” Did you have anything to live on spiritually over the past week? Did you feed on that Word by which we live? The understanding of the average Christian about the Scriptures is pitiful in the extreme!

How many things have you neglected? Should you have called someone whose father died, whose mother died, or was sick, and you never called? Does it ever cross your mind how much encour­agement just a five-minute call would give to that person? “I was sick but you never visited me.” Can we go on and on thinking about these things? We are talking about the things that need to be done, not the sins you committed that you should have repented of. That is the standard of righteousness! How can we be fruitful for God? Here we are not talking about sins of commission, but how we can increase the talents or the pounds that have been committed to us, by improving the quality of life that manifests these actions of kindness (Mt. 25:14-30; Lk. 19:13-26).

We are not talking about earning our salvation. We are not talking about doing these things so that we can be saved at the end. The pounds and the talents—the new life—has been given to you as a gift of God’s grace. The question is what are you doing with it? In most cases, the answer is nothing. There is a pitiful lack of discernment of God’s standards in the church. The result is that lawlessness can come into the church with little or no opposition, and this is the immediate picture in front of us.

 

Conflict and betrayal among church members and among leaders

As the Scripture says, things will go from bad to worse. The Lord Jesus uses a picture of a father betraying son, son betraying father, family members betraying each other (Mt. 10:21). Many people think this has something to do with the world. Here the Lord Jesus is not telling us about what will happen in the world, but that we will betray one another! We are one family in Christ: fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, brothers and sisters. A man’s enemies will be those of his own family, his own household. As the Lord Jesus taught, “Who is my brother, my sister, my mother?” Those who do God’s will (Mt. 12:49b-50). He is saying that there will be conflict among those who are the members of God’s family.

Does that cause your love for God to grow cold? Certainly! This kind of lawlessness will affect you very deeply spiritually. When you see brothers and sisters betraying one another, and church leaders fighting with one another, doesn’t that affect your love for God? So I tell you these things, as God tells me to warn you. Do you know that the Lord Jesus has already told us these things will and must hap­pen? If you are prepared for this having been warned beforehand, it may save you from growing cold in love for God.

 

Despise, reject authority in the church, and much more among leaders

These things are already happening. And it is getting worse and worse. People in the church will rise up in rebellion, in insubordination, and this is what Scripture says, “They will despise and reject authority” (Jude 8).

There is a church in Canada that told me that they demand equal authority with all the leaders. Can you imagine that? The Homemakers* said, “We want to be equal in authority with the leaders.” I said, “That’s interesting. Certainly, I would like to increase the authority of the Homemakers. But authority is not something that you seize. Authority is something delegated to you. If you are wise, you will accept it with hesitation, that is, with a lot of humility, because with authority comes responsibility, and you have a lot to answer to God for it.”

[*Note: a group of brothers and sisters who provide feedback and suggestions for the church to the leaders.]

I said to all these people in the Homemakers, “Do all twenty-some of you want to be equal with the leaders? Have you faced the cost which the leaders have faced? They have given up their jobs and profes­sions; they turned their backs on the world; they live on a pitiful pay; they have gone through a long training. And what have you given to God? Most of you receive pay of five figures per year, so over a hundred thousand for each couple each year. What have you offered to God? And you demand to be equal to the leaders?” There is no shame – “I want my way.” That is lawlessness.

Certainly, it’s good to build a lay leadership. This whole thing came out of the fact that I suggested that we would select 3 or 4 lay leaders, to train them up to work together with the full-time leaders—learning to preach and lead the church—because I would like to hand over more and more of the leadership of the church to the lay people so as to release the full-time workers for other work. We have already implemented this in Montreal, in Canada. Those selected were people who are humble and gracious. In other words, their quality of life commends them. Indeed, the leaders will treat them as equals, not because they can have the right to be equal, but they can be treated as equals.

That Homemakers said, “We don’t want just the 3 or 4 of us to be leaders; we all want to be leaders.” I said, “Obviously, you people understand nothing about leadership. You cannot have a core of leaders with over 20-some people.” Can you imagine that every time you have to make a decision in the church, you have to gather 25 or 26 people together to discuss something? I said, “How much time are you prepared to give?” The leaders have to come together at least once a week or more frequently, if there are more important things to discuss. They never thought of what is involved in this. In other words, when you try to build up the church, encourage them, give them authority, and behold, the lawlessness that is hidden all the time begins to surface.

This is by no means true only of lay people, by the way, it is much more true of leaders. This situation will become worse and worse.

What happens when you see these things happening in the church? Your love grows cold. It has a powerful effect on you. You will say, “I trusted that the church would not be like this, and now I see what I never expected to see in the church!” I have spent quite a lot of time on this because this has direct application for us.

 

3. Apostasy: a slow and deadly process of turning away from God

What do people do because their love grows cold? They turn away from God! That is apostasy. Apostasy is the mark of these last days in Scriptural teaching. Turning away from God does not necessarily mean that you stand up one day and say, “I have turned away from the Lord.” The fearful thing is that it is a slow and deadly process happening even among co-workers. Over a period of time, it eats its way in your spiritual life like cancer. And one of these days, you will leave the church. Or if you don’t leave the church, you will cause trouble within it.

This is what the Scripture calls, “the rebellion of Korah” (Jude 11). You begin to speak against the leaders. Initially, you begin by critici­zing at a low level, then the criticism grows to be more daring and open. Then, you gather a group of people to work against the leaders, block their moves, and criticize their Bible studies. Sometimes, such criticism is justifiable, depending on the manner in which you do it. We don’t mean that the leaders are so perfect, or that their mistakes cannot be pointed out to them. Here we are talking about an inner rebellion, a bitterness, an opposition, and then you begin to sense a very unpleasant atmosphere in the church.

As your love grows cold, the way you relate to people becomes cold too. When you see your brothers and sisters, you just walk past them. When visitors come into the church, you don’t welcome them, and they sense the coldness of the atmosphere. What happens is the church begins to die. It’s a very unpleasant thing to go into a church and notice the case of a dying church – it’s the love growing cold; that church becomes very cold. Maintaining the love is very difficult, but it’s even more difficult for the love to grow stronger and stronger. That downward pull is very strong. Do you see what is happening?

Look at the conflict between the churches. One church wants to criti­cize other churches, not in a friendly way, but pointing out things we have to learn together. Of course, there is room for improvement in all churches, but when we start slandering other churches, when we slander one another, that is another cause for the love to grow cold.

 

Disobedience against God and his people

What is the ultimate result of all this rebellion, and the rebellious spirit within? Remember the key element of faith in the New Testament is the obedience of faith. You remember Paul said in Romans 1:5 and 16:26, he uses the term “obedience of faith”. But when love grows cold, faith disappears, and disobedience arises, both against God and against his people.

 

4. The man of lawlessness (sin), the Antichrist emerges

Then, a very fearful personality the Bible speaks of appears, called the lawless one, the man of sin, the Antichrist. It is out of this kind of situation that the Antichrist emerges. He grows out of this kind of soil! He doesn’t just pop out of the blue. A lot of people talk about the Antichrist as though he suddenly popped out from nowhere. I have given a long series of messages on the Antichrist some years ago, and those of you who want to pursue this matter can follow that series of messages. The Antichrist embodies this whole rebellion, and he will get a lot of support from all these rebellious people.

Again, the general picture on the Antichrist is clear whereas the details are harder to work out, because there are a lot of exegetical problems in Scripture in defining this Antichrist. But looking at the facts, it seems certain that the Antichrist is some kind of Christian, very likely a Jew. It is hard to be a substitute-Christ unless he bears quite a number of resemblances to Jesus. He will have remarkable power so that he can justify his rebellion by the power that he can display.

When I say this is a terrifying picture of the Antichrist, it doesn’t mean that he is an unattractive personality. He probably is a very, very charismatic person. In fact, all the great but horrendous leaders of history were powerful, charismatic personalities. The Antichrist has often been compared to Hitler, and Hitler was a very, very charismatic person. He swept almost the whole of Germany after him. The people hung onto his every word. If you see the films of Hitler, “his presence”, as it is called, was so powerful. The Germans are not exactly unintelligent people, and yet, they could be captivated by this man. His charismatic presence finally led them to their destruction as a nation. Yes, here is a good parallel.

How could an intelligent nation be so completely deceived? It’s very easy. As a matter of fact, if you understand the basic principles of human nature, you only need to appeal to the ego. That is the difference between the gospel and the world. The gospel does not appeal to your ego, but every charismatic dictator understands how to use the weakness of human nature. When you appeal to the human ego, you are raising up lawlessness through encouraging that self-centeredness of man. It is amazing how you can captivate people in this way, and so you can see how the Antichrist operates. This will lead multitudes to destruction.

The Antichrist will receive such enormous support from mankind, particularly from the church! (Please refer to the WWII history when the German churches in general were supportive of Hitler). As 2 Thessalonians 2:4 says, “(the man of lawlessness) opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.” That is definitely with the support of the people.

We are living in a very dramatic and interesting time—in two weeks’ time we will enter the new millennium—we have the privilege to be alive at this point in time in human history, when man is very proud of his achievements, and with some justification. The Antichrist knows how to use all these. If I am not mistaken, the Antichrist is already in the world, and the soil in the churches of God is being prepared for his emergence. There is not much else that needs to happen before he can appear.

 

5. The temple will be re-built in Jerusalem

If we look at the Scriptures, it says that when the fig tree brings forth leaves, the time is ripe. We find that both in Matthew 24:32 and Mark 13:28. What is the fig tree? It is generally accepted as a picture of Israel, and we live in the days when the nation that perished for almost 2,000 years has been re-established back in 1948! The fig tree seemed to have died in the winter; it lost all its leaves, but the Lord Jesus prophesied, “You will see the leaves coming forth again.” The nation of Israel came into being again.

Why is this important? If you look at 2 Thessalonians 2:4, the Antichrist, the man of sin is going to set himself up in the temple. There cannot be the temple if there is no Israel! And both Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14 speak of “the abomination of desolation” that will appear in the holy place of the temple. What is “the abomination of desolation”? That is the Antichrist. He will set up his throne in the holy place of the temple in Jerusalem.

One important clue emerges as to who this Antichrist is. He is called the “son of perdition” in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. If you use modern English translations, you will not be able to identify this figure. The KJV, NKJ, RSV call him “the son of perdition,” or the ESV, NAS call him “the man of destruction,” or the NJB calls him “the lost One.” However, the words, “son of perdition” are used in John 17:12 to describe Judas. The only other person in the New Testament given this exact same title is Judas. Who was Judas? He was one of the twelve apostles, the one who betrayed the Lord Jesus, and this Antichrist is given exactly the same title as Judas. That is why I say that it’s almost certain that he is not only a Christian, but a Christian leader of a very high order.

 

6. The “mark” made on man’s right hand or forehead

Then there will be a mind-boggling time of persecution against those who still want to remain true to God, who have not joined the Antichrist. If you look at Matthew 24:21, the Lord Jesus says,

There will be a time of tribulation and suffering that you cannot even imagine!

The Antichrist appears to be a very high-ranking religious leader. Apparently, he is also a political leader. Revelation 13:17 describes him as having such power that he can put a mark on every person, so that if you don’t have that mark, you cannot even buy food. You will literally starve to death. Such is his power.

I saw a Korean video put forward by a computer expert, who says that there is already the technology to plant a little chip into your skin painlessly, in a fraction of a second. It can be put on your right hand, or into your forehead, as it is the most convenient to go through any scanner, especially in a cold country where you are wearing gloves. This computer specialist says that it will be intro­duced in the name of “law and order,” not in the name of “lawlessness.” When you have that chip implanted in your skin, it is extremely convenient for you. Why? You don’t need a passport when you travel; you don’t need to carry your credit card, bank card, or cash if you want to buy things. It’s very troublesome if you want to buy something and you forgot to bring them. What happens if your passport is stolen? What if you forgot your ID? You don’t need any of these.

In Hong Kong, you are required by law to carry your ID around, so I have to carry my ID in my pocket and it is wearing out my trousers at the back. Where do I put it if I don’t put it in my pocket? If I put it in my shirt, I might forget it every time I change my shirt. Also, you carry a credit card with you unless you want to carry a lot of cash around. There are no more problems when you have this mark on your hand or forehead. My trousers will not be worn out anymore. I had to give up one pair of trousers because it literally wore through my pockets at the back. You don’t need any of these now. It’s so convenient! When you go to the airport, you don’t have to ask, “Did I remember to bring my passport, my air ticket, my credit cards?” Nowadays, everything is registered in the computer even if you buy an air ticket. All you need to remember is to bring your toothbrush. How can they identify who you are unless you have your ID on you in case of injury or emergency? There’s no problem now! So the Antichrist will have full control, but all in the name of “convenience and order.”

When you go into the shop to buy something, you don’t need any cash because your mark, hidden in the skin will be scanned. No one can even see it; only the scanner can! You also don’t have to worry about having enough change, because in one scan, that money is taken out of your bank account automatically. The merchants will like that too, because if you give them your credit card, they are not always sure whether your card is genuine or not. I am told that busi­nesses lose vast amounts of money because of fake cards. You cannot falsify the chip under your skin, so it means that the businesses know they will get their money. You also cannot cheat them because your chip will show if you have no money in your bank account. This is the world of the future, but it’s already here now! This video was made 3 or 4 years ago. At that time, the technology was already in place, just waiting to be implemented! In fact, it is already used on a voluntary basis on some dogs in North America, so that if a dog lost its way or was stolen, and its collar was removed, it can still be identified and returned to its owner.

 

7. Prepare for the Lord Jesus’ coming: Prepare to die

Can you see the picture in the general outline I have given? Is it or isn’t it dark? It looks interesting and nice, but it’s all very deceptive. It will be so deceptive that you don’t even know how bad the situation is, until the persecution comes, and you have to lay down your life.

In the history of the Church, laying down one’s life is nothing new. Laying down one’s life is not the worst thing that can happen. People have said to me that dying is not the most difficult part, but it’s the suffering before the dying. If you see what some of the martyrs endured, it’s enough to make your hair stand on end! The kind of cruelty that human imagination can think up is amazing! What about being crucified? How is that for a form of dying? You can hang on the cross for three or more days, and your blood slowly drips away while you are hanging up there in unspeakable pain. Jesus never called us to anything but what he himself has gone through.

When we speak about preparing for his coming, how do you prepare to die? I tell you something: I prepare to die every day. I expect it will come to me. All church leaders must be prepared to die. Once, I talked to a group of our church leaders. I couldn’t help but start crying. I said to them, “Perhaps I have led you all into your death. Although it’s your own choice, but if I were not around, maybe you wouldn’t have to go through all these.” Almost certainly, all church leaders who remain faithful to God will die. And many, many who remain faithful, who are not church leaders will also die. Are you prepared for his coming? If you think so, is it just learning to play the guitar better, organizing a nice big church choir, so that when Jesus comes, we will all start singing? I hope we can still encourage one another on that day. I am not sure if we are allowed to sing. If there is a chance, by all means, sing. But I’m afraid some of us will not be given that chance.

“Prepare for his coming” means to prepare to die! That is to put it as simply as possible. And there is not enough teaching about dying in the church. By dying, I don’t mean that you stand there and someone shoots you in your head. That’s very easy. What about some hard labor first, and without food and enough clothing? What about some beatings? What about some electric shocks”? What about all the torture systems that man can think of, like crushing your thumbs slowly with the screw, at the end of which to die would just be sheer joy? Finally, this fellow pulls out his gun and gives you a shot in the head, and you’ll say, “What took you so long?”

I say this because some people think of dying as just that moment of death. And now you know. You’ll say, “I did the wrong thing to come to this camp. I paid the camp fees to have a nice holiday and all he can talk about is death, and how to prepare for torture!” Well, think about it. The night will get a lot darker before the dawn. Of course, if I am saying this to the brothers and sisters in China, they will say, “We have been through all these already, and is there more to come? We expect that.” You might think, “These things never happen in Singapore.” Don’t worry, your turn will come, but are you prepared? If you think that life in the camp is not that comfortable sometimes, wait until you try one of the prison camps. I am trying to portray for you very roughly what is ahead.

 

8. The rapture of the saints (Mt. 24:40-42; Lk. 17:34-36; 1Thess. 4:17)

When the Day of Judgment comes, you may suddenly be caught up into the air. This is called “jet travel in grand fashion”! You are suddenly caught away! But if you look down, you will see there are some others who didn’t come up with you. It will look bad! I don’t know whether you will be happy or sorrowful, if you look down and you see your Dad and Mom down there. If you did everything you could to win them for God, your conscience is still all right. But if you feel you could have done more, I don’t know how you are going to feel!

So you are suddenly caught up when the rapture comes. This is a very interesting teaching which no one could have invented. There is the surprise element – we don’t know when this will happen! All we know is it will be in the midst of a terrible time of persecution. It will be a kind of a rescue, like Entebbe—an Israeli lightning strike rescue operation of hostages held by Arab terrorists at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on July 4, 1976—or something similar, where paratroopers come in and they rescue the people out of the grip of the evil power. Perhaps at that very moment, some person was going to shoot you in the head, and suddenly he shouts, “Hey, where has he gone?” Suddenly, he realizes: “I persecuted the wrong person.” Maybe that will be for his salvation! It seems that God does every­thing to give a person a chance to repent. I don’t think the rapture is simply some kind of stunt that God performs. It is apparently an attempt to give people a very short chance, but one last chance to repent, because surely, that is an amazing event when a person is suddenly lifted up.

 

9. The Lord Jesus will come on earth to kill the Antichrist by fire

We don’t know the distance and time between the rapture and the coming of the Lord Jesus to earth. Here are some of the exegetical difficulties. But after the rapture, it appears the Lord Jesus hasn’t come down to earth. You meet him up in the air! The next stage is for him to set his feet on the earth! The picture given to us in Acts 1:11, when the angel said to the disciples,

The Lord Jesus will come down again on the Mount of Olives! I have the impression that the vast host of angels will remain in the heavens while the Lord Jesus comes down and stands on the Mount of Olives overlooking the temple. Maybe his apostles will be with him, and like in the old days, they will walk down the Mount of Olives towards the temple. I am imagining this, as I try to put the picture of the New Testament together. You will see no trace of arrogance in Jesus. He will walk with his disciples humbly down the hill, past Gethsemane and up on the other side. If I understand the Scripture correctly, he will walk up from the Kidron Valley into the Golden Gate, right into the newly built temple. You can imagine the whole silence of heaven and earth as the Lord Jesus and his apostles walk slowly, steadily towards the temple. Every breath is held, waiting to ask: What is going to happen now?

Jesus walks into the temple as the Messiah-king. As the prophet Malachi 3:1 [NJB] says,

It will be very sudden in the sense that it doesn’t take a long time to walk from the Mount of Olives to the temple. All of you who have been to Jerusalem can easily see the picture in your mind.

When the Lord Jesus goes into the temple, the Antichrist is still trying to put on his show. I imagine the Antichrist in his last act of defiance, will be sitting on his throne in the holy place in the temple. Where are all his powerful forces? I can see all his forces will be immobilized, rather like the Y2K on a grand style. His troops are unable to use their weapons! Their guns and rockets cannot fire; all the chips in the tanks have malfunctioned; their armored vehicles and jeeps will not run. What an interesting vast Y2K situation going on! Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his vast host of mighty angels—who are like huge clouds above—in flaming fire (cf. 2 Thess. 1:7-8)! This is Jesus’ style. He likes to do things in a very interesting, very gentle and yet a powerful way. The Scripture says that the Antichrist will be destroyed by the fire that the Lord Jesus sends forth (2 Thess. 2:8). He and his throne will simply disappear into a little pile of ashes. A very interesting picture!

With the destruction of the Antichrist, Jesus, the Messiah-king has come on earth! At that moment, I can imagine a cry will go up to all the angels and all the heavenly hosts, saying, “The Lord our God the Almighty reigns! Blessed be his name forever!” This will echo through the whole heavens and through the whole earth! You can hear the sound of the trumpets and the roar of the heavenly hosts rejoicing together! What a breathtaking sound there will be!

So I hope you have at least a vague picture. When will all this happen? I think probably within less than 10 years, maybe a lot less, maybe slightly more. Shall we say 12 as a maximum? I leave this matter because the Scripture will not allow us to fix a date. But we don’t have a lot of time to live in this present age, and maybe not a lot of time before we die.

 

Even the dead saints will witness Jesus’ coming upon the earth!

You will say, “If we die, we don’t see all this.” Don’t worry, you will see it if you belong to God. This is why we say the rapture takes place first. What happens at the rapture? All the saints in the past who died are raised at that time, and those who are alive will be caught up afterwards. Now we see another purpose for the rapture. The dead are going to witness the Lord Jesus’ coming upon the earth. They will not miss that for sure! That is the beauty and wonder of it (1 Thess. 4:15-16)!