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THECRISISATTHECLOSE
"More than three out offive Americans willlive to see the twenty-first century , " said a recent striking
insurance advertisement. Undoubtedly such an optimistic estimate is based on accurate actuaria/
tables. But insurance company predictions do not consider the missing dimension of Bible prophecy.
Bib/ical revelation shows that there is a worldwide age-ending crisis coming upon this chaotic earth.
James Moffatt termed
it
"the crisis at the close. " lL may very well interfere with the best-laid plans of
even the most competent and successful businessmen and statesmen.
by
John R. Schroeder
T:
oday the earth is churning with crises. One past
rticle in
The Plain Trulh
was titled: "What's Be–
ind the Energy Crisis?"; a no th er, "T he Philip–
p ines, a Nation in Crisis"; still a nother, ' 'The Continuing
Crisis in the Catho lic Church."
T ha t last t itle tells us something about the ch a nging
nature o f today's troubles in a crisis-cha rged world. One
former
U.S.
President wrote: "The na ture o f crisis has
changed. The remarkable cha racte ristic of the crises of
today is their continuity- they have moved in, it seems,
to stay" (Richard M. Nixon,
Six Crises,
p. 18).
The very te rm " crisis" should imply
an end
to wha t–
ever the pa rticular problem may be. We used to say:
"Well , the crisis has passed."
But not a nymo re. The crime crisis continues; the e n–
ergy and resource crises a re a n everyday fact o f Life; the
popula tion explosion grows unaba ted; the Mideast crisis
has been wi th us since the fo rmation o f the mode ro sta te
oflsrael; nuclear overki ll is a n ever present reality.
And these tellta le crises coincide with scriptura l warn–
ings fo r the future described in Ma tthew 24. Jesus was
asked wha t even ts would signa ! the e nd of this present
age o f ma n. He a nswered by lis ting a number of simila r
ty pes o f wo rldwide problems tha t would intensify into
crises at the time of the end . Thcn He said of these
signpos ts: " AII these are the beginning o f so rrows"
(Ma tt . 24 :8).
And so it is with the e nergy crisis, the cri me crisis, an d
a ll the o ther curre nt crises. They me re ly mark the begin–
n ing rumblings o f a worldwide catastrophe to fina lly
in te nsify into " the crisis a t the closc."
Bíblica! prophecy warns us that this g reat time o f
trouble is coming upon pla net Ea rth- most like ly in this
last qua rter of the twentieth ccntury. This unprece–
dented period of world chaos is spoken o f in severa!
different books · of your Bible. These books- both Old
T es tame nt and New- were writte n in ditferent periods of
histo ry by d ifferent writers, who in ma ny cases did no t,
and could not, know each o ther.
Consider the book o f Da n iel, written by a great
prophet of God , who was in etfect the prime minister of
two successive wo rld-ruling governmen ts. He wrote h is
prophecy a round 600 B.C.
Da nie l 11 begins the longest, most de ta iled prophecy
The
PLAIN TRUTH
January
1979
in a ll of the Bible. It commences with the first year o f
Da rius the Mede (firs t king o f the Medo-Persian Em–
pire) and comes righ t on down to " the time of the end"
(verses 1 a nd 40). Verses 40 through 45 center on an im–
pe nding power struggle in the Middle East (possibly
over oil?).
Verse one o f chapte r twelve b rings us to a crucia l
scripture in this long prophecy. " And a t tha t time sha ll
Michael (one of three a rcha ngels] stand up ... fo r the
children o f thy people: a nd the re sha ll be a time of
trouble, such as never was since there was a na tion even
to tha t same time.. .."
This time o f trouble is to occur in what is commonly
called in th e Bible " the time o f thc end." D aniel sought
understa nding of the prophecy he had written, but was
to ld, " ... Go thy way, Da niel: fo r the words are closed
up a nd sea led till the time o f the e nd ."
It
was no t unti l
our day- this twentie th cen tury- tha t world events began
to plainly point
in
the direction of a g ra nd smash cl ímax
ofall the negative fo rces a t work in the wo rld.
Until the thermonuclear age, humans could never
have properly understood a no ther simila r prophecy re–
corded in Matthew's G ospel: " Fo r then sha ll be great
tribula tion, such as was no t since the beginning o f the
wo rld to th is time, no, nor eve r shall be. And except
those days should be sho rte ned , tbere should no ftesh be
saved (a live, Moffatt): but for the elect 's sake those days
shall be sho rtened" (Ma tt. 24:2 1-22).
Compa re these prophetic verses to those previously
q uo ted in Daniel. Notice the str iking similarity in the
wording. There can be little doubt tha t these two scrip–
tures- written hundreds o f yea rs a pa rt- are talking
a bout one a nd the same time in future world h istory.
These prophetic predictions he ra ld a n utterly unique
time in the future of this crisis-cha rged world- a time
when we may not be able to keep from polluting our–
selves o tf the face of the earth: a time when statesmen
may no t be able to avo id a death-dealing nuclear wa r.
The wo rld is hurt ling towa rd a "crisis a t the close" tha t
canno t be postponed until Century 2 1.
But there is good news beyond the bad news jus t
a head . A wonde rful world tomo rrow is coming ! Why no t
ge t this good news in adva nce? Request our free bookle t
enti tled
Coming-A New Age.
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