One Follower of Jesus views on where we stand related to Jesus words in Matthew 24-26:2 to be continued

This will be a long post, so be aware it may take a long reading.

I will first write down Matthew 24-26:2

And Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him.  

And He answered and said to them, "Do you not see all these things?  Truly I say to you, not one stone here shall be left upon another, which will not be torn down."

And as He was sitting 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?"

And Jesus answered and said to the, "See to it that no one misleads you.   For many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ, and will mislead many.  And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.  But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.  Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name.  And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another.  And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many.  And because lawlessness in increased, most people's love will grow cold.  But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.

Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not go down to get the things out that are in his house and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his cloak.  But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days!  But pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on a Sabbath;  for then there will be a great tribulations, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall.  And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short.  Then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or 'There He is,' do not believe him.  For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.  Behold, I have told you in advance.  If therefore they say to you, 'Behold He is in the wilderness,; do not go forth, or, 'Behold, He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe them.  For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.  Wherever the corpse is there the vultures will gather.  

But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.  And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; even so you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.  Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away , but My words shall not pass away.

But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.  For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.  For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.  Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.  Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.  But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.  For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.

Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time?  Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.  Truly I say to you, that he will put him in charge of all his possessions, But if that evil slave says in his heart, 'My master is not coming for a long time,' and shall begin to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and shall cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; weeping shall be there and the gnashing of teeth.

Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom.  And five of them were foolish, and five were prudent.  For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.  Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep.  But at midnight there was a shout, 'Behold the bridegroom!  Come out to meet him.'  And the foolish said to the prudent, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'  But the prudent answered, saying, 'No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.'  And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.  And later the other virgins also came, saying, 'Lord,lord, open up for us.'  But he answered and said, 'Truly I say to you, I do not know you.'  Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.

For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves, and entrusted his possessions to them.  And to one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.  Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents.  In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more.  But he who received the one talent went away and dug in the ground, and hid his master's money.  Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.  And the one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, 'Master, you entrusted five talents to me; see, I have gained five more talents.'  His master said to him. 'Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.'  The one also who had received the two talents came up and said, 'Master, you entrusted to me two talents; see, I have gained two more talents.'  His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'  And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.  And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground; see, you have what is yours.'  But his master answered and said to him, 'You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I scattered no seed.  Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.  Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.'  For to everyone who has shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.  And cast out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.  And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.  Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'  Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink?  And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?  Ant the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'  Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in, naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.'  Then they themselves also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?'  Then He will answer them, saying, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'  And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

26:1-2 And it came about that when Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples, "You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be delivered up for crucifixion."

Okay so these are some of Jesus last teachings on the end times.  I consider these to be pretty important.  I changed the font of the Bible passage from my comments to let you know where the transitions come.

The passage, beginning in ch. 24, starts out with the disciples being impressed with the temple and pointing that out to Jesus.  This happens during the week leading up to Christ's crucifixion.  Jesus quickly shows them that things are not always as permanent as they appear, for the temple that they were impressed by, He tells them that it will be destroyed not leaving one stone upon another.  This took place in AD 70 when Titus troops destroyed the temple, you can google it or check in books or check wikipedia and you can find that date.  Whether you believe Jesus said this prophecy before it occurred is for you to seek the truth.  I personally believe that Jesus words are accurately recorded here and that He foreknew that the event he said would happen soon.

So then in verse 3, the disciples ask a question with multiple parts:  1. "When will these things be?" 2. "What will be the sign of your coming?" 3. "and of the end of the age?"

Jesus then goes on to give a long monologue to answer them.  Today, we might call it a lecture or a sermon.  The ones who heard it, thought it was important enough to put it down in the book of Matthew, Mark 13 and Luke 21.

Jesus starts with a warning, that states that many will try to deceive and will claim that they are the Christ and also that many will be deceived.

He also says that there will be wars and rumors of wars, but that is not the end.  There have been wars and rumors of wars ever since Jesus died and definitely before.  It is interesting how now a days we can hear of wars and rumors of them in many different forms of media as well as word of mouth.

He continues with,vs.7-8 "For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.  But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs."

I want to camp on these two verses a little, because they are where I think we are living in currently.  The part about nation rising against nation etc. could be seen frequently in history and whether that is more frequent now, I am not as sure of as the later part that talks of famines and earthquakes.  The evidence that I have seen through news posts primarily on the internet has led me to believe that earthquakes are increasing.  There have been major earthquakes such as the one that hit Japan and led to the radiation leak from Fukishima, some of whose effects have yet to be seen, to smaller quakes now that are in some instances being linked to hydraulic fracturing in places that were not previously prone to earthquakes.  There are plenty of other examples of earthquakes both recent and in the past so whether this is enough to equate to "...the beginning of birth pangs." or not is not automatically clear, but I think there is further evidence related to famines.

Prior to famines, there has to be a reason for a shortage in food.  I think we are about to see that shortage of food in the US and I will list the reasons.  The Southwest and Northwest are currently in drought.  California and the Southwestern States more seriously than the North.  Recently, I read that California produces half of the US food supply.  If you check the news, you can check that info, you can also see that California's reservoirs are at record low levels.  Some of California's crop lands are being fallowed, because of the lack of water.  I think this will have a major impact on food production this year.  

One possible help would be from significant rain and snow fall. We may get that in late Summer or Fall if we get an EL Nino effect like is being reported in some online news reports. However, an El Nino can also bring severe storms, so we will have to wait and see the effects.

The Midwest is another food producer for the nation as is the South East.  Last year saw severe weather that many are linking to green house gases as they are linking climate change both in California and around the world.  I think there is a chance that the midwest might have trouble producing food because of these conditions this year, but I do not know for sure.  These factors lead me to wonder if we will see a famine.

The steps that I am taking are to: 

1. Build a garden for my mom.
2. Start a garden business to help people produce more food where they live.
3. Store up food for as many as possible to mitigate the possible consequences of severe drought and possible famine.
4. Try to gain as much self sufficiency as feasible.
5. Communicate to people, whom I care about, what I think we will see coming up.

I think our current state is the beginning of birth pangs.  I could be right or wrong.  Regardless, lets look at the rest of chapter 24-26:2 to see what Jesus said after Matthew 24:8.

24:9-14  "...Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name.  And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another.  And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many.  And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold.  But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come...."

If I am right in where we are in this passage, we should expect much more distinction between those who follow Jesus and those who don't.  We will also see a falling away of those who profess Jesus, but who aren't actually His.  We will see tribulation and people being killed for their faith.  In some countries, this is the case, but I expect it to become much more prevalent.  Also many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.  This I believe has already happened to certain extent, but we should expect more.

Then it says,"...And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come...."

So we know before the end, the Gospel will be preached in the whole world.  Are we doing our part to make this so?

I took a needed sleep break as I wrote this and have not come back to work on it much, so I am going to post this and try to come back to the later verses at another time.