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Signpost 1—Anguish! Terror! Perplexity! How would you describe an age that has all the technology to expand human happiness, and yet is plagued by disintegrating families and violent neighborhoods? Over nineteen hundred years ago Jesus gave a prophetic description of contemporary life that sounds as if it could have been taken from the evening news:
No more accurate description of today’s world, could be penned than: “Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world.” A generation exists today which has grown up entirely in the shadow of stockpiled weapons capable of destroying the entire planet. Today’s apprehensions make yesterday’s seem pretty small: “What if some terrorist gets ahold of a nuclear warhead?” But Jesus gives us a basis for hope in a calamitous age. The current crisis of global insecurity—”anguish and perplexity”—only reinforces the truth that Christ’s coming really is “drawing near.” People today often moan in frustration, “Look what the world has come to!” But the student of Bible prophecy can exclaim with hopeful voice, “Look WHO is coming to our world.”
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“There
will be SIGNS in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, NATIONS WILL
BE IN ANGUISH AND PERPLEXITY at the roaring and tossing of the sea.
MEN WILL FAINT FROM TERROR, APPREHENSIVE OF WHAT IS COMING ON THE WORLD,
for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. AT THAT TIME THEY WILL SEE THE
SON OF MAN COMING in a cloud with power and great glory. When these
things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because
your redemption is drawing near.”
