Ukraine and The End Times

Well, it looks like Gog and Magog are on the move. Does this mean Jesus is coming soon? That’s a big question being searched for on the internet and we’re here at What You’ve Been Searching For. I’m going to give you my thoughts on that. Stay tuned.

So as of this taping, Russia has invaded Ukraine. About a week, I guess, at this point. Understandably, this is a trying time, a lot of anxiety from people out there and as Christians, we’ve been taught that when we hear of wars, rumors of war, things like this happening, we’re to look up and we’re to take it as a sign that Jesus is coming. So a lot of people have been searching on the internet now, wondering is this an end times prophecy? Is Gog, which typically in the Bible is Russia, the area around Russia. Magog is the leader of Russia, from what I understand, and that would be Vladimir Putin, pretty scary guy. So again, understandably, a lot of people are searching for the question, is this an in times prophecy? Does this mean that Jesus’s coming is imminent?

I’m going to take this in two parts. The first part today, I’m going to give you my just general reaction throughout my life to these kinds of things. I’ve been a Christian a long time. I’ve heard a lot of things like this, and I want to tell you how I take it and how I don’t take it and how I look at things like this, world news events like this. Then next time I’m going to tell you what I look at when I think of Jesus’s return, what I see the Bible, the most important thing, or the biggest factor in determining whether Jesus is coming soon or not.

So for just taking at face value the current events right now, this very scary time we’re in where Russia is invading Ukraine and there’s talk of nuclear war and there’s talk of nations rising up against nations, all these things that are very apocalyptic sounding to us. It all goes back to some of the prophecies seen in Daniel and Isaiah and some of the things Jesus talked about too. But as I said before, I’ve been a Christian a long time. I’m 62 years old. In my lifetime, there’s been … I think I was on the cusp of pretty much the beginning of the Jesus movement into kind of the fading away of the mainline denominations, the old traditional style of Christianity. I’m not sure with those churches there was a lot of attention paid to is Jesus coming back again.

But with the Jesus movement and some of the modern things that I learned early on as a Christian, there was a lot of talk back in the ’60s and ’70s of the rapture, of the tribulation and of Jesus’s coming again. There were lots of books. There was even a couple movies, which by the way, if you think we have bad Christian media now, check out a movie called A Thief In the Night. If you want to see some bad writing and some bad acting and some bad directing and bad production, check that one out. But it was about the rapture and about the second coming of Jesus and it scared all of us 12 year old kids to death back in the day.

There was also a book that had … really the book that had the most info influence on me or the media that had the most influence on me. It was called The Late Great Planet Earth by a guy named Hal Lindsey and it was a huge best seller. It really was kind of the definitive text on end times prophecy, eschatology, all these kinds of things. What Hal Lindsey said in this book, him and other people, was that based on the prophecies of Daniel and Isaiah and the things Jesus said about the end times, the key to them was the establishment of the nation of Israel. That happened in 1948, and when Jesus said the generation will not pass that sees the fulfillment of these prophecies about the 70 weeks of Daniel and about the abomination of desolation, the generation that sees this rebirth of Israel, which will be the trigger of all these things, will not pass before the end comes.

Well, they took that to mean a generation being 40 years in the Bible typically, you do the math on that, and if Israel was formed in 1948 and a generation after that Jesus will come, 40 years later is 1988. Hal Lindsey was a pre tribulation rapture guy. So before the seven year tribulation, we have to be raptured. Seven years before 1988 is 1981. So I read this book and a lot of people read this book and we spent most of the year of 1981 wondering if the rapture was going to take place then? Would we be caught up? Would we not be caught up? Would other people be caught up and would we be left behind?

It didn’t happen. Okay? So a lot of people said, “Well, that must mean the rapture is post tribulation, or maybe the rapture’s going to happen in 1988.” So seven years later, we all waited, a little more skeptically this time, and Jesus didn’t come back. The rapture didn’t happen in 1988 either. So by this time I was getting a little suspicious of these end time prophecy predictions from people. I really haven’t paid much attention to it since then. I think the last time I really heard anything on prophecy or even took note was 1989 into 1990. New Year’s Eve, 1989, I was at a church service here locally with a pastor who was well-known for his end times prophecy teachings.

What he taught us that night, he said, “We’re heading into the 1990s, and this is what is going to happen in biblical prophecy in the 1990s. This is what you will see happen throughout the ’90s.” One of the key things besides the establishment of the nation of Israel with prophecy people is the rebuilding of the temple. They always say plans. They already have plans to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and that’s what will happen in the 1990s, is what this guy said. I remember sitting there thinking, “Okay, I’m going to come back in 10 years, in 1999, New Year’s Eve and ask you, “Okay, did these things happen? If they didn’t, does this disqualify you from preaching on a prophecy?” I didn’t do that in 1999, because 1999, we had another concern.

None of those things happened in the ’90s, by the way, of course. Okay? But in 1999, 2000, we had another concern which was called Y2K, and that was another thing that people were saying. This is big. All the computers in the world that run everything, when it switches over to the year 00, all the computers are going to think it’s 1900. They’re not going to know what to do. If you haven’t heard about Y2K, if you’re too young, google that. It was quite a thing back in the day, but that was something we all expected to happen and it didn’t happen and there was nothing to it. Shortly after that was 9/11 and 9/11 was a very apocalyptical event. If you were there, if you can remember at the time. A very scary event. We all watched in real time as those buildings came down, those planes went into it.

A lot of people thought that was a significant event that meant Jesus’s return is imminent. So it’s understandable that a lot of people are talking about this now, especially with the prophecies of Gog and Magog. But Russia’s been on the move throughout history. Russia is quite the violent nation. Think of people all throughout history, especially World War II. Russia was a huge part of World War II. People don’t even realize it, but think of the people in World War II thinking that this must be the end of the world. Jesus must be coming after this. But it didn’t happen then either. Keep in mind, though, all these things do mean that we are closer to Jesus’s return. I don’t doubt that these are stepping stones towards Jesus’s return, but soon could mean a hundred years from now. Soon could mean a thousand years from now.

It’s been 2000 years since Jesus said, “I’m coming back soon.” Soon is a relative term in these kinds of things. Just because we’re living in modern times in the West, in America, or as Christians, we can get caught up in thinking … because we’ve had it so good for so long, we can get caught up in thinking, “God won’t let us go through difficult times. God won’t let us go through wars and famines and persecutions. He’ll rapture us up. He’ll take us out of that.” But that hasn’t been the case through most of history, we’ve lived in a very unique, special time. We may be headed for the type of suffering and trouble that Christians throughout history have gone through, and there’s no promise that that won’t happen to us. As a matter of fact, there is a promise that it will happen to us.

Maybe it’s our time as modern day Christians to have a little trouble, to know what it’s to follow God, to be a Christian, to be a witness for God in times of trouble and persecution and famine and war. Just because things are happening bad in the world does not mean we’re exempt from it. Even our Christian brothers and sisters throughout the world that aren’t in the West have been suffering all this whole time and we’ve been taking it pretty easy in the West. So that’s not to say Jesus won’t come back tomorrow. We are to look up when we see these things happen, but we’re not called to assume that just because there’s trouble in the world, Jesus’s return is imminent and we’re going to be taken away from it. We’re not.

So that’s why I don’t take wars and rumors of wars as things that change the equation. If Jesus’s return is imminent because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, his return was imminent the day before too. So again, keep in mind that Jesus is coming and that we have an assignment while we’re here before he comes, and that is to know him, to make him known and to make his kingdom known, and that’s what I’m going to talk about next week on our next podcast. I’m going to show you what I really do look to in the Bible that tells me whether or not Jesus’s return is imminent and how I should think about it.

So hopefully you’ll catch that. If you like this video, like I always say, please like. The like buttons right there, share it with someone who’s worried, share it with a Christian you know or a non-Christian you know that doesn’t know what to think of world events. Subscribe to this YouTube channel and also go to christianpodcastcentral.com where there’s more good video content like this. I’m Joel Fieri. This is What You’ve Been Searching For. Thanks for listening. Catch you next time.