1B. WHY WE ARE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS!

• Ancient Scriptures
• Why we are living in the Last Days
• Most people go on "business as usual!"
• Are these also the "Last Days of Freedom?"
• Restoration of Israel
• What secular Humanists say about the Endtime
• End of the Times of the Gentiles

ANCIENT SCRIPTURES
Daniel 2:28 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;
Daniel 8:23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
Daniel 10:14 Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision [is] for [many] days.
Hosea 3:5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.
2Timothy 3:1-4 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 Peter 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the Last Days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His Coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation.
Daniel 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Matthew 24:32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer [is] nigh:
Matthew 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, [even] at the doors.
Matthew 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Matthew 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Matthew 24:37 But as the days of Noe [were], so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Matthew 24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
Matthew 24:39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Matthew 24:40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Matthew 24:41 Two [women shall be] grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Matthew 24:42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Matthew 24:43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
Matthew 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

WHY WE ARE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS—THE ENDTIME? By David Brandt Berg
We are now living in the Last Days. Well, of course Saint Paul and Peter and all of them all claimed they were living in the Last Days too. So if they were living in the Last Days, how come it's been the Last Days for so long? We've got 2,000 years of Last Days, it's all Last Days to the Lord! But there's a difference between the Last Days and the Endtime. We also believe that we are now living in the very End of the Last Days.--They began in Jesus' time and they're ending in our time, 2,000 years of Last Days. That's a lot of Last Days!--2,000 times 365 Last Days! It's an expression that is used to mean a general period of time, like "Abraham in his day", "Moses in his day". He didn't just live a day, it means his time, and this is the Last Time. These 2,000 years are the last third of man's history on Earth.
So we believe we're not only living in the Last Days, but the last of the Last Days, the end of the Last Days, the Endtime!--It is so, because we are seeing the "Signs of the Times" happening all around us, and they are being fulfilled more and more by the day! They include a lot of things, catastrophes, wars and all kinds of things that Jesus listed.
And when does it end? With Heaven. When Heaven comes on Earth, our goal, that's really the end of the Endtime. Now I would daresay that even some of our Bible Prophecy teachers have probably been teaching you that the Endtime just means from now until Jesus comes, or maybe at a wild stretch of their imagination, maybe from now until the Millennium begins. I doubt if very many of them included the Millennium, but that's a part of the Endtime.
The Last Days are from the First to the Second Coming of Christ, but the Endtime goes all the way through man's existence as man on this present Earth, in other words, until the end of this Earth.--As the World calls it, the end of the World. 2166-1,2,94,95

MOST PEOPLE GO ON "BUSINESS AS USUAL"! By David Brandt Berg
All signs are pointing to the end! From all we can gather from the prophecies and what the signs of the times show us, the Antichrist is about to appear within the next few years, months or even weeks or days! So to say the least, we're living in very exciting times and there are soon going to be some very big global changes made!--And it has to be soon, because none of these situations can last much longer!
Most people never seem to sense impending doom or things that are about to happen until it's too late.--They just don't seem to be aware of the situation. It is reminiscent of what Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees:

Most people today are just going on, business as usual! "Oh, they've been preaching this business about Jesus coming for centuries and He hasn't come yet!"
Well, He is coming and He's coming very soon, and you'd better be prepared by having Him in your heart and believing in Him, or you're apt to be swept away with the rest of the scoffers and procrastinators in the horrible flood of the judgements of God that is going to be poured out after Jesus returns!
Noah preached to those wicked unbelieving people of that horrible wicked world for 120 years before the flood, and they never turned around! They were probably waiting to see if it was really going to rain, if it was really going to happen, then maybe they'd climb on board with him. In the meantime, they just laughed, sneered, jeered and persecuted him and his sons as they worked on that ship for 120 years! Then they finally went in, and it says that God shut the door (Gen.7:16) so that nobody else could enter. And by the time it started to rain and rain and rain and rain and began to flood, it was too late for that wicked generation who were left behind to drown in the flood of their own iniquity!
If you put salvation off and expect maybe when it's proved to you that all these things are going to happen, then maybe you'll believe it, then maybe you'll receive it, then maybe you'll get saved, But then… it might be a little too late!