Rabbi Schneider - What Will the End Times Be Like?
I'm going to the Book of Isaiah, and I'm reading out of the 24th chapter, beginning in verse number 3, and then I'm gonna read verse 5-6 as well. Hear the Word of God: The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly despoiled, for the LORD has spoken this word. The earth also is defiled by its inhabitants because they have transgressed the laws, violated the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, the curse devours the earth, and those who dwell in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. Many of us don't want to hear this. Like the Bible says, many just want to hear preachers that will tickle their ears. But beloved, either the Word of God is true or it's not true. Let God be found true and every man a liar.
The Book of Revelation tells us the same thing; that fire is gonna be poured out upon the earth. When they asked Jesus about the end times, Jesus said it's gonna be like it was during the days of Sodom. God, beloved, is gonna bring judgment upon the world because He's no longer gonna be able to tolerate such a eroded resemblance of who He is. We were created in His own image. God's purpose is that, listen, heaven and earth will become one. Remember that's how Jesus taught us to pray; Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, get this now, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So God's ultimate purpose is that heaven and earth will become one; that earth will reflect heaven. Well what is happening is that the earth is becoming so defiled and they're reaching a place of no return. God's only way to handle it is to cleanse the earth through judgment so He can start out with what the Bible calls a new heavens and a new earth.
Let's look a little bit deeper as Jesus begins to talk about the beginning of this horrendous time, where not only will the earth be burned with fire, but earthquakes are gonna happen. There's gonna be pestilence. There's gonna be disease. Nation's gonna rise against nation. It's gonna be utter chaos. God that holds things together by His order is gonna withdraw and disorder, and all that defiles is gonna sweep over the earth. I want to go now to Jesus's own words as He begins to tell us how this is gonna begin to take place. I'm going to the Book of Matthew, chapter 24. I'm reading here verses number 5-12: For many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ... What is Jesus saying here? The word Christ is the Greek word which the New Testament was originally written in for the Hebrew Mashiach. They mean the same thing. The meaning is, the Anointed One.
So what Jesus is saying is many false saviors will arise. Many people that will claim to have the answer, many charismatic figures that will seek to lead people. Many people will arise claiming to be somebody, Jesus is saying. They're gonna be false. Once again: Many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ, and will mislead many. 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. We're looking at a time that Jesus says it's leading up to the end. It's not yet the end. Jesus is saying there's gonna be a lot of turmoil, a lot of chaos. You're going to be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. You're going to be hearing of all types of dismal things in the future.
But notice what Jesus said. He said, when you hear about these things, get it now church, do not be afraid. You know when we turn on the news at night some of us, we hear about one catastrophe after another catastrophe. We hear about these rogue nations again getting their hands on nuclear weapons. We hear about our power grids being able to be bugged by our enemies so that they could shut down the whole country. We hear about how the whole computer system, how like, for example, GPS and all this other technology is all being run by these satellites that are up in space, and how there's nothing protecting these satellites that are orbiting space right now that are controlling the GPS and all these systems that we rely on, even our military is relying on. And how there's a possibility that some of these satellites up on space that are needed for all that we're doing could be shot down by a for man, by a foreign hostile power. And when we hear about all these dangers, it can cause us to be afraid. But Jesus said, when you hear about all these things, He said, do not be afraid.
Let's listen again. I want you to get this really strong, because there are a lot of negative things that Jesus is gonna speak of. But what we have to remember is that when we hear about these dangers, we're not afraid. Hear again: 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 the birth pangs. Notice this once again, Jesus said all this that He's speaking of here is merely the beginning of the birth pangs. Don't be afraid, Jesus said, and He's telling us they're gonna get worse. Don't be afraid. How do we know they're gonna get worse? He said, these are the beginning, get it now, of the birth pangs.
So let's think about this for a second. What are birth pangs like? Well everyone here obviously that's, that's had a child knows a lot better than I do. But I think at least intellectually if we think about it we can all agree, generally speaking when a woman is about to give birth, she'll feel something in her, in her stomach area, like a pain, like a cramp. And all of a sudden, ah, the birth pangs have begun. I'm about to give the child. And a lot of time we know that the woman will be taken to the hospital and the doctor will say, no, you know, it's not yet time. Go back home. And so the pains, they start out, and they start out and, and it feels like it's time but it's not quite time.
How do we know when it really is time? Because the birth pangs will become more and more intense and they'll become more and more contracted together. In other words, they'll become more and more intense and they'll start happening closer, and closer, and closer together. So Jesus said when you see these things, these nations rising against nations, these natural disasters, false Christs arising, false gospels being preached, false teachings circulating in the church and around the earth, he said, listen, these things have to happen. It's just the beginning of the birth pang. Jesus was saying it's gonna get worse. Don't be frightened.
Let's continue on. He says: Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. He said: At that time many will fall away and will betray one another... And then in verse 11 he says: Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. I want to warn us about the fact that Jesus is saying that because there is gonna be such a price to pay for standing with Him and for standing with the truth, many will fall away. So many believers today are not willing to say that there is no name under heaven by which men can be saved but the name of Jesus. Why? Because of the persecution that they suffer when they say that.
For me to say that unless somebody receives Jesus they're gonna go to hell, I get such a kickback from the world, such opposition, such hatred at me for saying that that to say it, beloved, takes a real commitment. It takes courage. It takes real conviction. And this is what Jesus said it's gonna take to be able to stand with Him during the last days. Because when we stand with the truth, not, not, not the Jesus of our own imagination, but the Jesus of the Word... You see, there is no other Jesus but the Jesus of the Word.
But a lot of people are calling themselves Christians but the Christianity that they believe in, the Jesus they believe in, it's not the Jesus of the Word. It's a different Jesus. It's a Jesus they created in their own imagination. It's the Jesus that doesn't put any moral demands on anybody. It's a Jesus that tolerates everything. It's a Jesus that receives everybody regardless of whether they have repented or not. It's a Jesus that tolerates every form of behavior. It's a Jesus that doesn't judge any type of behavior. It's a Jesus that makes people comfortable. It's even a Jesus you don't have to believe in to go to heaven. And yet people say they are Christians.
Beloved, let me tell you, unless you believe in the Jesus of the Word, you're not a Christian in the biblical sense. The only way we know who Jesus is, is through the Word. Jesus said, the words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. Paul said, if someone comes and preaches a different gospel other than the one that we've preached, it's not the real gospel, and that message and the person that brings it is to be rejected. Listen, to be able to stand with the real Jesus, not the Jesus of someone's own imagination, but the real Jesus, the Jesus of the Word, means that you're gonna suffer. You're gonna be hated by all of men, Jesus said, on account of Me. And more and more people that call themselves Christians will not stand up anymore for the real Jesus. They'll not say that there's a hell. They'll not say that Jesus is the only way. Oh you want to believe in this religion? That's okay, you're gonna still go to heaven. Even the big preachers are doing that, many of them. That's why Jesus said many people's love will grow cold and people that do stand with Him are gonna face Great Tribulation and be hated on account of Me.
Beloved, I want you to know, we're entering in to those times. So many churches have drifted away from preaching the truth. They just want to preach, just like the Scripture says, what people will receive. I remember there was one message that was really hard to preach that, because people didn't want to hear it, and another preacher telling me that he was preaching it in his church. It was a message that the church needed to hear. And I saw him some time after that. I said, How's it going? How's it going with that series that you told me that you were doing? He said he stopped teaching it because the people didn't want to hear it. Beloved, we need to stand, listen to me, we need to stand for truth.
Now I want to continue, beloved. Difficult times are coming. I want to continue by reading from the Book of Isaiah. As we read about what's coming down the pike, it's so important that you realize that this is reality and get grounded in Jesus today, build up your courage today, build up your confidence and conviction in His Word today so you can stand as these difficult times come. I'm reading now, beloved ones, from the Book of Isaiah, chapter 24, verses 18-20: Then it will be that he who flees the report of disaster shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare. In other words, people can try to flee from the report of disaster. They can go on vacation in Hawaii. You know what? It's still gonna come.
Continuing on: For the windows above are open, and the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken asunder, the earth is split through, the earth is shaken violently. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard, and it totters like a shack... Once again, from the Book of Isaiah, as we continue this same phenomenon: ... for its transgression is heavy upon it, and it will fall, never to rise again. What we're talking about is a disaster coming that no one is gonna be able to flee from. And the disaster, beloved one, that Isaiah is specifically describing here, get this now, it's an earthquake that's gonna happen on the earth and from the earth that is gonna be like no other earthquake that has ever occurred since the foundation of the world.
Now let's wrap our head around this for a second. Let me ask this first of all. Are earthquakes real? Have we ever had earthquakes? Have we ever had severe earthquakes? So why then should it be difficult at all to imagine that there's an earthquake that's gonna be so severe it's gonna split the world open? Listen now to what Jesus said in the Book of Revelation, through the revelation given to John, in Revelation, 16, verses 18-19: There were flashes of lightning and sound and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth... That's just what I got done saying, remember. ...there was a great earthquake, such as had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.
Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. And in the 6th chapter of Revelation, verse 12, John looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood... Beloved, it's real. It's happening. We've already experienced earthquakes. We've experienced severe earthquakes. There's gonna be an earthquake, beloved, that's so severe; never been one like it before. Never will there be there again. It marks, beloved, listen to me, the absolute beginning of the end.
Now at the end of this verse that John just wrote to us her he talked about cosmic phenomenon. He talked about the sun not giving it's light, the moon being turned to blood. We've read about blood moons. We've read about these cosmic phenomenons. Jesus also quoted about this in Matthew, chapter 24, verse 29. Quoting from Joel, Jesus said: But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Listen what Joel said. Same thing, Joel, 2:31: The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the LORD.
So beloved ones, I want you to understand, these are not myths and fairy tales. Peter addressed this whole concept of the coming of the Lord as a myth and a fairy tale. Peter said this is not a myth and a fairy tale. This is real. I was with Jesus when He was transfigured before me by Father God into a being of light. I literally saw it happen. Peter said, I touched Him. John said, That which I touched, that which I felt, that which I handled with my own hands, I proclaim to you. John didn't say this was just some ex... John said, Listen, I'm telling you when I received this revelation. I was on the island of Patmos. I had been exiled there because of my faith. It was on the Lord's Day and I was caught up into this experience. And now it was given me, John said, to share it with you, beloved. God holds the history of the world in His hands. And even as there was a beginning to this world...
Let me say this, beloved ones, we talk about the big bang, maybe there was a big bang. But if there was a big bang, where did the big bang come from? What caused the big bang? There was a first cause. God is the first cause. He brought this world into existence. He created it. He's got a destiny for it, and He's moving through time to bring about His final purposes to be accomplished on the earth. He is gonna cleanse the world of sin. We're gonna begin to see all these things happen as the Great Tribulation begins. And I believe, beloved, that this is the generation that's gonna begin to see these things fulfilled in our lifetime. I want to challenge you right now, get ready, be encouraged, get serious about God, get serious about His Word, repent of sin, deny yourself, deny the lust of the flesh, cultivate your relationship with Jesus, beloved, because He loves you and He's got a better plan for your life that you could, than you could ever dream of for yourself. And He's coming back for you and I soon.