Is the end of the world near?

During the past few weeks, we have been bombarded with scary news about the revolution in Egypt and Libya, signs of unrest in Bahrain, and lately in Saudi Arabia, about devastation from floods in Australia late last year, massive earthquakes in New Zealand, and very recently also in Japan which resulted in tsunami, and all of these resulting in the loss of thousands of lives.  There is also the fear of radiation leaking from the nuclear reactors of Fukushima speading beyond the borders of Japan.  When, oh, when will all these natural disasters end?  Or is it ever going to end?  Are these catastrophes a sign of the coming of the end of the world?

                                                                      end of the world

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  Revelation 21:1-4.

                                                              new heaven and new earth
The above passage from the Bible indicates that the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, which means that they have been destroyed, and there was a new heaven and a new earth.  Are the recent catastrophes a sign that the end of the world is near?  Natural calamities have been occurring rather frequently.  In Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus was telling his disciples that near the end, there will be many deceivers falsely claiming that they are Christ; there will be wars and rumors of wars, there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in different places.  These are the signs that the end is near, but it is not the end.  The end will come only when the Gospel is preached in the entire world.

So, we may conclude that we are near the end, but it is not yet the end.  The end will come when all people in the world have heard about the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is this.  He came into the world in the form of man to die on the cross as payment for  the penalty of men’s sins, He rose again from the dead, and He then ascended into heaven.  Now anyone who comes to Jesus, repenting of his sin, and puts his trust in Jesus to save him, will be saved, and he has God’s promise that when he dies, He will go to heaven.  Isn’t that a wonderful promise?

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains in him.” John 3:36