It amazes me every day when I see educated men and women pay close attention to the Weather Channel or CNN and the Local News yet still refuse to believe what has been written in the Bible.

As we witness the horrible devastation caused by hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes and attacks by terrorists, many are asking the same question. Are these the signs of the times prophesied in the Bible that indicate we are living in the last days? Many in the world are beginning to fear that perhaps soon it may indeed end. What will happen when it does?

That day is soon to be upon us, when the events described in the Bible by the Prophets of old will begin to take place. In that day, Christ will leave the sanctuary at the right hand of God and will gather the believers from the earth. It is at this time when the spirit, which has restrained the mystery of iniquity, will depart from this earth and the time of the end recorded in the Bible will begin.

When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness will cover the inhabitants of the earth. The restraint that has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has unhindered control of the entire earth. God’s long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His Word. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn.

Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one. Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that, which came upon Jerusalem of old.

Israel and the rest of the world will then be plunged into those scenes of affliction and distress described in the Bible by the prophet as the time of Jacob’s trouble. "Thus saith the Lord: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. All faces are turned into paleness. Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it." Jeremiah 30: 5-7.

"At that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book." Daniel 12:1.

When God’s presence was finally withdrawn from the inner sanctuary of the temple in Israel, and replaced by the gift of holy spirit on the day of Pentecost, the priests and people knew it not. Though under the control of Satan, and swayed by the most horrible and malignant passions, they still regarded themselves as the chosen of God. The ministration in the temple continued; sacrifices were offered upon its polluted altars, and daily the divine blessing was invoked upon a people guilty of the blood of God’s dear Son and seeking to slay His ministers and apostles.

So when the irrevocable decision of the sanctuary has been pronounced and the destiny of the world has been forever fixed, the inhabitants of the earth will know it not. The forms of religion will be continued by a people from whom the spirit of God has been finally withdrawn; and the satanic zeal with which the prince of evil will inspire them for the accomplishment of his malignant designs, will bear the semblance of a zeal for God.

God has given us a clear blueprint in the Bible of those things, which are about to come to pass. Just suppose for one minute that the Bible is at least as accurate as the Weather channel. The time is near and closer than we think.