When I was a kid it was popular for preachers to preach on "eschatology," or End Times. I heard a lot of sermons speculate about when Jesus would return and I even heard one sermon preached in the 1970s entitled, "8 Reasons Why Jesus HAS to Come By 1980" (!). Just to ease your mind, He didn't. As mentioned elsewhere, it's fun to speculate, but Jesus said in Matthew&24:36 that "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." No one can say, "This is when He's coming." But He added a few verses later, "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come" (Matthew 24:42). We are to wait with expectant hearts.
When I was listening to all these sermons on the End Times I could never figure out how on earth the one-world government would be able to keep track of every single citizen in the world. It's still hard to believe, but with today's Quantum computers and Artificial Intelligence, it would be easy even though now there are 8 billion people in the world. A "mark of the Beast" (or Antichrist) could be about anything, but again AI can assign numbers to all of them and have still time to do a lot more than write papers for lazy students. It's part of why Facebook and Google and all the big tech corporations are interested in collecting data on you. They will soon be able to have a data bank for these super computers and AI systems to regulate.
I detail in this chapter the rather strong push for a one-world government headed by the United Nations, but it won't be much like today's United Nations that tries to include all nations. It will be headed by just a few countries, though the leaders of this push are a little reluctant to say exactly which ones.
We certainly have the wars and rumors of wars promised in Matthew 24, but we've had those since the Fall of man, starting with Cain and Abel. No, the real tribulation is promised in Daniel 7 and even Matthew 24 and elsewhere to be "unlike any other since the beginning of creation which God created until now, and never to be seen again," according to Mark 13:19 as well as Matthew 24. There will only be one "Great" tribulation and it will be the worst thing ever to happen in the history of the world. That even makes the world-wide flood of Noah's day which killed everyone in the world except Noah and his family look puny.
But I love in Daniel 12 where the angel tells Daniel, "'Go on your way, Daniel,' he replied, 'for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, made spotless, and refined, but the wicked will continue to act wickedly. None of the wicked will understand, but the wise will understand. ... But as for you, go on your way until the end. You will rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days'" (Daniel 12:9-10, 13).
That's what we're supposed to do. Go on our way, follow God, do His work, and wait for the Lord. 1 John 3:3 tells us, "And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure." That's the goal.
