When will the End of Days actually occur? Scholars suggest it has already begun.

Eschatology.

It’s a fancy word invented by Greek scholars that

ascribes the fate of the human soul after mortality does away with

the body. Many cultures and faiths have their own interpretation of

what becomes of us in the hereafter. The Hindus have their “Kalpa”

cycles. For Buddhists, it’s all about “Bodhi” and the enlightenment

that may be earned. And for the people of Scandinavia, it’s Ragnarök!

(No, not that one!)

Conversely, Jewish eschatology contends that a final judgment

for the human race is a debated topic. Some Jewish scholars insist,

based on their interpretation of Talmudic law, that a resurrection

of the dead, which is called t’chiyat hameitim in Hebrew, will take

place while others argue that no judgment (or resurrection) is needed,

because of Rosh Hashanah, which is an annual day of judgment.4

Additional thoughts on the matter suggest that only those from the

“Gentile nations” will be judged and not the children of Judah.

These past 5,000 years and perhaps even earlier, however, have

revealed a history of the human race that has many cultures, countries,

and creeds, including everything from the stars, sea, forests, and

mountains in their doctrines and dogma, regarding three relevant

questions:

1. Who are we?

2. Why are we here?

3. What happens next (and when)?

Now, in the midst of a flourishing pandemic, and following a

twenty-year war in the very land where most of today’s “Western”

religious ideas (along with a few others) originated, people are returning

to these ages-old questions. And whether it be the internet, online

fraud, televangelists, or hostile nation-states, there are plenty of influences

to sway and confuse the naive and unassuming into thinking all

is lost. But such is not the case, and is the focus of this book.

The mere idea of our very existence being tested is as old a concept

as is our tenure on the earth. Since the beginning of recorded time,

mankind has faced challenges that have forced us to become stronger,

adapt to changing circumstances, overcome obstacles, and recover to

monumental levels of achievement.

Nearly four centuries before Christ walked the earth, the great

Chinese sage, Confucius, wrote: “Our greatest glory is not in never

failing, but in rising every time we fail.”

During what historians might agree was something of a far

simpler era, when many of our ancestors were not much more than

nomadic tribes roaming the countryside, a prophet named Isaiah

foretold of a time when the world would find itself pounding swords

into plowshares. Further to Isaiah’s powerful words of encouragement,

and made famous by Charles Jennens when his friend, George

Handel, put them to music, the ancient prophet counseled that if we

make “straight in the desert a highway for our God,” his glory will be

revealed, and our burdens may become lightened:

Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway

for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and

hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and

the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

and all flesh shall see it together. (Isaiah 40)

Isaiah notwithstanding, many ancient and revered oracles and

prophets have warned subsequent generations to exercise caution

regarding seeking for signs of the times, adding the stipulation that

those who are prepared and can recognize the foreshadowing symbols,

should not live in fear, but face the reality that no one escapes

their mortal fate:

Await not in quiet the coming of the horses, the marching feet,

the armed host upon the land. Slip away. Turn your back. You will

meet in battle anyway. (Oracle at Delphi, 480 BC)

In theory, the idea of turning our attention away from war, conquest,

and self-interest implies a noble and worthy intention. However,

our history reveals a different reality. For more than twenty centuries,

prophets, astronomers, philosophers, and even politicians have pondered

the timeline and life expectancy of the human race. During the

first century, Christians referred to the “Epiphany,” or epiphanaeia,

to indicate the visit of the Magi upon the birth of Christ,6 and in a

broader sense, it refers to a revelatory appearance by Christ in His

resurrected glory.

In his apocryphal writings recorded in the book of Revelation,

the Apostle John wrote of signs and symbols that suggested not only

his own liberation from his exile on Patmos but also foreshadowing of

things to come, of which he was permitted to observe but not record:

And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot

upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud

voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders

uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their

voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying

unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered,

and write them not. (Revelation 10:2–3)

When will the End of Days actually occur? Some scholars suggest

the end has already begun. If current affairs in the Middle East (or

even closer to home) are any indication that humanity’s clock may

be winding down, references by early church leaders shortly after the

death of Christ suggest Christian eschatology might be more foreseeable

than formerly anticipated.

Christianity follows the line of thought that all souls will come to

be judged after the world of the mortal man has ended and that the

righteous will be united with Jesus at His coming, being spared God’s

angry wrath upon the world, while there will be (literally) “hell to

pay” for those who have chosen wickedness as a way of life. The Bornagain

world calls this the “Rapture” (a somewhat adapted French/

Latin word with various references to being taken up in the clouds but

lacking any relevant scriptural credibility or reference).

Now, almost 2,000 years since Jesus first began His mortal ministry,

we continue to look for Him, even as we walk among the very

times foreseen by Paul:

Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,

blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without

natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce,

despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers

of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness but

denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:1–5)

Many cultures throughout history have claimed to know when

the Lord will return, despite the fact that the scriptures report even

Christ not being aware of the actual date and time of His grand

reunion with the world.

The question may be, then, not whether there is a plan for man

or whether Christ will return and when. More poignantly, the debate

as to whether the human race is prepared for the inevitable coming of

“the great and dreadful day of the Lord” will continue,9 likely, right

up to the point where the trumpets sound and the thunders roareth.

And while scripture does imply that the righteous will delight in

the Second Coming of the Savior, while the wicked will be found cowering

in the shadows, there is still much deliberation over who will be

found standing in holy places during those closing moments of man,

and who will stand as a witness for the judgment.10 In Malachi 3 we

read: “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift

witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against

false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,

the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from

his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.”

Regardless, however, these events pertaining to the fate of the

human soul may be contested by us as individuals, but they cannot

be ignored. Adding to the nature of humans to follow what modern

philosophers call the “pride cycle,” and we begin to identify patterns

throughout history that shows the human race as various segments of

it passes through the pride cycle:

• Captivity

• Humility

• Recovery

• Prosperity

• Arrogance

• Collapse

Prepare Ye A Highway: A Latter-Day Perspective on the Signs of the Times, is an attempt to capture several thousand years’ worth

of signs and present them in a fashion that might help us—not in any

way that places doubt on the events that have transpired, or on those

that are foreseen, but rather, how we as a people may prepare ourselves

for what may or may not occur in our lifetime.

Author: Drew Blandford-Williams