What does Paul mean when he says that Jesus will return “in the twinkling of an eye”?

Everything dies, passes away, perishes. But what does perish mean in the Bible?

Names have meaning.

When I was born, my mother put a great deal of thought into my name, Matthew Britton. They mean “gift of God” and “kingly one,” respectively. Since I was a surprise pregnancy, the “gift of God” was particularly interesting and intentional. She envisioned my name on a desk in an office, like a CEO. She realized quickly I was more creative than businessman, so she sees my name on the cover of books.

God gives people names in the Bible, speaking purpose and character over these men and women. Therefore, my wife and I prayerfully considered what to call each of our children. Our third, a girl, was also a surprise to us, and even though we had a name picked out, God told us that her name was Hosanna. And the name fits her perfectly.

God also names himself. These declare and describe his identity and character. Yahweh came from God’s first self-declaration, a form of the I AM. The book of Isaiah includes many prophecies about the Messiah and an apocalyptic future, so the Lord also shares other names along the way.

Here are God’s four most powerful names from the book of Isaiah.

Photo Credit:©GettyImages/Marinela Malcheva

The sky is falling! 

In the old story, a type of parable, Henny Penny is a chicken and not a very intelligent one. An acorn falls on her head, and she concludes the sky must be falling, leading to hysteria. 

Speaking of the end times carries a certain amount of tension. The Bible speaks of the end of this world and a transition into the New Heaven and New Earth, a redemptive story where the end times and corruption of this world is first exposed in a destructive, dramatic fashion before the next world is fully realized. 

Passages like Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation read like a fantasy or science fiction novel with epic visions of creatures and beasts. These dramatic scenes of what we refer to as the "last days" or "end times" have led to erroneous declarations from pastors or supposed prophets about the end drawing nigh within the near future. Those dates have all passed, and we can be skeptical of ideas about the end times. 

Jesus tells us we won’t know the day or the hour the world will end. At the same time, he gives us specific signs the end is coming soon. In the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24, he lists several end times events and calls these birth pangs like a woman in labor with a child. Painful. Intense. Yet a promise of new life at the end. 

Many today look at the world around us, see the headlines, and wonder if we are living in the end times. One way or another, we’re getting closer, but we should carefully explore the words of Jesus and how events today might fit his teaching. Let's look at seven events that will be signs of the end times and last days of earth.

Photo Credit: © Getty Images/Llona Pietrolongo

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