The Future Foretold

The Future Foretold!

Ancient Prophecies Accurately Describing Today's World!

With Shocking Revelations of What's to Come!

By Michael Roy

This version of "The Future Foretold" is for noncommercial use; not for resale.

As the twentieth century draws to a close, most of us can't help but wonder what the future holds for us and our planet. Are we on the threshold of a New World Order with peace and plenty for all, as numerous politicians and media pundits proclaim? Or are we tottering on the brink of unprecedented disaster, as various scientists and global think tanks have warned?

This booklet provides answers that will prepare you for what's ahead.

An astounding fact about the following description of today's world is that much of it was written thousands of years ago! We will be looking at specific predictions and prophecies that are two to three thousand years old, but which accurately describe conditions and events that have taken place--or are soon to take place--during our life‑time.

Some of the specific prophecies we will examine foretold our modern rapid transportation systems, today's unprecedented increase in world travel, as well as the explosion in knowledge of all kinds. Other technological advances, such as electronic banking and a soon-to-be implemented global credit system, were predicted with uncanny accuracy.

The effects of global warming, as well as the outbreak of modern killer diseases such as AIDS and cancer, were foretold as well.

Being aware of the predictions covered in this booklet will enable you to deal with the cataclysmic changes the world will soon be facing. "To be forewarned is to be forearmed," and the knowledge of the future contained in these few pages will not only prepare you for the future, but empower you to come through it on top.

The Big Question:

We will now journey back in time nearly 2,000 years. On a hill just outside the ancient city of Jerusalem, a small band of ‑truth-‑seekers is gathered around their teacher, a carpenter turned preacher, known simply as Jesus of Nazareth.

The question they are about to ask will prompt a response from Jesus that will span the centuries, and zero in on the days in which you and I are now living:

"And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, 'Tell us, what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?'" (Matthew 24:3).*

What they were asking Him about is frequently referred to as the Second Coming, the dramatic personal return of Christ to take over this world and establish the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus answered their question with not just one sign that would indicate when "the end" would be upon us, but He gave dozens of specific indicators to look for. Outstanding predictions by a number of other biblical writers help fill in the picture.

It is these prophesied "signs" that we will now focus on.

* Italics have been added to some quotations from the Bible as well as to some news articles for emphasis.

Unless indicated otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible. Verses marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version, verses marked NIV are from the New International Version, and verses marked TLB are from The Living Bible.

The Even Bigger Answers:

(Jesus speaking:) "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars.… For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:6-8, NKJV).

Everyone knows that the world has experienced wars, famines, plagues and earthquakes for millenniums. However, you may be surprised to learn how the scale, severity and frequency of all of these things have increased radically in recent years. Take the first part of this passage, for example:

"You will hear of wars and rumors of wars.… For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom."

The world has never been completely free from the scourge of war, but no ‑period in history has witnessed the escalation of wars as has the twentieth century. The Inter‑national Red Cross estimates that over 100 million people have been killed in wars since this century began.

Prior to 1914, war had never been universal, but in both World War I and II, ‑global war was waged. In the latter, only 12 small nations of the earth were not militarily or technically involved, and 93 million people served in the armed forces of both sides. Of these, 25 million died. Civilian casualties were unprecedented: In the Soviet Union alone, over 20 million civilians died as a result of the war. The Washington Post noted:

Our twentieth-century wars have been 'total wars' against combatants and civilians alike.… The barbarian wars of centuries past were alley fights in comparison.1

Since World War II, which was supposed to be "the war to end all wars," there have been over 150 major wars (defined as conflicts resulting in over 1,000 deaths a year), as well as hundreds of smaller conflicts, armed rebellions and revolutions. The death toll in armed conflicts since the end of World War II is more than 23,142,000 people. The number of war deaths annually has been more than double the annual deaths in nineteenth-‑century wars and seven times greater than those of the eighteenth century.2

The world hoped the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 would not only signify the end of the Cold War between the super‑powers, but usher in a new era of global peace. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The UN High Commission for Refugees reported in November 1995 that war, atrocities and persecution had currently forced a record 50 million people from their homes around the world. The report grimly added,

"The end of the Cold War generated a strong sense of optimism about the international refugee situation. With the rivalry of the superpowers over, it was thought, many conflicts would be resolved.… Almost precisely the opposite has happened."3

In its annual report, the National Defense Council Foundation, a U.S. research and lobbying organization, counted 71 wars in 1995, which was double the number in the organization's first tally in 1989. Its director, retired Special Forces officer Andrew ‑Messing, said the major dangers emerging in the post-Cold War era are nuclear and biological weapons proliferation, the rising militarization of China and spreading violence related to drug trafficking.4

The Greek word for nation used originally in this prophecy, "nation shall rise against nation," is ethnos, which is more accurately translated "a race" or "a tribe." In other words, Jesus was saying that ethnic groups would rise against each other. Pulitzer prize-winning historian Arthur Schlesinger warns, "If the twentieth century has been the century of the warfare of ideologies, the twenty-first century begins as the century of the warfare of ethnicities." 5

The Associated Press (AP) reports that during this century the murders perpetrated by nations against their own people exceed the deaths caused by wars with rivals outside their borders. Citing Stalin's purges, China's Cultural Revolution, Cambodia's "killing fields," the so-called ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, the horrors of Rwanda, etc., the grim verdict is reached:

War aside, the twentieth century is awash in blood. On every continent but North America and Australia, governments have murdered those they governed by the thousands and millions, often by turning neighbor against neighbor. In this most civilized century, by one estimate the killing rage has extinguished 170 million lives.… Ours is the century that coined the term "genocide."6

"And there shall be
famines …"

Are we living in a time of increased famine? The World Bank reported in September 1996 that more than 800 million people go hungry every day, and more than 500 million children do not get enough food to fully develop mentally and physically. "Some 40,000 hunger-related deaths occur every day, mostly in rural regions," bank Vice President Ismail Serageldin said.7

Lester Brown, president of Worldwatch Institute, a Washington think-tank, said, "Ironically, in an era of high technology, of space exploration, the World Wide Web, and organ transplants, humanity was suddenly struggling in 1996 with one of the most ‑ancient of challenges--how to make it to the next harvest." Noting crop failures in 1995 and the current fragile state of world food reserves, he told a news conference, "We have definitely turned a corner."8

Like many experts, Worldwatch blames global warming for much of the hunger in the world. Its 169-page "Vital Signs 1996" report notes that insurance industry payouts for weather-related crop damage during the first half of the 1990s reached $48 billion, compared with $16 billion for all of the 1980s.9

Sir John Houghton, a climate expert and chairman of Britain's Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, warns that we have yet to see the ravages that global warming will wreak on the planet: "Forests will die, diseases like malaria will spread and starving refugees will wander across borders as weather becomes more extreme."10

If you read at an average speed, since you picked up this booklet at least 200 people have died of starvation. Conservative estimates say unless things drastically improve, over 4 million will die this year.

While it took all of human history to reach a world population of one billion people by the year 1830, it only took 100 years to add a second billion (1930), 30 years for the third billion (1960), 16 years for the fourth billion (1976), and 11 years for the fifth billion (1987). The world's population is expected to reach 8.5 billion by the year 2030. As the number of people increases, per capita availability of arable land decreases.

However, the fact of the matter is that the world can produce enough food to feed its expanding population. While some famines are caused by drought or other natural disasters, most starvation today could be avoided were it not for man's selfishness and inhumanity. War, embargoes, government corruption and economic oppression are all to blame. While innocent children starve, some rich nations destroy millions of tons of food in order to keep prices artificially high.

An article from the Associated Press tells us that the Bread for the World Institute expressed such sentiments in its fifth annual report:

"World hunger is rooted in a breakdown of humanitarian values," according to the organization, which lobbies for bigger anti-poverty programs.

Its report identified violence, political powerlessness, poverty, racial discrimination and environmental strains as the main causes of malnutrition.11

Famines are frequently war-related, so an increase in war will inevitably raise the specter of famine. Former U.S. president General Dwight D. Eisenhower highlighted the wanton wastefulness of war when he said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired is, in a sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."12

Here are some recent facts that put what Eisenhower said in perspective:

* The Gulf War alone cost the Allies a half billion dollars a day, or about $350,000 a minute.

* One fighter plane costs about $25 million.

* One Tomahawk cruise missile: about $1.3 million.

* One air-to-air missile: about $800,000.

* Tank shells range from $2,000 to $36,000 each.

Translated into more everyday expenses, for the price of one Sparrow radar-guided missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years. Just two machine gun bullets cost about $1.50, or the price of a school lunch. On a typical Gulf War bombing run, a fighter bomber carried about $1 million in bombs and missiles. The cost of a routine patrol for one fighter plane, even if it didn't fire its guns, was about $10,000, just for fuel and maintenance.

These millions are peanuts, however, compared to worldwide spending on war. The authoritative Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reports that world military expenditures are averaging between $900 billion and $1 trillion a year. Using the $1 trillion figure, that means 2 million dollars are spent worldwide on the military every minute! A $30 billion, 10-year plan to provide clean water to the poor of the developing world would cost just 10 days of military spending. Eighteen days of military spending yearly could eradicate malnutrition worldwide. Experts believe that $200 million, or about 2 hours of military spending, could wipe out the diseases of diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles and polio, which together kill 4 million children every year.13

"And there shall be pestilences …"

As with war and famine, the severity and frequency with which pestilences (which literally means plagues) are now striking is alarming.

Less than 20 years ago the medical profession claimed victory over a wide array of bacterial and viral killers. In 1979, Surgeon General William Stewart declared that it was time to "close the books on infectious diseases."14

As recently as 1983, a medical textbook declared infectious diseases "more easily prevented and more easily cured" than any other major group of disorders.15

But instead of fading, in this decade the cases of infectious diseases have skyrocketed. Dr. Sherwin Nuland, in his best-selling book, How We Die,16 says, "Medicine's purported triumph over infectious disease has become an illusion."17

Doctors now warn that the current resurgence of drug-resistant bacteria strains could prove to be more deadly than AIDS. The AP reports:

The emergence of bacteria strains that cannot be killed by the current arsenal of antibiotics could become a public health threat worse than AIDS, experts warn.

Diseases considered conquered--‑tuberculosis, pneumonia, meningitis, staph infections--are becoming unstoppable. Common bacteria that cause everything from toddlers' ear infections to pneumonia could become "supergerms" resistant to vancomycin and other drugs.

Scientists expect "nothing short of a medical disaster," Dr. Alexander Tomasz of Rockefeller University in New York City warned at the 1994 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of ‑Science. 18

Why this sudden reemergence of diseases that were once considered to be waning or almost eliminated? Ironically, the experts say that it's the widespread misuse of drugs designed to eliminate them that is now responsible for the new super-strains.

Critics complain of a "B-52 approach" among some doctors who blitz their patients with a battery of broad-based antibiotics, ‑often when they are unsure exactly what is making them sick. Experts also suspect that the wide use of antibiotics in animal feed is contributing to resistance.19

The medical community is now warning that not only are bacterial plagues on the rise, but viral killers like AIDS and Ebola are occurring more frequently than ever.

AIDS and Ebola may be just cautionary warnings of many other killer viruses that could suddenly flash through the human population as a result of genetic mutation or social changes that favor the disease, experts say.

"We probably are seeing only the tip of the iceberg in the number of viruses that can exist in humans," said Stephen Morse of Rockefeller University, an expert on Ebola. Richard Courtney of Pennsylvania State University said the recent pattern is that "emerging viral diseases are becoming more frequent, not less."20

As AIDS continues its global rampage, the statistics have become staggering. As of July 1996, 28 million people worldwide had been infected with HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) since the disease was recognized in 1981. AIDS has killed at least 5.8 million of them--about 1.3 million in 1995 alone, including 300,000 children and 400,000 women.21

The World Health Organization (WHO) says around the world more than 6,000 people every day are infected with HIV, and the epidemic is getting worse. Heterosexual transmission now accounts for about 75 percent of all HIV infections.22 WHO spokesman Christopher Powell has predicted the number of HIV-positive people will reach 40 million by the end of the decade.23

As chilling as the ravages of AIDS may be, other infectious diseases are currently claiming even more lives. A mid-1996 report from the WHO shows that the biggest killers worldwide in 1995 were as follows:

* Pneumonia and other acute respiratory infections: 4.4 million.

* Diarrheal diseases like cholera, typhoid, dysentery: 3.1 million.

* Tuberculosis: 3.1 million.

* Malaria: 2.1 million.

* Hepatitis B: more than 1.1 million.

* Measles: more than 1 million children.

* AIDS: more than 1 million.

This list does not include cancer, which is considered non-infectious. Virtually unheard of among our ancestors, over 100 different kinds of cancer now kill over 6 million people every year. A dramatic rise in the deadly skin cancer melanoma is thought to be due to the depletion of the earth's ozone layer, which blocks much of the sun's ultraviolet radiation.

Jesus said there would be an abundance of plagues and diseases marking the time directly preceding His return. Epidemics like AIDS will become increasingly widespread in the days to come.

"And there shall be earth‑quakes in various places …"

The Universal Almanac tells us that there were only 21 earthquakes of ‑major strength between the years 1000 and 1800. But between 1800 and 1900 there were 18 major earthquakes. In the next 50 years, between 1900 and 1950, there were 33 major quakes--almost as many as the number in the preceding 850 years!24

Between 1950 and 1991 there were 93 major earthquakes--almost triple the number of the previous half century--which claimed the lives of 1.3 million people around the world. This dramatic increase of severe quakes has led many scientists to predict that we are entering a new period of great seismic disturbances.

A top-level meeting of geologists and seismologists recently warned that the rise of big cities along seismic fault lines will cause unprecedented catastrophes in the near future:

"It's virtually certain there will be catastrophes in the coming decades, the likes of which we have never seen," Roger Bilham told an International Union of ‑Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) meeting. "Fatality counts exceeding 1 million are not an unreasonable projection given that 50 percent of an urban population can be lost in a single earthquake." While major earthquakes "have generally spared the world's urban centers in recent decades, this trend will not persist indefinitely," Bilham said.25

The Biblical prophet Isaiah also envisioned monster quakes in the last days, saying, "The foundations of the earth are shaken. The earth is … shaken exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall totter like a hut … in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall" (Isaiah 24:18-20; 30:25, NKJV).

Our Violent World

Another condition that Jesus said would be prevalent immediately prior to His return would be unrestrained violence:

"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the [second] coming of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:37, NIV).

How were things in "the days of Noah?" The Book of Genesis tells us "the earth was corrupt before God," and "the earth was filled with violence" (Genesis 6:5,11). We are all painfully aware that today's headlines are full of tragic stories of senseless violence. While America mourns the death of 58,000 of her young men as a result of 8½ years of fighting in Vietnam, few people realize that the combined homicide and suicide rate each year is nearly as high as the total loss of American life during the Vietnam War.

The names of all the Americans who died in the Vietnam War are inscribed on the black granite walls of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington--47,365 killed in battle, and nearly 11,000 victims of accidents and disease. It is one of the world's most evocative and impressive funereal works. No one who visits the memorial is not emotionally affected.

How would we react to a memorial identical in design and eight times larger, a memorial bearing the names of 500,000 Americans--most of them young--who were murdered or who killed themselves in the United States during the Vietnam War years? How would we react to that monstrous memorial if it were necessary, as it would be every year, to add to it at least another 50,000 names?

Murders and suicides [in the U.S.] are now occurring at a rate of more than 145 a day, a rate that is rising. In the past 30 years alone, the total exceeds 1,200,000 people, more than all the men killed in all the wars in the history of the United States. And many of these recent victims are not men and women; they are children.26

The statistics for violent crime in the U.S. alone are staggering. According to the FBI, a person is murdered on an average of every 22 minutes; a rape occurs every 4 minutes, a robbery every 26 seconds.27 A commission of crime experts contradicts reports that crime levels are declining:

The Council on Crime in America said in its first report that [crime levels] "remain at historic highs.

"America is a ticking violent crime bomb, and there is little time remaining to prepare for the blast," said the report, which noted the rise in youthful violence.

They said official FBI statistics on crime, those crimes reported to police, were only the tips of the iceberg.

The report said the crime rate--based on surveys of victims and not just crimes reported to the police--show violent crime--including murder, rape, assault and burglary--was 5.6 times higher than those reported.28

Jack Levin, a sociology professor at Northeastern University in Boston, said the increased number of homicides by juveniles as young as 14 and 15 is a precursor of worse things to come:

"They are in the leading edge of the mini-baby boom of children of the original post-World War II baby boomers, and they haven't yet reached the 18 to 24-year-old age group that traditionally commits the overwhelming majority of murders," he said.

"They aren't even there yet, but they're committing homicide," Levin said. "What are they going to do for an encore?"29

John Lott, a University of Chicago researcher, echoes Levin's warning:

A bloodbath of homicides will occur in 10 years as a larger, more aggressive, less supervised, and better armed generation of children become teenagers. Researchers at a major science meeting say curfews and gun buy-back programs do little to reduce the violence.30

Why the killing spree amongst America's youth? Behavioral scientists have concluded that one of the main culprits is so-called entertainment, particularly the images brought right into everyone's home courtesy of television. In times past, people had to be on the scene where the violence was perpetrated in order to witness it. Not now. By the time the average American child is 15 years old, he or she will have witnessed the violent destruction of more than 35,000 human beings on television, as well as 200,000 other brutal acts.

Even children's cartoons today contain all kinds of senseless violence. MTV's ‑popular "Beavis and Butthead" cartoon has become a children's favorite. A far cry from the Disney cartoons of a generation earlier, Beavis and his crony Butthead routinely torture animals, set fire to furniture and engage in all kinds of violent behavior. No wonder news items such as the following have become routine.

Residents of a working-class neighborhood were horrified that teenagers set a homeless man afire. But they're not surprised.

"Kids see so much violence on television, it gives them crazy ideas," a 49-year-old [bystander] said.

Three boys poured a flammable ‑liquid on Eugene Shepherd as he slept on the lawn of an abandoned library, and then lit matches.31

The link between violence on film and violence in our streets and homes is irrefutable.

Many of America's most notorious ‑serial killers, including Jeffrey L. Dahmer, were influenced by Hollywood films that graphically depict violence, a homicide expert recently said.

"Hollywood is creating problems with some of the stuff they're coming up with," retired FBI agent Robert Ressler said at a police conference. "Movies like 'Silence of the Lambs,' the 'Death Wish' series and all the slasher films are causing mentally unstable people to go over the edge," he said. In a 20-year career with the FBI, Ressler interviewed most of the nation's most infamous serial killers, including Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, David Berkowitz and Ted Bundy.32

The 40,000-member Professional Association of Teachers in Britain conducted a survey in which they found that:

"The impact of violent and sexually explicit material is far more widespread than was previously thought," said Jackie Miller, the association's deputy secretary general and author of the report.

The survey found that 77 percent of secondary school teachers thought children were being "desensitized to violence," and choosing to glorify and mimic violent activity in the playground. 33

Dr. Leonard D. Efron, professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at ‑Chicago, who studied the habits of more than four hundred viewers for 22 years, observes: "There can no longer be any doubt that heavy exposure to televised violence is one of the causes of aggressive behavior, crime and violence in society." Arnold Kahn of the American Psychological Association adds, "The debate over the effects of violence on television is like the debate over cigarette smoking and cancer."34

Of course, there are also hard rock or heavy metal ‑videos, many of which romanticize violence, sexual assault and murder. ‑Studies reveal that between the seventh and twelfth grades, the average American teenager will listen to and watch 11,000 hours of rock music--more than twice the number of hours they will spend in class.

The fruit of all this is an explosion of violent crime among young people. The ‑Associated Press reports, "Young people ages 12 through 17 are the most common victims of violent crime in America, being raped, robbed or assaulted at five times the rate for adults 35 and older, the Justice ‑Department said." One juvenile in 13 was a victim of a violent crime during 1992, the year the statistics were gathered, up 23 percent from 1987.35

To find out "how young people themselves feel about their rapidly changing world," Newsweek magazine and the Children's Defense Fund commissioned a poll of 758 American children between the ages of 10 and 17. Newsweek summarized their findings:

What emerges is a portrait of a generation living in fear.… Many had anxieties their parents could never have imagined: of guns, drugs, divorce, poverty. The interviews underscore how deeply violence, or the fear of it, permeates the lives of children, not just in inner cities, but also in small towns and suburbs across America.36

"Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold" (Matthew 24:12).

A related prophetic passage says, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection … lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God" (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

This predicted cold-heartedness and lack of natural affection manifests itself in many ways. The following news clips highlight just a few:

The evidence continues to mount that the "Me" generation is sorely neglecting its children.

In 1960, just 5 percent of children in America were born to unmarried mothers. By 1990, that figure had jumped to 28 percent. Only 7 percent of youngsters under the age of 3 lived with one parent in 1960. By 1990, 27 percent, more than one in four, lived with only one parent.37

Britain is in moral decline as people become more selfish and less public-spirited, according to a survey.

The country is less law-abiding than it was 10 years ago, according to 77 percent of people questioned in a Gallup social survey, while 65 percent said the sense of morality was weaker.

Almost half--48 percent--of those questioned thought people were more likely to accept antisocial behavior, while 53 percent believed people were more afraid to speak out against wrongdoing.

People were also "less likely to get involved" than they were 10 years ago, according to 70 percent, while 72 percent thought the country was becoming more selfish.38

The size of the family is shrinking all over the world because women in most countries want fewer children, according to a study to be presented at a United Nations conference on women.39

The size of families is not only shrinking because people are preventing pregnancy, but the number of abortions worldwide has exploded in recent years. Despite the fact that modern fetology has made it evident that human life begins at conception, worldwide over 30 million unborn children's lives are snuffed out every year. The Bible says, "In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I [God] have not found it by secret search, but upon all these" (Jeremiah 2:34).

A mother's love for her infant has always been considered as pure and natural as can be. The following news clips testify how "without natural affection" our world has become.

Women around the world are having fewer children and are ending more than a quarter of all pregnancies in abortion, according to a study by a reproductive research group.40

"In the world some 33 million abortions take place annually, and if all the illegal abortions are added to this, the total would come to between 40 million and 60 million," says the Buenos Aires morning newspaper Clarin.41

Russia still leads the world in the number of abortions, with more than twice as many terminations as births, [according to the] Interfax news agency.

It quoted demographic experts as saying that 3.5 million abortions were performed each year--225 abortions for every 100 births.

The ratios of abortions to births in other countries were 20 to 30 in Sweden, 13 to 21 in France and 5 to 20 in the Netherlands, the agency quoted the experts as saying.42

There are currently 1.6 million abortions carried out in the U.S. each year, representing almost a fourth of all pregnancies. That means that every day in the U.S. over 4,300 unborn babies are killed. It is estimated that more than 46 percent of American women will have had an abortion by the time they are 45.43

"As it was in the days of Lot … even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed" (Luke 17:28-30).

Another modern trend foretold by Jesus that again underscores how much today's world is "without natural affection" is the prevalence and acceptance of male homo‑sexuality. (It is also known as sodomy, named after the ancient city of sin, Sodom, where we are told, "all the men from every part of the city, both young and old" attempted to have sex with the male angels who were visiting the home of Lot the night before the city's destruction [Genesis 19:4-5].)

Sodomy is one of the few sexual prohibitions for which God never made any exceptions or allowance in the Bible. He makes it clear that it's something that is bad for those who indulge in it. (See Romans 1:27.) It's because of God's love and concern for us that He tells us to avoid sodomy, plain and simple.

So it's another sign of the times that male homosexuality is sweeping across the world. It is not only tolerated in most countries today, but is actively encouraged in many places, while numerous films, recordings and entertainers flaunt and promote it.

In 1992, The Sex Information and Education Council of the United States came up with national guidelines for sex education in America's public schools. These guidelines, from one of the most prestigious private educational groups in the country, teach that "no form of sexual orientation or family structure is morally superior to any other." This attempt to teach America's children to accept homosexuality received the official endorsement of the American Medical Association.

Parents frequently have no say in what their children are taught about sexual orientation. Insight magazine reported:

Five-year-old Johnny fidgets in the back seat of the family Volvo on his way home from school. "Mommy," he finally blurts out, "I think I'm a lesbian." This is how one mother in Washington state discovered that her son was being taught comprehensive sex and AIDS education in kindergarten.

Not all forms of education about homo‑sexuality are based on the need for sex or AIDS education; some are based on the dubious notion of multiculturalism. Several new children's books have been written, for instance, that portray homosexual family life as completely normal. Daddy's Roommate is about the life of a little boy who lives with his father and his father's male lover. Heather Has Two Mommies is about a girl who was conceived by artificial insemination and lives with her lesbian "mommies." Needless to say, both these books present homo‑sexuality as perfectly normal, natural, and healthy.44

The following clips are just a few more examples of how our day is indeed like "the days of Lot":

The cold stares and uncomfortable silence that greeted K.C. Barrow at a high school prom in 1992 were gone this year.

He and his male date joined about 100 other couples Friday night for what school officials said was the first gay and lesbian prom in the nation sponsored by a school district.

Barrow, who attends Central High School in West Hollywood, said he and another boy attended a prom together 2 years ago and couldn't wait to leave.45

The British Broadcasting Corporation will give homosexual workers who take part in "a formal ceremony of commitment" a week's paid holiday to go on honeymoon, a spokesman said. They will also give 75-pound ($110) gift vouchers as wedding presents for homo‑sexuals.46

Three hundred senior Anglicans worldwide have backed a campaign to ordain practicing homosexuals as priests. The clerics signed an advertisement praising the campaigning work of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, which will appear in religious newspapers.47

France has extended medical benefits to non-working partners in homosexual couples. The order marks a milestone for homosexual couples in having their unions officially recognized. Court rulings in recent years have leaned the other way, with judges refusing to view homosexual couples as normal and thus eligible for state benefits.48

The European Parliament has ruled that the European Union should allow homo‑sexual couples to marry and adopt or foster children. EU states should also set the same age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual activities, it said in a resolution calling for all laws that criminalize and discriminate against sexual acts between people of the same sex to be abolished.49

"And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matthew 24:14).

Unlike the dramatic rise in wars, famine, plagues, earthquakes, etc., Jesus said that this sign was not merely something to indicate "the beginning of sorrows," but was a specific sign that would indicate when the actual end would be upon the world.

According to The Almanac of the Christian World50 , at the time of its publication Christians and Christian churches existed in every country of the world. The Gospel has been preached to over 4 billion people in these countries and areas. Over 50 million Bibles are distributed every year, as well as nearly 80 million New Testaments. Four billion Gospel tracts are also printed each year.

The entire Bible or parts thereof are now available to about 98 percent of the world's population, having been translated partially or entirely into some 2,092 different languages and dialects.51

Other Christian books are also proliferating, with some 3 billion being printed every year by 1,500 presses and publishers. The Gospel is also preached from 2,160 Christian radio and television stations, and religious shows are carried on many more thousands of secular stations.

Never has the Gospel been preached in all the world to all nations as it is right now. If not directly by missionaries, it is certainly being preached by the modern mediums of radio, television, and telecommunications. This is a conclusive prophecy by Jesus that shows that you and I are now living in the time of the end!

"Many shall run to and fro …"

The modern means of communication and transportation that have made it possible for the Gospel to now be preached in all nations bring to mind another important prediction regarding endtime conditions. In 534 B.C., the prophet Daniel received an outstanding revelation. Afterwards, God told him not to worry that he couldn't understand it all, that even though the prophecy was given to him, it wasn't for him. It's only been in recent years, as we've seen its fulfillment, that the Book of Daniel has been opened. The Lord told Daniel:

"Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (Daniel 12:4).

Many running to and fro means "speeding about, here and there," or as the Living Bible renders it, "travel shall be greatly increased."

When you consider that people's means of transportation--horse and buggy, camels, sailboats, etc.--did not change substantially for thousands of years, you can appreciate the significance of this prophecy.

In 1789, it took George Washington 8 days to travel the 200 miles from his home to his inauguration in New York City. The fact that it took 8 days is not significant. What is noteworthy is that Julius Caesar could have made the same trip just as rapidly in the year 50 B.C.! No real progress had been made in transportation over the many centuries that passed between their lifetimes. But look how mankind has advanced in just this past century or two!

Today we not only drive at enormous speeds and cover great distances in our auto‑mobiles, but a jet can fly around the world in 24 hours, and a spacecraft circles the planet in 80 minutes!

And look at the number of people traveling today. It's absolutely unprecedented. Truly many are running to and fro!

At the annual meeting of travel industry executives gathered in Singapore for the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), John Naisbitt, economic forecaster and author of Megatrends 200052 , underscored how the largest industry in the world is now the one which enables people to "run to and fro":

Travel and tourism is the biggest and the most energetic industry in the world. It will be one of the three super-industries driving the (global) economy of the next century, along with Information Technology and Telecommunications.

This year [1995], travel and tourism is forecast to generate US $3.4 trillion in gross product, accounting for 10 percent of global economic output, consumer spend‑ing and investment.53

Pierre Jeanniot, director-general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said during the celebration of IATA's fiftieth anniversary that IATA companies ‑carried 1.2 billion passengers on all services last year--equivalent to one in five of the world's population.54

The World Travel and Tourism Council reported from Brussels that 1995 (the latest year for which statistics are available) was the biggest year for international tourism ever, with 567 million people traveling out of their home country. The same report says that the European Union's travel and tourism sector will be worth $2.26 trillion by 2005. The projection, if fulfilled, would represent 38 percent growth in real terms over the period.55

The Madrid-based World Tourism Organization forecasts that the present number of tourists on the move worldwide will double by 2010. The organization's secretary general, Antonio Savignac, said, "We're looking at almost a billion international arrivals by the year 2010, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Domestic tourism, people traveling within their own country, could be 10 times that."56

In all of world history people have never traveled the distances, the speeds, nor with the frequency that billions are traveling today. Truly many are running to and fro, just like God said they would in the "time of the end."

"And knowledge shall be increased" (Daniel 12:4).

Knowledge has increased within our generation almost beyond imagination! The term "information overload" was coined for our generation, and with good cause. Here are just a few mind-boggling facts on this:

* 80 percent of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive right now.

* Every minute they add 2,000 pages to man's scientific knowledge. The material they produce every 24 hours would take one person 5 years to read.

* It's commonly estimated that a weekday edition of any major newspaper has more information than the average person living in the 17th century would have come across in a lifetime. And today, thanks to your PC and the World Wide Web, hundreds, if not thousands, of national and international papers and periodicals are at your fingertips.