ARE THESE REALLY THE LAST DAYS? - Is Our Generation the One Foretold?

Is Our Generation the One Foretold?

You may wonder, though, 'Have not these conditions always plagued mankind?  How do we know that our modern generation is the one foretold in these ancient  prophecies?'   Let us consider three lines of evidence that prove that Jesus was talking about our time.

First, while there was a partial,  early fulfillment in the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, Jesus' words definitely pointed to the future beyond that day.  About 30 years after the cataclysm that destroyed Jerusalem, Jesus gave the ages apostle John a vision showing that the prophesied conditions-war, famine, pestilence, and resultant death-were to arrive worldwide in the future.  Yes, these distresses would embrace, not any one locality, but "the earth" as a whole. -Revelation 6:2-8.

Second, in this century some features of Jesus' sign are being fulfilled in what we might call the ultimate degree.  For example, is there any room for wars to become much worse than they have been since 1914?  If there is a World War III, with all of today's nuclear powers deploying their weapons, the aftermath would likely find this earth, a charred waste-and mankind as extinct as the dodo....  Similarly, Revelation 11:18 foretold that in these last days when the nations are "wrathful," mankind would be "ruining the earth."  For the first time in history, pollution and degradation of the environment now threaten the very habitability of this planet!  So this feature too is seeing fulfillment in or near its ultimate degree.  Could wars and pollution simply continue to worsen until man has destroyed himself and this planet?  No; for the Bible itself decrees that the earth will last forever, with right hearted humans living upon it. -Psalm 37:29; Matthew 5:5.

Third, the sign of the last days is especially convincing when taken as a whole.  All told, when we take into account the features Jesus mentioned in the three Gospels, those in Paul's writings,m and those in Revelation, this sign has dozens of features.  A person might quibble about them at a time, arguing that other ages have seen similar problems, but when we consider all of them together, the point an unmistakable finger at only one age-our own.

What, though, does all of this mean?  That the Bible simply paints our age as a desperate, hopeless time?  Far from it!

Next time: ARE THESE REALLY THE LAST DAYS? - Good News

The Watchtower, 1997