When examined closely, modern-day prophecy fulfillment puts an end to the skeptic’s arguments against the existence of God and the inspiration of the Bible. (Perhaps for this reason, the skeptic won’t examine the evidence.) If only a few prophecies were fulfilled, one could say they happened by chance. If they were written obscurely or symbolicly, their fulfillment could be open to any number of interpretations. But we have already looked at multiple prophecies with recent specific fulfillments, and none have failed.

Before moving on in this series, I want to look at one more area: what the Bible says about the conditions of the end times. How does today’s world match up with biblical prophecy?

There are quite a few places in the Bible that speak of the “last days,” such as the following:

But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power. …

– 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (WEB)

While these traits have been true of people throughout history, recently they have become much more so, and they are getting worse. We are not moving away from this fulfillment, but rapidly towards it. In fact, every part of this prophecy is true today.

Jesus said the last days would be like the days of Noah before the flood, and the days of Lot before the destruction of Sodom. In both cases, God’s judgment fell swiftly on mankind for their sins…

“As it happened in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise, even as it happened in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky, and destroyed them all. It will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”

– Luke 17:26-30 (Matthew 24:37-39) (WEB)

Again, the conditions of today match the conditions in Noah and Lot’s time: evil prevails in men’s imaginations, violence is everywhere, and the wicked have become bold (Genesis 6:5-6, 11-12, 13:13, 19:4-11). History has come full circle, and humanity has become ripe for judgment.

There are also other biblical statements about the future that are true today. When taken together, they prove the reliability and inspiration of the Bible. For example…

• If the Bible is not true, I would not expect people to travel so much and I would not expect today’s information explosion. But Daniel 12:4 said this would be true of the last days.

• If the Bible is not true, I would not expect continuing instability in the Middle East. Today, it seems every little thing ticks the Arabs off to the point where they want to destroy everyone else. But the Bible said that would be the nature of the descendants of Ishmael, the father of the Arabs:

He will be like a wild donkey among men. His hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. He will live opposite all of his brothers.

– Genesis 16:12

• If the Bible is not true, I would not expect increasing natural and man-made catastrophies, but these were prophesied as forerunners of worse times to come (Matthew 24:6-8, Luke 21:11,25-26). For example, weather is getting more extreme, and large earthquakes have been increasing (http://www.livescience.com/46576-more-earthquakes-still-random-process.html, http://www.livescience.com/45764-earthquake-cluster-2014-for-real.html).

• If the Bible is not true, I would not expect false Christs to appear. You don’t see people claiming to be Bhudda, Mohammed, or other religious leaders. But Jesus said there would be people falsely claiming to be Himself (Mark 13:5-6, 22), and we have seen quite a few in the last 100 years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_claimed_to_be_Jesus).

• If the Bible is not true, I would not expect so many false teachers today (Matthew 24:11). Today we are glutted with cults and prosperity preachers who teach a false gospel to gain material wealth for themselves (1 Timothy 4:1-5). A plain reading of the New Testament shows them to be false (for example, Luke 14:33, 18:22-23, 1 John 2:15-16).

• If the Bible is not true, I would not expect the world to slander or persecute Christians (Matthew 10:21-22, Mark 10:30; Luke 21:12; John 15:20, 2 Timothy 3:12) or Jews more than any other group of people. Yes, other people groups get persecuted, but that tends to be a regional or local thing, or only for a time. Christians have been crucified, burned at the stake, eviscerated, beaten to death, and slandered for the actions of false Christians ¹ for almost 2000 years. Today, more Christians are being killed for their faith than ever before ².

• If the Bible is not true, I would not expect the beheading of Christians to be gaining prominence in the world (as seen in ISIS videos). In the first-century church, the most common form of martyrdom was crucifixion. Only 2 of the original disciples died by beheading. But Revelation 20:4 says in the last days, the primary way Christians will be killed will be by beheading. The continuing spread of the sword of Islamic terrorism is rapidly bringing this prophecy to fulfillment.

• If the Bible is not true, I would not expect people to curse God or speak lightly of Him. Today it’s very uncommon to hear the names of false gods spoken lightly (Thor or Shiva for example), but ‘OMG’ is everywhere. It is a testimony to the fallen nature of man that whatever God commands, man does the opposite (Exodus 20:7). And now more people are expressing actual animosity to the God of the Bible. Even those who say they don’t believe in God slander Him. This fits the prophecies of the end times when men will blame God for suffering the consequences of their own sins rather than doing the obvious: repenting of their rebellion against God and believing in Jesus to be saved from the consequences of their sins (Revelation 16:9,11). God does not want to send people to hell (Ezekiel 33:11, Acts 17:30-31, 1 Timothy 2:1-6, 2 Peter 3:9); they’re going there by their own stubbornness.

• If the Bible were not true, I would not expect it to mention Jesus coming to gather His elect “from the heavens” (i.e. the sky – Matthew 24:31, Mark 13:27). It has only been a little over one hundred years since man has been able to fly. Now we have thousands of people flying in airplanes at any given time around the globe. A few are living in space, and some are planning on moving to Mars. How did the writers of the Bible know man will have left the ground in the last days?

These are just a few of the prophecies foretold in the Bible about the conditions that would occur just before Jesus Christ comes back. They are not self-fulfilled prophecies, for it is those who are against God who are bringing them to pass. Are you ready for Jesus’ return?