Jesus our Lord mentioned the following signs which will precede His coming in Matt 24:
- False Christs.
- Wars and rumors of wars.
- Famines.
- Earthquakes.
- Persecution leading to many falling away.
- Many false prophets leading many astray.
- Lawlessness will increase.
- The love of many will grow cold.
Yet these are merely the signs of the beginning of the birth pains.
Throughout the history of the last 2000 years or more since Jesus ascended to heaven, such signs have been observed anyway. So how can we be certain we are staring at the beginning of the birth pains ?
Can exponentially increased instances of these signs be considered conclusive proof ?
Firstly, it is interesting to ponder why Jesus our Lord called the beginning of the end times as birth pains. At the onset of labor in child birth, pain caused by uterine contractions will intensify in magnitude till the baby is born. The intensification of labor pain is a good illustration of the sudden escalation or exponential occurrence of calamitous events.
Secondly, the sudden-ness of the escalation of an event in an exponential fashion seems to mirror the sudden-ness of His coming that our Lord Jesus had talked about that many will still be caught unawares. Mark 13:35-37; Luke 21:34-35; 1 Thess 5:3; Prov 29:1.
The exponential function is lingering at the bottom for the most part of the time and then suddenly it shoots up to the top. That sudden turn will usually catch many unawares because for the most part, the event has remained dormant.
Habakkuk 2:3
For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay.
Dr Albert Bartlett was the president of the American Association of Physics Teachers in 1978. In his seminal presentation, “Arithmetic, Population and Energy”, he mentioned this famous phrase “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is the inability to understand the exponential function”.
In his lecture, he was trying to explain that within a finite system, modest annual growth at a certain percentage cannot continue indefinitely. In the example of oil usage, the human race may be caught unawares when modest annual growth of the use of critical resources like oil due to population growth can result in sudden escalation of depletion in a relatively short period of time. The logic is simple and irrefutable. And when this critical stage of depletion of oil happens, for example, we will face an apocalypse.
Today, we face this scenario of exponential depletion of all critical resources.
And also the exponential increase of fiat monetary supply without corresponding industrial productivity expansion will result in a collapse. We have seen the increase way past the inflexion point of the exponential curve.
Get ready for the fulfilment of the judgment of wealth mentioned in Rev 18 when the kings of the earth (governments), merchants (global MNCs and all SMEs) and those who make their living by the sea (major seaports cum financial centres) will weep when God judges.
– extracted from my book, The Coming Economic Flood.