If Christians what to know what's going to happen in the future, they only need to look to the Bible.
"God is impeccably perfect in His prophetic announcements," said Pastor Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church during a recent Sunday sermon about the End Times. "The Bible is full of prophecy ... the Bible is God's prophetic syllabus giving us an outline of things to come," he added before walking the congregation through the Bible's prophetic calendar.
In Matthew 24:3 Jesus' disciples asked Him to reveal the signs of His second coming. He replied: "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains" (Matthew 24:6-8).
Evans cautioned, however, that God has not given anyone the knowledge of when Jesus will return.
"I am not saying that what we are seeing today is proof positive that Jesus is coming tomorrow," he added. "What I am saying is, it could be."
Delving into the Bible to discuss the signs to be on the lookout for over the next seven years, Evans said to watch Russia, countries in the Middle East and the rising conflict over oil.
Oil, he stressed, will be a dominant issue in the coming years, which will bring Russia and the Middle East into conflict before Jesus' return.
The 72-year-old pastor said he predicts that a conflict over oil between Russia and Middle Eastern nations will reach its "fullest expression" during a series of seven years. In the final days, he said, a war will break out against Israel.
"You think you got high gas prices now. You ain't seen nothing yet," Evans declared. "Oil will become the dominant issue. And with oil being the issue, and the Middle East being in conflict with the oil-bearing nations, and Russia coming down from the North, there will be a coming together of the Middle East, of Europe, of Russia. [The Bible] says, 'God is going to arrange for them to collect themselves against Israel.'"
Israel was chosen by God to bring in the Living Word and the written Word, Evans emphasized, declaring that God knew before time that Israel would be the nation that would give birth to the Messiah. The Ten Commandments would also come out of that land, and the Scriptures would be birthed through the Jews.
"Everything revolves around the place of Israel. When Jesus Christ comes back. He is coming back to Jerusalem and He's coming back with us," Evans added, referring to Revelation 19:11.
"Jesus Christ is going to come back at the end of the tribulation with the saints who have already been raptured. ... Every eye will see him," he added, citing Revelation 1:7.
Evans pointed his listeners to Ezekiel 38 and stressed that Christians are in the "Church Age," which is the age between Pentecost and the coming Rapture.
"None of this will happen without God's orchestration. ... They may not know it now. They may not believe it now. They may not acknowledge it now. But on that day, there will be no question that that's the day of the Lord," he said.
"The Church clock began. ... God has established His Church. Jesus has established His Church. People are being made one to Christ. And those who accept Christ become part of this Church Age. The Church Age comes to a conclusion at the Rapture. The reason why it is not the end yet is there is an event that will take place before the End Time clock gets punched. And that event is called the Rapture," Evans explained earlier in his sermon.
Christians who put their faith in Jesus will undergo a transformation during the Rapture, Evans added.
"We who are alive will be changed," he said. "Everything wrong with you in the Rapture will be made right immediately. Everybody will go back to the age of Adam and Eve when they were created in the garden."
Evans encouraged Christians to boldly declare their faith and not be "ashamed" of their beliefs, adding, "We're waiting for the Rapture. We're waiting for the opportunity to be with the Lord, and it's time now to get busy for the Lord and His Kingdom."
"Since we're still here, we still have some time to make it right, to get right with God, to get right with each other and to get busy for the Lord," the pastor maintained. "This is not a time to play Christians. ... I'm a visible, verbal follower of Jesus Christ, I'm a Kingdom disciple, I'm a representative of God."
