Blood Moons, the End, and Being Prepared (End Times Prophecy 101)

The super blood moon has come and gone, and with it more self-declared prophets and so-called prophecy experts were exposed as frauds. Of course they are not the first and won’t be last who have claimed inside information and special revelation into the timing of the end of the world. I suppose the present culprits are busy adjusting their faulty predictions, fine-tuning their calculations, although it will be futile because only the Creator himself, Almighty God, the Father of all things knows the times and epochs, the beginning and the end.Jesus said, “But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” Mark 13:32 (NASB, also see Matt. 24:36),  "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority” Acts 1:7 (NASB), and the revelation the Apostle Paul received was, “The day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night” 1 Thessalonians 5:2 (NASB). These Scriptures should make it plain that anyone who claims to have special and specific insight into God’s timing when it comes to the end of the world, the return of Christ, and the final judgment is guaranteed to be wrong and is not worth listening to for a minute.They do great harm, these so-called prophecy experts. They take advantage and exploit the simple-minded, they teach folks lousy hermeneutics (Bible interpretation), they cause the unbelieving to dismiss what the Scriptures really say about the last things (eschatology), the things God did say about the end, the warnings everyone should heed.Nowhere in Scripture are we commanded to put our hopes in and orient ourselves on a calendar date. But we are to put our hopes in and are to orient ourselves on the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and live in the present so it doesn’t matter when he returns, when the world ends, and when are we are summoned to God’s judgment.The Bible, the word of God, is unequivocal that there will be end to all as we know it, that Jesus Christ will return, that no one escapes the judgment of God. When Jesus and the Apostles speak of these things they always caution us to preparedness, to live today in such a godly, Christlike, loving way that we are always ready for Christ to come, for tings to end, but be completely unafraid and at peace.The way to be prepared for the ultimate end is to consider our personal end. We do not know our personal end either; it too will come like a thief, not according to our timing and it will rob us of everything if we are unprepared. We do well to listen to the apostle Peter, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” 2 Peter 3:8-17 (NIV).Maranatha! Love you, Pastor Hans