“Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we know that it is the final hour.”

If the final hour was identified by the Apostle John, how much closer are we to the Lord’s return? The final hour is the gospel age of Christ were the full and free offer of salvation is given out to the whole world. The offer of mercy and forgiveness is for all who will believe. We surely live in the end of the end times! Many anti-Christ’s were around in John’s day – people who sought to water down the message of the gospel and bring heresies into the church of Christ. We are in this place today, with many false prophets, apostles and people who claim all sorts of things in the name of God. This is how we know it is the final hours of this world’s history.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ in the last book of the Bible, speaks of an Anti-Christ who will lead the whole world against God and the people of God. The world waits for such a one, either as an actual person or as a spirit of the age, which will permeate all of society and bring all citizens under its controlling power. It will bring a time of great tribulation against the people of God, for they will not have the mark of the beast on their lives. Christians are motivated and identified by the love of the Spirit of God, and will set them apart from the rest of the society, bringing down persecution and hatred on them. We can identify a growing intolerance to Christian principles in all societies, even those who identified as Christian at one time. We have flown in the face of the commandments of the Lord and rejected His holy rule on our personal and corporate lives and our communities are now “post-Christian.”

Surely the Lord is coming soon, and His reward is with Him.

“Behold, I come quickly. My reward is with me, to repay to each man according to his work.”

Revelation 22:12

We gain strength and comfort from the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and the power to stand for our Master in these last days. He will give us courage to face all adversity and to comfort each other in the Lord. God is still gathering in His precious people, and when the last saint of God is gathered in, then the end will come. Until that time, we work and pray and speak for our Lord in reaching out to other people around us. We walk diligently in all His ways and purposes and seek to please Him in what we do.

How comforting it is to belong to the household of God and be His children. Not one will be lost or left behind from the coming kingdom. We take joy in His word and trust the royal promises that hold us fast in faith and love.