Are We In the End Times?
We Have Been Experiencing the End Times
We are Near The End of Our Do-Over
With all due respect, we have been in The End Times since The Great Flood. Sadly, though, mankind does not live as though the end can come at any time. Mankind thinks it has all the time in the world, when in reality, they only have the time that God will give them.
The End Times are the times of a Do-Over that began when only eight people out of as much as 9 billion people were wiped out by The Great Flood because of their unrighteousness. So, to summarize, our do-over, began when The Great Flood of Noah's days ended.
The world population is expected to grow to about 10.5 billion by the year 2100, after which it is expected to decline to closer to 9 billion as it was before The Great Flood.
Revelation 9:18 tells us that when the End Time is reached 3 billion people will die by three plagues. The rest who are not saved to be with God in Heaven will for all practical purposes be dead.
It should not be a surprise that a similar wipe-out will occur again, because we have all been warned for a long, long time.
This is probably going to sting. Don't get mad at me; I do not judge you.
On the other hand, God does.
Some people are going to wince more than others. Romans 1:18-32 gives you both barrels that explain how God feels about The End of your chances to decide:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
The next time it's for keeps (2 Peter 3:1-12).
Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”
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. Instead 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 done in it will be laid bare.
But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same Word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
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.
Since The Great Flood the Lord has been giving mankind chance after chance to decide their fate, because the next is judgment time, literally The End Time. You still have a choice to make.
Everyone who lives must decide between two things:
- A Heavenly eternal relationship with God, or- An eternal separation from God in Hell
For a wonderful review of the experiences of End Times that we recall in history books and The Bible, I encourage you all to refer to The 7 Signs of End Times by Britt Gillette, written for Rapture Ready. He saved me a great deal of time, as I can improve very little on his Biblical observations, clear and concise thoughts and conclusions. (Thank you, Britt, I wished there was some way I could contact you.)
From the time of Adam to The Great Flood, by examining the genealogies in the Bible, God put mankind through 49, 40 wilderness periods in the course of 1960 years. That time is considered a perfect amount of time for God to prove mankind's unrighteousness. You see 49 is a perfect number because it is 7x7; the number 7 is a number that God uses repeatedly to indicate a perfect amount. The number 40 is also one of those perfect numbers that God uses, usually in terms of 40 days (as the number of days it rained during The Great Flood or the number of days Christ spent in the desert wilderness being subjected to devilish temptations) or 40 years (as in the number of years God made Israel led by Moses wander in the desert to reveal their heart to themselves). (More on that later in this post.)
THE BIG MULLIGAN – DO - OVER
Think of the times since the Great Flood as a big mulligan, The Great Do-Over, spanning 77 series of 40 year "Wilderness" periods leading up to today, 2022. Add to that 11 more 40 year wilderness periods left between today and the period called The End Times, projected to occur around the year 2462.
Let’s Discuss These Numbers Being Thrown Around
Mankind had never seen rain before The Great Flood of Noah’s days.
Though the years since The Great Flood have been filled with seemingly ad infinitum wars, geological and natural catastrophic events, mankind’s horrible cruelty to man, wild economic swings, famines and pestilence, mankind has never experienced or seen the destruction to come in the fiery Final Judgment.
The Bible is absent the mention of rain during first seven days of creation. God had not sent rain, as apparently there was no need for it. The earth was without even a shrub according to Genesis 2:5. Genesis 2:6 tells us however, that there was a mist that rose from the earth to water the whole surface of the ground.
So, because of the absence of the mention of rain actually falling on the ground in the Bible, many believe that rain did not come until the Great Flood, which marked the beginning of the BIG DO-OVER.
Where did the water come from that made the rivers and the oceans? We can only speculate that God made the water from the mist and it bubbled up from the ground to form the rivers and nourish the fauna. To suggest any more would be adding to the Word of God. The Bible tells us that every word in the Bible is God-inspired (2nd Timothy 3:16) and theologians are warned not to knowingly mislead people (1st Timothy 6:3-5, 2nd Peter 2:1, and Revelation 22:18-19, to name but a few).
God knew He would give mankind a DO-OVER before the first raindrop dropped because He said He would save a remnant of eight that included Noah, his wife and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth and each of their wives and a remnant of the animals on the earth in Genesis 6:17-19:
" Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark -you and your sons and your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. “
God then tells Noah in Genesis 7:4 that He will make it rain:
"For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made."
The estimated 9 billion in population had experienced about 49, 40 year wilderness periods by the time God brought The Great Flood. God had spent all that time in His wisdom to test the population’s hearts; some would learn to know their hearts, but most were wiped out.
By examining the genealogies in Genesis, we find that there was a span of 1960 years from Adam to the Great Flood. 1960 years was a perfect number, 7x7 or 49, of 40 year wilderness periods. In that time God verified a much needed a Do-Over. Another perfect number which God uses a great deal is 40, a number used repeatedly in terms of days or years or simply.
Why had God waited so long before bringing The Great Flood?
He knew after witnessing mankind’s character play out in the precious lives He created in Genesis 6:11-13:
… [The] earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, "[the] end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold ….
But God gave mankind 1960 years to prove their character. The Bible tells us that God is patient in 2nd Peter 3:9 –
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but s patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
God wanted to give mankind 1960 years, the “perfect” number of years, to live righteous lives. God again demonstrated His patience through accounts of The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:7-8), which is estimated to have happened within 350 years after The Great Flood (because Noah was reported still alive). Noah was still alive when the Tower of Babel was built—According to Scripture Noah lived 350 years after the flood and a total of 950 years (Genesis 9:28-29). This means he would have been alive during his great-grandson Nimrod’s rise to power and the building of the tower. God patiently tried to stem mankind’s desires to be their own god by separating communities and scrambling cultural and by taking away a common language.
Another demonstration of His patience is documented in the telling of judgment at Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:23-32). Abraham asked God multiple times about what it would take for Him to wipe out a community that demonstrated unrighteousness. God’s final answer to Abraham was “I will not destroy it on account of the ten [righteous remaining].”
The genealogy God gives us lists Methuselah as living 969 years before he died (Genesis 5:27). We find that he lived the longest life ever lived. And we know of his name, which is translated in Hebrew as Man of the Dart, a reference to his blamelessness and righteousness by his lineage and offspring. Methuselah’s offspring brought Noah, Abraham through Shem, one of Noah’s three sons, and eventually Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Since The Great Flood mankind has experienced 77, 40 year wilderness periods bringing us to 2022.
Mankind is expected to experience 11 more 40 year wilderness periods during the next 440 years.
During this last 440 years mankind will be tested so thoroughly that the world will be ready for Christ’s Second Coming and tribulation.
Where did the 440 years come from?
Well, the clue is that God is patient and doesn’t want anyone to perish (2nd Peter 3:9), and the next clue is the purpose of The Great Commission which is provided by Jesus Christ in Matthew 28:16-20 –
“But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, " [all] authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
The “end of the age” is taken to mean “The End Time.” The End Time is then a point in time after which the perfect number of wilderness periods similar to the 40 year wilderness period which Israel led by Moses spent in the desert to before entering The Promised Land. The End Time is also a time when The Great Commission will have been fulfilled as far as God is concerned.
The Great Commission will have been fulfilled when God determines that everyone who has ever lived or who is alive at the time has had an opportunity to choose whether to follow God or not. The coming of that time begins to show itself when world birth rates start declining such that the death rate outstrips the birth rate and not only does the population begin to decline, but across all nations the number of new believers dwindle to effectively nil.
Demographers and researchers have identified likely declining birth rates beginning around 2050.
The declining population is then expected to outstrip birth rates exacerbated by unsustainable food and water resource rates sometime around 2100. Some scientists venture estimates somewhat before this, even as soon as having already reached unsustainable levels in 2010.
Conversions to Judaism and Christianity are expected to decline to the point when most of the living population will have had a chance to decide their belief or non-belief in God. This inflection point is forecast by algorithmic trend extensions to last about 440 more years from 2022, or 11 more, 40 year wilderness periods before The End Time.
At this time, the world population is expected to have declined from a peak of about 10.8 billion in 2100 to closer to about 9 billion by 2462, when, at The End Time, at least one-third of the world’s population will be wiped out by three plagues. That's right, at least 3 billion people will be wiped out according to Revelations 9:18 -
A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their [three angels' ] mouths.
For the sake of approximation and as accurate as can be expected using existing demographic projections, that time will be the year around 2462, or 5480 years since Adam’s days; the world should have gone through about 137, 40 year wilderness periods (49, 40 year wilderness periods before the flood and 88, 40 year wilderness periods after the flood).
The number 7 and 77 are symbols for limitless or perfect amounts, and generally related to restricting vengeance for sin. The numbers 7 or 77 are used in the Bible several times beginning in Genesis.
The context of this next account deals with violent sin. Cain had killed his brother Abel out of jealousy, as God was more pleased with Abel’s first fruits sacrifice than Cain’s fruit out of the ground sacrifice to God. God sent Cain away to Nod east of Eden (Genesis 4:16) with the caveat that nobody should be vengeful against Cain in Genesis 4:14-15:
"Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.
"So the LORD said to him, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him."
Later in the same Chapter, Lamech took two wives and confessed that he had killed a man for wounding him and a boy for striking him, Lamech was the offspring of Methushael through Cain, Enoch, Irad and Mehujael (Genesis 4:18). Once again God used the 77 symbol in Genesis 4:24:
“If Cain is avenged sevenfold, [then] Lamech seventy-sevenfold."
Later in the New Testament, Peter is asking Jesus how many times a brother who sinned should be forgiven in Matthew 18:21-22:
Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"
Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” (for example, 70 x 7 = 490)
Recall also that God rested after He had created the world on the 7th day (Genesis 2:3) and made it the Sabbath Day (Exodus 20:10).
God also uses “wilderness periods” throughout the Bible. Wilderness periods are a time of testing and revealing our heart. Wilderness periods could be as short as 40 days, the number of days it rained during the Great Flood, or the 40 day wilderness period that Jesus went through in the desert while being tempted by the devil.
Wilderness periods could also be as much as 40 years as was the number of years Moses led the nations Israel in the desert after fleeing Egyptian bondage and before entering God’s Promised Land. Another 40 year increment example is the 400 years (or 10, 40 year wilderness periods) of the length of time of God’s silence between the last prophet of the Old Testament, Malachi, and New Testament Book of Matthew where the prophecy of Jesus Christ is declared by John the Baptist.
Moses and all of Israel hedged on their obedience to God as the following recount described in Numbers 32:13:
So the LORD'S anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the LORD was destroyed.
Moses did not make into the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 34:3); but he still made it to Heaven (Matthew 17:3-4). All of those led by Moses and finally by Joshua making it to the Promised Land may not make it into Heaven.
Only God knows.
A wilderness journey is an experience that tests a man’s heart. The references about sevens are a statement about God’s perfection. Only God knows a man’s heart (Genesis 6:5, Jeremiah 17:10, 1 Chronicles 28:9b, 1 Samuel 16:7).
But, Deuteronomy 8 tells us all we need to know about the “why” of wilderness periods. God wants us to know what our hearts are really like; through wilderness periods man convicts himself:
"All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers. You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.
“Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.
"Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, 'My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.'
"But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. It shall come about if you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.”
How Do Wilderness Periods Test a Man’s Heart?
We are provided vivid accounts of the types of tests Israel experienced during their 40 year wilderness period in Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy as Moses and ultimately Joshua led Israel through the desert to the Promised Land. When we read about Israel going into the desert for those very long years, we can learn lesson after lesson about how to deal with the fears, doubts, rebellion, hunger, and thirst that are the same in our own lives today.
Israel complained 14 times about God and His provisions. The following is a wonderful excerpt describing how their complaining mirrors our Christian journey:
The people complained to Moses that because of Him and His talk of a promise land, Pharaoh made things worse for them – Exodus 5:1-22 - This is when the enemy creates pressure at home, at work or school to discourage you at the beginning of your Christian walk. Out of nowhere, your responsibilities at home, work or school suddenly increases and requires you to meet impossible deadlines and quotas. Your workload and the extra overtime “scatters” (verse 12) you and you feel like you are taking a “beating” (verse 14). Your family, your boss or supervisor blames you and your sudden interest in “Christian things” for not being able to do your job.
The people complained and said to Moses “let us alone” – Exodus 14:11-12 - This is when you are faced with what seems like an impossible situation all because you listened to your godly friends or leaders. You wonder if this “Christian thing” is worth it. We sometimes blame the preacher or our Christian friend who has been witnessing to us for all the new drama and pressure in our life.
The people complained about the bitter water – Exodus 15:22 - This is when you are faced with the bitterness of changing your diet from the things of the world to the things of God. Like asking a child to go from sugary foods to eating their vegetables, it never happens without a protest.
The people complained about being hungry; God gives them Manna – Exodus 16:1-4 - This is when your spiritual growth produces greater hunger. However, its the not the earthly food we are used to; God begins to feed you with heavenly food. The irritability during the infant phase seems constant.
The people complained about being thirsty – Exodus 17:1-4 This is when your spiritual growth produces greater thirst. God seems to allow the thirst and the hunger to teach us where our provision truly comes from.
The people forsake the Lord. The Lord orders the Levites to kill 3000 people by the sword, because they worshipped the golden calf. – Exodus 32:28 - This is when you recognize just how impatient our flesh-nature is when it comes to the things of God and how inclined we are to worship anything but the One True God. Instead of waiting for 40 days for Moses who was on the mountain, they forsake the Lord and created their own idol, a golden bull representing their image of God.
The “mixed multitude” of the people complained about food – Numbers 11 - The Lord burns the outskirts of the camp – Moses wants to die – The Lord sends a very great plague v.33 Here you become so dissatisfied with the spiritual diet God has given you, that you may wonder why you even became a Christian (v.20). This is where the confusion of being in a crowd of people with varying degrees of opinions and commitment to the Lord exasperates the problem. The ongoing process of further weaning the people from the world’s food comes to a head.
Miriam and Aaron complain about Moses’ leadership – The Lord curses Miriam with leprosy – Numbers 12:1-12
The people complained about how difficult it looked to conquer the giants in the land so they refused to enter the Promise Land. Numbers 14:1-10 - Because the path the Lord has chosen to develop His people is almost always humanly impossible and difficult, it can cause some people to freak out and desire to go back to their old life. These people didn’t want to have to depend on the Lord this much in order to go forward.
The people complained again and wanted to kill Moses – they try to select another leader. The Lord seeks to destroy the people with pestilence – Numbers 14:10. Some believers will attempt to “vote out” their spiritual leaders; hoping to select leaders who will lead them into a more prosperous path. When it doesn’t look like they can replace their leaders they actually tried to kill them.
The key leaders of Israel rebel against Moses – Numbers 16 – God gets serious and opens the earth and swallows the offenders! This is when the bitterness of a few disgruntled leaders defiles many and God has to stop the coup.
The people complained again and they accuse Moses of killing God’s people – Numbers 16:41
The people contended with Moses again because of no water – Moses gets angry Numbers 20:1-5 - The people gather against Moses again. This is when the people’s rebellious nature comes to a head. This even blows Moses’ circuit breakers as he runs out of grace for these clueless people, resulting in Him becoming embittered and losing out on the Promise Land as well.
The people complained against God and Moses – Numbers 21:4-5
After complaining 5 times God begins to take out His belt!
This is the 1st time Moses intercedes for the people – Exodus 32:10-12
This is the 2nd time Moses intercedes for the people – Numbers 12:13
The next test the people face was the test of leadership; knowing the importance of not only complain [about] following God but [about] following His delegated leaders.
This is the 3rd time Moses intercedes for the people. Numbers 14:12 (we know this is the tenth time because here God says they tested Him these 10 times in verse 22) The Lord kills the 10 spies by the plague – Numbers 14:37
This is the 4th time Moses intercedes for the people – Numbers 16:22
This is the 5th time Moses intercedes for the people – Numbers 16:45-49 – God kills 14,700 people.
God finally brings the solution – The fiery serpents to bite them – He shows them the depth of their sin-nature. This is perhaps the most important of all the lessons during their wilderness journeys. God finally gives them a taste of their own hateful medicine. They were to experience the same painful poison they were dishing out. As a recipient of their own venom, they finally recognized the death that was in them and cried out to the Lord; acknowledging they sinned against God and Moses (Numbers 21:7).
The solution to this poison seems very odd at first. God commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and to put it on a pole, so that anyone bitten by one of the fiery serpents could be healed. But how would God heal them? God would heal them by having them look at the bronze serpent. In other words, we only get saved from this poisonous and rebellious nature and the death that comes with it when we look at it face to face. We must look at our own spiritual MRI and see the seriousness of our disease.
When we, out of desperation, look in the mirror and finally acknowledge our own hideous propensity to sin, our deliverance is near. Acknowledging our true condition is what confession and salvation is all about. This is why in the New Testament, Jesus said the only way for us to be saved, was to look at Him (as He became sin for us; 2 Corinthians 5:21) on the cross, the same way Moses put the serpent on the pole. Listen to His words in John 3:14-15:
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life."
This is the last we hear of the people of Israel complaining in the wilderness. They still fell into sin here and there, but something changed in their minds and hearts. It is as if a light bulb came on and they began to understand what was driving their murmuring, complaining and rebellion all these years. They also began to understand why God had to deal with them and their free-will the way He did all those years as well. The wilderness journey we call life is all about us coming to the place where we truly see our true spiritual condition. Jeremiah 17:9-10 -
"The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds."
The good news is God doesn’t leave us frozen by the horror of seeing our grotesque selves. He also reveals His boundless mercy and compassion towards us. It is truly amazing to consider that the one and only true God, the righteous and holy Creator of the universe, patiently puts up with us, and then dies for us; even the death of the cross. How could anyone not want to serve an awesome God like this?
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Resources:
1. https://rightingamerica.net/noahs-flood-the-drowning-of-billions/
2. https://petergoeman.com/what-was-population-earth-before-flood/
3. https://biblehelpsinc.org/publication/the-flood-and-noahs-day/
5. http://www.ldolphin.org/popul.html
6. https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimates_of_historical_world_population
8. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/05/fastest-growing-major-religion/
12. https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/
13. A directional perspective of where in time we are with respect to End Times is the "Rapture Index"
15. https://www.gotquestions.org/ten-times-Israel-tested-God.html
16. http://www.zarephath.co.uk/blog/the-ten-temptations-of-the-wilderness/
18. https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-stories/the-tower-of-babel.html
More helpful Bible References NASB):
Deuteronomy 4:10-36
"Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, 'Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.' "You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud and thick gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form -only a voice. "So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.
"The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it. So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
"But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own possession, as today. "Now the Lord was angry with me on your account, and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
“For I will die in this land; I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of this good land. So watch yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
"When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God so as to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed.
"The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. There you will serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.
"When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.
"Indeed, ask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? Have any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived? Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?"To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him. Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire.” …
Hebrews 10:26-31
For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much [more severe] punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge His people." It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
2 Peter 3:3-12 – The Coming Day of the Lord
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."
For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!
