"For at that time there will be great suffering,
the kind that has not happened from the beginning of the world until now and certainly will never happen again.
If those days had not been limited, no life would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be limited." (Matt. 24:21-22).

"For those days will be a time of suffering,
a kind that has not happened from the beginning of the creation that God made until now and certainly will never happen again.
If the Lord did not limit those days, no one would be saved.
But for the sake of the elect whom He has chosen, He has limited those days." (Mark 13:19-20).

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Jesus said there is a time coming that is incomparably horrific -
a time so bad that the human race would be annihilated if that time were not interrupted!
But He promised that He would do just that! (Mat.24:21).

This means that - of the worst of all times past, of the very darkest of all days, in any place - this future horror is even greater. No Nazi holocaust, no Rwandan genocide, no atrocity or vile and ungodly event that has ever occurred can be compared to this coming time. What is still ahead of us is the worst of all! Is this the sound of despair? No, certainly not!

There is an increasing persuasion among Christians that this much feared future (which has given rise to some alarmist interpretations of Scripture) is in reality the hour of - the greatest spiritual triumph of the People-of-God in this world!

In other words, for the believer, this time ahead is going to be the crowning climax of what began in the Holy Spirit anointing of the despised Galilean disciples of Jesus at Pentecost, within just two months of that devastating public execution of their leader.

Their boldness then shook Jerusalem (a city not unused to new 'messiahs') into a radical new view of this young church. A view that even brought the sick into the streets to be healed by the passing of their spokesman's shadow - the like of which had not occurred, even in the ministry of Jesus their founder.

This young energy, that later became dissipated into controversies in the centuries that followed, is now growing again, growing toward this worst of times for the world around us.

It is of this completing future time that this study is concerned - from its coming commencement until its completing in the Kingdom of God - as the Bible gives us perspective.

This overview is also given with the prayer that a more biblical view will encourage a greater confidence in God, a confidence that gives a joy and wisdom which frees us from anxiety about the future.