Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life.

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I'm Patrick Miller. Let's talk about the end times. Well, kind of. During the

pandemic, I remember a lot of people scouring the Bible suggesting that this

pandemic was a sign of the end times.

Around the same time there was actually a famine which was caused by locust in several African countries

and people came to me and said look this is the fulfillment of what Joel talked about in the Old Testament.

Then as the protest after George Floyd's murder picked up and a contested election happened and then an invasion of the capital on January 6th.

Look after all of this turmoil I can't blame people for wondering is this it?

In Matthew 24 Jesus gives what scholars call his many apocalypse.

I kind of like that phrase.

He speaks about a day of judgment so awful that he tells his followers they must flee.

He warns that it'll be awful for you if you're pregnant or have kids because

fleeing will be all the more difficult. He tells his followers that they will be

imprisoned and dragged before the rulers of their age, where they'll have to give an

account of their hope in Jesus.

But he warns them that this will really go well.

They may be persecuted, even unto death.

And even as I say all this, you can see that I'm framing this as a future event, something that's going to come one day,

but actually think that's wrong. Not because there will be a future judgment. There will be a future judgment.

It's a mistake because Jesus in this passage isn't talking about an event in our future.

He's talking about an event in our past. But that said, this event was in the future for his followers. He calls this event the quote

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