Jesus The Prophet

Among modern-day prophets, one of the most popular is Kai-Fu Lee, a Taiwanese businessman and computer scientist who lives in Beijing. His recent book, AI 2041: Ten Visions of Our Future, suggests what our world might be like in 2041. He believes it will be a world utterly transformed by artificial intelligence.

According to Lee, this means “the loss of traditional jobs, an unprecedented abundance of goods, exacerbated inequality, an autonomous weapons arms race, trade-offs between privacy and happiness, and the human pursuit of a high purpose. These are profound changes, and humans may embrace them with compassion, exploit them with malice, capitulate to them with resignation, or be inspired by them to reinvent ourselves.”

Lee believes you will soon have access to artificial intelligence that will “know you better than you know yourself… AI can recommend products you’ll want before you would otherwise notice them, and AI can recommend compatible matches in romantic partners and friends based on your known affinities.”

However, Lee also expresses some of his concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence. “When AI can see, recognize, understand, and synthesize objects, it can also manipulate them and create images and videos that are indistinguishable from reality.” He says we’ll have “a future in which people can no longer rely on their naked eyes to tell real videos from fake ones.” In other words, deception will be rampant and almost undetectable.

Lee believes by 2041, we’ll be wearing contact lenses that record every moment of our day, providing us with an “infinite memory repository” and “digital immortality.” Everything we do and every word we speak will be stored and preserved—presumably available to government agencies as well as the curiosity of future generations.

Lee discusses the catastrophic dangers of future autonomous weapons designed to search for, engage, and kill people without human involvement. This new generation of weaponry will be generated by AI and quantum computing.

I could go on with Lee’s predictions, but to be honest, I find them a bit frightening. It’s no wonder people are apprehensive about the world of tomorrow!

How do you feel about the future? Are you apprehensive? Can you envision the world your children and grandchildren will be facing a half-century from now?

No one—not Kai-Fu Lee nor anyone else—can predict the future. They can only guess. Only God knows tomorrow, and He has written the only Book about the future that’s correct in every prediction it makes. Furthermore, there is one ultimate Prophet who spoke with authority about these things—Jesus Christ.

1. Jesus As Prophet

• His Unique Identity

John 6:14 describes Jesus as “the prophet who is to come.” In Luke 7:16, the amazed crowds said, “A great prophet has risen among us.” According to the apostles, Jesus fulfilled Moses’s prediction that a great prophet would arise to instruct Israel (Acts 3:22; 7:37). Remember, too, the first words of the last book of the Bible declare Jesus as Prophet: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bondservants, the things which must soon take place (Revelations 1:1).

• His Complete Accuracy

Our Lord Jesus is one prophet you don’t have to worry about getting it wrong. During His three years of ministry on earth, He correctly predicted a number of things that took place just as He said:

• He would be arrested (Matthew 17:22).
• He would be mocked, spat upon, and scourged (Mark 10:34)
• He would be crucified (Matthew 20:19)
• He would rise from the dead after three days (Mark 9:31).
• One of His disciples would betray Him (Matthew 26:21).
• Peter would deny Him (Matthew 26:34).
• The church would arise after His death (Matthew 16:18)
• The Holy Spirit would come upon His followers (John 16:7-15).
• His people would be hated by the world and persecuted (Matthew 15:18).
• Jerusalem and its temple would be destroyed (Matthew 24:1–2).

Everything Jesus said came true exactly as He predicted. That encourages us to know that all His other predictions will come true—the ones He proclaimed about the events surrounding His return in the end times! Today, we’ll look at three future events that Jesus the Prophet described: the rapture, the end times, and the second coming.

2. Jesus Predicts the Rapture

•  What is the rapture?

The word Rapture means to be “caught up” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). The Greek word is harpazo. Translated into Latin, it’s rapturo—or rapture. The rapture of the church is the future event when Jesus will retrieve all living Christians from the earth.

• Jesus’s prediction of the rapture. (John 13:33, 14:1-3)

Jesus predicted the rapture of the church even before there was a church. In anticipation of His prophecy, Jesus told His disciples, “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’” (John 13:33)

•  Two stages to the future comings of Christ. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-58)

This is the first promise of the rapture. Jesus announced He would come back from heaven and receive His people to Himself—body and spirit—so we can be where He is. There are two stages to the future comings of Christ:

There are two stages to the future comings of Christ. He will come in the clouds and hover in the sky to rapture His church, and that appearance will trigger the countdown on God’s prophetic clock that begins the end times—the tribulation. Then, after the seven years of tribulation are complete, Jesus will appear again in the sky, and this time His feet will land on earth at His second coming.

3. Paul’s Outline of the Rapture

The rapture did not happen during Paul’s generation—something Jesus never promised—but Paul believed it could occur at any moment. He went on to give us an outline of what will happen.

1. Christ’s Appearance Will be Announced Supernaturally (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
2. Christ Will Descend from Heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
3. The Dead in Christ Will Be Raised (1 Thessalonians 4:16b; 2 Corinthians 5:8).
4. Believers Who Are Alive Will be Raptured and Changed (1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 15:52-53).
5. We Will be with Christ Forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17b-18).

4. The Timing of the Rapture

Three major debated positions: (1) just prior to the tribulation, (2) in the middle of the seven-year tribulation, and (3) just prior to the second coming of Jesus at the end of the tribulation

I believe the best biblical evidence lies with the first of those options, which is called the “pretribulation rapture” position. There are several reasons for holding this view, but I think three arguments are the strongest:

• The absence of tribulation-like language (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
• The absence of the Church (Revelation 6-18)
• The promise of God to keep believers from His wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10, 5:9; Revelation 3:10)

5. Jesus Predicts the End Times (Matthew 24:1-28)

Now let’s look at what Jesus predicted about events that will unfold after the rapture. Unlike His rapture prophecy in John 14, Jesus’s prophecies about the end times are filled with details. Jesus’s prophecies about the end times are filled with details. He gave this teaching as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and that gives the sermon its traditional name as, the Olivet Discourse. 

Let’s do a careful analysis of this Old Testament prophecy:

• And he—that is, the coming Antichrist.
• will make a firm covenant with the many—the Antichrist will establish a treaty with Israel.
• For one week—literally, for one period of seven. It’s obvious from a thorough study of this passage and from references in the book of Revelation that the period is seven years.
• but in the middle of the week—after three and a half years.
• he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering—the Antichrist will demand an end to all the Jewish sacrifices and offerings being made at the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem.
• And on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate—the Antichrist will put a vile image in the temple that desolates and desecrates its holiness
• Even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate—the horror will continue until Christ comes and pours out His wrath on the Antichrist.

1. The Beginning of Birth Pangs (Matthew 24:8)

The seven years of tribulation are divided into two equal parts of three and a half years each. Jesus called the first half “the beginning of birth pangs”. Like a woman in labor, in which pain becomes more acute as contractions come closer together just before delivery, events during the tribulation will become more intense and will escalate in rapid succession.

The first signs of birth pangs are:

1. The rise of false messiahs. (Matthew 24:4-5; 1 John 4:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7; Revelation 13:4, 8, 15)
2. Rumors of war. (Matthew 24:6; Zechariah 14:2-5)
3. Natural disasters. (Matthew 24:7-8)
4. The End of the Tribulation

During the last half of the tribulation, God will unleash His wrath on an unbelieving world. In Matthew 24, Jesus gives His disciples a general overview. In this section, Jesus gives us five signs that will unfold during the last half of the tribulation and lead into the second coming.

1. The intensification of persecution. (Matthew 24:9)
2. The inclination toward apostasy. (Matthew 24:10)
3. The inflation of falsehood. (Matthew 24:11)
4. The increase of lawlessness. (Matthew 24:12, 2 Timothy 3:2,4; 2 Thessalonians 2:3,8)
5. The influence of the gospel. (Matthew 24:14; Revelation 7:1-8, 14:1-5

6. Jesus Predicts His Second Coming

• Earth’s Last Days Will be “Cut Short” (Matthew 24:22, 27, Zechariah 9:14, Matthew 24:29

That raises a crucial question. Just how will those days be cut short? The answer—the second coming of Jesus Christ! After warning about false messiahs, Jesus said His return would be like a bolt of lightning cutting across the sky—unmistakable and unmissable.

• Descent from Heaven in Glory (Matthew 24:30, Zechariah 12:12)

“In that moment, when Christ comes in the air, the glory of God will appear as a cloud for all to see. As He comes, the sight becomes increasingly clear, and the whole world will see Jesus descending from heaven in glory just as He ascended to heaven after His resurrection.” (Acts 1:9, 11)

• Gathering of God’s People

“Along with the appearance of Christ will be the appearance of His holy angels who, with a trumpet blast, will gather the resurrected Old Testament saints and believers in the land of Israel for the inauguration of the Messiah’s kingdom.” (Matthew 24:31)

7. Living In Light of Jesus’s Predictions

In the remainder of Matthew 24 and into chapter 25, Jesus uses seven parables to drive home three points that affect us deeply here and now.

1. Be Vigilant (Matthew 24:32-44)
2. Be Prudent (Matthew 24:45, 25:13, Ephesians 5:15-16)
3. Be Faithful (Matthew 25:14-30, 28:18-20; Titus 2:13, John 14:1-3)

Just as those saved during the tribulation must share the gospel in their own horrendous days, so we must do so now. Jesus gave us the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18–20, and it hasn’t expired. In fact, it’s never been more urgent for you and for me to share our Savior with this world.