The Last Day

By Cleveland Brown

One morning you are going to wake up, begin your day as usual, but before that day is over, life on earth and the earth itself will cease to exist. It will be the last day. There will be no warnings. There will be no signs. There will be no time to prepare. Time will have run out—no tomorrow. You must prepare now. Jesus, the apostle Paul and the apostle Peter spoke of the events that will occur on the last day. Unfortunately, over the last 185 years, the truth concerning these events has been distorted into a complicated body of teachings. This makes it difficult to separate fact from fable. The purpose of this book is twofold: 1. to persuade you to think about what you hear taught so that you will read the Bible passages in order to verify whether the teaching is fact or fable; 2. to make an attempt to explain the simplicity of the prophetic principle of the last day. Having knowledge of the events of the last day should make it easier to understand what the future holds according to God’s word. This knowledge should also relieve many of the fears you might have concerning events which you hear predicted today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cleveland Brown
• Release date: Nov 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370876143

Cleveland Brown

Cleveland Brown was born in Old Salem, Alabama which is a little country community about nine miles northwest of Monroeville, Alabama in Monroe County. He accepted Christ as his savior at the age of nine, preached his first sermon when fifteen, was licensed to preach at age sixteen and was ordained at the age of nineteen. Cleveland graduate from Monroe County High School in 1963 and graduated from Mobile College in 1969 with a BA degree consisting of a double major (Religion and English) and a double minor (History and Philosophy). The following year (1970) he received a MS degree from Livingston University with a major emphasis in literature. Then he received Class “A” secondary teacher certification in English and Social Studies and a Class “A” certification in administration and supervision from Troy State University. Cleveland later received Class “A” and Class “AA” certification in Marketing and Marketing Education from Auburn University.Since retiring from thirty-one years of teaching in Monroe, Barbour, Butler and Conecuh counties and more than fifty years of serving as pastor of various Southern Baptist churches in Monroe, Clark, Conecuh and Covington counties and serving as the Director of Missions for the Conecuh County Baptist Association, he has devoted more of his time to pursuing his writing and photography. Three of his photographs have won awards in the Outdoor Alabama Photo Contest in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Cleveland began writing poetry about four years ago and several of his poems have won awards in the Alabama State Poetry Society contests and the Pensters writing group contests. Writing both gospel and secular songs and playing guitar are also an enjoyable part of his creative endeavors. He also serves a supply preacher and interim pastor when needed.Cleveland is a member of the Eastern Shore Camera Club and the Pensters writing group, both of which are in Fairhope, Alabama. He is also a member of the Alabama Writers Forum and the Alabama State Poetry Society.

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The Last Day

Published by Cleveland Brown at Smashwords

Copyright 2016 Cleveland Brown

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Dedication

This book is dedicated to my ninety-nine year old dad, Mr. Alvin Claudis Funny Brown and my late mother, Mrs. Juanita Voncile Lambert Boots Brown.

They began taking me to church when I was a baby and continued to take me with them throughout my teenage years.

I am who I am and what I am today because of their influence on my life. This book is a culmination in many ways of the direction in which they set my life traveling.

Introduction

Since Hal Lindsey wrote The Late Great Planet Earth back in the seventies, the appetite for information concerning events leading up to the last day has been insatiable. A flood of books, both fiction and non-fiction, have been written on the subject. Like a quickly rising river whose muddy waters have now inundated the low lands, covering them with a murky film, many of these books have blocked out the light of scripture and flooded our minds with dark waters of conjecture, educated guesses, paranoia, half-truths, speculation and, in some cases, unscriptural nonsense and outright make believe.

The Last Day is an attempt to discover what the Bible, and only the Bible, says about the prophetic events and persons associated with the end of time and the last day. Actually it’s more accurate to say this is a study of eschatology rather than a study of prophecy. Eschatology is simply a study of last things. It is time we let the Bible speak for itself on the subject of end time events and the last day. We must then accept as fact only the information God has chosen to reveal to us through His word. We must also be careful not to be led astray by intentional or unintentional false prophets.

Is it wrong to make an educated attempt to understand more about the end time events than what God has chosen to reveal through His word? No. There are many well-written books on this subject by many well- known and beloved preachers, teachers and theologians. But when all the books have been read and the last word of the last book has been read and the book is closed, your inquisitive mind and itching ears still have to admit most of what has been read was an educated guess at best and not a scriptural fact. Read all the books on the subject of end time prophecies you desire. Enjoy them. Discuss them. Then be mature enough and humble enough to accept only what is true according to what the Bible actually says and let what might be false be the fingers that scratch our itching ears.

Dedicated and sincere Christians around the world embrace differing theories about most of the events related to the end of time and the last day. For example, there are at least five different theories concerning when the Rapture will occur. Some believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, some a mid-tribulation rapture, some a post-tribulation rapture, others a pre-wrath rapture and still others believe there will be no seven year period of tribulation and the rapture will occur at the second coming of Christ on the last day. It is obvious that four of the five are wrong. It cannot occur at five different times.

Differences such as these should never become divisive issues among Christians. Sincere, God-fearing, God-loving, honest Christians hold all of these views. At the same time, when it comes to the most important doctrines and beliefs, there is usually little or no disagreement among Christians. All Christians believe that Jesus was the Son of God and our savior and that no one can have eternal life apart from Him. It was the shed blood of Jesus on the cross of Calvary that makes forgiveness of our sins and eternal life possible.

How did we arrive at all these differences of opinions? It happened because we started adding our own ideas to what the Bible teaches, instead of merely sticking to the actual facts the scripture presents. There are details about the end time events that the Bible does not explain. We desire to know these details and in our attempt to do so we add what we think are correct ideas to what the Bible teaches, and in so doing we end up with false teachings or fables as Paul calls them. It goes against our intellectual grain and injures our pride to simply admit we do not know. In the end, we have to admit, we do not have all the answers and will never have all the answers until those events occur.

I hear people speak in fear about the Antichrist and all the terrible things he is going to do. They also speak with the same fear of The Great Tribulation and how horrible that is going to be for those who will suffer through it. These same people react in fear at the news of another earthquake occurring at some place around the globe or the report of another war breaking out somewhere or the talk of weather changes which are interpreted as bad omens of impending doom. You will be set free from these fears when you discover the scriptural truth taught concerning these personages and events. God’s word assures us of this in John 8:31, 32: "…If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;