Is God Still Coming?: A Stunning Revelation of How Current Events are Fulfilling Bible Prophecy

By Shion Oconnor

There are worldwide concerns that the planet is on the brink of extinction, but just how close are we to the end? Is there a prophetic significance of Brexit for example? What about climate change? Since the earth was created thousands of years ago, why was there no concern of a global extinction before now? What is it about now, that worries climatologists and meteorologists, and for that matter, epidemiologists, and virologists? Is there a prophetic significance in the timing of the Covid19 pandemic, or the rise in global social unrests like BLM? Did the Bible prophets foresee the rise of Silicon Valley, the explosion of Artificial Intelligence or the break-neck speed in information technology? If so, what is their prophetic utility in decoding the timetable for the end? How does the combination of science and eschatology help us to appreciate our proximity to the brink? This shocking revelation answers the question, ‘Is God Still Coming?’

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662474910

Book preview

Chapter 1

Brexit and God’s Coming

In 2004, I was a student at the University of Liverpool Law School campus in the Cayman Islands. Midway in my second semester, I was struggling with the subject I hated the most—European Law (EU). Then in one class, my interest in the subject suddenly changed. On this particular day, the professor was lecturing on the history of the European Union, its goals and objectives, as well as its effects on the member states of the EU. As he presented the material, my memory of the prophecies of Daniel rushed back to mind and forced an understanding on me, which was different from the content of the lecture. After the lecture, I felt compelled to talk with my professor. I muscled up the courage to tell him, Sir, I do not think the EU will be successful in achieving its goal of political, economic, and social unity across member states. In fact, I am pretty sure they will not remain united. The resulting smirk on his face to my audacity preceded his response, What makes you think so? Very confidently, I answered, The Bible has long prophesied it.

With my lecturer’s interest aroused in the subject, I used the opportunity to share with him a stunning prophecy of Daniel on the very subject he was lecturing. Like many secular academics today, he was surprised to even hear that the European Union was featured in the Bible, more so to have a role in end-time events. Twelve years later, on the twenty-third of June 2016, the UK voted in a historic referendum to withdraw from the EU, a decision reverberated around the world. At 11:00 p.m. on January 31, 2020, the UK finally left the EU. From an end-time prophetic perspective, this was seismic in scope. It was the single most outstanding prophetic fulfillment in modern times. While its political and economic implication consumed the world’s media, halls of government, and lecture theater of universities, its religious implication and prophetic value went virtually silent in the pulpits of many churches.

The result of the referendum in 2016 and the ultimate withdrawal of the UK from the EU in 2020 may have been surprising to some and perhaps caught many off guard, but to those studying the prophetic word of God, it was no surprise. The world was caught off guard because many in academia and politics have relegated the Bible to the trash can of antiquity. However, its predictions on world events and social conditions have been and continue to be almost surgical in accuracy.

Among the sixty-six books in the Bible, the book of Daniel stands out as a library of geopolitical events that have shaped the landscape of human history. It reads almost like watching the History Channel, except that not many are tuning in. Both chapter 2 and chapter 7 have documented an incredible timeline of human history from the days of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign over Babylon in 605 BC to the very day when this world will come to its fiery end.

The formation of the EU and its inability to remain united were precisely predicted by Daniel. It constitutes an unmistakable prophetic milestone, marking the path to a certain end of the world. In Daniel chapter 2, God gave the reigning King Nebuchadnezzar a dream that He also subsequently gave to Daniel, of an image shaped in the form of a man but made of four different metals, plus clay. The head of the human image was of gold, the chest of silver, the belly and thigh of brass, the legs of iron, and the feet of iron and clay. In the vision, a stone was cut out without hands and smashed the image, crushing it to pieces. According to Daniel, these metallic portions of the image represent four different kingdoms of political powers that will rule the world from the reign of the Babylonian kingdom until God Himself sets up His Kingdom on earth—represented by the stone.

Daniel explained that the golden head represented Babylon; the silver chest represented the kingdom of Medes and Persians that defeated Babylon; the belly of brass represented Greece, which defeated the Medes and Persians; and the iron legs represented Rome, which defeated Alexander and the Grecian army. The Roman Empire was never defeated by any one-world power but disintegrated into ten different nations represented by the ten toes of the metal image. These ten nations formed the embryo of the European Union.

Almost with forensic eyes, Daniel characterized the nature of these nations. With frightening accuracy, he described their attempts in the formation of a union and their ultimate failure at it. In chapter 2:41–43, Daniel declared:

Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay.

As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.

And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay. (NKJV)

Daniel’s accuracy of the attempts of these nations to unite and the failure of doing so is breathtaking. Not only has he clearly prophesied their failure, but he also provided the rationale for it. He outlined that some member states of the EU will be strong, and others will be weak, and that disparity in the strength of these states is the fundamental reason for their inability to sustain any attempt at unity. It is therefore no coincidence that Britain, the strongest of the member states, both economically and militarily, was the first to leave. In addition, in verse 43, Daniel indicated that they would attempt unity by intermarriage (mingling with the seed of men [KJV]), but even that will not work.

So what is the future of the European Union through the eyes of the prophet Daniel? The answer is emphatic and certain. They will never remain united! It will not work. Therefore, notwithstanding the decision of the remaining members of the EU to continue working on a union, its failure is sure, unless the Bible is wrong. So as Britain made its exit, other members of the EU will certainly follow suit. France, the Netherlands, and Italy are among the likely candidates. Mounting pressure for their own exit is building from the peoples of these nations.

According to Daniel, the next item on the world’s agenda is the coming of the stone. This he explained is the entrance of the kingdom of God, which will bring an end to human history as we know it. The timing of this event was also given. It is to occur during the reign of these nations of Europe. In chapter 2:44, Daniel revealed, In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever (NIV). We will explore this subject in greater detail in chapter 14.

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of this whole story is that God has not left man in darkness about what will happen on earth. He has carefully outlined it in the sure word of prophecy. We, however, have largely ignored the Word of God and instead chosen to walk in our own light created by our own wisdom. We have made God obsolete and the Bible irrelevant. Hence, we continue to be shocked at things we should be anticipating. We continue to be surprised at the unprecedented level of lawlessness demonstrated in global terrorism, the worldwide explosion of homosexuality, the rate at which the global climate is changing, and the inconceivable intensity and frequency of natural disasters that have struck our planet in recent times. If Daniel’s prophecy is true, and it has been so far, then we will see not only the demise of the EU but also a resurgence of medieval papal power and an unholy alliance of the church with the world powers in the West.

Just in case one wonders whether Daniel’s prophesy of the stone (coming of Christ) destroying human civilization will happen, consider the following: Daniel prophesied that Media Persia would conquer Babylon; it did. He prophesied that Greece would conquer Media Persia; it did. He prophesied that Rome would conquer Greece; it did. He prophesied that Rome would disintegrate into ten kingdoms; it did. He prophesied that the ten kingdoms would try to be united; they did. He prophesied that their attempt for unity would never succeed but surely fail; they did. The last thing he prophesied is that God will come in the days while these European nations are still existing. What would prevent this from happening? If 99 percent of the prophecy spanning 2,600 years has been fulfilled, what would prevent the last 1 percent from happening? It is against the preponderance of this evidence that makes the last prophecy so certain.

We should not be mistaken. The UK exit from the EU is a callback to the Bible and a stark reminder that God still rules in the affairs of men. It is the most recent and compelling piece of evidence in modern history pointing to the real possibility that God is still coming. If so, your inquisitive mind should be asking, What other stunning pieces of evidence may be out there, and why haven’t the churches been preaching this from the top of their roofs? Why is there so much silence in the modern pulpits on the coming of Christ and the end of the world?

Brexit is without a doubt a modern version of the handwriting on the wall. In Daniel chapter 5, a drama played out in King Belshazzar’s banquet hall, which is typical of our current state of affairs. The glorious age of the Babylonian kingdom had come to an end at the most unexpected and inconvenient time. Without prior notice, in the midst of a royal banquet, a hand without a body appeared in full view of all the revelers and shockingly wrote on the wall below the lampstand. The tragedy is that all the patrons saw the ominous sign, but nobody knew what it meant; none could understand it.

In the entire Babylonian kingdom, there was only one man in whom rests the Spirit of God—Daniel. The king urgently sought Daniel’s services, and the entire kingdom now depends on the one prophet of God to both read and interpret the writing and warn the nation. In a rather striking similarity, there is an abundance of signs today as conspicuous as the writing on the wall, in full view of men and women who know not their meanings or their implications. Like the revelers in Belshazzar’s banquet hall, they have seen strange things happening but need a Daniel to read and interpret. But where have all the Daniels gone?

Why is there such silence on prophecies of the Bible at a time when the walls are filled with handwriting? The omens are here; they cry out from every newscast, but louder than their cry is the silence of the pulpits. It begs the question, Where have all the Daniels gone?

Chapter 2

The Silence

Six days before His crucifixion, Jesus posed a troubling question to His disciples. Who do men say that I am? (Matthew 16:13). The three synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke documented both the question and the more troubling answer. On the surface, the question seemed to have no relevance to the end of time. It appeared more theological than it does eschatological. However, the context of the question provides clarity to its end-time relevancy and stands as a warning to the current religious institutions that bear the name of Jesus.

It was less than a week to go before Jesus’s ministry would come to a bloody end. Before He climbed Golgotha’s hill and drank the bitter cup of suffering and humiliation, before He gave up His life, He thought it best to check in with those for whom He was about to die. It was to see if they knew who He was. It was important that they knew who was dying for them. If they didn’t know who was dying for them, then His death would mean very little. In other words, if they thought it was John the Baptist dying for them, then there would be no hope of salvation.

The result was disappointing. Although there was an organized, well-established religious system (the church) in existence, the people did not know who Jesus was. The intelligence report from the disciples revealed that the people were guessing. Some said He was John the Baptist; others said Elijah or one of the prophets. The inescapable conclusion from this tragic situation was that in spite of the presence of the church, the world was still in darkness. God had come, and the world did not know. Even more embarrassing was that the very church did not know.

What makes the tragedy even more alarming is that signs of His coming were long prophesied. Jesus’s first coming was not intended to be a secret. It was well-documented in the scriptures, which the church of the day had in their custody. The place of His birth was documented in Micah to be at Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). The nature of His birth was documented by Isaiah to be by a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). The tribe from which He would come was recorded to be that of Judah (Genesis 49:10). The socioeconomic status in which He would be born, the suffering, and the death He would experience were all well-documented in Isaiah (Isaiah 53). His very escape to Egypt as a child was documented in Hosea 11:1. Yet He came, and the church that was supposed to have studied the scripture and prepared the world for His coming did not themselves know that He came.

The night of His birth should have been a global celebration from one end of the earth to another, but instead, it was silent. We remind ourselves every Christmas of this tragedy by singing the carol Silent Night. Angels came down to celebrate with men on earth and found none. The streets were empty, the synagogue closed, the homes were silent, and the city was asleep except for a few shepherds that were on duty, watching their sheep in the country. Men knew that God had come only because angels came from heaven and told them. If that coming was the end of the world as we are expecting the next coming to be, then except for the shepherds and a few faithful ones, the entire world would have been lost, including the entire hierarchy of the church.

The church back then failed the people. They failed to study the prophetic word, which they alone had. They knew not of the Lord’s coming and as such could not prepare the world. The church, even though it had the light, had left the world in darkness from which the world has never recovered. No wonder when the angels came, they did not bring their tidings of His birth to the church, its leadership, or its agents. The angels bypassed the religious leaders and gave the message to uneducated shepherds. Herein lies the first reason for the rejection of Christ by the church of His day.¹ By bypassing the clergy to communicate with lowly shepherds, the foundation was laid for a total and complete rejection of Jesus’s birth to be divine.

What made matters worse is that the shepherds who brought the news of the Savior’s birth had no credentials on spiritual matters or on prophetic subjects. They were simple uneducated shepherds. For God to choose them to be entrusted with such a message and not the clergy was too embarrassing for the church. The clergy at the time refused to embrace their report. According to Ellen White, These learned teachers would not stoop to be instructed by those whom they termed heathen. It could not be, they said, that God had passed them by, to communicate with ignorant shepherds or uncircumcised Gentiles.² As such, the shepherds’ reports would not be considered valid by the church leaders.

So since Jesus promised to come again, is it likely that the very same thing may happen once more? Will this scenario be repeated at His second coming? From all accounts, an identical situation appears to be taking shape. Once again, there is an abundance of prophecy on the second coming of Christ. Once again, these prophecies are documented in the holy scriptures. Once again, there are organized churches with purported learned men and women in their leadership. Once again, the prophetic signs are being fulfilled before the eyes of the world, but the world does not appear to understand their meaning. People generally do not seem to appreciate their implications. The question to be asked is whether the church leaders themselves know. Have they studied these prophecies? Have the churches taught the world what they mean? Who is preparing the world for this second coming?

If the first coming of Christ is any indication of the second, then there is a fundamental observation to be made. God intentionally did not use the established church to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. Instead, God used one man—John the Baptist, a lowly, obscure prophet in the wilderness (Mark 1:1–4). Hence for the second time, heaven deliberately bypassed the church. To announce His birth, God ignored the clergy and found lowly shepherds. To prepare the way for His ministry, God purposely bypassed the clergy again and found John the Baptist.

The reason for such an action by God should have been the subject of an inquiry for churches today. A casual inquiry would have revealed among other things that John was not of the clergy, not trained by the rabbis of the day, and not contaminated by the church. In her book The Desire of Ages, the author describes it this way, In the natural order of things, the son of Zacharias would have been educated for the priesthood. But the training of the rabbinical schools would have unfitted him for his work. God did not send him to the teachers of theology to learn how to interpret the Scriptures. He called him to the desert that he might learn of nature and nature’s God.³ Clearly, the church at the time was unusable and unreliable and out of touch with its God but still very much functioning while the world around it groped in darkness. It had no light to offer.

The irony is that there are more churches now than there were ever in the history of mankind. A quick Google search indicates some three hundred and eighty thousand, yet there appears to be a deafening silence on the subject of God’s return from the pulpits. While there are more Bibles in print and in electronic forms now than there was ever before, there appears to be a growing apathy on the subject of Jesus’s coming. While there are more seminaries and seminarians, theologians, and preachers now, there are fewer sermons on the second coming, less focus on eschatology, less research, less engagement, and less consumption of the subject. Hence, there is less light being shed, leaving the world in darkness again.

Lessons from the First Coming

To avoid making the same tragic error of missing the coming of Christ, it is critical to know what went wrong—why the church leaders of the day, despite having the oracles of God, were caught off guard so badly that they could not even recover. How is it that the greatest event in all human history was about to take place, and the clergy was not aware? The answer lies in the spiritual condition of the church leaders at the time. Those who held the position of leadership as rulers and priests were bereft of a relationship with God and were not walking in the way of the Lord. They were running the church because they knew how to but had no connection with God. Church leadership was a job, a profession for which they were well trained, but they were far from being ministers of the Lord.

The lack of the Spirit of God in the lives of the clergy was on full display. It was exhibited, for example, when Mary and Joseph brought baby Jesus to be dedicated. In her book The Desire of Ages, the author described it this way, The priest went through the ceremony of his official work. He took the child in his arms and held it up before the altar. After handing it back to its mother, he inscribed the name ‘Jesus’ on the role of the first-born. Little did he think, as the babe lay in his arms that it was the Majesty of Heaven, the King of Glory (p. 52).

The idea that a priest—the spiritual leader of the church—could have held God in his arms and felt nothing, sensed nothing, and experienced nothing is shockingly disturbing. To exacerbate the spiritual depravity of this priest, at the very ceremony in the temple, there was a man named Simeon, who saw the Child being handed back to its mother, came forward, took the Child, lifted it up to heaven, and recognized Him as the Salvation of Israel. This was followed shortly by an old woman by the name of Anna. Yet throughout Jesus’s life and to the point of death, the clergy did not and could not recognize the presence of God, something that even a thief of the cross was able to.

There were a number of other factors that were simultaneously at work, resulting in the spiritual blindness of the church leaders at that time. The first was pride and envy that had consumed the clergy, forbidding them from entertaining the possibility that God could relate to others besides themselves. The second and most pervasive distraction of the church at the time of Christ’s birth was the politics of the day. At the time Christ was born, the Jewish nation was under the severe bondage of Roman occupation. The people were heavily taxed, their autonomy and power were taken away, even appointment to the office of the high priest needed Roman assent. Consequently, their need for a deliverer colored their interpretation of scriptures and blinded them from the light of the truth.

In anticipation of the second coming of Christ, the church today faces similar challenges. The risk of being distracted by political and socioeconomic pressures seriously threatens the focus of the last-day church. The cry for social justice, the desire for political correctness, and the struggle for organizational power loom largely overhead for many modern church leaders, creating a picture ominously reminiscent of the exact condition in which Christ came the first time. The unprecedented lack of eschatological urgency in the modern churches, combined with a growing religious cynicism by millennials, has produced a new generation who, by conduct and conversation, are seriously questioning, Is God still coming? The answer from too many churches is silence. This book is an attempt to break the silence.

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¹ Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press, 2005), 62.

² White, Desire, 62.

³ Ibid., 101.3.

Chapter 3

The Numbing Effect

So is God still coming back? The answer to this question lies in the conclusion you will draw from the evidence you will encounter in this book. Your belief in the Bible will be helpful in your conclusion; however, it is not required.

In the second epistle of the New Testament book of Peter, a laconic piece of prophecy is recorded, Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation (2 Peter 3:3–4).

According to this biblical account, people living in the last days will scoff at the idea of Jesus’s coming. Their cynicism will be based on a conclusion that they will apparently draw from observations. They have falsely concluded that all things remained the same since the beginning of creation. In their assumption, nothing has changed since God created