Remember how the writer to Ecclesiastes bemoaned the fact that life appeared futile and kept repeating itself. “Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’?” (Eccl. 1:10). Today, I wish to conclude this series on harbingers by considering two new things.
 
The Resurrection of Christ
It is not unusual for people to seek to divide up history into eras, ages, periods, epochs. Those who believe in biological (macro) evolution certainly seem to enjoy doing so.(1) Christians like to do so too based on Biblical history as they understand it. One such breakdown delineates seven major periods or dispensations,(2) beginning with the age of innocence. If I might simplify things even more, I suggest we could divide up human history into two major periods: the old creation and the new creation.
 
The old creation, of course, began when God created the heavens and the earth in six days as described beautifully and succinctly in Genesis 1. But after a period of Edenic bliss, that age of innocence was disrupted by the fall. The corruption of creation ensued (Gen. 3, Rom. 8:20, 22). The entire physical universe began to wear out, to break down (Heb. 1:10-12). It’s getting old.
 
I mentioned in my third post in this series that when the Son of God was crucified, mankind reached the bottom of the barrel. It was the most despicable thing that man could do, killing the only sinless person to ever walk the earth. But we all know that that was not the end of the story. Something new happened three days later that marked the beginning of a new creation.
 
People are people. They tend to be skeptical of that which they’ve never seen before or heard of before. Thus, some of the most learned people of the first century living in the Greek culture prided themselves on their wisdom (I Cor. 1:22), and mocked the messenger when he preached to them the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We read in Acts:
 
               A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some
               of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems
               to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the
               good news about Jesus and the resurrection. (Acts 17:18)
 
The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave three days after His death is the foundation of Christianity. It’s also the hope of the world, regardless of the skepticism that people have had and continue to have concerning it. If God can make the entire universe out of nothing (Heb. 11:3), then He can miraculously bring a dead body back to life again. In fact, some people had already been raised from the dead even in Old Testament times (see I Kings 17:17-22; II Kings 4:32-35; 13:20, 21), but they eventually died again. By contrast, Christ’s resurrection was so new that He was raised up in a glorified, imperishable body, never to die again. Now that’s new!
 
It was also the breaking in of the new creation into the old, a sort of overlapping of the two great ages. While this current creation still exists and continues to decay and wear out, God in His goodness has interjected a harbinger of the future which is almost beyond belief. Someone has overcome death in an ultimate sense and thereby provided the hope that all will not finally end in death and destruction. This old creation will pass, and our mortal bodies with it. Plus, the wicked will be wiped off the earth (see Part 1-3 of this series). But a new humanity will arise modeled after the resurrection of Christ. Consider these verses:
 
               But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who
               have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the
               dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be
               made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then when he comes, those
               who belong to him. (I Cor. 15:20-23)
 
               For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
               (I Cor. 15:53)
 
Friends, this is good news, unless you have a particular fondness for death. The term, “firstfruits,” refers to the idea that the first fruit picked after planting and waiting is the promise or guarantee of a harvest of fruit to come. Christ’s rising from the dead is the promise or guarantee of others rising from the dead later on. That we can have life after death --- not just soul life, but physical life --- is amazing. And it is guaranteed to be so because of that glorious harbinger of the future given to us by God in the bodily resurrection of Christ.

​Eden
Finally, I want to talk about the harbinger of Eden itself. What is Eden? It is that garden of beauty and joy where God placed our original parents, Adam and Eve, so they could enjoy Him and their life experience on the planet made for them. What was it like? Consider these verses:
 
               Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put
               the man he had formed. The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the
               ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of
               the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
               A river watering the garden flowed from Eden . . . The LORD God took the man
               and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Gen. 2:8-10, 15)
 
               Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking
               in the garden in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8)
 
Of course, God also made the creatures for mankind to enjoy and gave him dominion over the earth. It was an idyllic environment. God and Adam and Eve enjoyed close communion. But sin ruined it all. Nevertheless, Eden was not forgotten. The beauty and joy of that place would be restored someday in the mighty redemptive plan of God. We read of the new earth in Revelation and hear echoes of what was long ago:
 
               Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with
               them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their
               God . . . (Rev. 21:3)
 
               Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing
               from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the
               city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit,
               yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the
               nations. No longer will there be any curse . . . They will see his face, and his name
               will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night . . . And they will reign for
               ever and ever. (Rev. 22:1-5)
 
Eden will be restored and be more glorious than it first was. The paradise that was lost, as John Milton poetically wrote about, shall be regained. What was will be.
 
Conclusion
I began this series of five blog posts with the thesis that “God is good by giving us a record of past events that act as harbingers of future events, thereby helping us to prepare for them.” There are other similar harbingers I have not spoken of. But I trust that these nine I’ve discussed will suffice to support my thesis. These harbingers were: the days of Noah, the days of Lot, one language, the routing of the Canaanites, the glory of the nations, the antichrist, the coming of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and Eden. These past events act as forerunners or previews of yet future events. By taking serious note of them, we have time to prepare ourselves spiritually with repentance and faith in Christ before these events overtake us --- “God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance” (Rom. 2:4). Finally, God is not only good but also very great in order to be able to orchestrate history and carry it out as planned. Because of this, what was will be.
 
(Bible verses quoted are from the NIV.)
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epoch_(geology)
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensationalism

My thesis in my first post in this series of five stated that “God is good by giving us a record of past events that act as harbingers of future events, thereby helping us to prepare for them.” The harbingers I wish to discuss today uphold that thesis and nicely offset each other: antichrist and Christ.
 
In all of these Biblical, historical harbingers, two things are happening which accentuate God’s goodness to mankind. One, the historical event (or reality, like the glory within nations) is actually revealed to us in the Old Testament. And two, that event is either clearly spoken of in the New Testament as a harbinger or there are strong intimations to that effect. Thus, God is not trying to trick us. He is actually giving us plenty of information and it’s up to us to pay attention and connect the dots.
 
 
Antichrist
In the Scriptures, the actual term antichrist is only used five times, all by the Apostle John in his first two epistles. It refers to one who opposes Christ; who desires to replace Christ. He wants all the glory that only Christ Himself is worthy of. And most of the time, it refers to one specific person yet to come in the history of the world.

By John’s one use of the term in its plural form, we understand also that there have been, and yet will be, many persons who embody the spirit of that one great antichrist to come. They will act like him in many ways, and so are considered antichrists. John writes: “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come” (I Jn. 2:18).

It is also important to understand that many characters in Scripture have more than one term used to identify them. Hence, the antichrist is also described as “the man of lawlessness [or sin]” (II Thess. 2:3), “the lawless one” (II Thess. 2:8), and “the beast” (Revelation).

This character is, of course, most despicable. We know he is coming because God has told us so in the New Testament. But to add to that testimony, He has given us at least one harbinger in the Old Testament; a real character in history who resembles the antichrist. He was a ruler in the Seleucid kingdom in the second century B.C. and his name was Antiochus IV Epiphanes.(1,2) He is revealed to us in the book of Daniel as follows:
 
               Out of one of them [one of the four horns of the goat representing the Grecian
               kingdom] came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south
               and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land. It grew until it reached the host of
               the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled
               on them. It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the LORD;
               it took away the daily sacrifice from the LORD, and his sanctuary was thrown
               down. Because of rebellion, the LORD’s people and the daily sacrifice were given
               over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.
               (Dan. 8:9-12)
 
A few chapters later, there is even a more detailed description of this king --- see Daniel 11:21-45. It is really amazing because Daniel revealed these detailed historical snippets a few hundred years before they actually took place. One section described Antiochus like this:
 
               The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every
               god and will say unheard of things against the God of gods (Dan. 11:36)
 
He was notoriously wicked and blasphemous. And in this, he pictures the great antichrist(3) to come whom the Apostle Paul described in II Thessalonians as follows:
 
               He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God
               or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming
               himself to be God. (II Thess. 2:4)
 
               The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works.
               He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve
               the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.
               (II Thess. 2:9, 10)
 
What can we say? Not the sort of guy anyone would want moving in next door. Thankfully, the Lord Jesus will destroy him at his coming (II Thess. 2:8). And thank God we know this evil one is coming so we have a chance to prepare ourselves and not be deceived by him.
 
 
The Coming of Christ
Now, on to my second harbinger for today, the coming of Christ to this earth. The point here is simple. God coming to earth in the person of the God-man, Jesus Christ, two thousand years ago, is a wonderful harbinger of Him coming back to earth again. Not only do the Scriptures plainly say He is coming back, but the whole concept of the earth being made as a habitation for man (Is. 45:18) and Christ becoming a man forever (Rev.1:13; 14:14), bodes well for the idea that He will spend eternity very much attached to us humans on the new earth. He, the God-man, will be the wonderful Lord of the new creation.
 
The first coming of Christ was not only the most amazing thing that ever happened in human history --- God taking on human flesh (John 1:14), the incarnation as it’s called --- but it also culminated in the lowest point in human history. There was a popular song which played on the radio many years ago entitled, “One of Us.” It asked the question three times, “What if God was one of us?” Well, it was a provocative song and amazingly the question has a definitive answer. God not only made all humans in His image but He, Himself, in the second person of the Trinity, took on the robe of humanity. And to my understanding, there is no hint in Scripture that He will ever take it off. Therefore, when He comes back --- and He will --- He’ll be coming to earth as the God-man. “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). That point of His return will be the high point in human history where the restoration of all things will be at hand. But the low point had to come first, and that we saw when human hands crucified the Lord of glory, the One who became one of us. Can you imagine? He comes here and all He does for His thirty some years on earth is always please His heavenly Father (Jn. 8:29) and goes about doing good constantly (Acts 10:38). And yet hateful people contrive a reason to kill Him, and they succeed. What a story! And of course, I’m not making this up nor could I have made it up. This story could only be concocted by the divine mind. It was what He needed to do to redeem fallen mankind and a broken world.
 
 
Conclusion
So, there we have it: two more harbingers. The ultimate antichrist to come is foreshadowed for us in a notoriously evil king who reigned on earth before the time of Christ. And the coming of the God-man, Christ, to walk the earth the first time bodes well for his returning again to do the same thing. What was will be. God is good.
 
(Bible verses quoted are from the NIV.)
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiochus_IV_Epiphanes
2 https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/1191-daniels-prophecy-of-antiochus-epiphanes
3 The great antichrist to come, as I understand it, is also directly spoken of in the book of Daniel. He is part of the fourth great kingdom that arises on earth. See Daniel 7:15-27. It seems to clearly be the time of the end of the world because it’s the time when this ultimate antichrist is finally judged and when the saints will receive the kingdom --- see vs. 18, 22, 26, 27.

When I embraced this topic, I realized that the Bible says a lot about types, shadows, and figures, things in the Old Testament Scriptures that picture for us the person and works of Jesus Christ, particularly in His first coming. For example, Moses leading Israel out of its bondage in Egypt is a type of the spiritual salvation found in the greater Moses, Christ, who leads His people out of their bondage to sin (Jn. 8:34-36; Rom. 8:2; Gal. 5:1). There are many such foreshadowings of Christ, and books have been written addressing this glorious topic. My topic here, however, is narrower. I am focusing on historical, Biblical events revealed under the Old Covenant that are harbingers, forerunners, of events that are still future to our time in the twenty-first century. I’ve discussed three such harbingers already in my previous two posts: the days of Noah, the days of Lot, and the one language of the earth before Babel. Today, I wish to focus on nations: one harbinger being a predominantly negative contemplation dealing with judgment; the other is positive.
 
The Routing of the Canaanites
It is a Biblical fact that the fledgling nation of Israel which came out of Egypt long ago was led by God through the wilderness for forty years. After that, under the military leadership of Joshua, it entered the promised land and routed the seven Canaanites nations living there, taking possession of their land. We read in Deuteronomy:
 
               When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess
               and drives out before you many nations – the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites,
               Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger
               than you – and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and
               you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. (Deut. 7:1, 2)
 
Many people today may revolt at this account. How could God allow such a thing, or command such a thing? It seems atrocious to our modern way of thinking, at least those of us who live in so-called civil, democratic nations. But the context of this historical event makes it clear that it was a judgment of God upon the wickedness of those seven nations. God found their idolatry so deplorable that He decided to do something about it.
 
               This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred
               stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. (Deut. 7:5)
 
               …it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to
               drive them out before you. (Deut. 9:4; cf. 18:9-12)
 
Maybe the worst practice was the literal sacrificing of children to their gods: “They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods” (Deut. 12:31). Hence, we read many warnings by God to Israel not to practice such a detestable thing: “Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek” (Lev. 18:21).
 
God could have wiped out these evil nations without the help of Israel, if He wanted to. But He chose to use the army of Israel to do this unpleasant, but necessary, job.
 
How is this a harbinger of our future? In the previous two harbingers of future judgment, the global flood and the fire on Sodom, it was God Himself who was the executioner. I think it will be so in the final judgment as well, but with this caveat. It seems that somehow the saints of God will participate in the routing of evil people from the earth. In Jude we read:
 
               Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming
               with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones [saints] to judge everyone, and to
               convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness,
               and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 14, 15)
 
The Apostle Paul writes: "Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world?" (I Cor. 6:2)
 
And Jesus Himself speaks of a reward for his faithful servants being this:
 
               To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority
               over the nations --- that one will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash
               them to pieces like pottery (Rev. 2:26, 27)
 
The image of Jesus the warrior judge on the white horse is depicted as not coming alone but with his army:
 
               The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in
               fine linen, white and clean. (Rev. 19:14 cf. Rev. 17:14; 19:19)
 
Again, this is scary stuff. It’s supposed to be. It should wake some people up to get serious with God before it’s too late. But in the process of contemplating this future event, we should not lose sight of the goodness of God. He is telling us ahead of time what is coming. Israel destroyed the wicked Canaanite nations long ago and the saints of God (believers in Christ) will participate in some way in the routing of the ungodly from this world when the Lord returns.
 
 
The Glory of the Nations
On a brighter note, let me finish this post with some positive thoughts about nations. Though there is plenty of evil to go around among all the nations, there is also beauty. Every nation or ethnic group brings something glorious to the table which is honorable in God’s sight. John’s vision of the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven to the new earth includes this:
 
               The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor
               into it . . . The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. (Rev. 21:24, 26)
 
I recall watching a music video not long ago of a group of Nigerian singers who were praising God on the rocky shore of some waterway. It was beautiful. It was like things should be, people stopping to praise God where they are, even out in nature. My folks’ homeland of Estonia is famous for their huge nationalistic music festival which takes place in Tallinn every five years. The country only has a population of 1.4 million, but the festival gathers together over 100,000 people to dance and sing about their national heritage, wear Estonian outfits, and wave Estonian flags. I don’t speak Estonian, unfortunately, but I am moved watching this even on video. I think it portrays the best kind of heart-felt nationalism. Won’t some of this glory be carried into eternity as part of “the glory and honor of the nations”? I think so. And finally, which one of us isn’t moved when we watch the opening ceremonies at the Olympics and see the beauty and diversity in the nations of the world as they march into a stadium decked out in their national uniforms and carrying their national flags. God created all these people groups, and there is a distinct dignity, beauty, and glory in each one.
 
So, this harbinger then is the beauty in the nations which has existed even before the time of Christ (see Is 60:1-13; Mat. 4:8) and continues on after Christ. It is a glory that will not be lost. It is a harbinger of what life on the restored, new earth will be like. What was will be.
  
(Bible verses quoted are from the NIV.)

I pick up now my series on how God in His goodness has given us a record of past events that act as harbingers of future events, helping us to prepare for them. The first was “the days of Noah” (Lk. 17:26), when the great flood destroyed the earth. Jesus’ coming again will in many ways mirror Noah’s days and that flood event.
 
The Days of Lot
The second harbinger is likewise one of judgment and comes to us in the same context of Jesus’ words in Luke 17. He tells his disciples that the full manifestation of His kingdom will happen when He returns. And that can only happen after He suffers first and is rejected of men (Lk. 17:25). But when He returns, human society will also be like “the days of Lot” (Lk. 17:28):

               People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But
               the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed
               them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. (Lk. 17:28-30)
 
What was will be. Most people on the earth before Christ returns will be busy about their daily lives doing seemingly acceptable things, productive things: eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building. But as they do, they’ll be oblivious to God; they’ll lack any fear of Him. On top of that, they’ll add outright wickedness to their conduct, like Sodom did. Hence, judgment will fall dramatically upon them in one day, just like the day the two angels dragged Lot and his immediate family out of the city and “the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah” (Gen. 19:1-29).
 
The days of Lot are a harbinger of a future day:
 
               …the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying,
               “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a
               pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (I Thess. 5:2, 3)
 
               This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with
               his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey
               the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (II Thess. 1:7, 8).
 
This is scary stuff, granted. But the goodness of God is revealed in all this because He is telling us plainly ahead of time what will be. That means you and I have time, while we are still living, to decide to escape what is coming on the earth. That’s why the Apostle Paul urges people, “Be reconciled to God” (II Cor. 5:20), and do it now; for “now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (II Cor. 6:2).
 
 
One Language
The next harbinger is more positive in nature. But there is a mixture of judgment even in this one. It’s the harbinger of one language.
 
After Noah came off the ark with his family, God reiterated to them the creation mandate to “be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth” (Gen. 9:1). As people began to spread out on the earth, something happened to deter this progress. It was called the tower of Babel. We read about this seminal event in Genesis 11:
 
               Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward,
               they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make
               bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
               Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens,
               so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face
               of the whole earth.” (Gen. 11:1-4)
 
In their sinfulness, they disregarded God’s command to spread out and fill the earth; but probably worse, their pride moved them to want to become big shots. With the strength of their numbers and their common language, they built a huge tower, surely higher than any other building on earth at the time. God was not impressed.
 
You probably know what God did. He confused their language. “That is why it was called Babel – because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world” (Gen. 11:9). God forced them to spread out through the frustrating societal feature of inability to verbally communicate to each other. This Babel event was the root of not only the languages of the world being formed but also of all the tribes and nations developing as people spread out over the world.
 
How is this event a harbinger? I suggest it’s a positive harbinger in this way. Man is a social being. Language is an integral part of human society. Being able to understand others is a beautiful and beneficial thing. Before Babel, the whole earth had “one language.” Judgement caused confusion and the multiplication of languages. But God, as part of His magnificent plan to “restore everything” (Acts 3:21), will at some future point bring back man’s ability to communicate with everyone else. What was will be.
 
The brief scattered descriptions in our Bibles of what life will be like on the new earth to come tell us little about spoken languages. But author Randy Alcorn, who wrote a book on Heaven, stated: “Once mankind is made righteous and entrusted with stewarding the New Earth, God will likely restore a common language.”1
 
I think that what happened at Pentecost with respect to languages provides us with a hint of what is to come. The resurrection of Jesus Christ, which I’ll speak of directly as a harbinger in a future post, was the beginning of what the Bible calls the new creation. When people in this age become born-again Christians by believing the gospel, they as individuals are also said to be a “new creation” (II Cor. 5:17). So, at Pentecost, when the gospel was preached by the Apostles at Jerusalem, the Jews, who were gathered there from all the nations, experienced a language miracle. They understood what the disciples were speaking though the disciples did not speak their language. We read:
 
               All of them [the gathered disciples] were filled with the Holy Spirit and began
               to speak in other tongues [languages] as the Spirit enabled them. Now there
               were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
               When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because
               each one heard their own language being spoken. (Acts 2:4-6)
 
This, I believe, is a little harbinger of things to come. There will be a time when Babel is reversed and people on earth will again understand each other perfectly no matter what their native tongue is. At Pentecost, there was a momentary breaking into this old creation of something belonging to the new creation; a glimpse of a time when people from all nations will again understand each other's speech. Whether or not there will be one common language in the new earth or all its inhabitants will somehow be able to understand each other no matter what earthly language is spoken, it will be wonderful. I think it will be a necessary feature of the new earth.
 
God, therefore, shows us His goodness by recording what was, the one language of the earth in times past; as well as what will be, the blessing of full understanding throughout all of redeemed humanity speaking to each other on the new earth. Are you looking forward to what will be?
 
(Bible verses quoted are from the NIV.)
 
1 https://www.epm.org/blog/2014/Sep/3/languages-heaven

The writer of the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes spent considerable time and effort observing the realities of life. He bemoaned the fact that so much of life seemed utterly futile and repetitive ---
 
               What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again;
               there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one
               can say, “Look! This is something new”? (Eccl. 1:9. 10)
 
What’s the point of working so hard to get ahead; of accumulating wealth, or wisdom, or pleasure? Because we are all going to die some day anyway; and who knows, maybe what you’ve gained will be left to a fool who squanders it all (Eccl. 2:17-19).
 
Most of the book is a depressing look at life. But amidst the gloom, he gives glimmers of hope --
 
               He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time.
               He has also set eternity in the human heart. (Eccl. 3:11)
 
               Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time,
               I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.
               (Eccl. 8:12)
 
               Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:
               Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.
               For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing,
               whether it is good or evil. (Eccl. 12:13, 14)
 

Thesis
 
I say all this as an introduction to a series of blog posts on a very specific topic entitled: What Was Will Be. A suitable subtitle would be: Historical Biblical Harbingers of Our Future. My posts will touch on several of the key things the writer of Ecclesiastes has spoken about: judgment, eternity, and the advantage of fearing God. But mostly I wish to put a different spin on his idea of “What has been will be again.” My thesis is this: God is good by giving us a record of past events that act as harbingers of future events, thereby helping us to prepare for them.
 
Jonathan Cahn wrote a best-selling fictional book a few years ago entitled, The Harbinger. It espoused the idea that the United States of America appears in Old Testament prophecies and some of the recent calamities which have come upon our neighbor to the south are fulfilments of these prophesies. I’ve not actually read the book, so I will not criticize it. What I can say, however, is that not everyone agreed with his take on the fulfilment of prophecies. Though it sold well, it received mixed reviews --- nothing shocking there.
 
A harbinger is defined by Merriam-Webster as “something that foreshadows a future event: something that gives an anticipatory sign of what is to come.” My goal in this series is to demonstrate from the historical Biblical record how God has provided for us many harbingers of our own future. We can have a pretty clear idea of certain future events based on similar events that have already happened in the past. In these things, we see that God is good to us humans by giving us a heads up. It’s almost always good to know what’s around the corner. This information, then, gives us a better chance to be properly prepared for our individual and corporate futures.
 
Many of the harbingers I’ll be speaking of are negative in their flavor; they are not happy things to talk about, like judgment. But I promise I’ll speak about some positive harbingers as well, even providing an answer to the lamenting question above: “Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’?”
 

The Days of Noah
 
My first harbinger is one provided by Jesus Himself. In answering his disciples’ questions about the future, Jesus tells them:

               As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
               For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying
               and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew
               nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all
               away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (Mat. 24:37-39)
 
Back in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we have the inspired record of this actual historical event, the world-wide catastrophic flood. The only people spared were the eight on the ark. I have heard that many cultures have a global flood story in their oral history, which is good, because it actually happened. But I doubt any of them provide the details that the Bible does, especially with regard to the theological reason for the flood ---
 
               The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on
               the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was
               only evil all the time. The LORD regretted that he had made human beings
               on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the LORD said, “I will
               wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created…” (Gen. 6:5-7)
 
Jesus plainly tells us that there will be a very similar time coming in mankind’s future. People will become complacent; absorbed in their daily activities with no fear of God whatsoever. They will become so evil in His sight that He’ll wipe them out again. This time, however, He will do so with fire ---
 
               But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with
               a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done
               in it will be laid bare. (II Pet. 3:10)
 
What would you think of God if He gave you no warning whatsoever of the future? You might conclude that He is mean. But the record God has left us in the Bible of past events that He even tells us are harbingers of future ones, leave humans without excuse. Therefore, we can prepare for our future, where judgment individually and corporately is sure to happen. Peter challenges his readers with these words:
 
               Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?
               You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God…”
               (II Pet. 3:11, 12)

 
Conclusion
 
What was will be. Fear of God in our hearts is a great place to start by way of a proper response to what He has revealed. And then repentance for our sinfulness and faith in the only Savior, Jesus Christ, is where we must end up. May we all get ourselves safely into that state.

(Bible verses quoted are from the NIV.)