How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word.

What does the Bible say about the end times?

Well, in this study of Through the Bible, we're diving into the book of Amos.

It's a small and really a bit obscure book in the Old Testament, but don't let its size fool you.

It holds surprising and profound truths about the end times.

I'm Steve Schwett, your host, and as you find your seat on the Bible bus, we're going to begin with an introduction by our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, as he shares some thoughts on a magazine article from

years ago, but I think that we'll find its insights are just as relevant now as they were back then.

The lead article in a magazine called The Christian Verdict had this title in a recent issue,

The Downfall of Western Christianity, and the article had this opening paragraph, and I'm reading

it. We are living in an era of change rapid cataclysmic change as one author

declares all the certainties of the industrial society in which we live are

disintegrating we are witnessing an erosion of ideologies, economic theories, and traditional

culture. Indeed, we are witnessing the decay and disintegration of Western civilization.

That's the end of the quotation. As we look into the future, there's not much that sounds an optimistic

note. It's all gloom and doom. We have been in the prophets of the Old Testament a great deal

recently in our going through the Bible, and there are certain great principles by which

God judges mankind for his injustice, his cruelty, his brutality, his violence, and his sin against

mankind. These principles emerge in all the prophets. There's such great interest

right now in prophecy, and there's so many wild theories that are being put forth that certainly

the book of revelation would not countenance at all. Now, the same principles we're going to find

prevail in the book of Revelation that has prevailed in all of these prophecies. God judged his people

and even the surrounding nations for their gross sins, he judged his own people more severely

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