D____ wrote:
Hi Mike,
Not sure if anyone has asked you similar questions to what I am going to ask you. I know the bible says the time is at hand, but it has been at hand for over two thousand years ago. What is the meaning of  “time at hand?” Do you believe that we may be nearing the time of the end of the age? The signs given by Christ, do they have a dual fulfillment? Have you ever heard of www. endtime. com? They believe that the 6th trumpet is going to blow in which a third of man will die by war. Does Revelation portray the end of the age? Thank you.

Hi D____,
You ask if others have asked me about when this age would end?

“Do you believe that we may be nearing the time of the end of the age?”

Yes, many others have asked the questions you are asking, and this question is answered in the Introduction to the book of Revelation which is posted on iswasandwillbe. com. The reason I have that name for the web site is simply because the words of Christ “never pass away.” It is the understanding of this character of God’s Word which will answer your question.

Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

We “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book” in every generation. This Truth is posted at the very beginning and at the very end of the book of Revelation:

Rev 1:3  Blessed [ is] he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time [ is] at hand.
 Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed [ is] he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

The words “This generation… all these things… I come quickly… the time is at hand… and keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book,” are one and all “My words which shall never pass away.”
Am I denying that the ages have a consummation, an end? Absolutely not, but what the scriptures do teach, is that at this time “the gospel of the kingdom of God,” the very gospel that Jesus preached, “is within you.”

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

You also ask me if prophecy has a dual application, and the answer to your second question is yes, prophecy does have a dual application. You ask:
The signs given by Christ, do they have a dual fulfillment?
Read Acts two. Acts two deals with the fulfilling of the signs Christ gave in Mat 24. It is there in Mat 24 that Christ speaks about the “Sun being turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord.”

Mat 24:29  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken

“The powers of the heavens were shaken when Christ’s apostles all fled and left him to his fate almost immediately after all of them affirmed that under no circumstances would they ever deny their Lord. That, according to Peter is what happened “before the great and terrible day of the Lord arrived on the day of Pentecost.

Act 2:16  But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
Act 2:17  And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
Act 2:18  And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
Act 2:19  And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
Act 2:20  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
Act 2:21  And it shall come to pass, [ that] whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

I remember very well, in my own spiritual blindness, asking why Peter would say such a thing about what happened on the day of Pentecost. The sun was not darkened, nor was the moon turned to blood, neither had the “tribulation of those days” been endured.
Christ has said that these “heavenly signs” would follow the “tribulation of those days.”

Mat 24:29  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Mat 24:30  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

I saw none of this as happening on or before the day of Pentecost. To me it was all outward and physical. Not one word of this prophecy was of spirit. And yet Christ told us:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Read the paper on iswasandwillbe entitled What and Where Is Heaven?
The natural man wants to know “ when the kingdom of God comes,” and the spiritual man answers with where the kingdom of God is at this very moment: “the kingdom of God is within you.”  All of Christ’s parables are about “the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” All of them.

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto the [ multitudes] in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given

So while the whole world is focused on looking for an outward kingdom, Christ and His elect are focused on where the kingdom is at this time. That is why “Is,” and “I Am” are so prominent and “Was,” and “Will Be,” are not what as prominent about Christ and His word.  ‘Was’ and ‘will be’ are, rather that part of Christ which, when made primary, are actually used to blind all of mankind to the fact that “the kingdom of God is within” those who are now being judged and being prepared to be used as God’s channel, through which all the rest of mankind will be brought into the family of God, into the Father, who will, in the end be “all in all.”

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

“His ways are past finding out” for the natural man:

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [ them], because they are spiritually discerned.

We all take Christ’s words which he tells us are spirit, and we compare them with natural things. The sun is natural and we compare it with the natural sun expecting to understand Christ’s spiritual words.

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

The natural man cannot understand how physical words can convey spiritual thoughts, and indeed if those words are considered physical words then we will never understand how to “compare spiritual with spiritual.”
I cannot rewrite all I have written on the book Revelation in this e- mail, so I pray the Lord will give you eyes to see that…:

Rev 1:3  Blessed [ is] he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time [ is] at hand.
Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed [ is] he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

… Means that we need to place our focus on the kingdom of God within, and allow the spiritual Pharisiees “to demand when the kingdom of God will come.”

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Notice that all the talk about timetables in scripture are in response to those who wondered about when they would see their dead loved ones again. Not one of the apostles wrote a book about prophetic time tables.
The book of Revelation is not a timetable except as it is understood that we must “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand.” It is a book which tells us where we are only as we “look behind” ourselves to see from where we have come. Twice we are told that the things in this book are to be kept by any who “read and hear the things which are written therein.”  Those who say we are at a certain place in these prophecies are totally blinded to the message contained in Rev 1:3 and 22:7. They have “eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear” the parables of scripture which are keeping them from seeing “the mysteries of the kingdom of God… within you.”
To answer your last question, Yes, I have heard of that website. Like all orthodox Christian approaches to the book of Revelation, that site ignores and is blinded to the admonitions of Rev 1:3 and 22:7

Rev 1:3  Blessed [ is] he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time [ is] at hand.
 Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed [ is] he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

Nor do they have even a hint as to what Christ meant by these words…:

Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

… Or these words, the words of the very next verse of Mat 24:

Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

They are mystified as to why John would call his days “the last time.”

1Jn 2:18  Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

“It is the last time” simply because “the last time” has to do with “this generation,” every and all of the generations which read the sayings of the prophecy of this book, and keep the things which are written therein. In other words “the last times” are the last times in the lives of every generation since Christ, whose eyes see and whose ears hear “the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” That is few indeed.

Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

I hope this has answered your questions, and I hope you can see that the primary focus of God’s Word is on the Is and the I Am, not on the was or the will be.

Rev 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Rev 1:8  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty
Rev 1:18  I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

I hope that you can see why when the Pharisees demanded of Christ ” When the kingdom of God should appear,” He answered with where the kingdom of God “ Is.” The kingdom of God, and the sayings of this prophecy and all the parables are one and all at this time, “within you.” You are not the good seed as opposed to the tares, rather we are all the bad tares before we come out of Babylon and  come to be the good seed. We are not the Publican as opposed to the Pharisee, rather we are all the Pharisee before we come out of Babylon and come to see ourselves as the Publican who is not worthy to come to God. We are not the prodigal as opposed to his elder brother, rather we are all the elder brother before we come to see ourselves as the prodigal son who has wasted his Father’s substance on riotous living, etc. etc. And thus we all “live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God,” and thus we “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”
Will there be an end of this age? Certainly. As a matter of fact, the day is coming when there will be an end of all ages and an end of all flesh. But only those who perceive that day of judgment as now and within will be ruling and reigning with Christ in His kingdom over the kingdoms of this world:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if [ it] first [ begin] at us, what shall the end [ be] of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

The time for judgment is not future, “the time is come… It first begins at us.” Only those being judged now will be in that “blessed and holy first resurrection.”

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike