Choose this day whom you will serve.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-3
King James Version
5 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
There are 19 mentions of the last days/end times in the New Testament and all of the writers declared that THEY were living in the last days—we are not.
https://prophecyquestions.com/the-biblical-last-days-a-summary/
I choose Jesus Christ!
I would point out the possibility that the John may have seen s symbol or a script that were unfamiliar to him and which resembled “666” instead.
These have long been used by islam as a badge worn on the are or forehead. You can look this concept up yourself on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtquNNEO7Fw and i’ll not cover it here, but suggest something that may, MAY, have relevance.
You see, the apostate west will arguably not come under the sway of islam unless they can keep their beloved sodomites (and now transsexuals) with them; but, under the long established Islamic doctrine of abrogation it is possible for Antichrist or his prophet to declare a poofter friendly Islam or a special dispensation and, removing the objection, see same apostate west flock to the mosques to take whatever mark is asked of them.
I bring this up as a possibility, something to consider, that is not in conflict with the basic idea of the OP.
”We are currently living in the last days of the Church Age, but we are not in the last days of the Jewish Age. Paul was in the last days. Luther was in the last days. John Darby was in the last days. We are in the last days of the Church Age. But we are not in the last days of the Jewish Age. That is the tribulation.”
- Dr. Robert L. Dean
DOCTRINE OF THE LAST DAYS
TERMS RELATED TO ISRAEL:
a. Latter days: Isaiah 2:2; Deut 4:30, 31:29, Jeremiah 30:24, 48:47, Dan 2:28, 10:14
b. Last days: Jeremiah 49:39, 23:20, Hosea 3:5, Acts 2:17, Is 2:2, Ezek 38:16, Micah 4:1
c. Last day: John 6:39-40, 44,54, 11:24, 12:48
d. Latter years: Ezek 38:8
e. Time of the end: Dan 8:17
f. End of time: Dan 12:4
g. End time: Dan 12:9
h. End of the age: Dan 12:3
All of these terms are related to Israel... in Israel’s thought and in the terminology related to Israel, all of these terms relate to the end of the Jewish age and what they will go through in terms of judgments and in terms of various disturbances that give birth to the Messianic Age. So we have one set of terminology that is distinct to Israel. In Jewish and Old Testament thought, all of this turmoil that we call the Tribulation takes place at the end of the present age in the process of giving birth to the Messianic Age. We have the terminology birth pangs in numerous passages related to the Tribulation period.
TERMS RELATED TO THE CHURCH:
We must distinguish between the last days of the Church Age and the last days of Israel’s tribulation.
a. Later times: I Tim 4:1
b. Last days: James 5:3, II Tim 3:1, Heb 1:2, II P 3:3
c. Last times: I P 1:20
d. Last time: I P 1:5, Jude 18
e. Last hour: I J 2:18
All of these phrases refer to the entire Church Age. Folks ask if we are in the end times. The question is, whose end times?
… If you are alive in the Church Age, you are in the last days. I Tim 4:1
… In the New Testament, these terms refer to the entirety of the Church Age. Heb 1:2 If you were in the 2nd century you were in the last times. If you were in the 20th century you were in the last times.
… Thus this refers biblically to the last period in God’s timetable before the coming of the Messianic Age, also called the Millennial Kingdom. (The tribulation is the end of the Age of Israel.)
… In Jewish thought their last days would end with a series of judgments terminating the present age and inaugurating the Messianic Age.
Deuteronomy 4:30 “When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice
Distress refers to the tribulation. “Latter days” is when Israel finally calls on the Lord.
Also see this free paper posted online:
Are We Living in the Last Days?
by Dr. Thomas Ice
https://pre-trib.org/dr-robert-thomas/message/are-we-living-in-the-last-days/read
Mark Hitchcock demonstrated, with such irrefutable clarity, that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was the Babylon of John’s Revelation reborn. It must be true, since Mr. Hitchcock learned this from the Bible, right?
As long as credulous simpletons keep buying that purple kool-ade, fortune-tellers and prognosticators will keep churning it out. Some even recycle their books the way Tugboat Hal recycles his marriages: new names, new faces, same old plot.
Winners and lovers shape the future for the glory of God
Whiners and losers try to predict it, to celebrate teh power of Satan.
Before these days one had to use their imagination to figure out how the beast and the antichrist would come to be. And how they would be worshiped. In these days imagination is not really required so much.