“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” (Matt. 24:44) I cannot say for certain that the Lord was speaking specifically to the born-again believers of “that” day, those that will be alive when He returns to take His church home for the marriage feast, but if He was, there might be a lot of people incorrect in their assumption of the verse.
Many believe that what we are witnessing today are the signs that pre-empt His return, and I would tend to agree. Fires, floods, earthquakes in divers places, (Luke 21:11) along with the great falling away that we have been witnessing for quite some time now, all of these are difficult to misinterpret, and when coupled with the “Fourth Revolution” or evolution of man, depending on who you listen to, we are indeed, in my opinion, in the days of the end of the gentiles. But did you read that opening verse correctly, “an hour as ye think not.”
With all that is occurring, many are expecting the Lord’s return, for the times are most definitely turbulent, yet what if we interpret these words as they were written, and as if they were written to believers of “that day.” We would not expect His return in terrible times, so what then is left, peaceful times? The times of peace are over, so that only leaves one alternative, when we have given up, when things are worse than they have ever been, and those who were saying continuously, “Lord, come soon!” Are now repeating in their own words 2 Peter 3:4, “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.”
These times before the rapture, again in my opinion, serve one specific purpose, to weed out the chaff, and it has already begun. We expect Him in a time that is not the Lord’s timing, we are expecting Him while things are still getting worse, and when evil begins to hold an iron grip on this world, even before the antichrist is revealed, many will fall, all hope of His return will be gone.
The Word of God is specifically for the people of God, yet the lost in many places have at least some idea of what is written therein, especially about the tribulation period and the antichrist, mostly from books and movies, which of course are completely off base, but nevertheless have placed a seed within them of sorts. The lost are almost always looking for the end of the rainbow, they have hope for mankind, false hope, but hope nonetheless, so for them there is no promise in His coming, for they do not believe He was here 2,000 years ago in the first place, and if He was, He was just a good, moral teacher that gave us the “golden rule,” one that if they attempt to encourage within themselves is done solely for sinful, pride filled, selfish motives, “Just in case there is a big man upstairs.”
I do not know if I am being shown something from the Holy Spirit, or if I am way off base here, if you have read any of my past letters, you know that I do not pre-plan what I am going to write, when I am told to write, I write, it is that simple, you may put as much stock into that as you wish, I simply follow where I am led. Few expect the Lord to return for us on a nice, sunny day, when all in the world is right, so to speak, many believe that as the times degrade into a world covered in sin that He will return, I am simply stating this, it may get bad enough that many will simply stop expecting Him, for they will say that if He was coming, He would have been here by now.
“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” (Rev. 14:12) “In your patience possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:19)
When we lose hope, we lose everything, when we stop believing, we lose the last of what we had. Our hope is not a false hope, it is faith in the Shepard of our souls who has promised, and His promises are true. It’s going to get very bad out there my friends, and when you think it can’t get any worse, any crazier, it will. Keep your eyes upon Jesus and the day you stop expecting will not come, the day you least expect it, He will arrive to take us home.
