Happy New Year! Well my friends you may agree with me it's hard to believe another year has come and gone already and as Christmas celebrations and decorations start to fade and we're forced to press onward and forward to face the realities and difficulties ahead in our personal lives, both in this nation and abroad, it should give us great pause. While preparing to give a special Christmas message recently, I began to notice the significance of lights in this season once again and in the scriptures as well. After speaking with Ed Welch, a US Navy Veteran and an original founding member of FAM, we began corroborating on an article about the importance of this topic in these end times and darkening days. The day of the Lord will come upon those in darkness like a thief but all believers walking in the true light of the glorious gospel will escape God's wrath here on earth one day soon because of sin, corruption, and violence just as in Noah's day that Jesus himself referred to in Matthew 24. As Ed and I discussed the topic we agreed it was time to alert others publicly both here at home and abroad through this website the imminence of Christ's return both in the rapture first before the great tribulation, and then of course seven years later returning to earth with His saints to the Mount of Olives in Israel just east of Jerusalem where His feet will touch down (Zechariah 14:4) to judge and rule and reign for a thousand years! Daniel's prophecy in Daniel 9 reveals the seven-year period on earth called the 'great tribulation' or 70th week of Daniel, that God deals with the nation of Israel and His people the Jews specifically. First however according to the apostle Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 as many scholars agree, Christ will first come for true believers both Jew and Gentile alike, the bride of Christ, suddenly without warning at the appointed time soon one day to snatch us up and suddenly away.
Yes indeed my friends for all who believe in Jesus as Lord up up and away very soon one day! Paul calls this departure a "mystery" in the Greek, a reference to something not yet revealed previously in the scriptures, but a revelation given by Jesus to the great apostle personally like so many of his personal encounters with the Lord in the Spirit. Christ's second coming however is actually visible to all even those who "pierced Him" to rule and reign on earth for a thousand years when one day he will return with His army riding white horses to establish His kingdom on earth after the rapture of the Church as recorded by the apostle John in Revelation 19 where John writes, "And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True and in righteousness he does judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses clothed in fine linen white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (Revelation 19:11-16)."
I remember while in college a roommate of mine and I began reading the book of Revelation and were excited to learn more about what this prophetic masterpiece written by John the apostle was about when he was caught up to heaven after being persecuted and banished from the Island of Patmos narrowly escaping death in a cauldron of boiling oil unharmed and apparently unaffected which under normal circumstances would have ended his life, or anyone's for that matter, as a martyr for Christ just like all the other disciples no doubt. But God had a grander plan for this beloved apostle and as we know now for sure one purpose obviously was to pen the book of Revelation! What my friend and I didn't know at our young and inexperienced age and didn't realize until we drove through a local taco shop one night and shared with the server our newfound knowledge about Christ's second coming to earth. After sharing our excitement he calmly encouraged us to check the book of Daniel to really understand eschatology and the second coming of Christ to earth. Daniel we mused? Wait wasn't he the Hebrew prophet known best for escaping a lion's den? Yes of course but we discovered eventually that he was also the one chosen to prophesy about the 70th week of Israel found in Daniel 9. In addition he would close his book prophecying about the end times how that "knowledge would increase and many would run to and fro (Daniel 12:4)". Obviously we're seeing this unfold quickly today! It's important to note in the gospels, specifically Matthew 24, that Jesus himself refers the reader to understand what Daniel the prophet himself spoke of. So with all that said you may wonder what does that mean for us living today now in 2026 as yet another year has quickly passed?
Well one thing's for sure it means we are now closer than ever to the Day of the Lord and we all need to be ready to answer one day soon one way or another for how we've lived here on earth. As the apostle Paul said in his epistle to the believers in Thessalonica and for those of us also living today, "But of the times and the seasons brethren you have no need that I write unto but you yourselves know that the Lord himself so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction shall come upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape. But you brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light and the children of the day we are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober for they that sleep sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunk in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also you do (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11)." In closing we should all heed the words of the Lord Jesus himself who gave a parable in Matthew 25:1-13, known today as the Parable Of The 10 Virgins. Jesus says there that five were wise and five were foolish and when the bridegroom eventually came only the five who had oil in their lamps were ready to meet him. They were ready to meet him instantly when the midnight cry was made. Sadly however the five foolish virgins had no oil in their lamps and weren't ready! What about us today living in these end times and difficult days will we be ready when the Lord comes one day and appears suddenly without warning? I wonder will our lamps be lit and filled with oil our hearts and lives right and shining bright or like those five foolish virgins not ready but sadly slumbering just asleep in the light?
No comments:
Post a Comment