In speaking
about signs of the end of the age Jesus said, “No one knows about that day or
hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come” (Mark
13:32-33 NIV). Certainly demons would not be privy to the appointed time, but I
find it curious that they have a sense of their own appointed time. When Jesus
encountered two demon possessed men they said, “What do you want with us, Son
of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed
time” (Matt 8:29 NIV)?
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Now that is interesting. I never let it soak in deep enough to realize these demons were aware that there was an appointed time for their round-up and incineration. But that is a definite conclusion which can be drawn from the demon’s plea. And it demonstrates the minute detail of information living between the lines of God’s Word.
-----Consider this. The angel sent to Daniel told him to seal up the prophecies given until the time of the end. The introduction of the adverbial clause with “until” informs that the prophecies are not shut up period (Daniel 12:4.) They shall open up at the time of the end. Likewise, Paul bidding us not to go beyond what is written (I Cor 4:6) agrees with the sense of the warnings against adding to or taking away from God’s prophecies, commandments, words, and doings (Rev 22:18; Deut 4:2; 12:32; Prov 30:6; Eccl 3:14) For those before the time of Christ and those after then until the twentieth century, Jesus’ expression about not knowing the day or hour probably meant not knowing at all, like most folks claim is its meaning to us.
-----But what unseals the words of Daniel’s prophecies? We know who unseals them: God. Then what unseals them must be His testimonies. He yet lives. He yet testifies. It is a mistake to think His testimonies were complete with the addition of Revelation to the Bible. Remember the seven thunders? (Rev 10:4) They will speak a testimony of God to people during a time yet to come. In fact, the whole Tribulation thing is a sort of testimony from God to people (and I think to angels as well.) He isn’t finished doing His thing.
-----I John 5:8 says the Spirit, the water, and the blood are three witnesses. I see in them a metaphor, maybe intended by John, maybe not (probably not,) but interesting still because it is a metaphor of a reality. The stars and heavenly bodies themselves are for signs, sharing the same nature with water as being inanimate matter. Signs indicate occurrences. People and their activities are indicative of the course of God’s plan. The angel told John the seven heads of the beast represented seven kingdoms and their seven kings. We are beyond six kingdoms in God’s plan, because the angel told John five kingdoms had been and the sixth was in his day. The seventh we can know by knowing it will share two basic characteristics the first six shared plus one more: it will die, then come back to life as an eighth kingdom, but still of the seventh. Islam alone fit’s the description. Also, people’s activities have returned the nation of Israel to the earth (by God’s direction.) These are just a couple witnesses of very many belonging to the animate nature both blood and people share. Then those who have the Spirit when observing these oddities in the sky and amongst the peoples are led to insights the Spiritless “dead to Christ” can not receive. Indeed, in these days God is pulling the seal off Daniel’s prophecies and the events of Revelation are becoming all too starkly clear.
-----So, as time moves forward and signs in the heavens (the blood moon tetrads amongst others) conjoin with human activities of prophesied patterns, does Jesus’ proclamation really mean people during the time these final events of evil’s overthrow draw near will yet have not a clue of when He will return? Or, so many “witnesses” of that approaching event having “spoken”, could He have meant the folks of the Spirit seeing them can know maybe the decade, or maybe even closer to the year, though not actually the precise day or hour? To claim one way or the other with exaggerated certainty risks adding to or subtracting from God’s Word.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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