A few nights ago after 9 p.m.
someone rang the door bell and pounded on the front door simultaneously. The
pounding stopped as abruptly as it started so there was no sense of an accident
or an emergency, but rather a possible threat, or a prank. While I headed for
the front door, Bill headed for the handgun. I’ll have to admit it wasn’t the
smartest move on my part to open the door without knowing who or what was out
there…but hey, Bill had the handgun equipped with a laser. There was no one at
the door, but as a precaution we walked the perimeter of the property a few
times, double-checked all the locked doors and left the outside front light on
for the rest of the night. Even days later my sense of alertness is still heightened
and it crosses my mind that on a spiritual level I should have this same type
of alertness. Jesus, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day
your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of
the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have
kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So
you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do
not expect him” (Matt 24:42-44 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----There was a lot of hey made across Europe about Jesus’ return January 1, AD1000. The closer to December 31, AD999 people came, the more they prepared. Many had not plowed and planted their fields that year. They had let the repair and upkeep of their homes fall by the wayside. And they were getting quite saintly, giving to the poor, righting wrongs, and some even traveled to Jerusalem to meet their Lord. That must have made for a long trip home. But it was the turn of the millennium that was so convincing. Yet maybe there was a mistake! So thirty-three years later the excitement rose again. Surely this 1000-year thing worked around Jesus resurrection! Well, it didn’t. At least not that way.
-----And the watch for Jesus’ return cooled off until the turn of the twentieth century. About fifty years before, following the Great Awakening, the Seventh Day Adventists grew out of a minor stir over Jesus’ return. In 1910, a bigger stir sparked the Jehovah’s Witness movement. But their prediction of the Lord’s return underwent a few revisions as fingered dates went Jesusless.
-----At least these guys were watching. Yet, maybe they were wanting to watch more than they were actually watching. What do you do when you watch? Just looking around and keeping your eyes peeled isn’t the all of watching. I mean, it is rather important to know what your watching for enough to know it when you see it. Certain historical conditions have to be in order enough to play out the prophecies of evil’s end (evil ends at Christ’s return, then after a thousand years, the world ends.) That’s why 1948 sparked a new wave of eschatological surmising with the recreation of the Jewish state. Even some of those surmises have been reworked since Jesus failed to show up for the appointments made for Him.
-----Still we watch. And we see more. The first six heads of the beast we know as Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Macedonian Empire, and the Roman Empire. What is the 7th? Each of the six known heads defeated its predecessor (except Egypt, of course,) such that the kingdoms of this beast have been present on earth from the time God was fashioning Israel in Egypt until the 7th was wounded. And each controlled the Promised Land in its day. So we can definitely know the 7th head was the Ottoman-Turk Empire which defeated the Roman Empire in AD1453, and controlled the Holy Land until 1919 (the Byzantine Empire was the last vestige of the Roman Empire.) The anti-Christ’s empire will be a revival of the wounded 7th head, which exact thing the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 to achieve. Keep an eye on Erdogan, not as the anti-Christ, but as a Muslim Brotherhood member, radical Islamist shaping history from right there “where Satan’s throne is.” (Rev 2:13) We need to carefully watch current events which unfold with scriptural fit of ever increasing detail. We also need to be watching signs in the sun, moon, and stars like Jesus said to do (Luke 21:25.) Past failures at spotting Jesus’ return have obviously not combined scriptural fitting events and signs in the sun, moon, and stars with the prophecies. Don’t let anyone fool you. That the day and hour can not be known does not mean the impending approach of that day and hour cannot be known, eventually even within a span of a year, or a few months as more information unfolds.
-----But the most important “watch” to keep is upon the sincerity of your call on Jesus. That’s the lamp you trim. Watch for its tell-tale flickering for when to pour more oil. And always use the best oil, the stuff to which the Spirit Himself has led you.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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