Well, the Apocalypse didn’t hit for Alabama or the world last Saturday. (9/23/2017) Despite many predictions that Vandy would upset the mighty Tide, the football world continued as normal. (For those who care, Nebraska did tend to business, but was not spectacular as they dispatched Rutgers. Who knew they played Power Five football?)
And the Feast of Trumpets did not climax with the Rapture. Ignoring Vandy, which isn’t too hard to do, (Evidently Nick Saban and the boys didn’t.) ...isn’t hard to do, the confluence of the Rapture and the upset of Alabama are totally coincident. They have nothing to do with each other, except that they would both be a surprise to the world.
The pedicters of the Vandy upset have not suffered a loss of credibility. No one really expected it to happen. Sadly, every incident of prediction of the return of Christ and/or the Rapture merely adds to the skepticism surrounding both His return and the veracity of the Bible in general. Please take no offense, but anyone who “reads secret meanings and numbers” in the Bible, is on the Kool-aid.
First, I would posit the fact that the Bible clearly teaches what we need to know. Granted, though the “mystery,” as revealed by Paul, was veiled for a time, it is clearly defined and explained in the Scripture. Just as we do not teach atomic theory to first semester chemistry students, the doctrines of the Bible are cumulative and an understanding of the “basics” is necessary to go on to more involved topics. But these are not hidden in word and letter codes that are basically undecipherable without the aid of a computer and an ingenious programer.
To propose that the most important event in history after the first coming of the Messiah is hidden from the regular believers is an insult to God and a denigration of the members of the Church. Several times Jesus, Himself, declared that He spoke openly of what He was doing and Who He was. Why would He change His approach to communication with regard to this event? In short, He would not.
Second, what is your view of God? If you see Him as someone who would specifically and explicitly state that we cannot know when He is coming, then “hide” secret messages as to that time, you have a warped view of both God and the Bible. The cult of secret knowledge was condemned by Paul a couple of times. They were called Gnostics, and Paul rebuked them and their heresies a couple of times. (1 Timothy 6:20, 21) There is no “secret knowledge” of God that is only available to a select few. And this event is too critical to be left to the “experts” to decipher. He clearly said that He was coming back. Likewise, He stated that we will not know the specific time. To even search for a hidden message seems, to me, an insult to the Lord.
God has revealed Himself in the world through creation. He has also revealed Himself in His Word for any who choose to read and study it. Finally, (Hebrews 1:1) He has revealed Himself through His Son. If we believe in Him, Jesus will reveal the Father to us. (John 14:7-9)
It is presumptuous to literally “add” to revelation by interpreting or more accurately, misinterpreting, the Scripture to claim a more in depth knowledge of God. He has already told us that there is nothing there. And now, the “guesser” has recanted his September 23 date and has revised it to October 21. I did not bother to read his reasons.
The Lord is coming. The Bible teaches that before the “Glorious appearing” there will be a removal of the Church and the Holy Spirit. He will not be completely gone, but will revert to the method of interacting that was used in the Old Testament. He came upon His prophets and others who He wanted to use. The Spirit even spoke through a donkey. Talk about “speaking in tongues.”
The removal of the Holy Spirit will pave the way for the Anti-Christ to appear and begin the final seven year attack on the Jews. He cunningly cloaks himself as the real Christ and fools a lot of people for three and a half years. But then he will reveal his true intent to destroy both the Jews and anyone who believes in Jesus. Thankfully, this time will be abbreviated but will produce the greatest turning to God in history. Revelation 7 records their presence in heaven. They will go there immediately upon their martyrdom. The number will be too large to humanly number, according to John.
At the end of the seven years, and particularly the final 42 months, Jesus will return in all of His glory and set up His kingdom on earth. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” will be literally fulfilled. Glory. (Matthew 6:10) And guess who is coming back with Him. You guessed it. The believers who have died in Christ and those who were raptured seven years earlier. (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17)
Is He coming back? Absolutely, positively, yes. Do we know when? Absolutely, positively, no. But it does not matter. I heard Robert Jeffers give an example of our options. Either go up when He comes, or pass through the portal of death before.
He was in the Soviet Union and was stopped at the immigration counter. He showed his documents and all that rigamarole and then they gestured that he could pass through the “gate” into the hands of US authorities. He did not dread the passage through the portal. He embraced it and even hastened unto it. Death is not fearful. It is merely a passage from this country into our home country.
And that is no Kool-aid. It is total and complete truth. Glory. “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” (Revelation 22:20)
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