Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
3/22/2022
World War 2.5. Are we closer than ever to the Rapture?
Since I was a boy there has been a remnant convinced they would see the Rapture and the return of Christ within their lifetimes, and obviously, that didn’t happen. They were wrong.
We have heard a lot of these predictions before, but time keeps marching on. That brings us to today when the signs seem to be converging. They are happening more rapidly, closer and closer to one another.
But why should our generation be any different than generations in the past? That’s a legitimate question.
Jimmy Evan wrote a piece about “We Have Never Been Closer to the End” Let me quote and add some salient points.
Here’s what Jimmie wrote in the first pages of "Signs of the Times", a book he wrote back in 2011:
The Bible gives us certain signs of the times we’re told to be looking for—clear indications that will alert us to Christ’s soon return. And here’s what I find so fascinating: There are more of those signs in closer proximity to one another than I have ever seen before.
If those warning signals mean anything—and I believe they do— we may be very, very close to the return of Jesus Christ.
The signs he saw back then are even more prevalent today. It’s astounding.
Now, that doesn’t mean I’m setting dates or predicting that it will happen in a certain month or even a certain year. We are not God, so we believe the wisest approach is to point to Scripture and point to the signs and leave the rest in God’s hands.
Later Than Ever Before
But I’m reminded of a story.
A little boy was at his grandmother’s house. She had a big, grandfather clock in the front room. You could hear it ticking from almost every room in the house, but every hour the clock would chime on the hour. The boy loved the deep, repetitive bong of the clock chime, especially around lunchtime when it would sound twelve times in a row.
One day, as his stomach was starting to rumble and he knew lunch was near, the boy ran to the front room to listen to the clock chime.
Bong.
Bong.
Bong.
It chimed 8, 9, 10 times.
It chimed the 11th time.
It chimed the 12th time, and the boy was about to head into the kitchen to see what his grandmother had made him for lunch.
But then it chimed again.
13…14…15…16!
The boy didn’t know that something had gone wrong with the mechanisms of the clock. The old clock had malfunctioned, and it went on chiming far too many times.
Stunned, the boy ran to his grandmother, yelling as she made lunch in the kitchen. “Grandma! Grandma!” he exclaimed as he slid into the counter across the tile floor.
“It’s later than it has ever been before!”
It’s Time to Be Ready
That’s a cute story. But there’s a nugget of truth in it. It is later than it has ever been before. Quite literally, we are nearer the world’s final days than we have ever been in human history. (You might even say our world is malfunctioning, just like that clock.)
We are absolutely correct in saying the time is drawing near. Our world has never been as close to the Rapture as it is today.
Maybe our neighbors think they have “heard it all before.” That shouldn’t surprise us because the Bible predicts this:
Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last day's scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. 4 They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”—2 Peter 3:3-4, NLT
The future is here. Right now, the question is are you where you should be with your relationship with God. How are you leading your family along God’s ways? How are you impacting your neighborhood, job place, or church for Christ?
If you have not prepared, don’t you think it’s past time to turn from our lukewarm ways and prepare for the coming? Look, I don’t need to scare you, all you need do is turn on the news for world events and look at what is happening in our streets and our colleges. Our world is fallen and becoming more lost every day. I am particularly sensitive to this as I am sending two daughters off to college and the tales I hear are deafening and heart-wrenching.
World War 2.5. Are we closer than ever to the Rapture? Are you ready? Have you prepared your troops? You must know we are running out of time.
Matt 25: The Parable of the Ten Virgins
25 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Graves Into Gardens (Lyrics) – Elevation Worship ft. Brandon Lake
