In the Delivery Room?

 

“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked(for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,”    2 Peter 2:4-9  NKJV

Like many fathers to be, my first trip to the delivery room was an eye opener to say the least.  While you can try to prepare yourself, experiencing it is really the only way to understand what really goes on in there.  Fortunately for me, the gravity and apprehension I was feeling lightened considerably thanks to something that happened in the time leading up to our delivery.  My wife and I were walking the halls trying to speed things up when we approached a room where a woman was quite obviously in labor.  Truth be told, my impression from the volume was that it was a difficult and painful labor and my anxiety began to rise immediately.  Imagine then my surprise and relief to hear the nurse shout loudly, “oh for crying out loud, it’s not that bad.  Put a cork in it honey!”

Now as humorous as that incident might have been, I am certainly in no position to judge.  While some might find delivery easy, it stands to reason others might find it hard.  My thoughts this past week seemed to focus again on Jesus’ use of childbirth and labor to describe the end of this age. The news surrounding the possible overturning of Roe vs Wade by the Supreme Court and the reaction of some, certainly was thought by many to qualify as a major “labor pain” which Jesus warned would precede His return.  It then occurred to me that there are three deliveries on our immediate horizon that we all should be concerned about as only one could be considered easy, while the other two will be as horrific as anything you could imagine.  Fortunately, it’s completely up to us to choose which one to participate in.

“the Lord knows how to deliver the godly”  The next delivery on God’s calendar is the taking of His Church to heaven in the event we call the rapture.  It is God’s promise to all who have chosen to believe in the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, who died and rose again for our sins. 

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:”   John 1:12  NKJV

We are told by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians that there will come a time when Jesus will return and take all of those who have made this choice to be with Him forever.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord”.   1 Thessalonians 4:16-17  NKJV

I believe it is fair to say that this delivery is going to be the easiest, if not the most joyful delivery anyone has ever experienced.  In the blink of an eye believers will all be changed and receive the body we will have for eternity as we enter into the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  This is the delivery everyone should be watching for right now if you consider all the signs which point to it being about to happen.

“and to reserve the unjust under punishment “.  The second delivery takes place immediately after the first one as those who chose not to believe are left behind to experience God’s judgment.  We are told that part of the first delivery is the removal of the “restrainer”, or the Holy Spirit and when that occurs the evil that He has been restraining for thousands of years will be released. Imagine if you will the violence that is going to erupt when there is nothing to hold it back and Satan will be free to do as he will.

The disappearance of millions of people in the blink of an eye will terrify and enrage those who are left behind and it is easy to imagine how the world will react.  The resulting breakdown of society and inability to enforce order will set in motion Satan’s plan for someone to step forward who will promise to restore peace and stability to a world gone mad.  The Bible calls him the anti-christ, and his ascension to power will set the stage for the third delivery we are told will occur and that is the point in time where God will choose to judge His chosen people for their refusal to accept His Son as their Messiah.

“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”   Daniel 9:27  NKJV

The third delivery is the nation of Israel entering the time of their judgment from God which is most commonly referred to as the tribulation.  It is also called the seventieth week of Daniel, a result of the prophecy found above, and also as the time of Jacob’s trouble which personalizes this period as being directed specifically at the nation of Israel.  At this point you might be wondering why I differentiate between the second and third deliveries.  It is a result in my belief in what is called the “gap theory” which I have shared with you before. 

Traditional belief was that the tribulation period immediately followed the rapture of the Church, but many have now agreed that there are events which the Bible tells us about that must occur first, preceding the tribulation.  That requires a period of time, or gap, between the rapture and the beginning of the tribulation. A question that often arises when the subject of the tribulation comes up is why isn’t the United States mentioned in reference to this time period?  I believe that it is a result of the judgment which falls upon this nation following the rapture. After the second delivery occurs, the US is unwilling and/or unable to involve itself in the affairs of the Middle East.

A question I almost invariably always get when I talk on our prophetic future is the same one the disciples asked Jesus in Matthew 24.  When will these things take place?  The simple answer is that we don’t know.  Yet considering how much Jesus talked about them, especially His referencing the Days of Noah and the birth pangs of a woman in labor, and then throw in for good measure that we were told if we watch we will know the season, where do you believe we are? While in the past it seemed that there were occasional signs which might qualify as labor pains, I and many others have noted that the frequency of signs has increased dramatically of late leading to speculation we quite possibly are already in the delivery room waiting for the delivery.

Have you made the choice to accept the gift of salvation made possible by the sacrifice of God’s Son, Jesus Christ?  If not, if you are reading this you still have time to do so before the delivery of the Church to its eternal home occurs. Becoming a believer is simply accomplished by asking Christ to come into your life and help you live life as He directs.  If you want to do that today, just pray a prayer like this to Him;

"Dear Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. I believe You died for my sins.  I want to turn from my sins and open the door of my heart and life to you. I confess You as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank You for saving me. Amen." 

 

 If you make that choice, we have God’s promise that we will be delivered from this world first, spared from the terrible time of judgment that is coming by way of the second and third deliveries.

 

 Keep watching.

Is Spring the Season of the Rapture?

"For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come, And the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth her green figs, And the vines with the tender grapes Give a good smell. Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away!"  Song of Solomon 2:11-13  NKJV

 

Years ago I wrote this post concerning the spring season and the possibility we could anticipate our rapture during these months.  Spring has always been my favorite season, just  as it is with so many others as well.  It surely has something to do with seeing everything come back to life after a hard winter, and watching birds return and trees put forth their leaves, and my favorite, watching all the flowers come back up and bloom.   Many would agree what we as a world have been going through this past year could accurately be described as a "winter" of discontent.  So much has happened that many complain we are seeing new signs on an almost daily basis which point to the end of this age which the Bible tells so much about.  If you believe, as I do, that what we are seeing today are signs that we are approaching the possible time of our departure, it simply seemed a good idea to look at Solomon's thoughts from his book Song of Solomon. 

 

Did you look forward to your wedding?  Did you possibly get a little more impatient the closer you got to the actual date?  I think most of us have either participated in our own, or observed someone else in this position and understand the impatience and anticipation someone approaching their wedding day experiences.  This though, raises a question in my mind which I would like you to consider as well.  Since the Church is described as the bride of Christ, and the Word also tells us He is coming to take His bride home at a future date, do you think Jesus is experiencing those same feelings of anticipation and impatience that we do?

 

When is the last time you heard a sermon taught on the Songs of Solomon?  To be completely honest, I don't recall personally ever having heard one.  Which truthfully seems to be a shame because if you believe that all scripture is inspired by God, and all scripture is profitable for instruction, you are then left with the question as to why this book was included in the scripture and what is its message?  As Solomon wrote this song to a Shulamite woman who he had fallen in love with, it is in essence his love song to her as he is courting her with the intent of making her his bride.  You don't need to read very far at all to understand the depth of his love for her, and the anticipation he has for the day she will become his own.

 

Seen in this light, it appears to me that this song can easily be considered to be what Jesus is feeling as He looks forward to His wedding to His bride, the Church.  Although the Jews have always looked at this book as signifying God's love for the nation of Israel, and it easily could be, I can also certainly see Jesus' love for the Church and His anticipation for the coming wedding in it as well.  One of the many interesting things I found while reading this book was this description of his intended which Solomon gives us in chapter 4.

 

"You are all fair, my love, And there is no spot in you."  Song of Solomon 4:7  NKJV

 

The fact that he sees no spot in her immediately brought to mind the description of the Church Paul gives us in the book of Ephesians.

 

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish."   Ephesians 5:25-27  NKJV

 

For many reasons, I can read this book and picture Jesus writing these words in anticipation of His future wedding with the Church.  Yet as long as we are going to talk about a future wedding, it would also seem appropriate to consider the possible timing of it, and see if Solomon gives us any clue as to when that might take place.  Notice his description in the passage from the second chapter, and everything that he says there.  It is obvious that Solomon is talking about the season of Spring, and all of the things that occur in Israel during that particular time.

 

"For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone."

 

Solomon tells us that the winter is past, as well as the early rains which normally fall in March and April.  It is these early rains which help start the growing season in Israel.

 

"The flowers appear on the earth;"

 

One of the things I, and many others appreciate most about spring is watching all of the flowers reappear after hiding under the snow for the winter.

 

"the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land"

 

Did you know that the turtledove is a migratory bird?  It normally leaves in the fall and returns to Israel in the spring. 

 

"The fig tree puts forth her green figs"

 

The fig tree normally produces its first crop in the spring, usually harvested in early June. 

 

"And the vines with the tender grapes Give a good smell"

 

The grapes are on the vine ripening in preparation for the coming harvest which normally occurs in July. 

 

The late Ray Stedman had this to say about this passage from Song of Solomon;

 

“There is the springtime of life. But it doesn't lie in the past. It lies in the future. One day this whole world will experience a springtime like that. The Lord Jesus Christ, returning at last to claim his waiting bride, will greet her in words very much like those. The springtime will come, the time of singing, the time when earth shall blossom again and the curse will be lifted and the flowers will appear on the earth. This is a picture of what can take place in the heart of one who falls in love with Jesus Christ and enters into springtime. The cold winter of loneliness, misery, and selfishness is past and the time of singing has come”. 

 

All things considered, I think it is safe to say that Solomon was anticipating a spring wedding just like many others have.  Spring has certainly proven over time to be the season of choice when it comes to weddings, and the wedding stories in the Bible are no exception.  Many believe the Church is rapidly approaching its own wedding in Heaven, and a close look at the state of this world certainly seems to support that belief.  One day, very soon it would appear, the Church will hear the groom call out for it to "come away" just as Solomon wrote in this passage.  It is my prayer that you have made the decision to accept the gift of eternal life offered by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for your sin, and that you are part of the body, the bride of Christ which will live with Him forever in the place He is preparing for us.

 

Keep watching.

Not If, But When

“For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon An assembly of great nations from the north country, And they shall array themselves against her; From there she shall be captured. Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior; None shall return in vain.”   Jeremiah 50:9  NKJV

 

Since the beginning of the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine, speculation has run rampant about the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons.  To be sure, these questions are legitimate, especially considering the rhetoric coming from Russia itself and their threats to use them if they feel they are justified in doing so.  While the world waits to see what tomorrow brings, many believers have asked if the Bible has anything to say about the possibility of these types of weapons being used in regards to end time prophecy.  After much study, and speaking on this subject for many years, my conclusion on the use of these types of weapons is that it is not a question of if, but when.

 

While this may come as a surprise to some, what I will attempt to do today is simply share just a few of many passages in the Bible which I believe will shed some light on what the future holds.  The first question that I had when I started my study was simply how in the world would a prophet from the Old Testament describe the weaponry and technology from the twenty first century?  The truth is, he could only describe what he saw based on what he knew from the times he was living in.  If you keep that in mind, much of what we read can begin to make sense when applied to our current situation.

 

A perfect example of this is the passage above from the prophet Jeremiah.  Here we find a prophecy of the end times when Babylon will be judged and Israel restored.  The tools God uses to judge Babylon consist of an “assembly of great nations from the north”.  Since the setting is the end times, it seems logical we can assume Russia might be a large part of this alliance.  What is interesting here though, is that we are given a strange description of the weapons used rather than the men who use them. The following is an excerpt from some notes I have from Chuck Missler teaching on this passage many years ago.

 

“Smart weapons” are implied in Jeremiah 50:9, where: … their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.   The word “arrow” is chets, which can mean a dart, arrow, or javelin; or, “any missile fired from an engine of war.” In the Septuagint, the Greek boli.j can mean anything thrown: a missile, such as an arrow or javelin. Notice, however, that the adjective clause “as of a mighty expert man” is a descriptor of the arrow, not the shooter of the arrow. The key Hebrew word is  sakal, which means prudent, wise, circumspect; with insight and comprehension. It is the arrow itself that has the intelligence! This, indeed, is further emphasized in the final clause: “...none shall return in vain.” They can’t miss! Sounds like “smart weapons”-guided missiles or smart bombs. And this was written over two thousand years ago!

 

While this description of the delivery method is certainly intriguing, our question today is about the payload and if it could possibly be nuclear.  An interesting passage whose meaning has been debated for years is found in the book of Ezekiel and his prophecy of the coming conflict with the nation of Israel. Many believe, and I tend to agree, that what Ezekiel is trying to convey is a nuclear exchange between Magog and an unnamed country.

 

“And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.“   Ezekiel 39:6 NKJV

 

The term “send fire” in the Hebrew is “shaw-lakh’ aysh” and is used to describe judgment, and in the context of this verse it obviously comes from God.  Yet the first interesting thing about this passage is that it makes clear that the fire falls on two nations, not just Magog.  The debate has, for the most part, always surrounded the possible identification of the unnamed country being the United States considering that this conflict occurs in the end times, and that by using the term coastlands Ezekiel is describing a country unknown at that time and located at the farthest reaches of the world.

 

The most interesting part of this passage, however, comes next.

 

“It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog. “For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. “Indeed all the people of the land will be burying, and they will gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified,” says the Lord GOD. “They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. “The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog.”   Ezekiel 39:12-15  NKJV

 

I probably am not alone in thinking this may be one of the strangest passages in scripture.  I often wonder if Ezekiel also thought these words didn’t make a lot of sense to him when he wrote them, trying to describe something he couldn’t possibly understand.  Look carefully with me as I try to explain what I believe we are being told here.  The first, and most important fact to consider, is that these events have yet to take place.  That means we must think in terms of the world’s current technology to understand what is being described.  “Fire” falls on Magog and his allies as they attempt to invade the nation of Israel.  In verse 4 of chapter 39 Ezekiel tells us that “all” of the troops will fall implying none will survive the fire that falls, which obviously makes one wonder exactly what is this fire?

 

The next clue is the statement that the dead will be given their own special burial place rather than being buried where they fell.  This place will be so large as to “obstruct travelers” implying a detour around the valley.  It will take seven months just to gather the dead and bury them in this valley but even more interesting is what comes after.  Israel will employ a special force of men whose job is solely to search for remains.  Even stranger is the fact that when they find bones or remains they do not touch them but set a marker by them so that other specialized “buriers” can collect and bury them.

 

Many believe what Ezekiel is trying to describe here is the cleanup in the aftermath of a nuclear weapon being used on the battlefield.  While some might disagree, I think it is more than just coincidence that the procedures Ezekiel describes here are almost identical to the standard operation of collection and disposal of nuclear or biological contaminated remains on the battlefield as laid out by the US Army in their Operator’s Manual for Marking Set Contamination: Nuclear, Biological, Chemical (NBC).

 

Still not convinced?  Consider then another prophecy given by another Old Testament prophet, Zechariah, and ask yourself just what he may be trying to describe.

 

“And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.”   Zechariah 14:12  NKJV

 

What must Zechariah thought when God gave him this vision and told him to write what he saw.  What possible explanation could he have had for watching people die in this manner?  The Hebrew word translated dissolve here is “maqaq” which literally means to melt.  In other words, Zechariah watched people melt away and dissolve while standing on their own two feet.  Again, considering that this prophecy is yet future, I can only come up with one possible explanation for what could cause this to happen. 

 

Returning to our question of does the Bible predict the use of nuclear weapons, I believe there is really no other explanation for the passages we looked at today.  One more thing to consider is this passage from Matthew where Jesus is talking to the disciples about the tribulation.

 

“And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”   Matthew 24:22  NKJV

 

Most scholars agree that what Jesus is referring to is that unless the tribulation was “shortened” to seven years, mankind would eventually kill itself off.  That scenario is not too farfetched if one considers the number of nuclear weapons which exist today and what the effect would be if enough of them were used.  Is it really possible nuclear weapons will be used at some future point in time?  My conclusion is not if, but when.

If you have never taken the step of making a decision to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and allow His forgiveness and sacrifice to grant you eternal life in Heaven with Him and to deliver you from this time that is coming I encourage you to do it today.  All you need to do is ask Him for forgiveness, believe that His Son Jesus Christ died for your sins, and invite Him to come into your life.  The result will be that you will join the rest of Christ’s bride, the Church, when Jesus returns in the air to take us home.

Keep watching.