Pin It Now! For those who believed that Jesus was returning on 21st of May 2011 and for those who rediculed them and for the rest of us who are sure of His return but know not when, few questions linger: When will Jesus return? Why is He delaying? What about such predictions that go wrong?

My friend Bett answers these questions in such detail that I wish to share it for today's "Coffee"! For those of you who are used to my regular posts this might seem long, but I am sure you would appreciate the post as is, this way it can benefit many...

"…What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

One day, Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives when his disciples approached with this question: "Tell us, when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

His answer was NOT May 21, 2011. In Matthew 24, he characterized the time leading up to his return by saying:

· Many very believable deceivers will claim to be the Messiah
· Wars and rumors of wars
· Famines in many places
· Earthquakes in many places
· Persecution and murder of Christians and Jews alike
· Renunciation of faith
· False prophets (even those who predict the exact date of the Rapture?!)
· Increase in wickedness
· People are cold and loveless
· Gospel has been preached throughout the world
· Israel has come back to life (the parable of the fig tree)

The Apostle Paul, also describes the morality of the last days in II Timothy 3:1-5, "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be":

· lovers of themselves
· lovers of money /covetous
· boastful
· proud
· abusive / blasphemers
· disobedient to their parents
· ungrateful
· unholy
· without natural affection / without love
· trucebreakers / unforgiving,
· false accusers / slanderous,
· without self-control,
· brutal / fierce,
· despisers / haters of those who are good
· treacherous / traitors
· rash / heady / headstrong
· conceited
· lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God
· having a form of godliness but denying its power (claiming to be spiritual but denying the power of the one true God, YehoVah)

Sound familiar?

Can we know when Jesus is returning?

Some believe that there is no way to know when Jesus will return, so why bother looking. After all, doesn’t the Bible say that Jesus will come like a thief in the night? Well, yes and no.

Jesus himself tells us that no one knows the DAY or the HOUR of his return except God the Father. In Matthew 24:36, he said,

"But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left."

However, as we read above, Jesus did tell his disciples about signs leading up to his return. The Old Testament prophets also wrote extensively about these last days. So as Jesus’ modern day disciples, we are not left in darkness. Although we cannot know the day or the hour, we can know the “season” or approximate time of his return based on all the prophetic wisdom that has been shared with us. In his first letter to the church at Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul wrote:

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

Why is the actual time of his return hidden in the mind of God only?

God sometimes conceals His future plans, and with good reason. Whenever Satan is aware of God’s plans, he does his best to thwart them. In Genesis 3, when God tells Eve that her seed will destroy Satan, a series of attacks began on Jesus lineage and life which include but are not limited to the following:

· In Genesis 6, Satan’s angelic followers, the Nephalim, began a program of polluting man’s gene pool by interbreeding with women. Their children were violent, powerful and HUGE. However, Noah and his family were still ‘perfect in their generations’. The purpose of the flood was to pull the plug on man’s gene pool and begin over again with “original genetic stock”.

· When God revealed that the children of Israel would be in Egypt for 400 years, Satan spend that time ‘reseeding’ the land of Canaan with the children of the Nephalim. When Moses sent 10 spies into the land, eight of the spies reported that the land was filled with giants and they felt like grasshoppers next to them. Apparently, the Nephalim were also tinkering with animal and plant genetics as well. A hand of grapes were carried back to the camp of Israel on a pole carried by two men…

· Shortly after Jesus was born, God revealed to Joseph in a dream that he needed to take the family to Egypt to protect them. After they fled, Satan stirred King Herod to kill the Messiah by sending his troops to kill all the children under the age of two.

· The exact date of the entry of King Messiah into the City of Jerusalem was revealed by the prophet Daniel. Satan immediately began to work to ensure that the Jews would never accept Jesus as their King. He polluted Israel’s worship of the Creator based on the Law of Moses with the preeminence of “rabbinical tradition” and the “oral law. He replaced the desire of God’s priests for holiness with pride and a desire for power. When the very priests who were supposed to recognize and teach the season of the Messiah King’s coming, instead turned him over to Rome for execution…Satan probably thought, ‘I’ve finally won’… but then God revealed the resurrection and a ‘mystery’… the Mystery of the Church.

A ‘mystery’ is information that in times past was hidden, but God has chosen to reveal at a later date. God chose to ‘hide’ the fact that His salvation would be made available to the Gentiles and that at the end of the age, all Israel would be redeemed. Had this Divine ‘intelligence’ not been hidden, Satan surely would have had operationalized plans to smother the infant Church before it could get started.

· And why does Satan continued over the last two thousand years to try to annihilate the Children of Israel? (Think Roman expulsion, the Inquisition, the Crusades, various other ‘pograms’, and the Nazi’s Final Solution to name a few more attempts.) Jesus said that he would not return to reign on the throne of David until Israel calls out to him and says, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” So there is another loophole that Satan is trying to exploit. If there is no Israel to call out to their Messiah, then Satan’s rule over the earth continues unimpeded and God’s Plan is thwarted. His next attempt to eliminate Israel will be at the hands of the Antichrist.

So, back to our topic…God has revealed so much about the “season of end times” to us, so why has He hidden the exact day and hour? Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:

“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.

Again, the answer is Satan, the ruler of this age and the “owner of the house”. The exact timing of Jesus coming is hidden from us so that Satan will not be prepared. For two thousand years, he has been on pins and needles wondering… is this the day that begins my demise? And he has had to have one or more antichrist candidates prep-ed to “seize the day”!

We are told to WATCH and to BE READY. As the priests of Israel were to watch for his first coming, we are told to watch and be ready for the moment of his second coming. Let us be found faithful when he comes.

So where does Rapture Day 5/21/2011 fit in?

In the Apostle Peter’s second letter, chapter 3, he tells us about another sign of the last days… scoffing!

“Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”

But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

Once Harold Camping is proven wrong with his date setting (again and again), the doctrine of the Rapture is going to become the subject of scoffing. Those of us who believe this doctrine will be ridiculed and we need to be ready. After all, it will happen, it is a sign of the end times.

Therefore be strong in the faith. Think and pray about having “a word in season” for the scoffer and the curious. We DO NOT KNOW the day or the hour, but we do know the season of his coming. Anyone who has read the prophets and keeps up with the news can tell that WE ARE IN THE SEASON OF HIS RETURN.

The King is coming! This is our blessed hope. And the rapture of the church is certain… the only thing delaying it at this point, is the unsearchable mercy of God. For as Peter has said, “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.“

Be strong in the faith and stand! Our redemption IS drawing near and He is faithful to all his own promises… not to Harold Camping’s promises… he is on his own there.

Let all heaven and earth be filled with YehoVah’s praises. We serve an awesome God! So come Lord Jesus!