Matthew 24:36-43 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. 37 "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 "Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 " Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.
42 "Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43 "But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
I may be presumptuous (since I wrote this prior to the end of May 21st) but I do not believe that the rapture of the church has taken place, yet. Now please don’t get me wrong, I know that the rapture will take place, it just has not happened yet. I am not writing this column to draw attention to anyone’s mistake. I am writing this to encourage everyone not to become lax and think that we have plenty of time to get things right with God before His return.
We see in Matthew 24 that only God the Father knows the return of Jesus Christ (Son of Man). But it does give us some insight. It will be as the day of Noah.
We see in Genesis chapter five and six that a hundred years passed from the time God called Noah to build the ark till the flood came. In that time we assume that generation after generation saw the building of this massive ship and became curious as to what its purpose was. I believe that Noah told them time and time again that there was going to be a flood that would destroy everything that was not in the ark. And as time went on and the ark took time to build, people began to ridicule Noah and think that it wasn’t going to happen. We do not know that the first rain drop fell with the final blow of Noah’s hammer either. For all we know the ark could have been completed long before the first rain drop fell which made people doubt Noah’s prophecy. The people kept living as they did before the ark not believing that there was any reason to change and perhaps there were those that thought they should listen and get things right with God but they had plenty of time. Just as God predicted, the flood came and only the ones in the ark were saved.
That is the harm with predicting a specific time for the LORD’s return. People lose faith in the prophecy or they think they have plenty of time. Yes we are given hints as to the time but not the exact time. What would it change for us to know the exact moment that Jesus will return? Would you live differently?
If you would I suggest that you start living differently now. I didn’t know that on Easter Sunday 2011 that I was going to break my shoulder in five places. My point is that no one knows their time on earth. The “Rapture” may not come in our life time or it might, the time is close, but when we pass from this life to the other God’s judgment will be the same. We do not know how much time we have rapture or not.
2 Peter 3:9-10 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
The “Rapture”, end of the earth and the return of Jesus Christ our King will come to be as prophesied at God’s time not ours. I believe that God put it so blunt that no one would know the time so that we would not get caught up in trying to figure it out but to be ready at all times.
If you knew the exact time and date that Jesus would return
and would change anything in your life before His return,
Change it now!
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