Imminency. It tells us we live each day on the edge of eternity. The Rapture might begin at any moment.
However, as the moments become days and then weeks, months, and years, we struggle to maintain our eager anticipation of Jesus’s appearing.
Eternal life resides in Jesus and in Him alone. No one else! This is true now and will also be the case after Jesus removes His true church from the earth.
In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
What do people need the most? The answer remains the same as it’s always been: A clear understanding of the Gospel. By this I mean that people need Jesus, not the one that so many today create in their mind but but the One revealed on the pages of Scripture.
In Philippians 3:20, Paul wrote, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The residents of first century AD Philippi understood the value and meaning of citizenship. As a Roman colony, they enjoyed many of its privileges. The also understood what it meant to be citizens of a faraway city. For us, the words bring needed reassurance of our glorious hope in Jesus’ imminent appearing.
At a time of great discouragement and much heartache in my past, I focused on biblical promises and wrote several pages in my journal of why I still believed despite my awful circumstances. Perhaps it’s time for another declaration of why I still believe that Jesus will come for us before the start if the Tribulation.
A GEICO commercial from last year portrays a spy fleeing from armed men on a roof as well as from a black helicopter approaching him from the air. His phone rings as his adversaries appear ready to capture him or perhaps kill him. Thinking the call is from those coming to rescue him he answers the phone shouting, “Where are you?”
We then see his mom relaxing by a pool as she calmly talks to him about his dad’s battle with squirrels in the attic. As she continues talking to her exasperated son the narrator interjects, “If you’re a mom, you call at the worst time. It’s what you do.”
The New Testament cries out with a similar message echoing the words of the narrator in the GEICO commercial, “As followers of Jesus we live in eager anticipation of his soon appearing. It’s what we do.”
We live in the last days of human history as we know it before the start of the tribulation.
We do not know the day or the hour when Jesus will come for His church or when day God’s fierce wrath will begin. The prophetic signs we see all around us, however, tell us these things are getting ever so close.
I shared this list a couple months ago through my newsletter. As events continue to point toward the soon return of Jesus, I decided to update the list and make it available to more who may be interested. I have also changed the order a bit.