Many are saying that God has gotten our attention by causing or allowing this pandemic to occur. People are quoting II Chronicles 7:14 concerning praying for God to heal our land. Some are even praying for a Great Awakening, an outpouring of the Spirit of God that will turn many away from beliefs and lifestyles that are taking them down paths of eternal damnation.
We look at the world and see an increase of all the things our Lord Jesus Christ told the disciples would be the “beginning of sorrows.” Besides the pandemic, swarms of gazillions of locusts in Africa and the Middle East now threaten the food supply of billions of people. Apocalyptic fires, multiple tornadoes, humongous hurricanes, continual threats of nuclear war, an increase in quantity and intensity of earthquake activity, technological advances such as the microchip which could hold the “mark of the beast” implanted in a person’s body, and a great falling away of people from faith and godly lifestyles—all present proof of the fact that we are living in the latter of the last days spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 24 and other prophetic passages.
If some would doubt that these latter-day prophecies will take place, and would think that the idea of Jesus returning on the clouds is fantasy, they have just never seriously considered the prophecies in the Bible that have already been fulfilled concerning many situations in the Old Testament, and particularly concerning the first coming of Christ and of His death, burial, and resurrection.
Perhaps the most amazing modern-day fulfillment of prophecy is the nation of Israel. God’s Old Testament prophets reported that Israel would be dispersed throughout the world, only to return in these last days to its ancestral geographical locality. On May 14, 1948, Israel became a nation again in the same place it had been 2000 years before! Also, this nation’s survival amid the attacks of the surrounding nations through the years since then has been miraculous, especially the Six-Day War of 1967, when the Jews were able to take control of all the city of Jerusalem, the Zion of God. Some have said, if you want a proof of the Bible being the Word of God, just look at the nation of Israel!
I can’t resist prompting readers to notice the fact that Isaiah 17:1 has not yet been fulfilled. This refers to the complete destruction of the city of Damascus, Syria, probably by nuclear action. Another thing to watch for is the rebuilding of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
While reading a novel based on prophecies being fulfilled in our time period, I was reminded of the beliefs of those adhering to the religion of Islam. Radical believers yearn for the coming of their own redeemer, the Mahdi, or the 12th Imam, who they believe will return to rule the world a number of years before ridding the world of evil. When I looked up “the Mahdi,” the first source I found was a National Review article of 2015 by Joel Rosenberg, entitled “Islamic Extremists Are Trying to Hasten the Coming of the Mahdi.” In this article he explains that both factions of Islam, the Sunni and the Shia, “believe that the Mahdi will come only when the world is engulfed in chaos and carnage.” Therefore, we see their terrorist activity in as many places in the world as they can reach, as they attempt to bring about as much “chaos and carnage” as they can.
That word “hasten” reminded me of the verse in the Bible indicating that we can hasten the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. I looked it up online and found, to my delight, a short article by the beloved Baptist preacher Rev. Adrian Rogers, who was the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1972 until March 2005. (He also served three terms as President of the Southern Baptist Convention.) The verse about which he supplies commentary is 2 Peter 3:11-12, “Therefore…what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?”
Rev. Rogers agreed with Greek scholars “that by our actions the Church can hasten the Day of the Lord.” He explains that the date is not fixed, and that, “We are causing the day to come more quickly today when we fulfill the conditions without which the day of the Lord will not come.” Through our prayers, we can hasten, or cause, the day to come more quickly.
He pointed out that Jesus is the one who admonished us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” meaning, we pray that He would return, bringing in His promised kingdom. Also, in Psalm 122:6 we are told, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” When we do that, we are actually praying for Christ to come, as there will be no peace in Jerusalem without His return to bring it. We are told in several places in the New Testament to “watch and pray.”
As I read in the New Testament epistles, written by Paul, Peter, John, James, and Jude, I see so many verses that indicate that the writers and readers of that first century were expecting Jesus to return, possibly in their lifetimes. Just because He did not, does not mean that He will not come. Instead, it just proves the prophecy of the Bible found in 2 Peter 3:9, which states that people will scoff because it has been so long and he has not returned.
Because of their belief that He could soon return, they said such things as this in Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
Let us heed St. John the Apostle’s admonition, recorded in I John 2:28, “And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” Remember, the angels at His ascension told us Christ would return the same way He went up, on the clouds. Revelation 1:7 states, “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindred of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so. Amen.”
John, this great follower of Jesus, on the Isle of Patmos, was given the great Revelation of things to come, including Christ’s return as King of kings and Lord of lords. In the last chapter, verse 12, the Lord Jesus exclaims, “Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” John closes the Book of Revelation with the last prayer in the Bible: “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” (Revelation 22:20)
Live for Jesus! He’s coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
