In constantly thinking on and writing about Bible prophecy, one can lose sensitivity to the reality that people –even the saved– often view such matters as gloomy at best and terrifying at worst. Maybe “lose” is the wrong word. We who believe we are given the assignment by our Lord to write on these topics perhaps “misplace” sensitivity to the fact that things are gloomy or terrifying to people rather than “lose” that understanding. We easily forget believers need to be uplifted, not terrified. And there is a way in presenting Bible prophecy to accomplish the former rather than the latter.
In speaking not long ago to a good number of people, I was nudged in my spirit to begin by trying to make it clear that while I was there to talk about things involved in Bible prophecy, the ultimate outcome of all the end-times things we see going on only point to the glory that is to come.
Paul, the great apostle and writer of much of the New Testament, for example, wrote:
“Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the mind the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.”
We are told that there is a “crown of righteousness” for those who love Christ’s appearing. Jesus Himself told us through the Apostle John that He –Jesus—will keep us from the time of the great trouble that is coming (Revelation 3:10). Now, all that encapsulates a glorious prospect, not gloom and doom!
I was told recently that my friend Dr. Ed Hindson, one of the greatest Bible prophecy teachers of our time, in his last moments of life, opened his eyes and exclaimed something like: “I had no idea it was so glorious!”
I can relate perhaps only slightly to Dr. Hindson’s reported last-moments vision of Heaven but certainly agree from firsthand experience. Many know of my dying clinically on Good Friday of 2011, April 22. What I saw was indeed glorious. (I don’t apologize here for overusing the term “glorious.” One can’t overuse the term because there is none more appropriate to convey Heaven’s…well…glory!) I was, it has become apparent, “sent back” to tell exactly that truth to all who will listen. I cannot help but do so. Going to that place of glory was and remains something that comes to my mind at moments, particularly when things look to be gloomy, prophetically speaking. The trip to that sphere on three occasions of my heart stopping was truly glorious, and it was instantaneous upon each heart stoppage.
My thoughts on recalling those heavenly visits always go back to Paul telling us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. There isn’t even a twinkling of an eye of time between the last heartbeat and bursting onto that glorious scene –not one fraction of a second.
Steven, the first Christian martyr, as he was being stoned, saw the Lord Jesus Christ Himself standing from the right hand of God’s throne to welcome Steven into glory. I am certain that, had God intended to keep me on that Good Friday, I would have been instantaneously in His holy presence. This will be the indescribably glorious reception each believer will experience when the final heartbeat instantaneously transfers us from this fallen sphere into the presence of the eternal magnificence our God has prepared for us.
Jesus said the following.
“Let not your heart be troubled. Behold, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again, and will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3).
The glorious dwelling place Jesus has prepared for you and me is beyond comprehension, as Paul has assured. We can get but an inkling of that stupendous vista that will burst in our super-enhanced eyesight. Being blind for more than 30 years now, I’m particularly looking forward with great expectation and anticipation to that scene, whether experiencing it through the instantaneous portal of death or the even swifter entry into that heavenly presence in the Rapture.
Like the song lyrics of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” express: “The things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
The Lord is not willing for anyone to perish; He wants all to come to repentance. This desire to bring the lost to Christ should be in the deepest reaches of our own spirits. That’s why we must always carry out the Lord’s Great Commission to all who are lost in sin.
“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:18-20).
The future is glorious for all who put their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. Here is how to become part of God’s eternal, heavenly family. Let us who are in that family point the unsaved in the direction of the heavenly gates with Scripture like the following.
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).