A reader recently e-mailed me Hal Lindsey’s quote, “The coming of the Lord is at hand” (James 5:8).

This great prophecy teacher pointed out that “at hand” does not mean that the Rapture would happen in the next few years (although it could have).

“At hand” means the Rapture will happen at any time and without warning.

“At hand” is an admonition for everyone in every generation to be ready to go at any moment, all the time.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about this issue.

God told Adam if he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die in that day (Gen. 2:17).

Adam ate the fruit, but he did not die within 24 hours; he died when he was 930 years old (Gen.5:5).

1,000 years in man’s eyes are like one day to God (Psa. 90:4; II Pet. 3:8).

Some Christians believe that “last days” sometimes refers to days 5, 6 and 7 of a 7,000 year cycle (two 1,000-year God-days called the Church Age and one 1,000-year God-day called the Millennium (Heb. 1:1-2; I Pet. 1:20; James 5:3; II Pet. 3:3).

The first 4 God-days (4,000 years; equivalent to our Sun., Mon., Tue. and Wed.) ran from Adam to the first coming of Jesus.

The last 3 God-days (last 3,000 years; 2 days of Church Age and 1 day of rest called the Millennium; equivalent to our Thur., Fri. and Sat.) run from the first coming of Jesus to the end of the millennium.

Don’t forget that Peter called the beginning of the Church on Pentecost the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy of the last days (Acts 2:16-18).

Days 5 and 6 (two 1,000-year God-days) began when the Holy Spirit was “poured out” on Pentecost (Acts 2:17), and they will end when the Holy Spirit is “taken out” of the way at the Rapture of the Church (II Thess. 2:7).

It is debatable, but according to Catholic tradition, Jesus was crucified and the Church began in 30 A.D. (others say 30-33 A.D.).

Now, take note of the fact that the UN goal of a world government by 2030 is exactly 2,000 years or two God-days from the possible beginning of the Church.

Below are more reasons to believe that the Church could be in the last hours of the Church Age (last hours of the last days on God’s clock).

One, concerning tracking everyone, a new bill called the “Covid-19 Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone (TRACE) Act has passed and been signed.

TRACE originated in the House of Representatives and, for some strange reason, it is numbered H.R. 6666.

H.R. 6666 appropriates $100 billion to trace and monitor people that have come in contact with someone that has (or has had) the Coronavirus, plus it hints at more money for future use (monitoring that could extend into the Tribulation Period).

Monitoring includes mobile testing stations; visiting people in their homes, if necessary; requiring (forcing) people to be tested for the Coronavirus; and “other purposes” (a phrase with ominous overtones).

This is more evidence that the Mark of the Beast prophecy is literal, and the Tribulation Period could be close.

Two, in mid-May 2020, the Mayor of Los Angeles, Cal., said he intends to send city employees and volunteers to visit defiant businesses that are open and urge them to voluntarily close.

People that refuse to voluntarily close will have their water and electricity shut off (city will not sell, and businesses will not be allowed to buy water and electricity).

FYI: For more details on these first two items, listen to the message by J.D. Farag at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPvghpK3oxk

Three, on May 12, 2020, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci, was addressing a U.S. Senate Committee about the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus when he said he is cautiously optimistic, but “There’s no guarantee that the vaccine is actually going to be effective.”

Pray that an effective vaccine will be found but know that man cannot do anything without God’s permission, and make sure you are saved in case He does not grant it.

Four, on May 11, 2020, Israel announced that Israel’s Health Ministry will immediately start offering voluntary blood tests at existing clinics.

Israel’s health officials believe some people may have been exposed to the virus and developed an immunity to it.

These officials plan to test 100,000 volunteers for antibodies that show an immunity.

If some people are immune to the virus, they do not need to be vaccinated or quarantined; they can go back to work, travel, etc.

If this is true, a law requiring everyone on earth to be vaccinated and tattooed may be unnecessary.

Five, on May 15, 2020, Executives at Sorrento Therapeutics in California said they have discovered a Coronavirus antibody that has been 100% effective in lab tests.

They said the antibody will protect healthy cells from the virus and get rid of it in 4 days.

Six, concerning world religion and his departing from the faith, on May 10, 2020, possible (emphasis on possible) False Prophet, Pope Francis said, “I believe that should he (Trump) be re-elected, God will abandon all of his blessings upon America, and may see fit to raze it down, as Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Pope Francis should know that the problem in Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality, not people like Trump (Gen. 19:1-28).

Pope Francis has departed from the traditional Roman Catholic teaching (and the teaching of Pope Benedict) that homosexuality is unchristian.

Concerning America’s future, Anne Graham Lotz (Billy Graham’s daughter) said it well, “For years we’ve (American’s have) been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the Gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”

Seven, on May 14, 2020, U.S. Sec. of State Mike Pompeo was in Israel to: 1) try to advance Pres. Trump’s Peace to Prosperity proposal, and 2) to discuss the Israeli annexation of parts of Judea and Samaria.

These two issues relate to prophecies that must happen after the Rapture.

The Antichrist must confirm a covenant of peace before the Tribulation Period can begin (Dan. 9:27; there could be swift movement after the rapture of the Church, plus many Arabs are beginning to move away from the Palestinians and toward Israel).
The Palestinians want all Jews out of Judea and Samaria, but Jesus revealed that there will be a Temple, and Jews living in Judea at the middle of the Tribulation Period (Matt. 24:15-16).

In exchange for Israel’s written assurance that Israel will make an honest effort to negotiate a final peace treaty with the Palestinians, the U.S. is ready to recognize Israel’s annexation of about 30% of Judea and Samaria (There has been some wavering in Israel because of threats from the UN, EU, Palestinians, Jordan and others, but at this time it looks like Israel plans to vote on it around July l, 2020).

Advancing Trump’s peace proposal and annexing 30% of Judea and Samaria does not mean that the Tribulation Period is close (the Ten Kings haven’t appeared, Elijah hasn’t appeared, etc.), but it seems evident that the Tribulation Period is shaping up, and dividing Israel has ominous implications for the Battle of Armageddon (Joel 3:2).

Prime Min. Netanyahu said, “I think that this (Israel’s new government) is an opportunity to promote peace and security (peace and safety), based on the understandings that I reached with President Trump (during) my last visit in Washington in January.”

The promotion of peace and safety is a major sign that the Tribulation Period could be close (I Thess. 5:3), and Trump’s peace proposal is like fuel on a fire.

The creation of a map by Israel and the U.S. that will divide the Promised Land (if agreed to) and set aside 70% of Judea and Samaria for a potential Palestinian State, the freezing of Israeli construction on 70% of Judea and Samaria for four years, and the abandonment of 10,000 Jews to Palestinian control transgress the warnings of God.

Finally, there is always hope for every individual and nation.

God is all-powerful, God can destroy, God can deliver, and God offers hope to individuals and nations that do not know Him or that have abandoned Him (Jer. 1:10; II Chron. 7:14).

But the Bible is very clear that truly accepting Jesus as one’s Lord and Saviour is the only way to be saved (John 14:6; Acts 4:12), and the Rapture is the only hope of the terminal generation (Titus 2:13).

Be sure that you are trusting in Jesus and nothing else, draw close to Him, repent of your sins, and no matter what happens you will come out on top (Joel 2:11-13).

Because the Rapture is at hand, the time to act is now.

Prophecy Plus Ministries, Inc.
Daymond & Rachel Duck
duck_daymond@yahoo.com

Philippians 4:7, “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Do you get troubled sometimes? A little worry here and there? A drop of stress when things aren’t going your way? Ya, it happens to all of us at one time or another.

When we get distracted from our focus on Christ, we lose the solace we have in Him. There is no room in our minds for both stress and peace; and no matter how hard we try to do so, there is no way we can be at peace and worry at the same moment. It is a conscious decision to let our minds be occupied with stress and worry or to be filled with the peace and assurance of the grace given us through Christ for the forgiveness of sins through His spilled blood for us on the cross.

It can be difficult for some to overcome the stress and worry in life. It’s not impossible though; we can live free and have peace in our hearts and minds through our Lord and Savior, for we know through Him we are saved and adopted into the family of God. It isn’t hard to do this; it just takes a little effort on our part to overcome this spirit of stress and worry in our search of solace in the ways of our Father.

Our Father doesn’t want us to live with stress or worry, but to have freedom in Him. And that freedom is good and gives us peace in Him through Christ. We need not worry about this or that or be concerned about the things we cannot control.

When we come to junctures in our lives and find ourselves falling into anxiety, worry, or stress of something that we really have no control over, the Bible tells us to cast our anxieties to Him (1 Peter 5:7; Phil 4:6). We do this because God cares for us and wants us to rely on Him for peace and resolution, not ourselves or others.

But do we always run to God when we don’t have peace in our hearts? No, we don’t, but we should. Think back to the last time you were stressed out about a situation; where or to whom did you turn to first? Did you turn to God or did you turn to something else like the world or ungodly people? Where you turned to first shows where your trust is. If it wasn’t our Father, then we showed that we don’t trust Him as our first resort, but maybe our last resort.

I’ve done it. I’ve turned to other means than God; and only when they failed did I turn to God as my last choice when, in fact, He should have been my first choice. It took some time and lots of heartache and failures before I learned to put my trust in Him first and only.

There are some who do this but run out of patience with God because He didn’t answer quickly enough, was silent, or they didn’t like the outcome God gave them and then turned to the world and the ungodly for advice or resolution of their issues. This is bad because then there really wasn’t a trust in God and His ways or His timeline.

The world? The world offers worldly peace that isn’t God-centric but is worldly-centric. The world’s solutions may help or resolve your anxiety and stress, but at what cost? Is it only temporary peace, or is it trading one stress for another one because in the world there is a give and take to what it gives? The world and those of the world don’t and can’t care for you, or take care of you, like our Father can. Their solutions are temporary and are opposed to what our Father can do for us, if we can only trust in Him and His ways for our lives and the directions we need to move forward.

There isn’t a day that goes by when we don’t face a challenge to our peace through our Father. We, as Christians, were never promised a life free from worry and stress or trials and tribulations, but our faith gives us the hope that we can and will be able to overcome them through God to face these events so we can have peace, even during the storms of life.

Sometimes, it feels as if there are storm clouds over our heads or on the horizon, determined to envelop us to bring gloom and doom to our hearts to knock us down in our faith. The storms will come, and they will barrage us with everything they can, but we can stand and get through them with the peace God offers us.

That peace, my friends, is that regardless of what occurs or what is coming our way, we can trust that our Father, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Alpha and Omega, will stand with us, will be at our side, and will provide shelter for us during these storms of life.

Stressful things happen in our life that are hard and test our faith. Nothing happens to us that God does not know about nor is outside of His will for our lives. Pain and suffering, anxiety and worry, they will come to us. Death in the family, lost jobs, financial hardships, etc., are all part of this thing we call life. Some will have more difficult hardships than others, but it is what we do with those challenges and hardships that is important to our Father.

Our Father wants us to turn to Him. Not as a last resort, but as our first reaction. To do otherwise is a disservice to God. God is not a god of last resorts. He is the first Person to turn to. Why would our God, who gave us and sacrificed for us His only Son for our sake, later abandon us to the wayside when we face trials and tribulations? He won’t.

I don’t know what situations are out there, and you may say, “But John, you don’t know what I facing, you don’t understand.” You are right; I don’t and others might not as well, but what I do know is that God is the Great I AM. He is a God of love and justice and grace. He will not abandon His children. He will not turn His back to those that love Him. He is for us and not against us.

Romans 15:13 says, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”

We must believe that God, the God of hope and our solace, will give us a peaceful heart when we believe that He is for us and is in the middle of a crisis, or worry, and of stress, to help us through them. Even those times when it seems like He is silent or distant, He is there and is with us.

To have this peace of God in our hearts, we need to constantly do two things: read the Word and pray; and by doing so, He will be manifested through those two things. We shouldn’t be praying and reading the Word only when we are facing something; we need to do so at all other times.

Prayer and study of the Word should not be a reactive exercise of our faith, but we need to do so to be proactive in our faith; so when troubles and worries come, we have the means to address them because we will know what the Bible says, and we will have a strengthened relationship with God. Study and prayer will not make God distant in our lives, but they will increase our trust in Him that whatever happens to us is for the sake of our good and is in line with His will for us. We can have solace in knowing this.

Johnflysaught@gmail.com

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At Hand :: By Daymond Duck