What Are You Waiting For? :: By Jonathan Brentner

What kept New Testament saints on the edge of their seats? What did they yearn for with excited anticipation?

Paul gives us the answer in Philippians 3:20-21:

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (NKJV, my emphasis).

They longed for Jesus’ appearing.

The phrase “eagerly wait” accurately translates the Greek word Paul used in verse 20, apekdechomai. New Testament writers would strengthen the meaning of a word by adding a preposition to it. With apekdechomai, the apostle added two prepositions to the word meaning “to welcome,” resulting in our English phrase signifying great excitement for what lies ahead, that of Jesus’ appearing and our receipt of glorified bodies.

Our typical experiences with waiting are anything but enjoyable. Many years ago, I waited over an hour at my doctor’s office before a nurse led me back to an examination room, where another sixty minutes passed before he walked in the door. By then, the magazines in the office had long lost their appeal.

There’s something radically different, however, about waiting for the Lord’s return to take us home. It benefits us in several ways. Our eager anticipation of . . .

Jesus’ Appearing Comforts Us

We are not waiting for a medical or dentist appointment, but rather Jesus’ appearing and the radical transforming of our “lowly” bodies to be like His “glorious body.” Paul also wrote about this glorious change in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53:

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”

Our expectation is not only that of meeting Jesus in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17) but also that of a resurrection body, one that will be a huge upgrade from our weak “flesh and blood” bodies. No matter what we experience in our current aging and disease-prone bodies, we know it’s temporary. And nothing, not even death, can change the fact that when Jesus appears, He will give us immortal bodies.

This amazing hope far exceeds any earthly expectation. This short life is not all we have; there’s a better day on the horizon that’s far superior to even the rosiest of futures here below. Regardless of what we face today, there’s amazing comfort in knowing that Jesus is coming to take us home to glory (Colossians 3:4). Such an amazing expectation comforts us as we endure difficult days waiting to meet our Savior in the air.

Jesus’ Appearing Assures Us of a Joyous Eternity

In Romans 8:23-25, Paul uses apekdechomai two more times:

“Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance” (Romans 8:24-25, NKJV, my emphasis).

The phrase, “redemption of our body,” is the same transforming of “our lowly body” that Paul wrote about in Philippians 3:20-21. Both texts refer to what we will experience at Jesus’ appearing.

The Rapture is not a tertiary aspect of the Gospel, as many claim. If this were the case, why would Paul write that “we were saved in this hope,” a clear reference to what happens at the time of the Rapture. Through the apostle, the Holy Spirit added more specifics about the “eternal life” that Jesus repeatedly promised to all who would believe in Him (e.g., John 3:16). Jesus’ appearing to take us home is not an add-on to the Gospel; it’s a vital aspect of it.

The use of apekdechomai in other contexts related to Jesus’ return (1 Corinthians 1:7; Galatians 5:5; and Hebrews 9:28) indicates that it may have become a distinguishing behavior of these early saints as those who “eagerly awaited” His appearing.

The pre-Tribulation Rapture is so much more than just something we believe; it’s the heartbeat of our hope. We endure challenging times and resist fretting over current events because we know things are going to change. Someday, Jesus will dramatically intervene in our world, and nothing will be the same for us, as it will mark the beginning of a joyous eternity beyond our fondest aspirations.

Jesus’ Appearing Assures Us of Deliverance from the Day of the Lord

The New Testament excited anticipation of Jesus’ imminent appearing confirms the biblically sound teaching of the pre-Tribulation Rapture. It makes sense that behind the New Testament excited anticipation of the Lord’s return was the certainty that He would come for His own before initiating the series of deadly judgments recorded for us in Revelation chapters 6-18 or in the Old Testament references to the Day of the Lord.

After reminding the Thessalonians of the sudden destruction that will mark the start of this coming period of great wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3), Paul assures all believers of their deliverance before this horrific day begins:

“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11).

As believers, we are “not destined” to endure the judgments that lie ahead for the world but rather the “salvation” or deliverance that will happen when Jesus removes us from this world (see 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The main topic of 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 is the Rapture. Our expectation is not that of great suffering and death during the Tribulation period but rather that of meeting Jesus in the air.

Paul expressed the possibility that he would be alive at the time of Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 15:52), which the saints of his day caught from his example. Their death doesn’t negate the hope that we might be the ones who will experience the Rapture before we die. The myriad of signs pointing to the nearing Tribulation period tell us it’s a distinct possibility for us today.

The eager anticipation of New Testament saints was not that of death or the experience of the Lord’s wrath but rather that of meeting Jesus in the air. Even though it didn’t occur in their lifetime, this hope comforted them in suffering, assured them of a joyous eternity, and relieved them of fear that they might endure the Day of the Lord. As Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:8, Jesus will reward those who love “his appearing” even if they don’t experience it in their lifetime.

What are you waiting for? Are you watching for Jesus’ appearing with eager anticipation? If so, you’re in good company with the early believers.

If you have not yet put your trust in Jesus as your Savior, the question remains the same, “What are you waiting for?” If you would like to know how this joyous anticipation of eternity can be yours, please see my post, Jesus Is the Only Path to Eternal Life. There, I explain how you can know that you have everlasting life and that when Jesus appears, He will transform you in a way that exceeds your wildest expectations.

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My book, The Triumph of the Redeemed-An eternal Perspective that Calms Our Fears in Perilous Times, is available on Amazon. In it, I lay a firm biblical foundation for our hope in Jesus’ soon appearing to take us home. Please consider purchasing it.

Note: Please consider signing up for my newsletter on the home page of my website at https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/. It will greatly help me in reaching more people. Thanks!

 

Update: Signs of the Times March 2025 :: By Ron Ferguson

WHY DO WE BOTHER WITH THE AFFAIRS OF THE WORLD?

It is not beneficial to be weighed down by the bad things in the world, and some get depressed by such things. Like most aspects of life, we need to be balanced and sober.  It is very possible for Christians to be unhinged, and then thinking gets distorted.  It is a danger we must avoid.  Note these verses –

1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 “So then let us not sleep as others do, but LET US BE ALERT AND SOBER for those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night, but since we are of the day, LET US BE SOBER, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.”

However, Jesus upbraided some in His time for being asleep, inattentive, and not alert.  They knew all about this and that but were ignorant when it came to the signs of the times when they should have been paying attention.  Matthew 16:2-3 “But He answered and said to them, ‘When it is evening you say, “It will be fair weather for the sky is red,” and in the morning, “There will be a storm today for the sky is red and threatening.”  DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DISCERN THE APPEARANCE OF THE SKY BUT CANNOT DISCERN THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES?”

I make no excuse for examining what is happening on the world scene when it has significance for Christians and for the fulfillment of prophecy.  The fulfillment of prophecy includes the things not yet fulfilled but which are falling into place.  I wish to draw attention to some of that.  Others might do it better, but we all see it from different perspectives.

THE HUGE SIGNIFICANCE OF J.D. VANCE’S SPEECH IN EUROPE

United States Vice-President J.D. Vance spoke during the 61st Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on 14th February 2025.  It is one of the best speeches I have heard in a long while, and there are a couple of things I want to draw attention to.  Those who know their Bibles will know that in the last days of this Church, age before the Lord comes to rapture His Church, difficult times will come (“perilous times” AV).  Christians will face more and more rejection and persecution.  If you don’t know this passage, check it out – 2 Timothy 3.

I have a series of quotes direct from Vance’s speech:

[A].  DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS

Quote: “Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defense of democracy, but when we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard.  And I say “ourselves” because I fundamentally believe that we are on the same team.  We must do more than talk about democratic values.  We must live them.

Christians believe in democratic freedoms and values, as many of those were anchored in the Christian teaching in the Bible, but these are fast becoming eroded in our Western societies, and only in our lifetimes at that.  It is particularly pertinent that the loss of freedoms is applying more so to Christian expression and living.  Wickedness is wanting to cancel out Christian expression.  Vance touched on those, but we continue.

[B].  HATEFUL CONTENT

Quote:  “I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they’ve judged to be, quote, “hateful content.”  Or to this very country, where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of, quote, “combating misogyny on the internet, a day of action.”

This “hateful content” reason/excuse is leveled at Christians for their positions on a number of things, so they are silenced.  I see it in the matter of homosexuality, abortion, the right to express the gospel in public, and so much more.  These “anti-feminist” contents include opposition to the biblical fact that a woman can only ever be a woman and not some distorted mess of genders.

[C].  RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.  This next quote is longer.

Quote: “I look to Sweden, where, two weeks ago, the government convicted a Christian activist for participating in Quran burnings that resulted in his friend’s murder. And as the judge in his case chillingly noted, Sweden’s laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, grant – and I’m quoting – “a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.”

However, that does not seem to apply when Christians are attacked or offended.

The university close to me has, in its driveway entrance, a speed hump, and on either side of that speed hump, right across the road, is painted all the colors of the rainbow relating to homosexuality.  It is painted brightly, and I find it very offensive that I have to pass over that each time I use that entrance.  I find it offensive, but I don’t count because I am a Christian.  That is the James Cook University.  These are days of so-called “inclusivity/inclusion,” and that means including everyone (except Christians, of course, because they don’t count).

J D VANCE CONTINUES:

“And perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.

“A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes—not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own.

“And after British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam replied, simply, it was on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years before.

“Now, the officers were not moved.  Adam was found guilty of breaking the government’s new “buffer zones” law, which criminalizes silent prayer and other actions that could “influence” a person’s decision within 200 meters of an abortion facility.  He was sentenced to pay thousands of pounds in legal costs to the prosecution.

“Now, I wish I could say that this was a fluke – a one-off, crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person.  But, no, this last October, just a few months ago, the Scottish government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so-called “safe access zones,” warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law.

“Naturally, the government urged readers to report any fellow citizens suspected guilty of thought crime.  In Britain, and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.

Vance is correct.  Some of this is in Australia as well.  In Western societies, Christians and Jews are despised.  The Australian Prime Minister hates both, but what can we expect from a radical Marxist? (communist).  Starmer, Macron, and Trudeau are all tarred with the same brush. “Thought crime” is on their agenda.

What Vance had to say was hard-hitting, and he could say that in public where you and I could not, as we’d be either arrested or face State discrimination.  Scotland has gone really bad against Christians, from reports I have heard verbally, with harassment in churches.  And to think that John Knox delivered the gospel message there in former days.

[D].  VANCE’S REMARKS NOT CONFINED TO EUROPE

Quote: “And in the interest of comity, my friends, but also in the interest of truth, I will admit that sometimes THE LOUDEST VOICES FOR CENSORSHIP have come not from within Europe but FROM WITHIN MY OWN COUNTRY, where the prior administration threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation – misinformation like, for example, the idea that coronavirus had likely leaked from a laboratory in China.  Our own government encouraged private companies to silence people who dared to utter what turned out to be an obvious truth.”

In this censoring, a number of Christian websites were/have been/are shut down or canceled by Google (and YouTube, which Google owns).  We know that in the Tribulation (Christians won’t be here for that), the Tribulation saints who get converted will face enormous troubles through censorship, being reported and dobbed in, and, by their refusing the mark of the beast, will have their very existence threatened.  This repressive and demonic silencing of people is a long-known strategy of the left, the way they operate.  We saw/see it evilly operating in Russia and China.

Satan has raised up many enemies to oppress the people of God.  There were Pharoah, Haman, Roman Emperors, Herod, Stalin – there are multitudes.

[E].  MISINFORMATION” AND DISINFORMATION

Quote:-  “Now, to many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old, entrenched interests hiding behind ugly, Soviet-era words like “misinformation” and “disinformation,” who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion, or, God forbid, vote a different way, or, even worse, win an election.

“You cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring your opponents or putting them in jail -whether that’s the leader of the opposition, a humble Christian praying in her own home, or a journalist trying to report the news.  Nor can you win one by disregarding your basic electorate on questions like who gets to be a part of our shared society.”

I don’t belong to social media, but I understand the opposition to expressed Christian thought and opinion can be very savage. The world hates Christians, and the tolerance of past years has gone, replaced with fanatic hostility.  This also applies to Israel and Jews.

One last quote from J.D. Vance:

“But what German democracy – what no democracy, American, German, or European – will survive is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief are invalid or unworthy of even being considered.  Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters.  There is no room for firewalls.  You either uphold the principle, or you don’t.”

THE GREAT SIGNIFICANCE OF VANCE’S SPEECH

This speech is extremely important in how this world is shaping up.  President Trump has also drawn the lines with Europe, and Europe does not like it.  I will share two quotes with you now that were Europe’s response to Vance’s speech, but there are many.

European Union diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, said that she had the feeling that the United States was trying to pick a fight with us.

German Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius, said that comparison of parts of Europe to authoritarian regimes was not acceptable.

WHY IS THIS FRACTURING OF US/EUROPE RELATIONS SO IMPORTANT?

To answer that, we go to prophecy.  Daniel interpreted a dream Nebuchadnezzar had about a great image, and that represented the 4 great empires of the world.  Here Daniel recounts that dream in part:

Daniel 2:32-35 “The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, ITS FEET PARTLY OF IRON AND PARTLY OF CLAY.  You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.  Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found, but THE STONE THAT STRUCK THE STATUE BECAME A GREAT MOUNTAIN AND FILLED THE WHOLE EARTH.”

The 10 toes of that image represent the 10 nations that will make up the revived Roman Empire of the future, derived from Western Europe.  Revelation 13:1 “He stood on the sand of the seashore, and I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, HAVING TEN HORNS and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.”   There the 10 horns are power, 10 kingdoms/nations.

The legs and feet with the toes represent the 4th Empire, the Roman one.  The others were Babylon (head), Medes/Persians (beast and arms), Greece (belly and thighs).  The Roman Empire did not actually end but absorbed itself into the whole of Western culture in so many ways.  Daniel speaks of the 70 weeks that covers this.  The stone that struck Nebuchadnezzar’s image struck the feet on the image, and that is important.

That stone became a great mountain that filled the earth.  A mountain in prophecy is a kingdom, and this will be Messiah’s millennial kingdom.  It is important to note that the ten toes represent 10 nations in a revived Roman Empire.  Some decades ago, prophecy students expected the European Common Market would be this revived empire, but it wasn’t. But when the number reached 10, they were all excited.  Now the EU has more than 10 members.

This revived Roman Empire will occupy the geographic territory of the old Roman Empire.  Just this last week, there has been talk about some nations uneasy about membership of this current EU.  Poland and Romania, for example.

What President Trump has done is sever the United States from Europe because it does not belong to Europe.  I get irate at people who try to link the USA into Bible prophecy.  It has no part whatsoever in prophecy.  It was not a biblical nation.  It is important that United States’ separation from Europe comes so that Europe fashions itself into 10 nations, which will be the headquarters and power base for Antichrist and the False Prophet (I think with headquarters in Brussels).

For decades, the USA has propped up Europe with so much money going into NATO and support in other ways, and nearly all the European nations sat back saying, “Thank you.  Keep it coming.”  Now Europe must look to its own defense, and already some nations are reducing social services to spend extra on defense.  That, too, is very important.

Europe is dictated to by Brussels.  That is the real powerhouse of Europe, the headquarters.  Belgium is one of the smallest nations in Europe, yet that is where the dictates come from.  The other two powerful influences are France and the UK.  Since the American election, some very nasty things have been said by socialist European leaders against Trump.  Now the penny drops.  They are on their own.  Certain nations in the EU are opposed to a number of its aims, such as wanting to send troops to the Ukraine.

These nations, interestingly enough, are ones like Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Poland.  Strategically enough, these eastern Europeans were never within the borders of the old Roman Empire.

I think the USA is very corrupt.  I don’t mean all the people, more the underlying structure.  Can you believe the crooked role the FBI has been playing in recent years and the actions of some of the Blue State Governors?  It is all on the internet if you want to follow, and the underhand corruption is now coming out.  The investigations by Musk and others are mind-blowing.  Look at Devory, Trish Regan, Rogan, Fox News, Sky News, and many more in podcasts, to learn of some of it.  The corruption being revealed in some Democrat States is monstrous – New York and California as prime examples.

Yet the hand of God in judgment is being withheld at this point, and I believe it will be withheld because of one reason.  The United States has been the best friend and greatest supporter Israel has had (barring the enemy terms of Obama and Biden), and the new administration will be the best supporter ever.  Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse.  In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” will always be true.

Am I correct on all these things?  No, I am not, and as time progresses, we will see things becoming more defined.  We can only examine what we currently see in our time.  Maybe you know something about time!  The significance of time is very significant, and in the passage of time the significance becomes more significant because the passage of time makes the significance more significant to understand time…. Yeah, you understand what I am saying if you followed the elections!!

I greatly try to avoid vain speculation.  I mean things like a third world war and Psalm 83 being prophetic about a war to happen (It is NOT a prophetic Psalm).  The unfolding of events and how they will mold what is to come is, at best, still darkly seen.  I will give an example.

In the 1980s, I began to realize the impact of the account of the two witnesses in Revelation, especially this part – Revelation 11:9 “Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.”  From that, we knew the whole world would see the unfolding of the events in Jerusalem in real-time.  That must have been a real mystery for those a hundred and more years back.

Well, at that time, I said, “It is because of computers.”  There was no other reasonable solution, BUT now we know it is mobile/cell phones that are currently in every part of the world.  (Ask the Hezbollah terrorists about that).  I have seen phones in remote parts of the Pacific islands.

This is a huge subject when looking at signs of the times, and the words written here are just scratching the surface.  God bless you all.

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