Author’s note: The article for this week was first posted Monday, September 20, 2010. My reason for reposting it this week might seem rather unusual–perhaps even odd.
Let me explain.
Upon awakening early the other day, as is my usual way, the first moments of clarity came to me out of nowhere and wouldn’t leave.
The thought was that I had been saved at the age of six. Since I was born in 1942, that made the year I was born again 1948.
The thought wouldn’t leave. I was “born again” the same year–1948—Israel was “reborn” as a nation into modernity.
Somehow, that all congealed into the need to write or find an article I had written on the importance of the rebirth of God’s chosen people, Israel, to the nearness of the Rapture.
Researching my personal article archives led me to the following.
Promise of His Coming
A biblically prophetic reality that perfectly fits our present day, and that has been looked at a number of times, is the warning given by the Apostle Peter, especially to the generation alive at the end of the Church Age:
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation’” (2 Peter 3:3-4).
In almost every case of looking at this prophecy, the point has been exclusively dwelt upon that both the religious and nonreligious of the world mockingly chide those of us who believe Jesus Christ will return to the earth. This prophecy has observably come to pass in our time.
However, it is the phrase “promise of his coming” I would like to consider here.
Like the 2 Peter 3:3-4 prophecy, so many other things developing in these troubling although exciting times testify mightily to the evidence that God absolutely keeps His Word. Scripture promises, for example, that ultimately, no matter how scattered and oppressed the Jewish people have been throughout history, Israel will be a nation forever.
“Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord” (Leviticus 26:44-45).
Israel was restored to the land after centuries of the people being removed from their own land and being persecuted unmercifully in the nations to which they were scattered. They were regathered and established again as a nation in a single day, just as foretold.
“Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. ‘Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth?’ saith the LORD: ‘shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb?’ saith thy God. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her” (Isaiah 66:8-10).
That miracle rebirth took place May 14, 1948, following perhaps the house of Israel’s most horrendous persecution, which it suffered under the Nazis. No other nation has been so torn apart and scattered to the winds of history, then regathered, having its original language restored. The Lord proved He alone is God. His promise to Israel goes into the future for His chosen people:
“’Also I will restore the captivity of my people Israel, and they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit. I will also plant them on their land, and they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them,’ says the Lord your God” (Amos 9:14-15).
Israel’s God is God! There is no other God. He continues to prove who He is through Israel. This, doubtless, is one extremely important reason He chose that people: to demonstrate the absolute veracity of His Holy Word. That same Word—who is the very Person of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:1)—has made a promise of staggering importance to His other chosen people.
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).
His coming again for God’s other chosen people–the Church (every born-again member of Christ’s body during this Age of Grace)—is assured. It is 100 percent certain because He continues to prove His faithfulness through the nation Israel and by keeping every prophetic promise He has made.
Jesus tells us who constitutes His chosen Bride:
“Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Revelation 3:10).
He promises:
“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).
Jesus is coming. It could be the very next moment!
I most heartily recommend this short but powerfully written guide to living the Christian life in this time so near Christ’s Call to the Church.