Soon

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely, I am coming soon!’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”  – Revelation 22:20

Just how soon is soon? Are those of us who are living 2100 years after Jesus ascended into a place called “heaven,” likely to see His return before your death or even your grandchildren’s? Many say yes! Others say, according to Scripture, we simply do not know. Jesus says very clearly, “But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

Yet, Jesus also said, “So also, when you see all these things, you know that He is near.” (That is, those things He tells His disciples, and you, in Matthew 24 and elsewhere, though Jesus speaks in this same Chapter of both the events of 70 AD and those events just prior to His coming again. You can delineate the difference in these two by noting those things that have clearly never yet happened.)

One of the things that had to take place before Jesus returns is the restoration of the nation of Israel. This happened in 1948. Another is the covering of the earth with the knowledge of the Gospel “as the waters cover the seas.” The marvels of television and Internet, the electronic earth-saturating dissemination of God’s Word as well as other information, makes this all possible.

The showing of the film “Jesus” in far-flung places all over the globe, in villages, jungle settings, and hard-to reach places is flying under the secular media’s radar. Dreams and other means of evangelism are penetrating the hardened walls of the Muslim world to the Gospel, as thousands upon thousands are finding the Savior.

The increase of natural disasters like tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, et cetera; worldwide pestilences and plagues such as Covid; increasing wars and rumors of wars, terrorism, and massive violence; and finally, the revealing of the “man of sin,” the anti-Christ, all immediately precede the Second Coming.

Anti-Christ has not yet appeared as far as you and I can determine. Once he does “Jesus is right at the door!” We may not know the day or hour, but we can surely know it is quite near.

The nation of Israel is under severe pressure of inundation and destruction. It is extremely unlikely that the situation which predominates in the Middle East today concerning Israel’s continued existence cannot linger for many more years. (20-30-50?)

We cannot know for sure, but I rather doubt that Jesus will tarry for even a hundred years more. I could well be mistaken, but I think He could truly come within my grandchildren’s generation (they range from age 2 to 25).

In light of all this the Apostle Peter asks of you, “Since all these things are [taking place], what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?” Indeed, there is nothing so life impending than to be ready for Jesus’ appearance.

Encouragement

“And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll, the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, even so it is well with my soul.”

(4th verse of Horatio Spafford’s hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul,” 1873)