Chris,
While I agree with Mike when he reaffirms that no man can know the hour or day . . . and that means we should not be setting dates, let's look at Jesus's words in context of Matthew 24.
He does clearly give people signs to be aware of so while we should always be vigilant as if it could happen before we get through reading this e-mail and not set our minds to setting dates, Jesus clearly wants people to be aware of signs that point to His Return or He wouldn't have pointed them out and told us to be mindful of them.
Time is running out. It has been running out since the beginning time and we know for sure, that if He doesn't return tonight, tomorrow we'll be one day closer. The Lord gave us these signs, not for us to try and make predictions, rather because as we begin to see them, we can remain confident in His promise. So the warnings are meant to comfort us.
- We read The Book (the Bible).
- We know how it ends.
- We can stand firm in our faith.
There is nothing wrong with looking at events unfolding and seeing God's Word being fulfilled but not at the expense of living God's Word. We must also be leery of getting caught up in winds of doctrine that totally misinterpret the meaning of liturgical books like Revelation and Hebrews or taking some of St. Paul's texts out of context and coming up with doctrines about the rapture happening seven (7) years before the Second Coming.
Certainly people throughout the centuries have tried to read things into their current events and connect them to the Lord's Return. Today we see signs of persecution like never before. The world is corrupt . . . that's happened before. Of course now we have the ability to wipe out the population of the entire world. We have never been able to do that before. Things seem to be accelerating. Advances in technology, which could and should be used for good are, often times, being twisted and used for evil and the evil is called good. However we must also realize that 5,000 years from now people may be saying the same thing.
Jesus did say, we should observe the signs of the times, much like we observe the change of the seasons so that means be ever vigilant.
- Live your life as if you'll meet Him today.
- Preach the Gospel with urgency but don't get obsessed with setting dates and trying impose scriptural interpretations on every current event.
John
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