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The Oncoming Juggernaut Of Judgment |
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Written by Buddy Sheets
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Monday, 29 September 2008 |
Are we to study the signs of the times?
 A couple of years ago I read in the New York Post about a 23-year-old man was struck by an oncoming subway train. Why? He leaned over the 34th Street Station track to watch for the oncoming train, not comprehending that the train was in fact coming from the other direction! It is sad to report but Subway Train, 1 – Hapless Critically Injured Man, 0.
The New York Subway system is generally safe save for those careless individuals who drop purses and cell phones on tracks and jump in harm's way to retrieve them. A few hundred pounds of flesh and blood standing against a few hundred tons of moving, unfeeling glass and steel will lose out every time. To ride safely you need to observe the signs and be consciously aware of your surroundings. So it is in the Last Days.
With the recent rash of questionable Christian Apocryphal films and books hitting the market – rash here meaning something of an irritant that makes me itch with discomfort – I have met many a saint who wile away their lives wondering who the Antichrist is, arguing exactly what the infamous Mark of the Beast might be, and watching the headlines in Israel to determine exactly where we are on God's prophetic timetable.
Is knowing the signs of the times important? According to Jesus, Yes. Matthew 16:2-3, "He answered and said to them, 'When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times!'"
Yet understanding the signs of the times is no excuse for being paralyzed with fear by them. Much of the body of Christ is like that poor man on the subway track who looked the wrong way down the track for the appearing of his train, and got crushed for his trouble.
The Apostle Paul wrote, in 2Titus 4:8, "Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing." There is reward for those who love Jesus' appearing, when he shall split the sky and return for his own, to judge the nations in righteousness.
The issue of the Last Days is not the hot 'prophetic issues' that sell books and theater tickets, generate conference fees, and are all the buzz on inflammatory conservative radio programs. It is not about sleuthing through the scripture to out-guess God but is instead about those who love "his appearing." We are not to be looking for the rise of the Antichrist, but instead watching for Jesus!
Many times in the New Testament, we are promised that we shall see Jesus appear in the clouds. He shall return as he went. Acts 1:7-10, "And He (Jesus) said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And (while they were looking) steadfastly toward heaven… He went up…"
If we are to obey God in the Last Days, we need to heed this neglected admonition, "It is not for you to know times or seasons," and refocus on the task at hand, namely, "and you shall be witnesses to Me." Those who keep looking down the wrong tracks are going to be pulverized unaware when the end arrives not having a clue as to the real sign of the times. Start living for the appearing of Christ the King with eternal goals and values. To be preoccupied with looking down any other track is an invitation to sure personal disaster.
Matthew 24:30, "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory!"
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