What If Jesus Doesn't Come Back Soon?

What If Jesus Doesn’t Come Back Soon?

I was saved April 6, 1975 and from that time until now I have heard that Jesus may be back at any day. At first, I was a bit depressed as I was hoping to be a U.S. Senator back then. I had other goals I wanted to accomplish as well so a soon departure was not the thrill it was meant to be at that time. Now I wish He had come thirty seconds after I was saved. I wouldn’t have had time to serve but then I wouldn’t have had time to fail or sin either.

Some might ask if I have quit looking for His return in my lifetime since I have been waiting nearly thirty-one years. On the contrary, I am now thirty-one years closer so it may well be tomorrow or before I finish this sermon but what if He doesn’t?

Mark 13:31-33

31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

33 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. KJV

Amos 5:18-19

18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. KJV

While I understand that the return of the Lord is an exciting thing, though it will not be as wonderful to the unsaved, we must take great care in date setting and getting people’s hopes up falsely. When Jesus said that no man, angel or even Himself knew that day or hour I am saying that I have an inside track that even Messiah doesn’t have when I start predicting dates. When He said no man knows, no one knows. I’m not calling Him a liar, but you go on if you want to do so. It won’t work out well for you but you have the freewill to do it.

When I was in college, I saw all sorts of newspaper articles saying, “The Christ is now here”. A quick look at Matthew 24 would tell us that the claims were false but it was a good primer on how the False Prophet of Revelation may show up and point to the Antichrist. We had a preacher show up at my church in NC in 1980/1, telling us that due to the alignment of the planets in 1982 the world would be in major upheaval as described in Revelation so Christ would return or rather that Rapture would happen in 1982. He said that if it didn’t happen he would come back and apologize. Well, it didn’t and he didn’t.

Of course, we are all still familiar with the great Y2K disaster that never happened and Christians began preparing for the Rapture because 2000 would be nearly 6,000 years of human history so the Rapture had to happen. That way we could get the Millennium going to get the total of 7,000 years of history in before the new heaven and new earth.

I was called the worst doomsayer of all by one Sister, because I said it wouldn’t happen and that all the preparations were in vain even if it did. After all, if you are a Pre-Tribulation Rapture person, we will all be gone so who needs supplies? If you are Middle or Post-Tribulation you won’t be able to store up enough supplies for 3.5 to 7 years. Even if you managed that, it wouldn’t take long for people and the authorities to see that you are not losing weight or dehydrating. The authorities will bring you in and confiscate your stuff or you will have to start shooting all your neighbors to keep it. Unless you are able to hide in the hills or forests they will be checking for the mark even if you aren’t buying or selling anything. You would lose your head before the Rapture anyway. For the Post-Millennial folks they are just going to be disappointed and confused since the Beast won’t be bringing in the Kingdom for sure. Only the A-millennial people will feel justified for whatever comfort that will give them. I was just going to roll over in that Christian Sister’s eyes and to her that was anathema. She never came back and apologized either when I was proven right.

I do believe that there will be a total of seven-thousand years of human history, but we have a problem with calendars. According to the Hebrew calendar we are in the year 5766 not 2006. If that is correct, then we have 234 years left before the Millennial Kingdom and we could predict the Rapture to take place in 5993 or 2233. Still we could not say it would happen on Sept 30th at 11:38 AM.