eBible Fellowship

Hello and welcome. May I ask you a question? As you have been hearing about May 21, 2011 being the date of the Rapture and October 21, 2011 being the end of the world, and as you have heard the information from the Bible that does conclusively point to these dates, and as you have you have studied this information and heard teaching about the approaching end of the world and what this means for true believers in relation to the Lord Jesus coming to fulfill His promise that the Word of God has made since the very beginning, how do you feel about this?

Throughout the Bible, God has promised that there would come a time when “the land” would be inhabited eternally. He was not speaking of the land of Israel. God pointed to that land and spoke of the land of Canaan as an eternal habitation, but that is not what He had in mind. What He had in mind was what the land of Canaan spiritually pointed to, which was the new heavens and the new earth.

The Lord has made it abundantly clear, again and again in the Bible, that this world will have an end and that God will make a final end of the rebellion of mankind, the unsaved of the world. He will “finish the transgression” and He will completely destroy the unsaved, the ones that the Lord Jesus never died for. They will have an end. Again and again, the Bible has referred to this in its various books and in its various chapters.

We are now finally at the point when “all things which are written may be fulfilled” in relation to this world and to the promises of God in the Bible. All that God has spoken will soon come to pass; and, of course, it must. The Bible is the Word of God and His Word is faithful and true; therefore, it must be fulfilled perfectly and without fail.

So as you have heard the information about May 21, 2011, may I ask how you have felt? What do I mean by this? When you are hearing that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming, how have you reacted in your self, not outwardly, but in your mind, in your heart? Are you encouraged? Are you excited? Are you joyful? Are you happy? Are you comforted by this information? Or are you troubled in mind? Are you disturbed? Are you agitated? Are you fearful, which could be a good reaction if you are not saved.

You see, it is important how we are responding to this news. When the Lord Jesus came the first time as the Messiah, when He entered into the human race after 11,000 years of history, as well as throughout the history of the nation of Israel, the cry of the people of God at that time, the Jews, was a longing for the Messiah to come, at least this is what they would profess outwardly. This is what they would say if you would ask them, “Do you want the Messiah to come?” Their response would have most likely been, “Oh, of course I long for the day that the Messiah will come!” Even the people at the time when Christ did come would have given an answer similar to this. They were good Jews. They knew that the Bible promised that a Christ would come, that the great Prophet that Moses spoke of would come and that He would be the Saviour.

Let us look again at the time when the wise men came from the east with the information that they were following His star. They came to Jerusalem and “Herod…was troubled” when he heard of the information that these wise men were bringing. He should have been troubled. He was a very wicked and evil man, and so we would expect him to be troubled. But we also read, “and all Jerusalem with him.” The Jewish leaders were also troubled by this news. They knew exactly what the wise men were referring to because Herod later asked them “where Christ should be born” and they told him “in Bethlehem.”

Bethlehem was the prophecy that was written about concerning where the Messiah would be born. They knew this and yet their response and their reaction was not one of great joy as the angels had or as the shepherds had or as God’s true people would have. Their reaction was one of being troubled of mind and troubled of spirit.

This continued, of course. Later in Jesus’ ministry, there was not a glad reception of the Messiah but one of agitation and of hatred of Christ, of God Himself. As He dwelt among His own people, they did not rejoice that He had come.

This is why this is such an important question. Each one of us should ask ourselves this question. What is my response to the news that the Lord Jesus is coming again in fulfillment of His promise that He would come? He is coming for His people, His elect. How do I feel about this?

Our response should be, “Could it be, O Lord, that I would rejoice in heart, that I would just be so happy to think that, finally, all of Your prophecy is coming to fulfillment! What a joyful future there is for the child of God as You create a new heavens and a new earth where there will be no more tears, nor sorrow, nor death!” And we can see why the believer would rejoice, as we read what God tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.