The now-proverbial “Prophetic Clock” continues to tick, perpetually approaching the upright, but never quite getting there. Perhaps we’re experiencing some sort of time-dilation. One podcast title I saw the other day (clickbait) went beyond the norm and suggested that it’s already “midnight”. Some wag will soon re-label our timepiece, “The Pathetic Clock”.
My title is taken from a parody of many psychedelic and progressive rock creations of the sixties and seventies by such bands as Pink Floyd. In this clever song written by the great Andy Partridge a man declares that the object of his desire – a beautiful woman – will magically and mystically fall into his arms at “twenty-five o’clock”, becoming his eternal lover. The obvious irony is that there is no such time as twenty-five o’clock so the union will never really happen.
I’m not saying I believe Biblical predictions will never come to pass: they will. However, I’ve been studying end-times eschatology for over four decades, and I’ve seen a few twists and turns in explanations and interpretations of Biblical prophecy. I’ve taken a few of those turns myself, including a sharp turn away from my twenty-eight-year conviction that I would be whisked away to heaven in the twinkling of an eye before any Tribulation events could occur.
It always amazes me that the “experts” of end-times events regularly and religiously insist that “the next event on God’s prophetic timeclock” (or “on the prophetic horizon”) is to be the rapture of the Church, yet in the next breath begin to tell us about the latest signs of Christ’s soon-coming. We will not see any Tribulation events, they say, because we will all be taken to heaven first so that nothing bad will happen to us. Comforting talk of the rapture happening before you can blink is followed by thirty minutes of the experts telling us how certain “signs” are being fulfilled this very day and what’s going to happen next week.
However, I do believe that the Scriptures give us legitimate signs to look for, and those who intentionally ignore them or fail to look for them are disobeying Jesus Christ who repeatedly told his followers to “watch”. There’s some disagreement as to what those signs are, partly because the experts speculate so much that they make huge and embarrassing mistakes. Biblical signs are fairly easy to discern with a little diligence: human speculation is shaky and untrustworthy. I do understand the urge to interpret certain trends and events as being signs, but we need self-control and caution. I want Jesus to come as much as anyone does, but I’m tired of hype and nonsense.
Some Biblical alerts are unambiguous, notwithstanding certain efforts to smear and smudge their obvious intent. The best example is the regathering of the nation of Israel, with attending details such as foreign claims to Jerusalem and its forced division by world powers. God didn’t give dates or numbered time periods for such things, yet there are clues in some Biblical books if you look. I’ve written about them many times, as I did in my last post. There really is a trend in world affairs which matches Biblical warnings and signs: the movement towards globalism; increasingly rampant immorality and violence; the regathering of Israel; the ability to control the finances of every single human on the earth, and most particularly the increasing scourge of deception of all shapes and sizes, now powered by artificial intelligence.
Can we put dates on any of these things? No, but Ezekiel’s record of Israel’s regathering tells us that a huge international invasion of Israel and surrounding lands, ended by God’s intervention, will come upon an Israel recently regathered from the nations. This cannot be a case of hundreds of years, but pinpointing an exact time is impossible.
In my own speculation I look to the post – Trump world. Trump has put the brakes down hard on globalization (and I respect him for it) but he’s only here for less than another three years, at most. Perhaps he will be succeeded by an equally conservative leader. However, the mainstream media continues to lie and to smother truth, and progressives continue to push and to will us all into their way of thinking, so that it’s only a matter of time before a very liberal and globalist government returns to the United States. At that point there will be no barrier to the world rushing headlong into an intensely centralized society in which every blink of your eye will be scrutinised, controlled and taxed. After all, each blink is burning the earth’s precious energy and producing harmful emissions is it not? The “prince” foretold in Daniel and several other Biblical books could then be catapulted to world power and hailed as the saviour of humanity. The political pendulum would swing fully the other way without hindrance.
Will Christ return in my lifetime? I hope so, but He may not. I’m not setting my clock, but I am looking for signs – from my Bible and not from the experts.
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 