One Day Closer
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” II Thessalonians 2:1-2
The Apostle Paul was writing to the Christians at Thessalonica, in Greece, because they were confused about Christ’s second coming. There was a teaching going about that “the day of the Lord”, or the last days had already begun. Apparently the false teachers had claimed to have a vision or a special revelation or even a letter from Paul that gave them the impetus to make their false notions known among believers. Paul attempted to ease the worries of believers who wondered if the end times of persecution and tribulation had already begun, and if so, why had they not been rescued.
Ever since I was a child, I heard Christians say that they believed that they would be alive when Christ returns, but many of them have since passed away. However, when Christ returns for His church, those believers who have died will be alive again, so technically, I guess they were right. There is no more prophecy to fulfill in order for Christ to retrieve His church. There are those who believe He will “rapture” His church before the seven year period of tribulation which will precede His return to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem to judge the world. Other folks believe the church will be taken up half-way through the tribulation, while others believe the church will go through the entire seven years of tribulation.
I remember a rather humorous story that a former co-worker told us in the office one day. When he was a boy, he apparently had received some Biblical teaching and was aware of the verse in the Bible in Matthew 24:44 when Jesus was describing what it would be like in the last days before His return. He said, “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” Since my co-worker and his friends in earlier times were just boys who enjoyed playing and goofing off, they weren’t really all that interested in Jesus returning, at least not at that age. So my co-worker came up with an idea to attempt to keep Jesus from returning so they could keep playing and having a good time. He assigned his friends and himself separate time periods every day to think about Jesus’ return. His reasoning was that since the Bible says Jesus will come back when no one is thinking about it, it would be necessary for someone to think about it constantly to keep it from happening. I don’t know how long they kept this up; probably not more than half a day, if that long.
The timing of Christ’s return is unknown to all but God Himself (Matthew 24:36) so whether He comes before, during, or after the tribulation, He will come. It may be 1,000 years from now, or a lot sooner than anyone thinks. Paul said not to worry about it, but just be prepared.