One of These Days
“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly, Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Revelation 22:20
Regarding the return of Jesus Christ to earth, He made it abundantly clear in Matthew 24:36 that “…of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” Those folks who attempt to predict Jesus’ return or the end of the world as some frame it must not have read this verse, or if they did, for some reason they think they have some special revelation that even Jesus doesn’t have. I remember hearing stories about groups of people who would sell their homes and possessions and go up on some mountain top to await His return. Then there was someone who wrote a book entitled “Eighty-eight Reasons Why Jesus Will Return in 1988”. Well, that was 31 years ago, and He has not returned–yet.
Since none of us knows the day and time of Jesus’ return, it behooves us to be prepared to meet Him. It could be a thousand years or more before His return, but I can’t see our world surviving that long considering the depth of man’s depravity and the speed by which man has succumbed to the devil’s temptations. People argue that things aren’t really worse now than in the past, that we just hear about it more because of our high speed methods of mass communication. Things have always been bad because scripture tells us that God regretted making man because the “thoughts of (man’s) heart was only evil continually”. However, I think things are worse now judging by what I have seen in my lifetime so far.
Even if the world does continue on course for 1,000 years or more, none of us alive today will last that long. Death begins its stalk of our lives as soon as we are born, and the grim reaper won’t give up as long as we have breath in our bodies. Hebrews 9:27 tells us that “…it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” There are those folks who are eagerly awaiting Christ’s return, but there are many more who do not look for His coming. I suppose people could be separated into four groups: those who are still looking for His first coming, those who joyously await His second coming, those who have some knowledge that Jesus will return, but just as soon wished that He wouldn’t, and those who don’t have a clue, and thus do not know what awaits them in the future–they don’t know and they don’t care.
The bottom line is whether Christ returns today, tomorrow, or 1,000 years from now, He will return, and we will meet Him, either as one who belongs to Him or one who will be judged by Him. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”