Many watchmen have started adding a caveat lately regarding the rapture, saying  that, yes we are close to the rapture, but until the Lord calls us up, be prepared for things to get really bad. I think it’s because many of those watchmen are, well, men! Men are about protection and preparation.

But think about it,  God knows the right moment and will not leave a single sheep that He knows is His, He has no reason to show up “early” because He knows exactly,  to the millisecond, when the last peson open to the gospel will believe and be saved. Time, in our realm merely has to “catch up” to what is already done, in His realm.

Imagine the final seconds before a horrific crash.  Those last seconds are going to look pretty disturbing and scary to anyone in the car who is awake and paying attention to the road. That’s you and me.

We don’t know that exact instant like He does. We see things “coming at us”. We see the treacherous road conditions, the stopped eighteen wheeler in front, and the one barreling up from behind, we see the grey skies and flying debris and precipitation. Don’t lose sight of the blessed hope. We won’t experience the crash!!

One factor that people in prophecy circles don’t often seem to keep in mind, is the fact God works in numbers. Not only is He orderly and precise, but exact. Lets consider some numbers.

From Genesis creation, to the Revelation seals, seven is the most prominant number in the Bible.

I believe He has had a 7000 year plan laid out all along. 6000 years for man to prove to ourselves that we can’t govern ourselves. Whether he is given one solitary rule to obey, a conscience to obey, laws, priest, judges, kings, and book with it all written down, man can’t do it.

God laid out the 7 day week when He brought order out of the chaos of the “formless and void” earth of Genesis 1:1, and He rested on the 7th day. He didn’t rest because He was tired. He was establishing a pattern. I see that as a clue.

A day is as a thousand years, and vice versa, to God. ( 2 Peter 3:8) another clue.

In God’s grand plan to have a family of sons and daughters created in His image, He has thus far…

1. Created an habitation for man
2. Created man
3. Chose Abraham out of all of them, through which to bless the world
4. Made the law covenant with the Jews
5.  Sent His Christ as ultimate High Priest and sacrificial lamb, fulfilling that law
6. Established a new covenant with  a people from among the Gentiles (that mystery called the church) sent to all the world with the gospel of that covenant

All that has taken nearly 6000 years, and there’s a specific 1000 we know is yet to come.

Six, the number of mankind and of rebellion. Hmmm. Clue?

Depending on different calendars, the numbers vary by a few days, but by counting the years in the old Testament geneologies, it can be established that from Adam to Abraham was about two thousand years (+/-) and between Abraham and Christ’s first coming was another 2000 years (+/-).

The book of Hosea 5:15-6:2 seems to indicate two thousand years between the time Messiah ascends, and the time when the Jews are reconciled to Him (when they will recognize Him at His return).

Come, and let us return to the Lord;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will ^[b]bind us up.
² After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight

James Ussher, an Archbishop for the church of Ireland, famously placed the date of creation at 4004 BC on the Julian Calendar (wikipedia). More precisely, though, we know the crucifixion occured either 30 or 33 AD, so figuring the 2000 years Hosea mentions, from those dates would land us at either 2030 or 2033 AD.

We know there’s also still a 70th “week” of years to finish God’s plan for the Jews (tribulation), and the year 2022 only has 93 days left!

Subtract 7 from 2030 as well as from 2033, and we are looking at 2023-2026, (that’s not even accounting for that “gap” many prophecy scholars expect will take place between the rapture and the “covenant with many”).

2 Peter 3 indicates there are 3 states the Earth goes through.

• The “without form and void”  phase, (Job 38, the oldest book of scripture, seems to speak of cosmos and world, before the creation in Genesis)
• The current iteration of the Genesis creation in which mankind has experienced Earth, albeit in fallen state.
• The the final re-forming of it after the thousand year reign of Christ.

Looking at the panorama of scripture, and considering these things, it is clear. We are so out of time, and as Pete Garcia pointed out in an article he posted in May of this year, we are also running out of normal, whereas scripture indicates life will be going “business as usual” people marrying and buying and selling, and scoffers will be scoffing, when He snatches us out of here. That’s now. We are there. ‘Tis the season!

We can only be at the end of the end.

Instead of a building dread, I have an increasing peace, and sense of relief.  For me, the last few years have truly been some of the best, and sweetest. Kind of, I guess, like it is for a believer on their deathbed, there’s anticipation of the end of a long haul, and a soon to come laying down of burdens that I am excited to contemplate, and it has let me savour good things even more, because it’s like the icing and cherries on top of the cake, things like our grandbaby, the fall weather and turning leaves.

I realize that many of you are struggling, weary, and may feel like you’re barely hanging on. I have had many years of struggles, so my present sense of peace is relative, a matter of hard-won perspective.

Hang on. He’s coming. You will make it. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Don’t look down. Don’t look around. See His face before You. Cling to that. Press into Him. He’s coming.