Any Moment
Nobody can set the date for the Rapture, but we can be assured that it is “any moment” now. Many Bible teachers enjoy stressing that there are no signs pointing to the Rapture. They are partially right, but this is misleading. It is correct to say that His coming has always been imminent. Nothing has to occur for Him to come.
He could have returned before Israel became a nation in 1948. He could have returned before the mark to identify every living soul was fully prepared. We could name an extended list of fulfilled prophecies. Their fulfillment was not demanded before He came, but they were positive proof that we are living in this age of His return. No sign must occur, but every sign that does occur is important to describe exactly where the Bible fits the hour.
The infallible Word of God and every prophetic Scripture reads like the morning news. Just days ago, Israel slipped across SyriaÂ’s border, penetrated at least fifty miles inside their country, and destroyed what was apparently a nuclear stockpile, or a shipment of the same, or maybe a nuclear reactor. It was all neatly accomplished and all planes returned without loss. It does not appear that Syria ever knew what happened until it was all over. The same could occur in Iran any day.
As I write, the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in America. His boast and predictions sound exactly like the Antichrist is feeding him each line. The Imam that he predicts will shortly appear is at least connected to the end. He actually sounds like the beast out of the earth. This 12th Imam, Imam Madhi, was born in A.D. 896 and has certainly been in the bottomless pit waiting this hour of revelation to help Satan finish his last hurrah.
Look at the prophecy of a beast or demon-possessed man arising to lead the false religion of the Antichrist. “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is” (Revelation 17:8). Could this Muslim Imam actually be this beast? The emerging church is laying the foundation for a One World Religion that will include Muslims, Catholics, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and every religious idea.
Do not doubt that there is not any nation or earth that is more prophetic than Iran. This is ancient Persia, the first of the nations named in Ezekiel that will march against Israel in the fateful hour hanging over the Middle East. Ezekiel named Gog, Magog, Meshech, and Tubal, but each of these are an unnamed nation. Persia or modern Iran is a named country for future action and appears as a leading force of that action. They are ready and bragging about their plans.
Thousands of Americans, including myself, are concerned about our borders, outsourcing of our major industries, and the daily loss of our American independence. The truth is it cannot be stopped. The One World Order includes America, and we are destined to live in a New America with little kin to yester year if Jesus tarries.
The six thousand years of human history is soon to close and God’s World will experience the seventh day of rest. The Bible calls it “the Millennium,” the “one thousand year reign of Jesus Christ” on earth. The Scripture has concluded “that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (II Peter 3:8b). The Jewish calendar is 5768, but the Gentile calendar is 4004(?) and 2007 or 6011. Any moment now, these things will occur: the Rapture, seven years of the Great Tribulation, and then the kingdom of Jesus Christ for one thousand years of righteousness and peace.
To live one day without the fire of God in your soul is foolish. To treat one Sunday without deep regard for worship is unthinkable. To live one day without love for righteousness is inconceivable. Looking for Him and expecting Him with joy is the order that the Father has ordained for this hour. Only the foolish virgins or the unsaved will dare to be careless.