Why Haven't They Gone Back final post

Do you see the answer to the question now of why Jesus has not come back? 2 Peter 3:8, 9 is a comment on the greatness of God’s patience and merciful love. The answer is because He wants everyone to have a chance to accept His death on the cross for their sakes. When every single person in the entire world has had one chance at the same time to accept or reject the full truth and made their decision accordingly, Jesus will come back. He will destroy this flawed, imperfect world that is attempting to create its own heaven on earth and take His people to the real Heaven where their eternal lives of joy peace and unimaginable knowledge will begin. Before that though, He’ll need to be justified in destroying this world. So at the same time He’s working through His people to make them better and better, He’s allowing those who reject Him to become worse and worse until this great moral decline we have seen in the last 50 years crescendos into the time of trouble prophesied in Daniel 12:1.

I’d like to highlight a few very important verses from Matthew 24. Verse 8 comes immediately after the “wars, earthquakes and famines” Jesus then said “All these are the beginning of sorrows.” In other words, it’s not the events in the world, be they political crises or natural disasters that we really need to worry about. Yet that’s what so many focus on when they seek to understand prophecy (especially so many who are fascinated with the teachings of false prophets such as Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce).

What we really need to look for are events in the religious and spiritual realm as is shown by verse “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” This is preceded in verses 12 and 13 by “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” Does not the incredible downturn in the morals of western society since the 1960’s completely fulfill this part of the prophecy? At the same time this has been happening the gospel has been going out on a much further and wider basis than ever before. The first generation fulfilled this prophecy by taking the gospel to the known world of their day, the Roman Empire, and then the end came in the form of the destruction of the temple. But we definitely will see the work of reaching the world finished in our day. Therefore Jesus is coming soon!

Luke 17:28-30 gives us a comparison to illustrate the point. “Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; “but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” The modern equivalent of leaving Sodom will not be to travel to any particular place. However, we can leave Sodom today by taking a firm, full and complete stand for God.

This is where many people are looking at prophecy the wrong way. Whatever the crisis will be, it will be so large it will make “men's hearts will fail them for fear” as the Bible says. The most important part will not be to be physically ready by knowing what’s about to come but to be spiritually ready by knowing Who is about to come right afterward.

As I mentioned previously, Marvin Moore speculates that maybe a comet will hit the earth and that will be the great crisis that finally sparks the end time. Personally, I believe what we will see is nuclear terrorism and the use of other weapons of mass destruction such as biological warfare in an all out world wide war between “Christian” and “Muslim” for control of the Holy land. This is simply based on the current trend in motion that was established by the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I say it with the same fervor Marvin Moore did “I MAY BE WRONG”. Since this is pure speculation, I will not attempt to prove this point in depth here. It simply seems logical that after the Lord allowing western civilization more than 150 years to create a heaven on earth, whatever crisis there is that does come would need to be one that demonstrates how futile this attempt ultimately has been when done without Him. If we are going to think we can hold the ultimate power of life and death in our hands through genetic engineering and atomic weapons as previously discussed here, does it not make sense that somehow this has to come back to haunt us? It’s the only way to show not only to us, but to the whole universe that only the Lord Himself can be trusted with this power.

That the enemy of the day right now is radical Muslims may change. Various Christian commentators wrote books for years during the Cold War expecting the Soviet Union to attack Israel. Of course they were incorrect as it never happened. Now those same commentators expect the Muslims to do it. The Lord has always worked to teach His people their lessons by giving them into the hands of their enemies when they refuse to listen to Him. That’s what the entire book of Judges is about. So if this war on terror is finally won and the end of time is delayed further, another enemy will rise up from another place just in time for God to use them if He needs to.

Referring to the various prophetic events we’ve discussed, Jesus in Luke 21:28 said “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” In other words, as you see world events play out in whatever way they do toward the end, the main focus of your life needs to be on getting ready for Jesus. He obviously said this to give comfort, hope and understanding to every generation that has waited for Him and wondered why He hasn’t come back yet.

Although we’ve discussed the need to be spiritually ready, that phrase needs to be more clearly defined. In the next chapter we’ll look at some Bible truths that were lost during the Dark Ages and see how their restoration today can greatly affect your worldview and give compatibility and harmony to the seemingly opposite positions people hold today.