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Greg Laurie
When I first
became a Christian back in 1970, lots of people were talking about the return
of Jesus Christ.
The
top-selling book of that entire decade was The Late Great Planet Earth,
by Hal Lindsey, which spoke in depth about Bible prophecy and the signs of the
times.
Driving around
the roads and freeways, you would see bumper stickers with slogans like
"Maranatha," "Jesus is coming" and "In case of
rapture, this car will be left unmanned."
There was a
sense of expectancy among so many of us that we could be the generation that
would see the return of the Lord.
That was 40
years ago. I've gone through quite a few "Jesus is coming" bumper
stickers since those days.
Was my hope
displaced?
Did I get it
wrong?
Did we misread
the signs of the times?
Not at all.
God is not
late, and the Lord will return to this earth at the appointed hour that has
been predetermined in the councils of eternity.
But there may
be a reason why Jesus didn't come when we were hoping He would in 1970.
Consider this:
Millions and millions of men and women, boys and girls have come to Jesus since
1970.
The Bible
reminds us: "The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise to
return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does
not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to
repent" (2 Peter 3:9, NLT).
It's all in
the Lord's hands, of course, but I do believe that somewhere on this planet,
there is a particular man or a woman for whom the Lord is waiting, and when
that person finally places faith in Jesus Christ, we will be caught up to meet
the Lord in the air, in what we call the rapture of the church.
One of the
"super signs" of the last days was the regathering of the nation of
Israel in their ancient homeland.
That happened
against all odds.
It was an
event without precedent in human history that a nation and a people who had
been scattered throughout the four corners of the earth would gather again
where they had once been and form a nation.
Jesus says the
generation that sees this happen will not pass away until all these things have
been fulfilled (see Matthew 24:34, Luke 21:32).
Once the
Jewish people returned to their homeland and became a nation on May 14, 1948,
the prophetic clock started to tick. This is a very important date in Bible
prophecy.
But the Bible
not only says the Lord will gather the Jews back to their homeland again, it
says Jerusalem will end up being a source of conflict in the end times.
What's
interesting to me is that on May 14, 1948, Israel did not possess all of
Jerusalem.
In fact, that
didn't happen until the 1967 war, when Israeli forces captured the Old City and
reunified all of Jerusalem, so the city was under Jewish control for the first
time in centuries.
Of course,
this is where the rub comes in.
Jerusalem
remains at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with many Arab
leaders worldwide insisting that Jerusalem and the entire West Bank are rightly
Palestinian territory and must ultimately be given back as a condition of
peace.
But here's the
problem: God gave Israel and the city of Jerusalem to the Jewish people. He
made them that promise, and they're not going to give their land up again. Nor
should they.
Israel's
Future
The Bible is
the one book that dares to predict the future. Not once, not twice, but
hundreds of times.
We can look
back now and see that many of those prophecies have already been fulfilled — but
not all of them.
Some remain to
be fulfilled, and we may be the generation where that begins to take place.
It's not a big
stretch for God to predict the future. He can speak to future things as easily
as you and I might discuss the past or present.
In fact, God
can predict the future far more accurately than you and I can recall the past.
He sees the past, present and future simultaneously.
Tomorrow is
like yesterday to God. Every day lies before Him with equal clarity. The Lord
does not forget things, nor does He learn new things.
He literally
knows everything — past, present and future. So, let's just take out our
checklist of events and see what has already transpired.
The Bible says
Israel will be scattered to the four corners of the earth. Did that happen?
Yes. Check.
Israel will be
regathered as a nation. Did that happen? Yes. Check.
Israel will
regain the city of Jerusalem. Has that happened? Yes. Check.
Israel will be
isolated from the other nations of the world. Is this happening? Yes. Check.
Israel will be
attacked by a nation to her north, bent on her destruction. Has that happened?
Not yet. But we could easily envision such a scenario.
Jerusalem — not
Rome, Paris or New York City — will be at the center of the conflicts of the
world.
We read in
Luke 21:20: "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you know
that its desolation has drawn near."
In Zechariah
12:2-3, God says, "I am going to make Jerusalem a cup of reeling before
all the surrounding nations. And when there is a siege against Judah, it is
also against Jerusalem. And it will be on that day that I will set Jerusalem as
a weighty stone to all the peoples. All who carry it will surely gash
themselves, and all the nations of the land will be gathered against it."
John Walvoord,
a respected expert on Bible prophecy, made this statement: "The
prophecies about Jerusalem make it clear that the holy city will be in the
center of the world events in the end time. The conflict between Israel and the
Palestinian Arabs will focus more and more attention on Jerusalem. In all of
the situations Jerusalem is the city to watch as the city of prophetic destiny
prepares to act out her final role."
Israel is so
tiny. At one point, the nation is only nine miles wide. Yet God says it will be
at the center of the end-time events. And this is happening just as the Bible
promised it would.
In Ezekiel 38,
the Lord speaks of a large and powerful nation to the north of the newly
established Jewish homeland, along with a number of this nation's allies,
invading Israel.
This has not
yet happened. So, let's see what Scripture says.
"And the
word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against Gog of
the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshek and Tubal, and prophesy against
him, and say: Thus says the Lord God: I am against you, O Gog, the prince of
Rosh, Meshek and Tubal. And I will turn you back and put hooks into your jaws,
and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses, and horsemen, all of them
clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with buckler and shield,
all of them handling swords. Persia, Ethiopia, and Put with them, all of them
with shield and helmet" (Ezekiel 38:1–5).
Drop down to
verses 8-11: "After many days you shall be called. In the latter years
you shall come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants
have been gathered out of many peoples, against the mountains of Israel which
had been always a waste. But its people were brought out of the nations, and
they, all of them, are dwelling safely. You shall ascend and come like a storm;
you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you and all your troops, and many
peoples with you. Thus says the Lord God: It shall come to pass on that day
that things shall come into your mind and you shall think an evil thought, and
you shall say, 'I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go
against those who are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without
walls and having neither bars nor gates.'"
Many believe
"Magog" refers to modern-day Russia.
The reasoning
goes like this: Magog was the second son of Noah's son Japheth who, according
to the ancient historian Josephus, settled north of the Black Sea.
Tubal and
Meshech, also mentioned here in Ezekiel 38, were the fifth and sixth sons of
Japheth, whose descendants settled south of the Black Sea.
These tribes
intermarried and became known as Magog. They settled to the north of Israel.
In Ezekiel
39:2, God says to them, "I will turn you back, drive you on, and take
you up the north parts and bring you against the mountains of Israel."
So, all Bible
directions are given in relation to Israel. And if you look to the extreme
north of Israel today, you will find the mighty nation of Russia.
Now here is
where things really get interesting. Look at the allies that march with Russia.
We have Ethiopia (modern-day Sudan), Libya and Persia, which is modern-day
Iran.
These are all
Islamic cultures, and they are all anti-Israel. Russia has had arms deals with
Libya.
And Persia? It
wasn't until March 21, 1935, that Persia changed her name to what we now call
Iran, a recent ally of Russia.
So, here is
the alliance God says will form against Israel, and there's nothing about it
that surprises us. It's already taking shape before our eyes.
Consider this:
When Magog and her allies attack Israel, God will intervene and decimate her
army and the armies of the allies as well. And because of this, the Jewish
people will give glory to God.
When you go to
Israel today, you may be surprised to learn that most Israelis are not
believers in God.
Many of them
are atheistic. Certainly, you will find very few Jewish people who believe in
Jesus as their Messiah. There are some, thank God, but not many.
But when the
Holy Spirit is poured out upon Israel after He drives back the invading armies
of Magog, there will be a revival in Israel, and many Jewish people will come
to believe Yeshua Hamashiach, Jesus [is] the Messiah.
What does that
mean? Most people who read these pages are Gentiles, not Jewish by birth.
As Paul
explains in Romans 11, we have been effectively grafted into the promises God
originally offered to Israel.
Now is the
time when God is working with the non-Jews, the Gentiles.
But this time
will come to a close, and then the Spirit will be poured out again on the land
and people of Israel.
But before
that can happen, God needs to wrap things up with us.
In Romans
11:25, Paul says, "For I do not want you to be ignorant of this
mystery, brothers, lest you be wise in your own estimation, for a partial
hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come
in."
In other
words, the "partial hardening" will endure until the last
Gentile person finally believes in Jesus — and then we will be gone. Raptured.
We will meet
the Lord in the air and be with Him forever.
So that means
when we see these events in the world beginning to happen, we need to look up,
for our redemption is drawing near (see Luke 21:28).
Rapture's
Reality
When we speak
of the rapture of the church, there are some who will say, "The word
'rapture' isn't even in the Bible."
Maybe not, but
the event certainly is.
First
Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, "For the Lord Himself will descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call
of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air. And so we shall be forever with the Lord."
Over in John
14:2-3, Jesus says, "In My Father's house are many dwelling places. If
it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to
Myself, that where I am, you may be also."
That phrase "receive
you" means "to take you by force."
And then in
Matthew 24:40-42, Jesus says, "Two will be in the field; one will be
taken, and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be
taken, and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your
Lord will come."
John addresses
it as well in 1 John 3:2, "Beloved, now are we children of God, and it
has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He appears,
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
Paul speaks of
this same event in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52: "Listen, I tell you a
mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the
dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
Now imagine
this for a moment. In an instant, all over the world, millions of believers are
caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
Let's just
briefly consider some of the effects the rapture will have on each of us.
The rapture
means no death. There is a generation that will not see death. These
believers will go straight into the presence of God.
The rapture is
instantaneous. It has been said that the twinkling of an eye (mentioned in
1 Corinthians 15:51-52) is about 1/1000 of a second.
How fast is a
second? And this is a thousandth of that?
If we have the
privilege of being raptured, there will no real sense of departure and arrival;
we will simply be there, in the Lord's presence.
The rapture is
a transformation. In that moment, God will give you a brand-new resurrection
body.
Perhaps you
struggle now with the effects of old age, disease or some other physical
difficulty or problem. All of that will be gone in an instant.
Age melts
away. Disability disappears. Sorrows are replaced by pure joy.
Philippians
3:20-21 gives us these glorious words: "But our citizenship is in
heaven, from where also we await for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
will transform our body of humiliation, so that it may be conformed to His
glorious body, according to the working of His power even to subdue all things
to Himself."
The rapture
will be a rescue operation. In 1 Thessalonians 1:10, Paul writes, "They
themselves declare ... how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living
and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the
dead—Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come."
From what is
He rescuing us? The wrath to come.
What does that
refer to? The tribulation period, inaugurated by the emergence of the
Antichrist and lasting for seven years.
So, God is
sending his special operations team of Michael and His angels to evacuate the church
— to get us out of here before the Tribulation begins.
The rapture
will be a stealth event; the Second Coming will be a very public one.
In the
rapture, we meet the Lord in the air; in the Second Coming, He returns to the
earth.
In the
rapture, He comes for His church; in the Second Coming, He returns with His
church.
In the
rapture, He comes before judgment; in the Second Coming, He comes with
judgment.
So how should
this affect us today? How should I respond to these truths? Very simply, I need
to walk with God.
We have a
great Old Testament prototype of these things in the life of a man named Enoch.
Enoch had what
we might describe as a solo rapture.
Genesis 5:24
says, "Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more because God took
him."
In other
words, God carried him over or across. Enoch didn't have to die like everybody
else. He just took a walk one day and didn't come home. He started on one shore
and ended up on another.
He walked with
God.
Are you
walking with God? Notice it doesn't say, "Enoch sprinted with
God."
He walked with
God.
But all too
soon, they crash and burn. Then they get up again and go for a while — only to
crash and burn again.
"As you
have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him" (Colossians
2:6).
Here's the
thing: Just walk with God.
Don't be in a
big hurry. Be regular, be consistent and stay at it. Be disciplined enough to
maintain that relationship.
Walking
implies steady effort and speaks of regularity — doing something over and over.
Jesus Christ
is coming back, and it could happen at any time. This year. This month. This
week. Today.
And when He
comes, I want Him to find me walking with Him. Isn't that a great thought?
You could take
one step on earth, and then find that your next step is into His presence.
Come soon,
Lord. Come soon.
Greg
Laurie
is the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, which has campuses in
California and Hawaii. He is also the featured speaker of a nationally
syndicated radio program, host of a TV program and author of more than 70
books.
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