 One of the promises that the ascended Christ makes to His Church in Revelation 2 and 3 is that those who hold fast to Him and overcome, they shall receive power over the nations, to rule jointly with Christ with a rod of iron. What do we overcome? Death. Scripture calls our resurrection at the rapture “being born from the dead.”
In the last blog we mentioned that we are raptured at the start of the Day of the Lord, the seventh 1,000-year Day in God’s prophetic Week of redemption. We are raptured before the wrath of God is poured out against evil, including the Antichrist. There’s a two-fold purpose for this timing. First, Jesus promised that we would be delivered from this wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10). Some call this escapism. In reality, it’s positioning. Christ gathers His Bride to Him so that we are complete—the Head and His Body together as One. It is this One New Man that is appointed to execute this judgment (Acts 17:31). You see, we are raptured not just to escape, but to execute God’s righteous judgment against evil. Our first task is to pull down the evil spiritual hierarchy that influences the affairs of earth as Paul described in Ephesians 6:12. We take our place as the rightful, God-ordained Heavenly Court. Satan and his evil cohorts are cast down and displaced by the Man. We are the storm! This victory over evil comes in the Age to Come, the Day of the Lord. For now, we “taste and see” of these powers on earth in our own lives. Recognizing this chronos timing helps us understand why the darkness seems to be getting greater. Satan knows his time is very short and he is puling out all the stops. Yet we know we already have the victory in Christ! We can minister by the Spirit to share the good news of Christ’s finished work. We can move by the Spirit with signs and wonders following to show God’s goodness. Knowing the timing means we can focus on the right task at the right time.
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 When Jesus declared His earthly ministry in Luke 4, He stopped mid-sentence. Did Jesus forget the rest of Isaiah’s prophecy? Of course not. He stopped there because it was not yet time to draw attention to that part of the prophecy. As the time of His return draws very near, it’s time for us to “finish” the rest of the verse.
That is, to proclaim the Day of God’s vengeance against evil. Scripture tells us that this happens at the start of the Day of the Lord, the 7th Day in God’s great prophetic Week of redemption. To be more specific, it happens during the first 31/2 years of that 1,000-year Day. The Bible calls it the wrath of that Day. Why do we need to be proclaiming this? Because that Day is also called the Day of Judgment. If people know anything about the “end-times,” they probably have heard about the “final judgment.” That happens at the end of the Day of the Lord. Thankfully, however, the hierarchy of Satan’s evil forces in the heavenlies is judged and brought down during the wrath of that Day, during the first 31/2 years of His reign. The Antichrist, the False Prophet, the coalition of armies coming against Israel, and the beastly one-world order are also judged and defeated as part of the wrath of that Day. Remember, the Church is raptured before this wrath is poured out and before the Beast’s mark and worship. We’ll see why in the next post. Very few people know anything about the Day of the Lord. Most of what they think they know about the wrath of that Day is unscriptural. It’s time for this knowledge concerning God’s timetable and the Christ’s 1,000-year reign to be preached. It’s time for the last “elementary principle” of the faith—the doctrine of resurrection and judgment to be made clear. It’s time for the message of comfort, hope, and victory to be preached. It’s necessary in order to prepare this generation for what lies ahead. We’ll look at that in the next post. What is the Spirit saying to believers today in these troubled times? “Be mindful of the Rock of your stronghold” (Isaiah 17:10).
Our Rock is Jesus Christ. Our stronghold is the message of comfort, hope, and victory in Him. It is the truth Peter declared in 2 Peter 1:2-4. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. We are called to the same earthly ministry as Jesus. At His first coming, our Lord declared His ministry as recorded in Luke 4:18-19.
Quoting from Isaiah 61, Jesus stopped mid-sentence. Why? Because He was declaring the purpose of the New Covenant of grace which He would initiate at the cross and secure through His resurrection. As the time draws very near for Christ’s return, it is now time for us to proclaim the rest of the prophecy from Isaiah. We’ll see what that looks like in the next post.  Many people are aware of the kairos signs and seasons of the last Days. Few Christians are aware of the chronos times given in God’s Word. The chronos and the kairos converge together to mark a set time, the appointed time for a particular event. Like the two lenses of binoculars, we need both to have the complete field of vision of the end-times. Without one of them, we don’t have the complete picture. We’re left in the dark.
This is why we’ve had people ask us if certain news items related to COVID-19 are the mark of the Beast described in Revelation 13. The simple answer is no, because it is not the appointed time. The mark comes with the worship of the Beast, both of which are events in the age to come—the Day of the Lord. Those events happen during the first few years of the 7th great Day of God’s prophetic Week. We know that the Day of the Lord has not yet come because the Church is still on the earth continuing Christ’s ministry to make disciples. When that Day dawns, Christ returns to gathers His Body together to Him in the rapture and take us to our prepared place in Father’s house (John 14:3). Jesus also told us that the final sign before that Day comes is total celestial darkness (Matt. 24:29). The heavens are shaken and the sun, moon, and stars are blocked out. The earth is plunged into total darkness. Scripture also tells us that the Temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Since none of these events have happened yet, even someone who does not know the chronos times given in the Bible can know for sure that the Day of the Lord has not yet come. Once we are raptured and seated as the heavenly government, God executes His vengeance against evil, including the Beast. The Bible calls this the wrath of that Day. For those who are in Christ, we have this sure Word: “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Believers will not be on the earth when the mark of the Beast and the worship of the Beast are demanded. What the current events do show us is just how near we are to Christ’s return. His coming is not signless. It is not at any moment. We are near the end of the 6th Day. That is why God gave us both the chronos times and the kairos signs in His Word. We are meant to know and not be deceived. We are meant to bring clarity and comfort to those engulfed in the fog of confusion and fear in the world. |
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