People don’t like delays generally, however it’s especially frustrating after we don’t understand why we’re being forced to attend. That’s true of waiting during a visit, at a physician’s office, within the grocery line, being stuck in traffic, or waiting for a package to reach.
It’s also true of waiting for God to deliver His guarantees — including His promise of the Rapture. After all, the very first verse of the Book of Revelation says: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to indicate His servants — things which must shortly happen” (1:1).
Notice the word shortly. If I tell my wife, “I’m going to go all the way down to the shop for a gallon of milk, but I’ll be back shortly,” she wouldn’t expect me to be gone for 2 days, let alone two thousand years!
The final chapter of Revelation uses the word “quickly” to explain the return of Christ that may initiate the End Times.
In fact, you could find the word quickly used 4 times in Revelation 22. In verse 12, Jesus said, “Behold, I’m coming quickly.” And in verse 20 He repeated His promise, saying, “Surely I’m coming quickly.”
Is Jesus’ Return Really Imminent?
Rapture is imminent, meaning it may well occur at any moment. Yet our Lord Jesus has not yet returned. For two thousand years, Christians have watched and waited for the catalyst of the Rapture to coalesce into the subsequent phase in God’s prophetic plan. And we’re still waiting.
It’s fair to ask the query: Why the delay?
The Bible teaches God exists prior to now, present, and future at the identical moment. For God, later is identical as earlier. The end is identical as the start. Now is identical as then.
This is an important mystery, and it’s hard to wrap our heads across the concept of an everlasting God. But if God were anything lower than everlasting, He wouldn’t, really, be God.
And, if at some point with the Lord is like one thousand years and one thousand years is like at some point, then from God’s perspective Jesus hasn’t been gone for so long as it seems to us. Just two days!
“Loved ones,” Peter said, in essence, “don’t forget this one thing. This is significant—this is critical. Remember that God doesn’t work on our timetable. His plans are based on His perspective and His perception, not ours” (2 Peter 3:8).
Some of the false teachers within the early church were claiming God is slow to perform His promise — that He is unconcerned, that He doesn’t care. But Peter said it’s higher to take God’s delay in the opposite direction.
This delay in the approaching of Christ is just not due to a scarcity of concern but is definitely an indication of how much He cares and loves people. He’s waiting because He’s patient. He wants people to come back to Him before it is just too late.
If Jesus had are available the 12 months 500, or within the 12 months 1500, or if He had are available, say, 1875, none of us would have yet been born. You wouldn’t have been in a position to enjoy your each day walk with Jesus Christ. You wouldn’t have been in a position to relish the guarantees within the Word of God.
You wouldn’t have been in a position to sit up for everlasting life. Had Jesus are available an earlier era none of us would have been around, none of us would have been caught up within the Rapture, and none of us would have been resurrected.
But due to God’s patience, the epochs of time have been prolonged to incorporate even us inside His redemptive and glorious grace.
Thank You, Jesus, for Your patience!
How Can We Understand God’s Eternal Perspective?
Finally, we come to God’s desire regarding the timing of the Rapture. Jesus has delayed His coming because He is “not willing that any should perish but that each one should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). That’s God’s preference.
God longs for people to come back to repentance. He wants to provide people every opportunity to alter their minds and return to Him and to His ways. “True Christian repentance involves a heartfelt conviction of sin, a contrition over the offense to God, a turning away from the sinful lifestyle, and a turning towards a God-honoring lifestyle.”
Remember the story of the Prodigal Son. Even though the prodigal had wounded and abandoned his dad with disdain and disrespect, the daddy waited patiently for his wayward son to come back back to him, loving him the entire time he was waiting, on the lookout for him from the front porch, eager for him to come back home.
That is God’s preference for all people today — that we might end our rebel and are available back to Him.
It’s impossible for any person to physically run away from God. Our heavenly Father is present in every place and knows the whole lot that may be known.
What Are We to Do Before Jesus Returns?
It is feasible to show away from God’s goodness and love. To rebel against His authority. Even to reject Him and take away ourselves from the protection of His lovingkindness.
If that’s the case for you, why not return today? There’s no ticket vital. No distance to travel or red tape to chop through. Just turn back.
God is all the time waiting to welcome you with open arms.
Taken from The Great Disappearance: 31 Ways to be Rapture Ready by Dr. David Jeremiah. Copyright © 2023 by Dr. David Jeremiah. Used with permission from Thomas Nelson.
To learn more, visit Perhaps Today.
For further reading:
6 Signs of the Second Coming of Jesus
The Difficulty of Waiting on God
Why Was the Promised Messiah a Time of Waiting?
What Do We Know concerning the Second Coming of Jesus?
When Will Jesus Return?
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Aleksandra Sapozhnikova
LISTEN: End Times and Rapture Anxiety
The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and don’t necessarily reflect the views or positions of Salem Web Network and Salem Media Group.
