Jack Kinsella: Watching The Signs

Why We NEED To Know What We Don't WANT To Know

By Jack Kinsella

There is but one purpose for the indwelt Church of Jesus Christ to be on the lookout for signs of the antichrist. For the same reason that meteorologists look for signs of bad weather – to give the warning.

But in order to obtain an accurate forecast, it is necessary to look at all the signs in their totality – we can’t just pay attention to the ones that make us feel good about ourselves.

It is a good news-bad news situation, which makes it a difficult balance. The Bible is the epitome of good news – the very word “Gospel” means good news. Bible prophecy is also a message of good news – but from a somewhat more limited perspective.

The good news is that the Bible predicted all the bad things that we are seeing unfold upon the earth, because it means that God still has everything under control. The bad news is that all the bad things the Bible predicted would unfold upon the earth is, well, unfolding upon the earth.

There are no signs to signal the Rapture. There is nothing to look out for. There isn’t even a perspective that anyone can hang their hat on. The Rapture is ‘the vanishing’ – but we only vanish from the perspective of those left behind.

We can’t look at signs like earthquakes, famines and wars and conclude anything about the Rapture. Those signs aren’t of the Rapture. They are signs of impending Tribulation. They are only important because the Rapture comes first.

So as much as we really WANT to be looking for the approaching Christ, the only tangible thing we can nail our hopes to, weirdly enough, is the signs of the coming antichrist. If we can discern the approach of the antichrist, then it means that the Rapture is just that much closer.

There are many well-meaning Christians that believe that pre-tribbers do the Church a great disservice because the pre-trib doctrine doesn’t prepare Christians for what to do about the Mark of the Beast. To my way of thinking, this is one of the more baffling arguments, but it must gain traction somewhere because I hear it so often.

Here is my rebuttal to that argument.

In the event that a world leader demands to be worshipped as a god as a condition of economic participation and requires you to accept a mark in your right hand or forehead as a token of worship, don’t do it.

There.

Now, to justify the title of today’s OL – why we need to know what we don’t necessarily want to know.

Since there are no signs preceding the Rapture, the only benchmark measurements available to us are the signs that precede the antichrist, of which there are many.

The antichrist is a politician. He carries a bow, but no arrows, because his principle weapon is politics.

By all accounts, the antichrist does not seize power, he achieves it by universal acclamation – “Who is like unto the beast? And who is able to make war with him?”

The antichrist of whom the Bible speaks does not arrive in secret – he explodes onto the world stage at a time when the world is looking for answers from anyone but Jesus. He is not one of many choices – he is the ONLY choice available.

He is a liar whose rise to power is accompanied by many lying signs and wonders – but he is thrust into power by the people ­– if we are right on the timing, by people that are alive right now.

So it is extremely illuminative of the lateness of the hour when a charismatic politician rides into power on the back of lies and disinformation, shows total disregard for Congress, or any law, buys off the money trust, starts wars in the name of peace and reverses sixty years of friendship with Israel as part of his commitment to globalism.

The three main pillars of government during the Tribulation Period are the antichrist’s control of a global economy, religion and government.

If we are to be watchmen on the wall prepared to give the warning, we need to know what we are warning of. The antichrist isn’t a cartoon character wearing a red union suit and carrying a pitchfork.

Neither is he an amateur buffoon with no concept of how to lead or any clue of the Law of Unintended Consequences. (That’s how we know it isn’t Obama.)

In any case, he won’t be wearing a name-tag.

Since there are no signs preceding the Rapture, the only signs we have are those that warn of the Tribulation. But they are not there to prepare the Church to endure it.