Terry James
A most relevant Scripture for this moment on God’s prophetic timeline is:
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10: 25)
More than 1,200 enthusiastic believers “assembled together” week before last at Norman, Oklahoma, during the Prophecy Watchers conference. As if on cue, a profound event occurred to highlight the reason Gary Stearman, Bob Ulrich, and Mondo Gonzales have Prophecy Watchers as the name of their ministry. Israel, God’s timepiece, as we sometimes refer to that prophetic nation, was attacked on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
All eyes and ears of the gathered prophecy watchers in Norman were affixed upon the ongoing “war,” as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has termed the conflict.
As I understand, more than two thousand people live-streamed the conference. So I sense that the very core of believers yearning for Christ’s return were tuned in to the conference, and that the Lord might have, in His own omniscient orchestration, made sure the observing eyes and ears of His eternal family who are yearning for His Son’s call to the Church were affixed on and attuned to the brutal, beastly assault on His chosen nation and people yet again.
Of course, all the speakers at the conference, myself included, were bombarded with questions about what this war might mean. I’m sure readers of this commentary are asking the same.
Let me say that I, too, am asking the same questions regarding what all this might mean.
Like all of you who are intensely interested in what’s going on, my own interest revolves most specifically around: What does it all mean in terms of the nearness of the Rapture?
I believe that is a perfectly appropriate question to ask, based upon Hebrews 10:25 quoted above.
The key phrase here, of course, is “as ye see the day approaching.” This goes to the very heart of our Lord’s desire to be faithful members of His heavenly family. We are told we should gather with fellow children of God while we see or watch for the approaching day.
The “assembling together” phraseology isn’t merely a suggestion to go to church regularly, but a command to come together as one in watching developments pointing to that day. I believe “that day” refers to the time of Tribulation and, more importantly, to the Day of Christ when the glorious dawn breaks for all believers—that spectacular instant when Christ calls us to Himself in the Rapture.
Watching for that day is not an exhortation to only those who attend prophecy conferences. It is a command to all believers in Jesus Christ, who has secured forever their place in God’s eternal family.
Again we are commanded by Jesus as to what we should be doing as we see the day approaching:
What I say unto one, I say unto all. Watch. (Mark 13: 37)
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28)
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