Christians know the next major act of God will be the rapture of the church where Jesus will appear in the air and call all believers, both dead and alive, to Himself before returning to heaven with them. This will include all the saints who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Just going to church or being a member of the church won’t help you. Faith in Jesus is the only way to join the body of Christ and enter heaven. Christians in every generation have had their eyes on the heavens waiting expectantly for the Second Coming of the Lord and we’re no different. It’s human nature for us to think that way. Our time table isn’t God’s time table but we know God’s timing is perfect because He knows all things.
Prophetically, nothing else has to occur prior to the rapture so what is God waiting for? God dearly loves every human being he has created and He wants us all to accept the grace of His salvation. God is waiting as long as He can in the hope of gathering in a few more saints before the church is raptured to heaven. The second reason the rapture hasn’t happened yet is human events haven’t reached the tipping point. Some people think the rapture could happen anytime and then there could be a period of years between the rapture and the signing of the peace agreement with Israel that triggers the seven year tribulation period. That’s absurd!
If God wants to save everyone He can why would He allow any timespan between the rapture and the tribulation? I believe the rapture will occur simultaneously with the signing of the Israel peace agreement or nearly so. We need to forget about looking skyward and instead keep our eyes on Jerusalem because Israel is the apple of God’s eye and the key to prophetic history. Why is our generation any different than the rest? What makes us think Jesus will return in our time? God is revealing more and more end time events from the Bible to the saints because they pertain to our time. We all understand the end time prophetic clock started clicking when Israel once again became a nation on May 14, 1948. Scripture says the generation that sees the rebirth of Israel will not all die before Jesus returns to earth so we can be sure we are in the end times of human history.
On May 14, 2020, 72 years will have passed since the birth of Israel. The world’s oldest person died recently at age 116. A person born in 1948 living to the age of 116 would die in 2064. Using simple math, Jesus must return no later than 2064. Keep in mind God could keep one person alive as long as He wanted to so as to not violate the Word. Using our estimate, the rapture would occur exactly seven years prior to the Second Coming or in 2057 at the latest. That is only 37 years from now. In my next blog I’ll discuss why I think the rapture will come much sooner than that. Either way, our job is to serve the Lord and “occupy until He comes!”