Today's post is inspired by this article ...
http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/53032-george-o-wood-we-don-t-know-the-day-or-hour-but
There is a huge difference between a prophet & a porter/watcher, sometimes a person is both but they can be either/or. Many people that are showing warning signs today are not date setting, they are watching, as instructed. It would be irresponsible for watchers to not alert that this or that time could be *the time*. So much of the church is asleep with regard to the Lord's return.
Even Jesus said in Luk 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? We will not know the day nor the hour that is true, but we will be able to tell the season by watching.
Mat 24:43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
Mat 25:13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
Mar 13:33-37 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
Luk 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
1Th 5:6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
Rev 3:3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
Eze 33:3-5 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
Eze 33:6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
Jonah is a prime example of a watchman (and in his case a prophet) going to a city/people to warn of God's impending judgment. Yet, they repented and God did not destroy them. Jonah was quite upset about it. There are instances where signs show impending doom but God stays His hand for the sake of the repentant of heart, and for those fervently praying for their nations. Even so, the prophesied judgment did happen years later. Not all warnings will bear fruit in the days thought, God is the God of grace after all. But that does not excuse the watchmen from not warning. Porters, man your stations!
If a person warns of the possibility of the Lord's return on one of the Hebrew Holy Days, and it does not come to pass that year they warned in ... it doesn't mean it won't come to pass in a successive year, as was the case with Jonah's warning, and with Jesus' warning. I believe, based on what the Hebrew Feast Days mean, that the Lord will return on one of them.
Jesus has fully fulfilled the first three Hebrew Feasts, which are the first three branches of the Menorah, with the Jews/Israel. We are now at the fourth branch of the Menorah - "the times of the Gentiles" - between Passover, from the counting of the Omer 50 days and the giving of the Holy Spirit to seal us to God, ending in what I believe to be a future resurrection day of the bride of Christ at an upcoming Shavu'ot (the least celebrated holy day for the Jews). In other words, it makes sense to me that since we are still in the "times of the Gentiles", the middle branch of the Menorah, that consummation will happen at the end thereof, 50 prophetic *days* after it started.
I don't have the exact math of how that 50 *days* plays out, or from what year to what year, but if I do figure that out I'll do a new post about it. One possibility is that if, as the Jews believe, 2015-2016 is a year of Jubilee (and btw, they expect their Messiah this year) then we could take either 2015 or 2016 and divide it by 50 (represents *days* of the counting of the Omer between Passover & Shavu'ot) and the result would be about 40 years. So 40 x 50 = 2,000 years, being 40 jubilee periods of 50 years each. It has been about 2015-2016 years since Jesus' birth. At any rate, I will really be keyed in on Shavu'ot from now on. I have
written about that elsewhere so I'll not repeat here, scroll down for
more of my thoughts on that timing.
Interestingly, Gen 6:3 which says, "And the LORD said, My spirit
shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his
days shall be an hundred and twenty years." can also be calculated the same way: 120 x 50 jubilees = 6,000 years ... coincidence? I think not.
Others think Jesus will return for His bride at the Feast of Tabernacles or the Day of Atonement (at-one-ment). I believe this will actually be for the Jews/Israel and not for the "times of the Gentiles" bride. Once this middle branch of the menorah is completed, I believe, God will once again turn His full attention back to Israel to complete the last three branches/feasts in rapid succession.
Rom 11:25-27 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
No *true* watchman/porter is prophesying a specific date. We are simply warning of a potential time and the reasons why it may be. None of us are claiming "thus sayeth the Lord" as is the case with the Lord's prophets. Even when prophets of old spoke, often times the thing spoken of didn't happen right away. Jesus prophesying of the temple's destruction is another example, that didn't occur until some 40 years after His death/resurrection.
If you were entering a building and a porter {watchman/doorkeeper} said to you, "There was a bomb threat on the building today." Would you enter? Don't diss the porters, take heed.
As for me, I will continue to watch ... and warn ... a porter at the door.
