Israel and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ

 

Jesus didn't come back last weekend.  I caught a little of the coverage on Fox News and was pleased with the way they handled it.  They made it clear that the belief that the rapture was going to happen on May 21st, 2011 was a lunatic fringe and not a mainstream Christian belief.  There were also a number of people quoting the passages that say that no man knows the day or the hour of His return.  And they seemed sympathetic to the victims rather than scornful.  So good job, Fox News.

When will Jesus be back? Are there some signs that we should be looking for?  The answer is yes, a resounding yes.  While no man can know the day or the hour, the day of the Lord will not come as a "thief in the night" if you are a believer and if you are paying attention to the signs.  The classic passage dealing with this matter is found in I Thess. 5 where Paul says that "the day of the lord will come just like a thief in the night" (v. 2).  But then he clarifies by adding that the "brethren are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief" (v. 4).  Clearly believers have "inside information" that outsiders either don't know about or don't believe.  So the question is, what is this inside information?  What are we supposed to be looking for?  The answer can be found in teaching that is well understood but seldom applied.  The information in the next paragraph is accepted as the correct interpretation of prophecy by the overwhelming majority of Bible believing people in North America and probably throughout rest of the world as well.

The second coming of Jesus Christ will be closely related to a seven year period in human history.  This seven year period will begin when the Antichrist signs a treaty with Israel.  In the middle of the seven year period the Antichrist will betray Israel and attempt to take his seat in the temple in Jerusalem and present himself to the world as God.

That paragraph is probably pretty close to being universally accepted by people who believe in a pre-millennial coming of Jesus Christ.  The book of Revelation speaks of a physical return of Christ to the earth where He will form a literal, world-wide government and physically rule for 1,000 years (the Millennium).  Because this passage is in the book of Revelation, which is filled with symbolic language, not all believers accept a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth, but this is the majority position among Bible believing people in North America.

Most believers think that the rapture, where Jesus supernaturally removes His church from the earth, will happen very near to the beginning of the seven year treaty period.  But the actual timing of the rapture has no impact on what I am about to share with you.  It makes sense to me that the one thing we should all be looking for is for the parties to be in place to sign this treaty.  For today's post I am going to focus on the State of Israel.  Next week we will look at the Antichrist. 

Obviously, there is a Jewish state in Palestine that could, in theory, sign a treaty with Antichrist at any time.  This is potentially very exciting news, but only potentially.  They have to survive in order to sign the treaty.  Personally, I believe that this particular group of Jews is back in Palestine by divine appointment and that they will probably survive until the emergence of Antichrist at which time they will sign a treaty with him.  But if something goes wrong, if there is a second holocaust, and if the current nation of Israel gets driven into the sea, it won't create any problems for my understanding of God's working in history.  This would simply mean that the time is not as close as we thought it was and that we will have to continue to wait for God to put things in place for the return of His Son.

I would also like to add that I see no reason why history couldn't continue on its present course for a very, very long time before the second coming whether the current Jewish state is destroyed or not.  The existence of a Jewish state in Palestine simply means that one of the chess pieces in on the board and placed where it needs to be for the treaty to be signed.  I won't start getting too excited until I see the second chess piece appear on the board and that would be the antichrist.  More on him in the next post.