Obvious
In my observation, the main mistake end time teachers make is believing the signs of the time will be obvious. Let me be clear: They absolutely will not be.
Jesus isn't trying to scare a Bride into loving Him or getting ready. He is wooing a group of people forward from the church into being a Bride.
This is the point of the letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. He invites the church to overcome. Overcome what? Mostly the confusion, delusion, offense and deceit wrapped up in the incremental judgments being released.
The judgments aren't intended to scare people into the kingdom, as some teach. Jesus isn't desperate for followers or even to save the world. in John 17, He makes that clear. No, He is interested in leading any willing to be led to a wedding.
In Matthew 22 an invitation is expressed.
Matthew 22:4“Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.” ’ 5“But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business.
6“And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. 7“But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9‘Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ 10“So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
When the invitation is rejected by the church, the judgment comes, but not to scare people into the wedding...
There is a major misunderstanding about the end time events becoming more obvious. This is literally a satanic deception. Search it out. The main warning is that the end time events will be LESS obvious as they unfold. Not responding to the truth of the subtlety of the events, and the hardness of our own hearts is the RECIPE for delusion:
2 Thessalonians 2:9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The hardness of heart is because of confusion, delusion, and deception, and those same elements GROW a hard heart! This becomes a vicious cycle. We have to step out of the cycle of hardening into BELIEF. Not by signs, but rather by responding in faith to the simple truth of what is happening all around us!
Matthew 12:39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
We need a soft heart that can take a little fulfillment a long way. We want to respond more to less, not less to more. Being slow to respond is answered with a deception. The warnings about not being deceived are all to the church, and there are many in the New Testament.
In the parable of the ten bridesmaids we see this clearly laid out:
Matthew 25:5“But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. 6“And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’
The picture is of Jesus going with Peter to Gethsemane. Even the wise fall asleep. Only the watchers and prayers are awake and releasing that midnight cry. There are three kinds of believers in this parable: foolish and dull, wise but dull, and awake!
It will be as in the days of Noah...
Matthew 24:37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what [g]hour your Lord is coming.
This is a warning to the church...to the wheat and the tares. That is what is happening...the tares are being sifted out of the wheat by FAITH or UNBELIEF.
These warnings about signs, the days of Noah, etc...these warning are not for the world...an invitation is going out that one last time to the highways and byways. The warning of Noah is for the church. The church is mostly missing the end time events because she says to herself 'the bridegroom is delayed'. The world isn't even looking for a bridegroom. That reality makes no sense to the world. This is a warning to the would-be Bride. She has over-developed her understanding of the prophecies and now waits for God to do her will. This is what led the Sanhedrin to call for the execution of Jesus.
Matthew 24:44“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. 45“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46“Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47“Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 48“But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ 49“and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards,
50“the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51“and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
I hear many good Bible teachers miss this and set the expectation that the return of the Lord is decades away and that we are watching for signs. Not only is this assumption rooted in wrong expectations...it isn't what the writers of the New testament taught. The right approach is 'it is the last hour.' We should be watching Jesus' heart, our heart, and opening our heart to more truth in prayer. The kingdom is coming from the inside out.
When people say 'no one knows the day or the hour' they generally miss the point. We are supposed to search out the hour with the Holy Spirit and the "eyes to see" only the Spirit can give.
John wasn't wrong:
1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
Nowhere...not once... do we see Jesus correct John with some half-baked theology that no one could know the hour....No. John's approach to the hour is the BIBLICAL heart approach.
The signs of Jesus' coming are all present and fully manifesting. More will happen. Jesus isn't coming tonight, because Israel must cry out for Him to come. But that is where the world is quickly going. We should be looking for how that is unfolding, not how it isn't.
The signs will never be enough. If the trouble, politics, and falling away manifesting now isn't enough to declare with John ' it is the last hour,' then nothing will ever be enough for you.
Luke 19:43“For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44“and level you, and your children ithin you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Jesus isn't trying to scare a Bride into loving Him or getting ready. He is wooing a group of people forward from the church into being a Bride.
This is the point of the letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. He invites the church to overcome. Overcome what? Mostly the confusion, delusion, offense and deceit wrapped up in the incremental judgments being released.
The judgments aren't intended to scare people into the kingdom, as some teach. Jesus isn't desperate for followers or even to save the world. in John 17, He makes that clear. No, He is interested in leading any willing to be led to a wedding.
In Matthew 22 an invitation is expressed.
Matthew 22:4“Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.” ’ 5“But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business.
6“And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. 7“But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9‘Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ 10“So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
When the invitation is rejected by the church, the judgment comes, but not to scare people into the wedding...
There is a major misunderstanding about the end time events becoming more obvious. This is literally a satanic deception. Search it out. The main warning is that the end time events will be LESS obvious as they unfold. Not responding to the truth of the subtlety of the events, and the hardness of our own hearts is the RECIPE for delusion:
2 Thessalonians 2:9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The hardness of heart is because of confusion, delusion, and deception, and those same elements GROW a hard heart! This becomes a vicious cycle. We have to step out of the cycle of hardening into BELIEF. Not by signs, but rather by responding in faith to the simple truth of what is happening all around us!
Matthew 12:39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
We need a soft heart that can take a little fulfillment a long way. We want to respond more to less, not less to more. Being slow to respond is answered with a deception. The warnings about not being deceived are all to the church, and there are many in the New Testament.
In the parable of the ten bridesmaids we see this clearly laid out:
Matthew 25:5“But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. 6“And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’
The picture is of Jesus going with Peter to Gethsemane. Even the wise fall asleep. Only the watchers and prayers are awake and releasing that midnight cry. There are three kinds of believers in this parable: foolish and dull, wise but dull, and awake!
It will be as in the days of Noah...
Matthew 24:37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what [g]hour your Lord is coming.
This is a warning to the church...to the wheat and the tares. That is what is happening...the tares are being sifted out of the wheat by FAITH or UNBELIEF.
These warnings about signs, the days of Noah, etc...these warning are not for the world...an invitation is going out that one last time to the highways and byways. The warning of Noah is for the church. The church is mostly missing the end time events because she says to herself 'the bridegroom is delayed'. The world isn't even looking for a bridegroom. That reality makes no sense to the world. This is a warning to the would-be Bride. She has over-developed her understanding of the prophecies and now waits for God to do her will. This is what led the Sanhedrin to call for the execution of Jesus.
Matthew 24:44“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. 45“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46“Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47“Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 48“But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ 49“and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards,
50“the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51“and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
I hear many good Bible teachers miss this and set the expectation that the return of the Lord is decades away and that we are watching for signs. Not only is this assumption rooted in wrong expectations...it isn't what the writers of the New testament taught. The right approach is 'it is the last hour.' We should be watching Jesus' heart, our heart, and opening our heart to more truth in prayer. The kingdom is coming from the inside out.
When people say 'no one knows the day or the hour' they generally miss the point. We are supposed to search out the hour with the Holy Spirit and the "eyes to see" only the Spirit can give.
John wasn't wrong:
1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
Nowhere...not once... do we see Jesus correct John with some half-baked theology that no one could know the hour....No. John's approach to the hour is the BIBLICAL heart approach.
The signs of Jesus' coming are all present and fully manifesting. More will happen. Jesus isn't coming tonight, because Israel must cry out for Him to come. But that is where the world is quickly going. We should be looking for how that is unfolding, not how it isn't.
The signs will never be enough. If the trouble, politics, and falling away manifesting now isn't enough to declare with John ' it is the last hour,' then nothing will ever be enough for you.
Luke 19:43“For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44“and level you, and your children ithin you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
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