Time Is Running Out!

Next Part But it will be too late!—much, much TOO LATE!

BY DAVID C. PACK

All of the prophecies of the two previous chapters form a dramatic parallel to events involving God’s people. This extraordinary parallel becomes a kind of inset chapter that is inseparable from all you have learned so far.
Assembling certain scriptures introduces a strange false picture before God’s people that must be understood. This picture is presented by carefully sequencing a series of key verses.
Do not permit the message contained to escape you!

One of the most critical warnings that Christ directed to His disciples at the end of the age was that many would have slipped into the belief that more time remained than God had planned. He summarized this attitude as “My Lord delays His coming” (Matt. 24:3, 48). Christ knew that circumstances, in both the world and the post-apostasy “church,” would mesmerize many into assuming they could enjoy their lives a little longer before “things blow up.”

The problem?
When calamity strikes without warning, many will be shocked, thinking, “I thought we had more time.”
A review of Jeremiah and Ezekiel reveals that this thinking reflects how people would perceive the speed and seriousness of end-time events between nations. They would not be able to recognize prophecy playing out before them. Follow closely, because some of the most critical understanding in the book comes now.

Recognize that both the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel long ago foretold a future strange interval in world events when, just before the end, political and religious leaders, among others, in the nations of Israel would offer public reassurance to the masses who would be concerned about what they were observing. Jeremiah wrote this about the efforts of leaders in latter-day Israel: “They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). For emphasis, God inspired Jeremiah to repeat this passage verbatim in chapter 8, Jeremiah 8:11.

Here is how Ezekiel describes the fruitless efforts of leaders who apply patchwork solutions to huge, impossible problems looming over the world: “Because, even because they [the leaders] have seduced My people [both Israel and sleepy brethren], saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar” ('Ezekiel 13:10).

Understand the terms being used here—grasp God’s meaning. “Untempered mortar” allows bricks to come loose under pressure where “walls” were thought to be stronger than they were. These ineffective “solutions” (the untempered political mortar used by world leaders) will involve military, political and probably religious solutions—and will almost surely include the spreading of the counterfeit “Jesus” and his band-aid, social-improvement “gospel.”

Because the One who became Christ inspired both Old Testament and New, it is not surprising that the problem of misreading events at the end would become a theme referenced by numerous Bible writers. In fact, Jesus Himself spoke more than once of how His Return would arrive without notice, as would a “thief” (Matt. 24:43; Luke 12:39) entering your home late at night when you would be asleep. Peter was also inspired to speak of Christ’s coming “as a thief in the night” (II Pet. 3:10).

Thieves do not telephone in advance of their coming. They “break and enter” homes or businesses without notice. Truly, the Tribulation and Day of the Lord will suddenly “break” into world peace and “enter” the course of every nation on earth!

Descriptive Summary

God inspired the apostle Paul to record a more detailed picture of our time, and it is in his first letter to the Thessalonians: “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you” (1 Thessalonians 5:1). First, pause and reread the verse. Can you say that this is true of yourself? Are you aware of where events and trends are today in God’s final prophesied biblical timeline? The evidence is that many brethren have needed someone to “write unto [them]” about these prophecies.

This is happening now!
The I Thessalonians 5 ALL: summary of timing in the last days continues with this sobering affirmation of the above passages: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord [with and including the preceding Tribulation] so comes as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3).

The painful labor of childbirth—“travail upon a woman”—begins suddenly, without notice, at the moment the mother’s “water breaks.” This can also happen prematurely. Similarly, a pregnant world, filled with problems and ready for “delivery,” will fall into a false security—a misperceived feeling of “peace and safety”—just before its “water breaks.” This will at some point, for geopolitical reasons we cannot yet clearly see, become the prevailing international mood. This attitude will overtake and capture the thinking of entire great Israelite nations, and probably soon.

The terrible, sickening result?—“and they shall not escape”!

Brethren Should Know Better

Let’s finish examining I Thessalonians 5 ALL. Notice 1 Thessalonians 5:4 that follows: “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” So tragically today, most brethren are in darkness, having fallen into the deep blindness that Christ foretold would strike the final era of His Church (Rev. 3:17).

Paul reminded the brethren of who they were and the responsibility they had: “You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:5-6). Darkness covers the truth of events for most. But God’s people are to be different from their neighbors. They must literally “see the light” of world events.

Yet, so many today cannot see the clock on the wall! Asleep, they are not watching and not sobered by ominous developing events. The result? This time will overtake thousands as a thief!

So many in the splinters are living as though the age will go on forever—but it will not! And remember, Paul wrote—in essence warned!—that the short Work would also be cut short. When understood, even this makes its own instructive statement. Consider. Why would God describe His Work this way if observers would think it was ending at just the right time? Reality screams that the majority will be fooled, most of these having been unwilling to comprehend—and others who knew but were unwilling to acknowledge—where God’s Work was.
So recognize—embed in your mind!—that there is a very powerful caution intrinsic within Romans 9:28! An already short Work will be further cut short.

“Saddle Up!”

Soon, the final Beast of Revelation, ridden by the whore of chapter 17, will explode onto the world scene. No one will be expecting this truly “thief in the night” event. Their sudden joint appearance will signal without warning that another “night” related event has come—the end of God’s Work. The Beast’s arrival and surrounding events were foretold this way: “As a snare shall it come on ALL them that dwell on the face of theWHOLE EARTH” (Luke 21:35). The message is that this time will pierce world “tranquility” without advance notice, except again for those diligently “watching” (Luke 21:36).

In the near future, the great “mama” whore will instruct her harlot “girls” to stop squabbling and disagreeing, to submit and to “return home NOW!” False, but very real, miracles will reinforce her command, and these wayward protesting “daughters” will come! Only a few years remain before the false prophet gives his “woman church” the chilling instruction to “saddle up” the Beast for its final ride into awesome, frightening prophecies that will leave all nations of earth in shocked amazement (Rev. 13:3-4, 8, 13-14; 17:2, 8)—and the nations of Israel in captivity, their lands destroyed.

Remember duality. It will be this religious/political/economic/military system that takes a defeated Israel into the “bitterness,” “rigor” and “affliction” of hard labor under the Beast’s brutal slavemasters, exactly as came upon ancient Israel under Pharaoh (Ex. 1:13-14; 2:23; 3:7). The similarities are striking to the point of stunning!

Most of God’s People Also Taken

Here is what so few seem any longer to remember: The Beast’s ride will also take the Great Whore directly into the lives of those of God’s people who thought there was more time—who did not take seriously either holding to the truth or continuing the Work of God. When this happens, all of the brethren who had fallen into compromise and the kinds of Protestant “harlot” thinking described in this book (and others written to the splinters) will be desperately sorry—and even more desperately wishing they could have another chance to make the right decision.