Coming Soon!

I have been seeing lots of people post on social media that “Jesus is coming soon.” They would not be wrong, even if He waits another generation.

But, though people are aware enough to say that Yeshua is coming soon, they are not aware of the ramifications of it.

“Let every man be sure in his own mind.” Paul wrote those words in explaining that we are going to have differences of opinions, and different positions in the Kingdom, and different purposes, points of view, understanding, et cetera. 

Many people, good people, have gone to their graves believing that they would see the return of the Messiah. Some people staked their whole ministry on declaring that one facet of Yeshua’s ministry. As a child, I fully believed that I would see His return, and I guessed I’d be barely 35 years old when it would happen. With that hope in me, I was very close to saying it would actually happen then. I did not and would not utterly say it, because I understood then as I do now that “….concerning that day and that hour, no man knows, not even the Messengers of heaven, but The Father alone,” according to Yeshua His Son. But, I told everyone I knew it ‘could’ happen. Of course, my hopes were dashed, and probably some of my friends grew even more jaded about the notion of Messiah’s return. I did not. Even then, I understood that as much as we want it, it will be in His timing.

I still look for His return. We are instructed to, and it is those who look for and long for His return that are actually in His Will. There are several passages telling us this. 

But, since it has been about 25 years since I was so enthusiastic, I have also learned a great deal about what scripture says about His return, and the nature of the events surrounding it. Back then, I was just emerging out of a ‘sunday-school’ education, where I parroted what others taught me, though I had just seen the very relevant nature of the Fall Feasts of God to the return of Messiah; but, I still saw only part of the picture. Now, I know without doubt that I see the majority of the picture with clarity; I’m not clairvoyant, have had no ‘visions’ [but did have two very relevant and God-given dreams that proved ministerial to the people in them as well], and cannot predict the exact timing of His return; but, I can, and I believe I should, dispel some of the egregious declarations from those who still have a nominal, ‘sunday school’ notion of what is coming on this earth.

Yeshua will indeed come very soon. I will say no later than 2070. And that’s not setting a date. But, if it goes past that, then there is more that needs to be dug out of scripture, which I have yet to see. 

I have written extensively about this in former blogs here, so I’m going to try to be a little brief. What I want to point out the most, is that the majority of people who are posting have a “NT Only” mentality in regard to the ‘rapture’. The “Natzal / נצל ” is indeed an “OT” precept, however, and without the “OT pieces” of the picture, there are holes in most people’s eschatology. The נצל as seen in the Tanak is the edge pieces of the eschatological puzzle, and much of the body, whereas the Brit Khadashah scriptures, where Sha’ul [Paul] ‘unveils the Sod’, or reveals the mystery, merely fill in the gaps in the middle.

There is a Natzal/Rapture. It is indeed at the beginning of what most know as “The Tribulation.” But, it is NOT all encompassing of ‘Christendom’ as many like to think. It will be a very, very small remnant. It will be unnoticeable to the globe.  Barley newsworthy will it be, and a huge distraction will take away from the one headline that event might get in world coverage. It will be a tiny remnant of people who actually walk in the footsteps of the Messiah, the Torah-keeping Jew who came and showed us how our Jewish people were in error, corrected them, and then sent them out into the Gentile world to CONVERT them to the faith of Israel. The remnant is making herself ‘spotless’ or ‘unspotted’ from the world. What most people call ‘church’ today is not at all unspotted, when one knows that the language ‘unspotted’ is Torah-relevant language concerning obeying His Commands. 

The majority of ‘Christendom’ will only just awaken to actual truth at that time. Many of them are not actually saved, and the ones who are, are sleepy. They see a partial picture of this world’s evil, and they do not see how very engrossed in it they are. They are busy seeking the next emotional miracle, and not in being changed from who they were to who they should be. They are caught up in doctrinal behaviors, and not in the Way of Messiah. 

It may seem arrogant of me, a fellow, earthly believer, to assert such things. But, Yeshua, our beloved Savior, is the one saying these things to the congregations. The “Seven Letters” to the seven congregations assert them, and there Yeshua is trying to encourage His Bride to ready herself. HE is the one who tells some of them He will throw them into a coffin, spew them out, take away their Menorah, blot them out, etc. That message is even more relevant today.  Seven times He says, “to him who overcomes,” implying some will, and some won’t.  

The believers are symbolically ‘marked’ with a sign; that ‘sign’ is His Sabbath, which embodies all of His walk; the Sabbath is the ‘spirit’ of God’s kindness toward man. It’s the first thing He did for mankind: create the Day of Rest, the Seventh Day. But, that alone is not enough, because that same spirit of CARE for mankind is personified in Yeshua, the Jewish Rabbi who taught 12 Jews how to follow God. Then, He taught another and sent him to the Gentile world: Sha’ul/Paul. And Paul said, “Follow me, as I follow Messiah. Keep the Jewish customs I believed to you.”  [1 Cor 11:1-2]

The pieces that the majority of people who look for His return do not see are the seven feasts, and all the many prophecies that are rife with language from the statutes surrounding those feasts. They see a ‘rapture’, and they may understand the timing of it to some degree, but they do not ‘see’ who is taken to the wedding: those who have oil; those who are prepared; those who have made THEMSELVES ready. The Bride is supposed to study the Bridal Contract, כתובה / ketubah, which is The Torah. 

Those who persist in insisting that the Torah is irrelevant and done away with are not preparing themselves for His coming. This does not mean they are not or will not be saved; it means they are not going to see Heaven before He puts His foot down on earth: they will go into the tribulation, and if their faith still holds, they will die for Messiah at the hand of the ruler of this world. They would see their souls under the altar crying out, “How long, O Adonai,” and then desire to be counted as His Beloved Bride, now, if they were truly seeking to follow Him now.

As I said, I want to be brief. I simply want to encourage people to take a serious look at their own walk. Throw your preconceptions away and read the scripture at face value, with the knowledge that Yeshua is God’s Son, a Jewish man who lived the Torah and explained it to Jews, and gave the Renewed Covenant to twelve Jews on the night of Passover. He did not change their religion, and neither did they. They went to gentiles and taught the SCRIPTURES, which, at that time, were ONLY Genesis through Malachi. 

Think. Ask questions if you like. Make yourself ready. We do not pretend we are the only ones ‘going’, but we are certainly doing our dead level best to be separate from this world, and have lost the affection of many friends and loved ones as a result. But, His Way is far too important to me to bemoan that too much.

Shalom!