I’m going to spend eternity with Jesus. I know this because Jesus promised me that I would.
He said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me” (John 14:6), and I came to the Father through the Son in November 1998. He said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:26), and I do indeed believe in Him.
Yes, I have no doubt where I’m spending eternity. And, for me, that’s what matters, not how it will happen, or even when it will happen.
That puts me in a weird spot. Once again people are out there trying to predict when Jesus will come back or when the world will “end,” or what significant celestial occurrence we should expect today.
September 23 is special because the stars and some planets will be lining upon in the sky in a way that hasn’t happened for seven-thousand years and sounds to some like a fulfillment of some prophecy found in Revelation 12:1-2.
I read an article recently on the Answers in Genesis website (not my favorite go-to source, but one I sometimes consult as a secondary source) that explained how it would take some real stretching of the imagination to make the stars’ alignment in today’s sky fit the scenario described in Revelation. I don’t know.
And, to be honest, I don’t care, and that’s what puts me in such a weird spot, because I know that so many others DO care.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that I don’t believe that God uses signs for us to pay attention to.
My friend Donna has recommended a book on this very thing that I plan to begin reading next week. And Jesus said in Luke 21:25-26a, 28, “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world…Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Clearly, Jesus told us to pay attention, and I do. When I say, “I don’t care,” what I mean is it doesn’t frighten me or cause any alarm in me or even change the way that I live.
I live with great anticipation that soon I will step into the glorious afterlife, whether it’s because Jesus comes back to take me or some great catastrophic event beckons me home or I catch the flu and die from it. That day is coming soon.
That anticipation, however, causes me to live with a great urgency as well, as I live with the assumption that today may be the last for people who I love, and I desperately want them to be ready. You wonder why I post so often on Facebook? That’s why. You wonder why I preach the Gospel Sunday after Sunday? That’s why. You wonder why I take the time to do a radio show and write a weekly newspaper column? That’s why.
Signs, wonders and events in this world do seem to point toward the “end times” coming soon, but none of us can know when, just as we don’t know when we will breathe our last breath. I tell people often, be ready NOW because Jesus might come back or you might die and both have the same end result, judgment before God.
Please don’t take my thoughts on this matter as being neglectful of a great biblical doctrine.
Again, that isn’t my intent. I have oil in my lamp, and I am ready. I just don’t spend a lot of time debating and discussing things that I’ll not know for sure this side of eternity anyway. Do I preach that Jesus is coming back? Absolutely, unapologetically. Do I discourage people from studying up on it? No way, no how.
I just advise that we keep at least one eye on the things of this world that we are trying to reach for Christ while the other looks longingly into the sky. We might be ready, but many are not- talk more about THAT with them than anything else. The end IS near, one way or another.
Mark Wingfield is pastor at First Baptist Church in Grottoes.
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