This post is targeted toward those who believe in the Bible, but for those who do not have faith in the reliability of the word of YHVH (the LORD, aka God) I urge you to consider the following. What if the Bible described ICBM Nuclear Missiles complete with shape, dimensions, payload size, the weight of “heavy metal/uranium/lead” similar nukes, and the mechanism of operation, which is lifted up between heaven and earth and brings fire which destroys everything even the stones and causes people to vaporize where they stand? What are the chances that a book written 2500 years ago could have such an accurate description of something that was beyond the experience of man even 100 years ago? See this insightful translation of Zechariah 5.
The same Bible which provides those details also provides us with the details to know the year in which these ICBMs will fly through the whole world if you are willing to seek wisdom. It is through prophecy and its fulfillment that we can know that the Bible contains the word of our Creator. Without prophecy it is difficult to authenticate the word of YHVH relative to the word of man. Therefore, if you seek the truth you must understand prophecy so that you can validate the Bible's authenticity. Once you validate authenticity then you can trust the rest.
If you reject the Bible before a reasonable study of its fulfilled prophecies, then it is like rejecting a message from someone important without even attempting to authenticate the signature of the person who sent it.
Wake Up!
Dear brothers and sisters in Yeshua, it is time to wake up and heed Yeshua’s command to watch for that great and terrible Day. It is our job to blow the trumpet and sound the alarm.
Blow the trumpet in Zion [warning of impending judgment],
Sound an alarm on My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble and shudder in fear,
For the day of the YHVH is coming;
It is close at hand - Joel 2
But no one Knows...
There is one verse which is always quoted by those who don’t want to watch. They quote Matthew 24:36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” and then put their Bible down and claim, “case closed”. But if you continue reading..”therefore keep watch... if the owner had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch... so you also must be ready(keeping watch), because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect.”
Imagine a soldier telling his commander “I chose not to keep watch tonight because you told me that no one knows when the enemy will attack. I am 'ready' for an attack at any moment because I keep a gun on my nightstand”. Such a soldier, if discovered by his commander, would be punished for endangering the entire camp and failing to follow orders. Furthermore, if the enemy did come he would get the first shot thereby killing the soldier who wasn’t watching before the soldier had a chance to pull their gun!
“But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day...So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake (watching) and be sober.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:4-6
Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
So there are two things we need to watch for, the master coming and the enemy (thief) attacking. Throughout history, it was common for watchmen to be killed if their master found them derelict.
Ready to Die at any Time
To counter this some might claim that they are ready to die; therefore, watching in order to prevent death by the "thief" is not required. The thinking is that, because they believe/trust in/know the Messiah, they have salvation and eternal life.
He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. - 1 John 2:4
We have been commanded to watch; therefore, willful failure to keep his commandment to watch is evidence that you might not actually know Him. Note that we all sin and we all fail to keep his commandments in spite of our best effort. The question is whether or not we have a willful disregard for commandments such that we make excuses for not following them. This is touchy because many people are ignorant of commands or misunderstand the commands even if in their heart they desire to follow them. Others are intellectually limited and are unable to understand. Who then can be saved? With man it is impossible with YHVH all things are possible.
Never-the-less, those who do have understanding will choose to obey because they love him.
If you love me, you will obey my commandments. John 14:15
This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. - 1 John 5:1-5
"Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will (obeys commands) of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?' Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers’" (Matthew 7:21-23).
The assumption of “readiness” has a heart of pride. It presumes the finish line has been crossed and there is nothing left to do. It is best to keep your guard up and constantly look for spots in your garment so that you can keep it clean or ask Him to clean it.
It should be noted that we obey His commandments because we love him, not because by doing so we earn our salvation. Our salvation is by faith in and love of Him. Our works are merely evidence of our faith and love.
Signs are too vague to watch
If you have only done a surface level reading you might think that the “signs” are vague, subjective, and not terribly useful for pinpointing when things might happen; however, Yeshua rebukes those who cannot interpret the signs:
“O ye hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times?” - Matthew 16:3
For the days shall come upon thee, that your enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay you even with the ground, and your children with you; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because you knew not the time of your visitation. - Luke 19:43
While this prophecy clearly describes the 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem, I believe that it is also a double prophecy that applies equally to the second coming. Those who fail to watch are hypocrites if they claim “no one can discern the signs” because “no one knows”. What good are “signs” if no one can read them? Why does the bible spend twice as much time talking about the second coming as it does about the first? If Yeshua expected people to know the signs of the first coming, how much more the second? I believe there is a good chance that those who do not watch will be caught like a thief in the night and end up going through the tribulation.
When you read the scriptures you discover that YHVH gave precise timelines that point directly to Yeshua’s first coming. Many people in Yeshua’s day knew within a year or two when to expect the Messiah. Daniel clearly states that “from the time the order goes out to rebuild Jerusalem... there shall be 70 sevens”. Furthermore, if you are a student of YHVH’s ways you know that he really likes to do things in groups of 7 years and that not just any 7 years will do. You would know that there is a 7 year Sabbatical cycle and He always lines things up with that schedule.
This means that if you can date something to within a couple years you can easily round up/down to the nearest Sabbatical cycle. From this the people of Yeshua’s day could easily identify the 7 year period of Yeshua’s first coming. In many ways they had it easier than we do because the command to rebuild was less than 500 years before and they were still keeping the 7 year cycle. Thankfully, we have almost irrefutable evidence for where this 7-year cycle is today.
A truly astute watcher in Yeshua’s day would have been able to determine the exact year Yeshua would be killed (cut off) and the need for sacrifice and oblation to end because it says “in the midst of the 70th week”. Yeshua’s ministry was during the first fulfilment of Daniel’s 70th week, but, as I will explain later, there are multiple parallel fulfillments of Daniel’s prophecy.
So if the first coming was prophesied to precisely identify the 7 year window of Yeshua’s ministry and the year of his death, why wouldn’t the second coming be precisely identified?
Rapture vs Tribulation
I believe that part of the confusion is that people mix up the timing of the rapture with the timing of the tribulation. I truly believe that no one knows the exact timing of the rapture; however, the timing of the Tribulation has been set in stone since the beginning of creation.
“I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times what is to come” - Isaiah 46:10
He created the sun, moon, and stars to serve as signs. Since physics allows us to simulate the night sky for thousands of years forward and backward in time we know that this future Tribulation date is fixed and unmovable. This means that every year that goes by the search window shrinks!
If you knew when to expect the tribulation then the rapture wouldn’t catch you completely off guard! You would know the urgency of repenting from your sins and how to prepare yourself and others. You want to be found as a faithful servant who was watching and waiting.
YHVH always warns before Judgment
Time and time again YHVH tells people exactly when judgment is coming and He fulfills His word to the day! YHVH tells Abram that his descendants will be inflicted for 400 years and afterward He would Judge that nation (Egypt) and they shall come out with great possessions. Jonah told Ninivah that they would be destroyed in exactly 40 days if they didn’t repent and after seeing the solar eclipse (which no one could predict in those days) they believed Jonah and repented. This means that YHVH set the sun, moon, and stars in place at creation to produce a solar eclipse at just the right time for the warning to Ninivah.
Why did Daniel get the prophecy for the 70 sevens? Because he studied the word of YHVH through the prophet Jeremiah and could determine that 70 years must pass before coming out of captivity. If YHVH could be precise enough with all of these recorded instances, why would His character be different when it comes to the most terrible judgment (past and future) in human history?
What do you believe?
Do you believe that YHVH will warn His people with accurate timings or does He give prophecies that are as vague as false prophets and flexible enough to point to any random time? If all you can think to look for is war, famine, earthquakes and random blood moons and eclipses then it would indeed be fruitless to speculate because we have had these continuously for thousands of years. However, if you are wise and believe that YHVH wants His people to know and you believe He wouldn’t emphatically give a pointless command to “Watch!” over and over, then you must conclude that there is a predestined timeline laid down from the beginning of creation and that it is disclosed through scripture to all who ask, seek, and knock.
Behold I Stand at the Door
Hopefully everything up to this point has gotten your attention and convinced you that failing to watch is rebellion and anyone who is in active, informed, unrepentant rebelion can hardly claim to be “ready at all times and therefore has no need to watch”. The good news is that there are many people who are actively watching and so you can stand on the shoulders of giants to get a better view!
In my study (built on giants) I have found that there is a very narrow window for the Tribulation starting April 8th, 2024 and ending by spring of 2032. If the Tribulation does not occur in this window, then the next Jubilee is at least 49 years away and most of us will be dead. I will note that the Jubilee year will either start in April or six months later and that the Jubilee is where I expect a lot of the action to occur. As you can see, if the watchman community is right, then there is not much time to get ready and to buy oil for your lamps!
Conclusion
We are commanded to watch, so we should diligently search the scriptures, study the sun, moon, and stars, and keep an eye on current events and how they align with scripture. If we do this then we will not be taken by surprise and will be ready to be caught up. We cannot simply ignore His instructions because we said a salvation prayer.