The Way Ahead (Part 1)

The Way Ahead (Part 1)
By Tommy Franks

“Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near” (Rev 1.3, NIV). This verse was part of the Revelation of Jesus Christ given to John by His Angel (written about 96 A.D.).

Bottom Line Upfront (BLUF): The purpose of these articles/treatises is not to teach a specific eschatology (Biblical Doctrine of Future Things), but to meditate on the Scriptures concerning our future, the Return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, where we are going, and who we are going there with. Hopefully, this writing will captivate your thinking and excite you about “The Way Ahead” because we have an incredible future ahead of us. Our future will be much greater than out past. Our future will be incredible! We will have brand new bodies with no pain, sickness, or weakness. No poverty, hunger, lack, dissention, hate, terrorism, war, or prejudice will be there. We will see our loved ones who have gone on before us. Christ is coming…ready or not. Buckle your seat belts!

“As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in My Name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains” (Mt.24:3-8).
"…And you will be hated by all nations because of Me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Mt.24:9-14).
Some people today are asking, “Why doesn't God just show up now? It is not God’s timing yet. God has a time for everything. C.S. Lewis once said, "God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over.”
Are men and women actually looking for the return of Christ today? Every Sunday, millions of Christians recite the Nicene Creed or the Apostles’ Creed. We all state that Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. “His Kingdom will have no end”. That “Blessed Hope” is alive and well in our hearts and souls; however, do we really know a lot about heaven…which appears 582 times in Scripture? We will spend about 75 to 100 years on Planet Earth and at least 100 million years in Heaven and after that…forever! Think about it.

Some will ask, “Why should we be concerned with the Return of Christ? When it happens, it happens. It’s all I can do…to live today. Let tomorrow take care of itself.
Why should the future have an impact on me as a Christian? I was born. I live. I die. What’s the big deal?”

The problem with that type of thinking is: All parts of the Nicene Creed/Apostles’ Creed
are important to us as Christians. We believe in the Trinity. We believe that Christ came down from Heaven. We believe in His virgin birth. We believe that He was crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended back to Heaven, and is seated at the right Hand of the Father. We believe in the Holy Spirit as the Third Person of the Trinity. We believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of our sins. We believe in the resurrection of the dead and a new life in the world to come. We teach grace and mercy and forgiveness and love and Christian values. However, I hear very little about “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.” Why is this?

A. W. Tozer said, “It is precisely the "yearning" for the return of Christ that has
distinguished the personal hope from the theological one. We must love someone very much to stay awake and long for His coming.”
Jesus told His disciples that He would come again at some future time and even provided some signs for us to contemplate. If we accept the Nicene/Apostles’ Creeds and the rest of the Bible to be accurate, then we must accept the imminent certainty of the second coming of Jesus and the end of the world (age) as we know it…because the Bible has much to say on this subject. The Scriptures tell us when these events will happen, why they will happen, what will take place when they do happen, and how they will happen. God has never done anything on Planet Earth unless He first said it.
Check this out:
And God said, “Let there be light and there was light.”
And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”
And God said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.”
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.”
And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.”
And God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl [that] may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.”
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.”
And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
And God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”

And all of this is found in Genesis, Chapter 1. There are 534 verses in the Bible that say, “And God said.” God always tells us what is going on and what will be going on in the days ahead. He may NOT spell it out in MapQuest in every single detail, but he tells us about the times and the seasons as our “Way Ahead”.

From a broad perspective, this is what we do know: We know the times and the seasons. We do have some Biblical signs that help us understand the times in which we are living. Sometime in the future, the dead in the graves shall be resurrected, the resurrected dead and those still living shall rise up in the air to meet the Lord; this Earth as we know it will be renovated by fire, and then God will stand in the final judgment of all mankind. This we do know.

This is what we do NOT know: We do not know the exact hour, day, week or month of His return. Please do not get hung up on date-setting. Our Lord identified several unique physical events that would be in place just before His return:

Signs in the sun, moon and stars.
Distress of nations (perplexity). World problems that man cannot seemingly resolve.
Men's hearts failing them for fear. Increased heart attacks (today’s number one cause of death).
Seas and waves roaring and causing havoc.
Increased storm activity where floods and earthquakes would be more prevalent. Is this happening today?
Nation against nation.
Wars and rumors of wars.
Deception.
Christians will be hated.
The love of people will deteriorate and become cold. Is this happening today?

The Bible identifies the spiritual condition of mankind prior to the Lord’s return:
Faithful and wise men and women of God will be here.
However, so will evil servants be here.
In the last days, some Christians will disgrace God's word and themselves with evil ministries and life styles (MT.24:48-49).
Hypocrites will still be around…those who profess to be Christians but their lives do not reflect their confession.
Some people will have a form of Godliness, but will deny the power of God.
Some will be lukewarm.
Some will be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.
Some will be ever learning but never coming to the real truth….Does this sound familiar?
Apostasy, infidelity, scoffers, people who deny the very existence of God will be present.
Some will mock and scoff at those who are trusting God.
Some laws will be made against any form of Godliness. Look at our Justice System.
False religions will be global in the last days.
Complacency, indifference will be present.
Prior to the return of Christ, the Bible reveals the moral condition of man to be of the most debased condition since the times of Noah…when God decided to destroy the world by a great flood because of man's immorality.

Charles H. Spurgeon once said, “Now I think I know something of what Heaven is, for my mind is so carried away, my passions are so excited, my imagination is so elevated. All the powers of my mind are stirred up so that I can think of nothing but what the
preacher is speaking about!”

Enough for now…Stay tuned. This is Tommy Franks and I approve of this message.