I was up early Thursday morning....and in the car heading to a higher elevation in order to see what I could of the solar eclipse. As it turned out the higher elevation was worse because a low hanging fog covered the flattened mall parking lot....so I headed back down....and was able....for a few seconds at most....and with the help of some eye protection....to clearly see the sliver of moon invade the rising disk in the morning sky.
I've been in the habit of posting on various events such as solar and lunar eclipses. I posted only a few words on August 21, 2017....on the...."first continent-wide eclipse to be visible only from the United States States since 1776"....and the following is part of a May 20, 2012 post....(a few weeks before the London Olympics)....titled....An Eclipse Of Christ...." As I write this an annular eclipse is in the western sky. The moon, at its furthest point from earth, blocks the sun, only leaving a ring of fire around the edge. Americans, most of us anyway, are no different than other peoples and cultures that decayed and disappeared. Christ has only been partially blocked from the American public....[and]....many look to Him only through a filtered lens.....[but]....as sure as the moon will quickly pass out of the way, His full-orbed glory will be evident, either in judgment or a glorious awakening."
When I joined the army in 1969....it was supposedly for four years....but as the beginning of that fourth year neared the part of the army that I was in suddenly found itself overstaffed....and offered us a year 'drop'....of which most of us took. At one moment I was looking at about a year and a half left in the army....and then the next....only six months left....so I could start my short-time calendar. When I talk to young college students today I often hear...."I have two years left"....or....."I have three years left"....or...."I only have one semester left!" It always helps to know how much time there is left to a task.
As far as the Tribulation is concerned.....we may not know when there are exactly seven years to the return of our Lord and Savior and King.....but whoever is here.....and has had ears to hear.....will know at the Abomination of Desolation....that there are three and a half years left. In one way one might say...."Oh my...three and a half years left!"....but then that one might say...."Praise God....only three and a half years left!"
We know of a rider on a white horse....with a bow in his hands....and he was given a "crown"....and was...."bent on conquest"....(NIV)....not a whole lot there on the beginning of the Tribulation....unless your looking at it in the past tense. There are numerous signs about the nearness of the Tribulation....some as plain as the nose on your face.....such as May of 1948. We may see this world ruler coming....or we may have to look back....and say...."Oh....or even"Uh-oh!"
If you think that God wants you to be totally clueless....all I have to say is....'hey.....you gotta be what you gotta be'....but God deals with our frailties....pulling us in with His staff when we stray....as a shepherd with his sheep. Only a few years ago....2017 to be exact....at the 500th anniversary of Luther's igniting the Reformation....one of the best Christian ministries that God has blessed us with....held a conference and titled it....The Next 500 Years! I could hardly believe this poorly chosen title.....and I think I said to myself...."500 years! How about the next 500 days!" As in so many other things....we tend to go too far one way or the other.....so we either set dates....or we are so afraid of being criticized that we won't even dare set centuries.....or millenniums!
