I'd like give you two quick anecdotes....and then a hypothetical question:
Twenty years ago when our son was studying for the law school entrance exams....he was in a book every night that had sample questions. Well....maybe I wanted to show him how smart his old man was...I don't remember....but I asked him to give me a sample question....and he did....and I walked away and started to work on it. All I can remember about it was that it was a mathematical question about so many pool table balls....half solid and half striped. So I worked on it the rest of the evening.....but being the way that I am I was not going to give up....so I worked on it the next day....and the next day....and then went to him and told him that I couldn't figure it out. He couldn't believe that I had worked on it for three days and told me that you get fifteen minutes on each question.....and then he told me that there was no answer.....that they just wanted to know how the person went about addressing the problem! OK....fifteen minutes a question.....and there is no answer? Well at least I got that right because I sure didn't have an answer.
The Paper Chase was a 1973 movie about first year law students at an elite law school. It was a popular movie so they made a television series about it that ran for four seasons. John Houseman played Professor Kingsfield in both the movie and television show. My wife and I remember how we liked it back then so I ordered the first two seasons on DVD and we are working our way through the episodes. In one episode Professor Kingsfield drew a large square on the blackboard....and then diagonally divided it with what he said was a river that split the plot of land....of which the deed stated that one farmer owned the land on the left side of the river....and another farmer owned the land on the right side of the river....and everything worked out Ok.....and they both had land and the river for water. Then nature took its course and over a short period of time the river had been redirected where it now was in the middle of the farmer on the left's land. So....who owns what. That was the hypothetical. The answer is not as easy as you might think. The deed stated that one farmer owned all the land on one side....so now one farmer would have a small plot and the other a larger plot. If you kept the same 50/50 split then one farmer has all the water. Kingsfield gave this to his students but there was never an answer given. He just wanted them to exercise their minds.
So now for the hypothetical. First I would ask of you to write down....(obviously you are not going to write anything down....but at least think about it)....how you would answer questions on the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....the possible nearness of it....and how much you desire Him to return. Well if you are an average evangelical you would state first that the Bible says that we do not know the day or the hour. That is the standard answer. It frees us up from ever even seriously considering the question. Then you might say that since we do not know the day or the hour that we have to be ready at all times. The problem here is that 'be ready' is never defined. Then you might give examples of how people have always said that Jesus was coming back soon....this for thousands of years....at times with disastrous repercussions....and of course you would be correct on that. In my own case....friends have said to me at times....'Special Dog....you have been saying that Jesus is coming back soon....forever?' Well....it's not been forever....but probably about forty years....increasingly in fervor with what I believe to be corroborating evidence.
So having written down....or memorized your answers I will now give you a hypothetical. Here it is. America has sustained some kind of EMP attack. (electromagnetic pulse) There are no satellites....and no communications....whatsoever! No radio or television of telephones or computers....no texting or emailing. Water systems all over America have been destroyed. (There was an FBI warning in the news again just today on threats to our water)....so no water....and no foreseeable water in the near future...and our sewage systems were destroyed all over America. I won't go into that in detail....for you would say....'too much information.' We would have electricity....but no communications....hardly any jobs....rationed food....and no water. I know this is difficult to imagine but please try. Think about it....you will have no iPhones or computers or telephones. You can't even contact someone two miles away!
That is the hypothetical....next I would ask you to answer again the questions as it would relate to the hypothetical....about the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....and how much you might desire Him to return soon....and compare the two answers. I believe that if you are honest....then this Second Coming of the Lord of Glory....in righteous judgment....and rescuing His children....would take on a whole new flavor. Would it not? I'll give you a clue....you would be seeing all kinds of verses on what it will be like when Jesus returns that you never knew were there! And consider this as it relates to the above hypothetical....the person who reads His Bible as someone in a small plane would read directions on landing....after the pilot just had a medical emergency and passed out....might just see clearer where the world is headed? And he might really pray for Jesus To return soon?
