“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign . . .”
Are you willing to show your age and admit to remembering when that song came out? Although referring to a different kind of ‘sign’, that song started going through my mind as I was reading the newspaper recently.
* All eyes are on Punxsutawney Phil to see the ‘sign’ of how much longer winter will last.
* A little cat named Oscar has been cuddling up to last stage Alzheimer’s patients in a hospice situation, indicating who has only days left. The cat is so accurate that the workers know to start notifying next of kin at this ‘sign’.
* A famous televangelist points to the earthquake in Haiti as a ‘sign’ of the deal Haitians made with the devil years ago to expel the French.
There are also lots of ‘end time prophecy’ gurus out there who point to all of the ‘signs’ that the ‘end is near’. You can look at what’s going on the world and see how accurately various ‘signs’ were stated in the Bible:
* "Wars and rumors of wars;" "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." Matthew 24:6 & 7. There are lots of wars, for sure.
* "There will be famines and earthquakes in various places." Matthew 24:7
* "Woe unto them who call evil, good, and good, evil." Isaiah 5:20. We seem to live in a culture that lets everyone decide their own ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.
* “Many will rush here and there, and knowledge will increase.” Daniel 12:4. Travel, satellite communications, the internet, etc.
* "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." II Timothy 3:1-5,7
* "And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them." Revelation 9:16. An army of that size had never existed until China's army reached that number in the 1960's.
* "For then I will return to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent." Zephaniah 3:9. Prior to the restoration of Israel in 1948, Hebrew was a dead language. Now Hebrew is spoken throughout Israel.
While I can really become fascinated with how so much of the biblical prophecy has been, is being, and will be fulfilled, I think there is a real danger with focusing too much on that. Certainly it is faith-building for me to see how prophecies have been fulfilled, knowing that the future prophecies will likewise be confirmed. But when we get wrapped up in ‘signs’, we are always anticipating the next one. And to some degree, we put off ‘getting ready’ until all the ‘signs’ we anticipate have been seen.
There are certainly many ‘signs’ left to be fulfilled before the Second Coming, before the Battle of Armageddon, before the Tribulation, before Millennial Kingdom, before the Final Judgment. BUT – there are NO unfulfilled ‘signs’ that stand between now and the Rapture. It could take place today, tomorrow, or in a hundred years. And there are certainly no ‘signs’ that stand between you and eternity – a bus could run over you tomorrow.
Are you ready?
Or are you waiting for some kind of ‘sign’?
I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” . . . But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. . . . [Therefore], what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. (2 Peter 3:3-12, NLT, emphasis added)
Don’t wait.
The time is now.
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign.
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind.
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?
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