Yesterday we read about Paul’s proclamation of impeding judgment. His message, while reasoned very differently, didn’t differ from Jonah’s message to Nineveh centuries earlier. Both men called a people to repentance in order to avoid God’s judgment. The only significant difference between the two messages is that Jonah had set the judgment day as 40 days hence, while Paul’s message leaves the day open ended. When considering the creations complete history, Judgment day was near during Paul’s time. How much nearer is it for us?

Throughout my life I never considered that I would be a part of the rapture of the church. Considering the generations that have passes from the time of Jesus until now, the probability of my generation being raptured seemed remote. Over the last year I’ve changed my mind.

Every generation since Jesus had its arguments why they believed theirs was the generation to be raptured. They mostly pointed to wars and natural disasters as signs of the times, omitting the other signs that are to be present. One of those signs is the nation of Israel itself, and for the bulk of history between Jesus and today Israel wasn’t even a nation. Its restoration in 1948, and the resurrection of the Hebrew language a couple years earlier was the first time in millennia that the rapture was possible.

We still have the wars, rumors of wars, odd weather patterns and natural disasters. Do we have more of these things today than throughout history? It is hard to say. With today’s global communication our awareness of these things has grown exponentially over any other time in history. What I do know is that we have the nation of Israel, and now we have signs in the heavens.

Some of you may be familiar with the blood moon phenomenon, an astronomical phenomenon when the moon appears to be red. There have been many such occurrences throughout history, but on rare occasion they fall on the days of Jewish feasts God instituted back in Leviticus 19. The last time such a convergence took place was when Israel became a nation again in 1948. When is the next time a blood moon and a Jewish feast is supposed to overlap? This year and next.

In fact its happened once this year already, during Passover last April. The next time is tomorrow night during Rosh Hashanah. Amazingly, blood moons occur during the same two feast next year. Many believe this denotes something of great importance is coming.

Add to all of this that many believe the rapture is to be fulfilled during a Rosh Hashanah feast and you have perhaps a perfect storm in relationship to the rapture occurring this year or next. Rosh Hashanah occurs over two days, the 25th and 26th of September this year, meaning Jesus’s words regarding “no man knows the day” are still fulfilled.

I’m not claiming to have any secret knowledge, or to be stating emphatically the rapture will take place this year or next. I’m not selling my home in anticipation of leaving the planet. At the same time I am finishing projects that have been on the back burner and attending to relationships with greater urgency. Again, I have no revelation on this matter but it seems plausible to me and why not live in readiness? If the time was short in Paul’s day, it is even shorter in ours. Perhaps we should stop considering God to be slow in keeping the promise of his collection of the saints and began to live in anticipation of the great event.

I know some will scoff at me for suggesting the rapture may be eminent, just like the some scoffed at Paul when discussing the resurrection of the dead (Acts 17.32-.34), but I would rather call us to an awareness of Jesus’ promised return than to neglect the signs altogether. Perhaps it will cause some to live with greater purpose and a heightened sense of the importance to inform our friends and families about the Messiah. Again, like Paul, we may find a few who will follow the truth. A few who have been groping for God and find him as a result of our testimony.