Facebook, David Sliker, and the end of the age

I had an extremely fun final hour,…well, actually, closer to final two hours, of my day on Tuesday. As usual, I gave Facebook one last look on my phone before bed. Not that I’m addicted to Facebook or anything… but I was waiting to hear back from my sister about Christmas plans and couldn’t resist checking people’s status updates. Well that’s when the fun began! David Sliker, who is a teacher at IHOPU, and has come to Bethany a couple times to teach on Eschatology, had a status update that immediately sucked me in; a statement that I couldn’t resist. His status update read, “David can prove that we’re in the generation of the Lord’s return in three scriptures.”

I have been thinking on this quite a bit since Janet (who by the way hasn’t blogged for a bit because our home computer is down for the count. She is rearranging the whole house. Seriously, the WHOLE house! Family members are changing rooms. Paint is being applied. Books and clothes and toys are being ditched. She is having way to much fun!) and I had a conversation with my brother, Jon, and sister-in-law, Renee. Renee asked me why I thought we were entering the last hours of natural history. I fumbled around and gave some half answers. I forget exactly what I said but it gave Janet and I desire to have a clear answer for this query. It was a great question and I wanted to be able to answer it way better then I did for Renee and Jon.  Janet has written about how we can know that Jesus’ second coming is near.  So, the question then is, if we can know, how will we know?  So, since I had so much fun last night solidifying my thoughts on this with David Sliker and a few of his closest Facebook “friends”,  I thought I’d share the my thoughts…

A common response I get to my “outlandish” statement that we are in (or at the very least, nearing) the last generation before the Lord’s return is something like this, “all generations have thought this since the book of Acts.” Really? Well we could argue that but let’s not. Instead let me give you 3 Scriptures, 3 things that Jesus said related to His return that give us the ability to measure if indeed his return is possible in our generation or not. (When I speak of a generation, I am speaking of a timeframe anywhere from 30 years to 120 years. It seems the Bible has that broad of a definition for a generation.) No generation since Jesus walked the earth have all three of these been at work.

#1. Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come“

I’ll start with the easy one.  Jesus says the gospel will have to go everywhere. Every people group and every language before his return. This is one I even heard as a Baptist kid growing up. The gospel will reach the whole earth in my lifetime. Even if we do a horrible job it will take no more than 50 years. It could take as little as 10 some say. The Call2All is one of the global initiatives that has as its mandate to finish the task of reaching the world with the gospel. Hundreds of mission organizations world wide are coming together to commit to doing this . The Joshua Project brings hard evidence of what places are left to reach.

Side Note: The fulfillment of Matthew 24:14 and the fulfillment of the Great Commission are completely different. We will preach the gospel to all nations before Jesus comes back but we will not complete the Great Commission until long after Jesus returns to the earth maybe even not until the end of his 1,000 year reign on the earth. Preaching the gospel, as a witness, to all nations is the easy job.  Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20 (the Great Commission) that all nations should be discipled and should be taught to observe all things. There is no way we will disciple all nations and teach them to observe all things before Jesus returns. In fact as the gospel goes forth and impacts thousands, wickedness will also rise and what is truly in the heart of man will forced to the surface as the end-time shaking increases. There will be such wickedness on the earth at His return that it will only be after He establishes His rule literally on the earth that all nations will begin to be discipled in all things. Jesus, in partnership with us, His bride, will do this and it will take the better part of the Millennial Reign to do so.

#2 Matthew 23:37-39, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’”

Jesus relates repentance and revival in Jerusalem directly to His Second Coming. A generation ago we had no Israel and no Jerusalem. For the first time in 1800+ years, we actually have Jews living in Israel that have the potential to recognize Jesus as their Messiah and have the chance to invite Him back to set up His rule in Jerusalem. The Jews will finally see Jesus in the way they always knew their messiah would arrive. He will be a victorious King  and will literally liberate them from the clutches of a military coalition that are bent on their destruction. Even now their is a growing number of believers in Jerusalem that are declaring this with perseverance.  Literal watchmen standing on the walls night and day giving the Father no rest until He ultimately makes Jerusalem a praise on the earth (Is. 62:6-7)

#3 Luke 18:7-8, “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

Jesus knits night and day prayer and the breaking in of speedy justice with His Second Coming. Crying out day and night, speedy justice and the Son of Man finding faith on the earth when He comes back. There has certainly been expressions of night and prayer throughout history. A bunch of monks did it a lot, the Moravians kept prayer meeting going for over 100 years. But it was always isolated to a particular group or region. What is happening now is an explosion. I can remember 5 years ago when I tried to find out more about this “crazy” thing called the prayer movement I could find minimal info. Today as I google “prayer movement”, I am amazed at the explosion of people interested in night and day prayer. The Luke 18 cry from the saints on earth will join with the Revelation 6:10 cry of the martyrs in heaven. These two prayers are one in the same. The cry for God to break in and make the wrong things right.  To bring justice. Jesus is merciful. He is slow to anger and rich in love, but He will not be silent for ever. This age will culminate with Jesus answering the cry of the martyrs in  heaven and the saints on the earth. He will avenge them speedily. Never before in history has there been such a desire for night and day prayer as there is now. There is a global expression of the saints’ persistent and consistent cry for Jesus to break in with speedy justice. If this movement continues to grow and mature as it has in the last 5 years, there will be literal night and day prayer happening in every nation on the earth in 20 years.

To close let me quote a comment by David Sliker from the discussion that got me writing this post in the first place, “These three major trends are moving towards fulfillment at the exact same time for the first time in history. That those three trends culminate in fulfillments knit to the Second Coming should get us shaking with giddy excitement…”

Consider me giddy and excited…and sober.