Discerning the Signs but Looking for the Lord
I do listen. As I get older, I forget more easily, but I do listen to people’s concerns. In the last several years, a number of devoted Christians have asked me some form of the following question: “Are we close to the return of Jesus Christ?” As with any Biblical teaching, we must be careful with this subject. In Matthew 24:36, Jesus said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Later, in Acts 1:7, He added, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” Paul wrote in I Thesssalonians 5:2 that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Thus, date-setting defies God’s Word and dishonors our Savior. However, in Matthew 16:3, Jesus pointedly asks, “Can ye not discern the signs of the time?” We do not know and cannot know the exact time of Jesus’ Second Coming and the resulting period of the Tribulation, but we are told to seriously study the signs found in Scripture. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
A fifth harbinger of the hindmost holocaust of history is that folks will be frantically frazzled about the future. Certainly every generation has had its sad share of fretting, frustration, and fear. However, Daniel 12:1-4 speaks of a time when these feelings will intensify. The reference to Michael connects to the Tribulation (see Revelation 12:7), telling us that this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. Verse 2 speaks of the resurrection of believers at Jesus’ Second Coming (Revelation 20:4-6) and also that of unbelievers (Revelation 20:5, especially). Verse 3 assures us that the “wise” will discern the diabolical deception of the Antichrist (Daniel 11:36-45) and will help others to an understanding of the truth about Jesus (Revelation 7) during the Tribulation. Some people, particularly Jewish ones, will be saved during that terrible time after the Church has been raptured.
Verse 4 brings us to today’s primary point. Daniel is told to “seal” these prophecies; he is not to hide them but to keep them intact as a fixed and irrevocable legal document. Despite the clarity of God’s prophetic Word, “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” The emphasis on “knowledge” rather than wisdom is a huge problem, for without God’s discernment we will be “ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (II Timothy 3:5). Think of today’s explosion of information technology; how wise have we been in its appropriate application to our lives? Dangers abound, as we well know; I will not discuss the obvious ones. Two thoughts are uppermost in my mind. First, I think of what the science-fiction writer Frank Herbert said decades ago: “The devices themselves condition the users to employ each other the way they employ machines.” It may well be that the buttons are pushing us instead of us pushing the buttons, with a dehumanizing result. Second, I have never heard anyone discuss the impact of modern information technology, especially social media, on the human soul. We know that there are negative impacts on relationships, brain development, sleep, and a host of other issues. If we are frenziedly running “to and fro” to increase only knowledge and not wisdom, we are in grave peril. Yet, the Bible precisely predicts that “the time of the end” will find people looking for answers everywhere except where they can be found. Thank you, Lord, for this gracious warning.