2 Sept 2024

Coincidence and Christ’s Coming

“There is no such word as ‘coincidence’ in God’s vocabulary.”

Hal Lindsey is the one I first heard say this. Perhaps others said it before him, but I’ll just give him credit for that truth. And truth it is. Nothing that happens occurs without God knowing. As a matter of fact, He knew about it—whatever it might be—since as far back as eternity goes. And this gives me great confidence that when the Lord Jesus says our redemption is drawing near when we see things He foretold begin to come to pass (Luke 21:28), we can be sure those things we see are not coincidences.

Jesus is the very Word of God (John 1:1). So the things His Word tells us we should look for to determine the nearness of His return to “redeem” or “rescue” God’s children can’t be mere coincidence. We know these are bona fide indicators that His return is on the very brink.

Jesus said great deception and deceivers would be on the scene as the time nears for Him to intervene in the wickedness of humankind. He said there would be great tumult within the seas of humanity, and there would be great ethnic turmoil. Things, He said, would be like they were in the days of Noah and of Lot in Sodom. He said there would be wars and rumors of wars.

Through the Apostle Paul, Jesus warned that the times would be perilous as the end of the age nears. People would be fierce. They would be without natural affection, meaning, I take it, that humankind would be going after “strange flesh,” as Jude described the greatly increased ungodliness. They would, like in Lot’s day, be engaging in homosexual activity and abortion, both of which are as far from “natural affection” as any society or culture can get.

Do we see great deception today? Just consider the way the American political process the deceivers, with the assistance of the mainstream news media, blatantly display this end-times characteristic.

Is there tremendous tumult among the peoples of Earth, with ethnic strife ramping up to the point that there are great rumors of war, and, in fact, major wars that threaten much wider conflict?

Are things like they were in the days of Noah and of Lot? Is there ever-increasing violence, with homosexuality seemingly becoming the norm rather than aberrant?

Are there indicators today that, like Jude points out, this world is filled with ungodliness and incorrigible wickedness that is deserving of God’s judgment and wrath? How about, as a prime example, the slaughter of babies by the multi-millions in their mothers’ wombs?

Any believer filled with Holy Spirit discernment can testify that we see all these end-of-days’ characteristics and activities in every direction. But, to go deeper into where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline, let’s examine up close things taking place that cannot be mere coincidence in showing the nearness of Christ’s soon, sudden involvement in the evil affairs of fallen humankind.

In my thinking, the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump is an astonishing indicator of Heaven’s direct reach into this wicked time. That the candidate for the presidency was providentially protected is nothing short of miraculous. Yet the matter has been totally washed over by a lack of mainstream coverage. The prince of the power of the air turned all the right devices of control to influence his broadcasting minions to ignore what surely was one of the most overt acts of Deity in history.

Mainstream media, after twenty-four hours or so of semi-coverage, relegated the near assassination, the murder of another, and the near-fatal wounding of two others to being nothing more than coincidence.

But it was not coincidental. The intervention was on full display before the entire world. It was God making a statement. He is now showing His great right hand of omniscience and omnipotence at this late hour of the quickly fleeting Age of Grace.

Our God has reached down to make such statements before in recent times. These, too, have been treated as coincidence by mainstream media–and subsequently, they have deceived their mass audiences.

You might recall that one memorable event took place several years ago as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was voting to approve a “social statement on human sexuality” designed to open the way for congregations to be led by openly homosexual ministers and to make way for ELCA to perform same-sex marriages. A fierce storm described by many as a tornado unexpectedly ripped through downtown Minneapolis, where the ELCA convention was taking place. The storm damaged the convention center, along with the ELCA church across the street—even knocking over the church’s steeple in a bizarrely symbolic occurrence.

The tornado touched down near the outskirts of the city and made its track directly to the church, where it struck precisely at 2 p.m., the exact time the vote on the matters involved was to begin.

The Washington Post reported on the event in a joking way, calling it a coincidence and chiding mockingly those who attributed it to anything other.

Jesus said through the prophets that His return to intervene into the affairs of humankind would involve the nation Israel at the center of the turmoil that would be raging at the time. There is great turbulence at this moment in the Middle East. And Israel is at the center–not only of the troubles in the Middle East but of the entire world of diplomatic chaos.

Those diplomats are crying “peace and safety,” wanting to force Israel to bring to an end the ongoing conflict against Iran and its proxy terrorist entities.

Israel, because of the October 7, 2023, assault that killed 1,200 people, has directly attacked Iran, killing one of the top terrorist leaders in Tehran. Iran’s supreme leader has vowed to make Israel pay for the attack. This, the diplomatic sorts fear, could spark all-out war–even one that might go nuclear.

But just as everything pointed to this expanded war taking place, another “coincidence” has taken place. My friend Dr. Mark Hitchcock frames the incident:

The main story I would like to highlight surrounds the earthquake that took place recently in Syria [and Lebanon]. There’s an article in the Jerusalem Post about this fascinating development. The headline of the article says, “Heaven sent: Is Lebanon’s earthquake a testament to divine protection?”

Here is some intriguing information the article included:

Hezbollah’s underground ambitions may now lie buried, turned to ashes before they had any chance to harm us.

In our collective memory, Tisha B’Av has always been a solemn day, marked by the destruction of the First and Second Temples.

To provide further context, Tisha B’Av is a day of sorrow and reflection, which usually falls on our calendar in early August. It marks the destruction of Solomon’s Temple in 586 BC and the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70. Those events happened on the same day. That’s not an accident—that’s divine providence. It was the hand of God showing the Jewish people that He was behind these destructions that took place because of their disobedience to Him.

The article continues:

This year, however, the day bore witness to what many of us view as a modern-day miracle—a testament to divine intervention that could not have come at a more crucial time.

Reports confirmed a 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck Syria and Lebanon, profoundly impacting the region. This was not just any seismic event; it may have served as an unanticipated yet divine act that thwarted a grave threat against the Jewish nation. (“Tectonic Shifts: Did God Use an Earthquake in the Middle East to Thwart an Attack on Israel?” “Marking The End Times,” August 18, 2024)

The collapse of those tunnels filled with munitions meant to be fired into Israel is profound proof of God’s hands-on control.

I believe we will see God’s mighty hand of control continue to reach into our world of wickedness the nearer we come to the time when Jesus calls all believers to Himself in the Rapture.

I implore you to be part of that divine rescue and avoid the terrible judgment and wrath that will then befall all rebels left on Earth.

Here is how to go to the Lord when He calls all believers living and who have died:

“That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

—Terry

The Restrainer :: By Jonathan Brentner

A few years ago, JD Farag used a rubber band as an illustration of the nearness of the Rapture. Just as one can only stretch it so far before it snaps, so world events could only continue so long before the chaos of the Tribulation period erupted across the earth.

At the time, it appeared as though the horses and riders of the apocalypse were about ready to ride across the earth spreading deceit, wars, famine, and much death in their wake (Revelation 6:1-8); things that happen after Jesus appears and takes us out of the world.

Today, we seem even closer to the chaos that will mark the start of the Day of the Lord, yet we remain earthbound. What’s going on? The Apostle Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8, tells us that what we see today is the work of the Restrainer, the Holy Spirit, who is currently working through the Church to block the revealing of antichrist and restrain the lawlessness that will accompany his unveiling to the world.

“For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.”

The many signs pointing to the onset of the seven-year Tribulation are unmistakable. However, the Restrainer is also at work delaying the events of Revelation 6 until we are safely with Jesus in Heaven and He opens the seals.

Our world is currently full of conflicts that have the potential to lead to a world war far more deadly than the ones of the past century. As Ukraine, with NATO expertise, equipment, and training, continues to strike deep into its territory, Russian leaders continue to warn that such actions will lead to a nuclear war, which would contribute to the enormous death toll that we read about in Revelation 6:7-8.

Kremlin Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently warned America that its participation in its war with Ukraine was “like small children playing with matches.” I believe that the hesitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin to respond with nuclear weapons comes from the Holy Spirit’s restraint rather than his benevolence.

A great many people, including me, expected a major war to occur in the Middle East weeks ago, but so far, the fighting hasn’t reached that level.

Author and Bible prophecy expert Joel C. Rosenberg addressed God’s restraint in the Middle East in a recent article: Has God supernaturally thwarted Iran & Hezbollah from launching apocalyptic missile attacks against Israel? Or is the attack still coming? Another writer, Mark Hitchcock, in a piece that appeared on the Harbinger’s Daily website, considered the possibility that God had used a recent earthquake in Syria to thwart an all-out attack on Israel.

Long ago, Ezekiel predicted that an alliance of nations would invade Israel in the end times (chapters 38-39). The players are aligned exactly as he prophesied, but the time has not yet come. In recent weeks, Putin has become increasingly vocal of the need for a two-state division of Israel, which perhaps speaks to his future involvement in the Gog-Magog war. I’m of the opinion that this invasion will happen soon after the Rapture, but it’s possible we might still be here when it happens.

Another place where the rubber band should’ve snapped long before now lies in the area of the economy and what John witnessed – the “black horse” and its rider (Revelation 6:5-6). How much longer can a nation that’s thirty-five trillion dollars in debt keep rewarding millions of illegal aliens with vast amounts of money that it must borrow? I’m convinced that the globalists are attempting to cause a catastrophic depression upon the U.S., one that will lead to economic devastation throughout the world.

According to what I learned while pursuing my MBA degree at the University of Iowa thirty-six years ago, the U.S. should already have arrived at a time of severe hyperinflation. The increases in the cost of living during the past few years have been substantial and quite painful for many families, but even so, they are relatively mild compared to what lies ahead for America.

For those of us who already belong to Christ, now is the time to be watching, knowing that His appearing to take us home is imminent. From our perspective, we are already living on borrowed time. The rubber band has been stretched beyond what we thought possible, and perhaps very soon, the “sudden destruction” of the Day of the Lord will fall upon those left behind after our departure.

As we wait, is it not encouraging to know that the seeming delay we see in world events is itself the fulfillment of prophecy? Apart from the Restrainer, how else can we explain the current lack of a leader who is able to make globalists’ dream of world dominance a reality?

-Jonathan

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