We reserve a few minutes Sunday morning to suggest news, or trends, that seem to be predicted by a literal, futurist reading of the Bible.
We are careful to use recognized, reliable sources for news. There is a lot of sensationalism surrounding unfulfilled Bible prophecy, and we don’t want to add to it.
We’re not saying the things we report are the fulfillment of prophecy – only that they are the things you’d expect in light of the Bible’s unfulfilled prophecies.
Here is what I mean. Let’s say you are having your morning devotions, and because it promises you a special blessing, you are reading the Revelation of Jesus Christ. You read this infamous passage:
Rev 13:16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,
Rev 13:17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
You go off to work. A friend texts you with a link to an article on brietbart.com titled, Amazon Wants You to Scan Your Palm to Pay for Groceries.
Intrigued, you read the following:
Business Insider reports that Amazon is now letting customers pay at its Seattle convenience stores by scanning their palms. Amazon has begun trialing its new contactless Amazon One payment method, which links a customer’s palm print to a credit card so that they can pay by waving their hand in front of a scanner.
The palm scan also opens electronic entry gates at the two Amazon Go stores that usually require a code. The technology could roll out to more than 20 of Amazon’s Go stores as the trial continues. Amazon has also begun encouraging other retailers to sign up for the technology.
Customers can sign up for the payment method by going to one of the two stores trialing the system, entering their credit card details and mobile number into a device, and scanning their palm on a biometric reader. Amazon also stated that both user’s palms can be registered because “you never know which palm will be free when you need it.”
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/09/29/amazon-wants-you-to-scan-your-palm-to-pay-for-groceries/
As Gomer Pyle would say, “Well, golly.” That sounds similar to what the apostle John saw over 2000 years ago.
Amazon isn’t the Beast. Technology, by itself, isn’t the Mark of the Beast. But Amazon Go certainly uses your “hand” to “buy or sell.”
We believe the resurrection and rapture of the church is imminent. It could happen any moment; nothing needs to happen before it. It will definitely happen before the Tribulation.
It is popular today to criticize the imminent rapture of the church. One seemingly potent criticism is that early church writings do not support the imminent rapture.
That’s just not true. Listen to this quote from a professor of historical theology:
A cursory examination of the early church fathers reveals that they were predominantly premillennialists… Clear examples in the writings of Barnabas (ca. 100-150), Papias (ca. 60-130), Justin Martyr (110-165), Irenaeus (120- 202), Tertullian (145-220), Hippolytus (c. 185-236), Cyprian (200-250), and Lactantius (260-330) make this understanding impossible to challenge successfully.
https://tms.edu/m/tmsj13e.pdf
I hate to spend time on this, but you need to know. Another popular teaching is that the Revelation of Jesus Christ is written in a genre called “apocalyptic literature.” It’s more complicated than this, but essentially it means that Revelation cannot be taken as true, future history. It is allegorical.
There are a slew of problems with saying Revelation is in that genre, not the least of which is that honest scholars admit that the Revelation doesn’t meet the requirements for apocalyptic literature.
Jesus will come, in the clouds, and raise the dead believers of the Church Age.
He will transform the bodies of living believers to glorified, resurrection bodies. We will join Him in Heaven while the earth endures one final seven-year campaign of severe evangelism.
Are you ready for the rapture? If not, Get ready; Stay ready; Keep looking up.
Ready or not, Jesus is coming!