Greg Ryan concludes his Rapture Trilogy by exploring why God keeps the exact timing secret and what believers should do while waiting. He argues that knowing the day would make people act recklessly and lose faith, so God withholds it to keep Christians watchful and engaged in building the kingdom through everyday work.
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Welcome to episode 309. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I'm going to finish up on my trilogy on the rapture. I've got a couple of things I've got left to say, and there's a few things that I need to apologize for. I know I've probably used this quote before. I don't know if it's truly attributed to Mark Twain or not. I read somewhere that Mark Twain wrote down Sorry this letter was so long. It would have been shorter, but I didn't have the time. And I love that. I apply that as much as I can to my life because I know I have a tendency to ramble on. And I said that I was going to make these videos shorter, and lo and behold, video number 2 in the Rapture Trilogy was about 12 minutes or so. And I'm sorry, I'm going to make this a little quicker. If you are still here and you haven't clicked off of this video already, I'm going to answer these 2 questions. Why has God waited so long? And what are we to do while we wait? Well, of course, I've got to go to scripture because this is a pseudo Bible study. I love the word of God. You know, if you're a follower of this program, that I love to talk about the word of God. I love to get in the word of God and allow the word of God to get into me. And so that's why I'm here. I'm here to just Proclaim the word to you, and let's get after it. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. That's Matthew 24:36. And let's go to Acts because this is very similar. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. That's Acts 1:6 and 7. Now I want to comment here on these two scriptures. Jesus knows that we want to know. I guess that's the easiest way I can tell you that God knows that we want to know what's coming up, but God can see the end from the beginning, and there's a reason why God has not told you and I when the last day is coming. And I personally believe— now this is just my opinion, Gregology here— I think that you and I would do some crazy stupid crap if we knew that the last day was next Thursday. I believe I probably wouldn't do everything according to God's will or for God's kingdom if I knew next Thursday was my last day. And here's why I think that God has allowed us not to know, and it's because if you know the day and the time, you don't have to have faith for it. He said it in his word. You have to believe. Now, we don't know the date and time, we don't know the year, we don't know anything. And a lot of Christians have set the date and time, and every one of them has been wrong. And I have said multiple times, I'm not even going to try to set the date and time. But the next thing that I want to talk about is what Jesus said in Matthew 24 to his disciples. And we're going to pick that up in 24:42 and 44. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. That's Matthew 24:42 and 44. I believe these two scriptures give us an idea of what we were to do while we are are waiting on Christ, and that is to watch and be ready. So those two things we are to do, we're to watch for Christ's return and be ready. We're to be expecting. I'm told that we're to live each day like Jesus is coming this afternoon, and we are to plan like it's going to be for the next 100 years. And that takes us to a couple more scriptures, and then we're going to close this up. The next Bible verse I want to take you to is Luke 19:13. So he called 10 of his servants, delivered to them 10 minas, and said to them, do business until I come. In other versions it says, occupy until I return. Either way, we are to do business. We are to be doing God's business. I've talked about this multiple times. We are to build the kingdom of God. We are to do God's work. We're to do God's business. And whatever God's put on your heart and my heart, that's what we're to do. That's why I'm here. I believe God has put on my heart just to open up the Word of God, just to show you that an average guy can just get into the Word of God and just talk about it. And I don't have to be the smartest person in the room. And I'm going to say this out loud, there's a lot of times that maybe pride gets involved. We got to be the smartest one in the room, or we've got to know something that somebody else doesn't know.. And if we know something somebody else doesn't know, that elevates our status or that elevates us. And I'm telling you, I've told you this multiple times. If I walk into a room with 4 or 5 people, I'm pretty confident I'm not the smartest person in the room. I'm okay with all of that. And I want to close on this one last scripture, and it's the wisdom of Solomon. I love Solomon. I love studying Proverbs, and there's so much truth and there's so many nuggets in Proverbs. But Proverbs 13:12, hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. And the last thing I want to talk about, the reason why I believe God doesn't give us the time, we're not to set the time, is because when we keep setting a time and we keep pushing it out there and pushing it out there, that we start getting our hopes up or getting hope up, and we start looking at the scriptures and saying, hey, this is going to happen here, this is going to happen here. I have told you multiple times, the only thing I'm confident in is there is a day that Father God knows the day and the time and the hour, and we are one day closer today than we were yesterday. I don't care when you're listening to this, or I don't care when you're watching this video, that is a true statement. That's the day I'm going to set, that we're one day closer today than we were yesterday. And I tell people all the time, kind of tongue-in-cheek, but I don't know why God didn't come back yesterday because it was such a great day. He missed a great day to come back. But I believe God is so wonderful. He is the perfect Father, and he wants everybody to have a chance to make heaven. He knows how bad hell is, and he knows how wonderful heaven is, and he wants everybody to have the chance. And I think we've covered that. Let's pray real quick. God, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you for not telling us everything that we want, Lord. We kind of pitch a fit sometimes, but God, I thank you so much for your patience and your love and your kindness. Holy Spirit, lead and guide and direct us into the truths you want us to know, and help us to be more like you, Jesus, every day. God, we thank you, we love you, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode. Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
