God alone knows when Jesus will come back and it may be longer than people think, but the idea that people have plenty of time and don’t have to be ready right now is dangerous. God is in control and His schedule is not subject to the many different opinions that people have about where things are on His prophetic calendar. He changes hearts and minds, times and seasons, and He raises up leaders and brings down leaders. It’s all right to have opinions about how much time we have, but it’s another one of those things we can’t be too sure about it.
Pharaoh refused to let the children of Israel go home, but the Ten Plagues changed his mind. Nebuchadnezzar refused to repent of his sins, but seven years of crawling around on his hands and knees like an animal in a field changed his mind. Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh, but three days and three nights in the belly of a whale changed his mind. God can change the minds of leaders to speed up or delay the prophetic fulfillment of events on earth.
It may sound far-fetched to some, but it seems to me that God can put hooks (natural disasters, economic collapse, persecution, etc.) into the jaws of the church and drag her to the altar, if He wants to. He can change the minds of church members who refuse to humble themselves, pray, seek His face and turn from their wicked ways just as easily as He changed the minds of Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar and Jonah. Get out your Bible and read 2 Chronicles 7:13-14. If He decides to do it, He can bring the church to repentance and delay the fulfillment of prophecy.
Anyway, students of prophecy are very interested in Egypt, Syria, Iran and Russia these days (and rightly so). Some, but not all, believe President Putin outsmarted President Obama in the negotiations over Syria’s chemical weapons. They believe Mr. Putin is full of arrogance, pride, self-confidence and bravado, and the destruction of Damascus and the Russian-Islamic invasion of Israel are near. I tend to believe that way, but that would mean that President Putin is Gog and I don’t know that.
But this is the point. The timing of these end-of-the-age events depends entirely upon the sovereign will of God and not President Obama’s missteps, President Assad’s plans, President Putin’s over-estimation of himself or anything like that. The truth is that Gog will attack Israel when God puts hooks in his jaws and drags him onto the mountains of Israel and not before. Gog will go reluctantly not willing.
It looks like we are getting close to that and I’ve thought that for a long time. But I know that it is not going to be when Mr. Putin or any other human being is ready. It will be when God is ready. And when He gets ready the normal progression of events won’t matter. He can advance events as fast or as slow as He wants anytime He wants.
FYI: God Has Spoken (And We Know It) by Daymond Duck is available, (linked at raptureready.com to my publisher). Books and a Kindle version are available at amazon.com. A Nook version is available at bn.com. Check out what it says about Syria, Russia, Iran, Egypt, natural disasters, the Two-State Solution, etc. Please post a comment.
Prophecy Plus Ministries
Daymond & Rachel Duck