Have you ever paused for a moment to ponder the fact that exactly 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ was alive as a human being living on this earth in Israel? Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man was dwelling with mankind for a brief span of approximately 33 years, working as a carpenter with his earthly father, until he began his Christian ministry the last 3 years of his physical life here on Earth. In A.D. 24, Jesus had not yet begun his ministry.
400 years ago, come the year 2030, three direct lines of my ancestors came to America. I am a 12th generation American descended from those three lines on my mother’s side of the family. They represent primarily my Scottish, English, and Dutch ancestral lineages. Two sides arrived with the Puritans at the Massachusetts Bay Colony in April of 1630, and the third line arrived in May of 1630 at the Dutch colony in New Netherland (New York).
Four hundred years is a long time, but it reaches only one-fifth of the way back to the time of Jesus’s earthly life. Therefore, at the very minimum, I would need to line up at least 60 of my direct line ancestors in each family line to reach my ancestors who were living in the days of Jesus’ time on Earth. Just think about the billions of little things that had to go just right over those 60+ generations (much longer if families could be traced back to Noah) for you and me to be here today.
If just one link in that chain had been broken along the way, if even one direct line family member would not have married the person they did, or never married, or had died prematurely from illness or accident, or in war, you and I would not be here. So, the way I see it, that takes a heap of perfect planning on the part of Almighty God! Truly amazing!
On one hand, 2,000 years seems like a very long time, but at the speed life goes by today, a hundred years goes by mighty fast, making 2,000 years feel like a much shorter time span. After all, one thousand years is but a single day on God’s timetable (2 Peter 3:8).
The Bible cites a lot of big, round numbers. I personally think it would be simply great if Jesus would come back to rapture Christians from the earth even 2,000 years from the time of His resurrection or His ascension to heaven from the Mount of Olives, which took place 40 days after His resurrection. That timetable would put the Rapture of God’s Church (Christians) within reach during our lifetimes, and the current ‘signs of the times’ according to Biblical scripture certainly seem to reinforce the Rapture happening soon as a very distinct possibility.
What a thrill it would be to be part of the Rapture while we Christians today are still living. It will certainly be the ultimate experience for Christians still living on Earth at that time, even though the Bible says it will be accomplished in the ‘blink of an eye.’ But this is all just hopeful thinking on my part because not a single person knows the exact time the Rapture will take place, and the Bible makes that fact perfectly clear.
But be comforted in the fact that even if we die before the Rapture, Jesus will not forget us at the time of the Rapture. He will raise all Christians who have lived and died over the past nearly 2,000 years to meet Him in the air in order to give us our resurrected, incorruptible bodies, which will be fit for entrance into the New Heaven and New Earth to come.
However, the only way to become a raptured Christian is to be a believer in Jesus Christ (before the Rapture), as the Son of God and the Lamb of God came to Earth to redeem us from our sins and make us righteous with God the Father by dying on a cross, shedding His blood for us, defeating death by His own resurrection, and thereby becoming our Savior.
John 3:16 in the Bible says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life.”
In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
We cannot be saved by our family bloodlines. It does not matter how many of my 60 or so direct ancestors in each of my bloodlines over the last 2,000 years became Christians. Believing in Jesus is a personal decision only YOU can make. It is between you and Jesus.
Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.”
Despite the troubles in the world today, it is truly an awesome time to be alive and maybe be in the generation of people who will experience the Rapture before our physical death.
I do not think we pause often enough to seriously contemplate our miraculous personal existence on this planet, made possible only by the grace of God. We should follow more often the Biblical instruction found in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”
No matter when the Rapture takes place, the Bible advises Christians to be ‘watching’ for the return of Jesus Christ. Let us all say, come quickly, Lord Jesus! Let it be so—Amen!