Season of the Lord’s Return

Do you believe we are living in the season of the Lord’s return? Find out as Dr. David Reagan interviews a panel of Bible prophecy experts on television’s “Christ in Prophecy.”

Last aired on September 23, 2012.

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Transcript

Dr. Reagan: Do you believe we are living in the season of the Lord’s Return, and if so, why? That is the question I had the opportunity to present to 13 Bible prophecy experts. Stay tuned for their answers.

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Part 1

Dr. Reagan: Greetings in the name of Jesus our Blessed Hope and welcome to Christ in Prophecy. This is our seventh week in a series of programs in which we have been featuring 13 Bible experts responding to questions about the book of Revelation. If you have missed our previous six programs featuring these interviews you can watch them on our website at lamblion.com. As I was concluding my interviews with these experts about the book of Revelation it suddenly occurred to me that I had a great opportunity to ask each of them about whether or not they believe we are living in the season of the Lord’s return. And if so why? And so I asked them. I hope you’ll find their answers to be as enlightening and as encouraging as I did. The question again was, “Do you believe we are living in the season of the Lord’s return; and if so, why?”

Daymond Duck: Oh gosh David, so many reasons. Everything you look at whether it is nature, or technology, whether it is politics, or whatever all of the signs are there right now. And it just looks like you can go to bed one night and the whole thing could blow up while you’re sleeping. You could wake up the next morning and the whole world could be in turmoil. There could be an economic collapse. Or Israel could have bombed that nuclear reactor in Iran. Or Syria could have fired a biological weapon into Israel and Israel has destroyed Damascus in one night. The stage is set. And we’ve got things that the Bible teaches that never existed before. Jerusalem the cup of trembling and the burdensome stone he singled out one city that would be a cup of trembling and a burdensome stone. He’s singled out one city that will be rebuilt Babylon, and people are wanting to rebuild and that kind of thing. He singled out a group of nations that the Antichrist would rise out of, and they have formed the European Union, and this kind of thing. So it’s set, and amazing things have happened. In order to track all buying and selling somebody would have to invent computers and the world wide web, and get barcodes, and barcode scanners in every store, and get them in every country on this earth, and using the same kind of thing. In order for people to see the two witnesses lying in the street somebody would have to invent televisions, and television cameras, and satellites and put satellites in orbit and all this kind of thing. Man has to be blind to overlook what’s going on in this world today.

Al Gist: Oh, there’s no doubt that we are living in the season of His coming. I wish I could tell you what day it was going to be, but I can’t do that, no one can. But He tells us clearly that we need to be ever watchful for His return. And He gives us many, many signs to be looking for that will tell us when it’s getting close. He says in Matthew 24, “Know that it is near, even at the doors.” Obviously this is not something that God expects us to wonder about or guess at. It’s something that we can really know. Know that it is near. And so I think that we can see that is near by the fulfillment of the signs. There are signs that deal with nature. There are signs that deal with politics. There are signs that deal with society. There are many, many signs of course that deal with the nation of Israel and what’s going on in the Middle East. And it’s interesting to me that there are so many signs, literally dozens of signs that are being fulfilled simultaneously. And you simply can’t write that off as coincidence. The fulfillment of the signs tell us that we are living at the end of the Church Age, and that our Lord Jesus is coming soon for His people.

Don Perkins: I do believe we are living in the season of our Lord’s return for a number of reasons. Number 1 current events in light of Bible prophecy, the nation of Israel. There are so many things that are happening that are indicators of our Lord’s return. And as a result of that I believe that the Lord’s return is at hand. Now I do believe that there are no signs that point to the Rapture; all the indicators that our Savior has given in Matthew, Mark, Luke and the Scriptures there they all point to the literal return of Christ. So therefore we can see the signs or indicators that point to the Lord’s Second coming. Then how close is the Rapture? I believe it’s even closer.

Gary Fisher: The first reason I would say is May 14th, 1948 the world experienced a great phenomenon. It was recorded in the Bible centuries, and centuries ago. And it was the birth of the nation of Israel, Isaiah 66:8, “Who has heard such a thing? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? Can a nation be born in one day?” And the answer is yes. And we know from that Scripture it is a miraculous birth because the birth pains came after the birth. And so we have this sign, this great sign to us in the last days. God says, “When you see the birth of the fig tree, know that everything in the book is about to be fulfilled.” So we’re the generation that’s seen Israel grow from a little fledgling nation of 50,000 about the turn of 1900’s after being scattered all over the world for 2,000 years, come back 500,000 May 14th, 1948. Today 7.1 million and they’re asking the question more than ever, who is this Messiah? Who is this Jesus? There’s 100 Messianic congregations in Israel. God said when he got the children of Israel back to the land of Israel he would put that seeking in their hearts and it would ultimately result in Zechariah 14:10, “When they will look on Him whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son.” We are living in the days when all of that is a possibility for the first time in 2,000 years.

Jack Kinsella: Yes, I believe we are and the main reason I believe that is because of the restoration of Israel. The fact that Israel has been reborn in the exact same piece of real estate that it was scattered from 2,000 years before would be amazingly significant even if the Bible didn’t say, “You know when this happens, this is going to begin the generation that’s going to see all these things come to pass.” So when you look at the fact that the Bible predicts that we will have global government, a global economy, and a global religion in the last days. And that Israel will be the linchpin upon which all these things rest. And then you look at the fact that in 1948 Israel is restored. The European Union was born through the Benelux Treaty of 1948; the GATT Treaty which became the World Trade Organization was signed in 1948. And the World Council of Churches was born in Amsterdam in 1948. You take all these things and you look at each of these and you say, “Every one of these is parts, and parcel in some way of this over arching picture. And it began with the restoration of Israel. And the Lord said that when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draws nigh. Verily, I say to you this generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled. And as you watch these things develop, and everything that could possibly go, that could go in one of two possible ways tends to always trend along what the Bible says will happen. So the evidence is overwhelming, you just have to look at it.

Ken Humphries: Yes, I do. I think that there are a number of reasons. Scripture taught us that before Jesus would come back to this earth Israel would have to be in the land, that’s always my first thought. We are taught just as Israel had to be in the land for Jesus’ birth, so they will have to be in the land for Jesus’ coming to this earth. And I believe that Israel are now in the land as I suppose we are all aware as we sit here that the others out there are not so aware but the truth of the matter was in 1917 General Allenby a British General by the way I should add went into Israel and liberated it from the Turks. From that moment that land became British mandated territory until May 1948 that land that had been given over to the League of Nations was then handed back to Israel; reminding us that this was the beginning of the regathering of God’s people into His own land that He had promised them. And they are now there and some I reckon somewhere about 7 million ready to hail his arriving when He comes to this earth. Some other things that come to mind the fact that there is a resurgent of Russian power; and of course the armies of the north who will be involved in that great battle the great Battle of Armageddon. The resurgence of the occult that we see again scripturally told to us. And even the reminders in nature Paul talks about nature, what’s the word I can’t remember the word but wanting their redemption their calling out as it were for their redemption, nature wants to be made new. And I feel because of the natural phenomenon there are today that nature is not only groaning, is the word I was looking for, groaning for her redemption. I feel that nature is squealing out for redemption. And all of these things and those are a few things that tell me the coming of the Lord is very near.

Part 2

Mark Hitchcock: Yeah when I look at our world today you know we see things lining up that are setting the state I believe for the Lord’s coming. The events of the end times cannot occur in a vacuum. It’s not like all of a sudden you are just going to puff out of nowhere, you know Israel gonna be a nation and all these things are going to line up. There has to be a time of state setting. And since the Jewish people were regathered to their land the modern state of Israel in 1948, you know in the last 60 years we have seen Israel regathered. We’ve seen at least the beginnings of a reuniting I think of the Roman Empire in Europe. We’ve seen the nations of Gog and Magog that coalition begin to gradually come together. We’ve got radical Islam. We’ve got globalism. You have a worldwide cry for peace in the Middle East. Which the event the Bible says that starts the 7 year Tribulation is a peace treaty between Antichrist and Israel. All these things have really come on the world scene in the last 60 years. The focus of the whole world is on the Middle East just should expect it to be if the Lord’s coming is near. So none of us know the time, we can’t set a date. But I believe that Jesus Christ could come back at anytime. And I think when we look at our world today events in our world are shaping up exactly the way we should expect them to be if the Lord’s coming is very near.

Nathan Jones: The signs of the time sure point to it. We can see a great advancement in technology throughout the world. I’m a Web Minister so I’m in technology all the time and Daniel talks about technology people coming to and fro and increasing in knowledge. We see society collapse into like the days of Noah, Noah’s time period was so corrupt that God had to destroy the whole world except Noah and his family. And the earth is really just so corrupt right now and continually increasing. There are signs of spirituality that the church would grow more apostate Revelation chapter 2 and 3 talk about the church of Laodicea the last Church Age church which is apathetic. And we live in a very apostate time. So the signs are just all around. And of course especially Israel is back in the land again. Israel is a nation once more, something 1900 years in the making and we are here to see it. And the Bible says that generation that sees it will know Jesus is coming back.

Terry James: Yes, I do very strongly. We look at all of the things that have happened in the headlines just within the past decade, in particularly within the last couple of years, even the last few months; particularly where it concerns the nation of Israel. But no matter which way you look on the prophetic horizon you see these things that Jesus talked about. Many of the things that have very strong implication of what Jesus talked about in the Olivet Discourse we see all of these things beginning to happen, and have been for many years. Probably since World War I or before when the wars and rumors of wars He talked about, I think in my opinion anyway. And Jesus said that when you see all of these things begin to come to pass in Luke 21:28 then look up and lift up your head for your redemption draws nigh. And He’s also told us as Christians as recorded in Mark 13:37, he says “What I say to one,” and He’s referring back to all of these things He had just talked about in the Olivet Discourse, “you see all of these things become He said to watch for them. What I say to one, I say to all watch.”

Tom McCall: In the season of the Lord’s return that’s a nice phrase. Yes, we’re not date setters. We can’t put a time on when the Rapture will occur. Many have tried to do that and failed and brought dishonor I would suggest to the Gospel and to the prophetic teaching. But we live in a time when so many of these things as we’ve already enumerated are shaping up and coming to pass. Why wouldn’t we be anticipating the Rapture of the Church and the subsequent things that follow? But we’ve looking for the Christ, the Christ to return. We are looking up for our redemption. We’re not looking for the Antichrist because he won’t be revealed until afterward. But we need to know all of these things so that number 1 we’ll be prepared for the Rapture and afterwards people will have some guide as to what is happening to them. I think that is one reason why the Left Behind series was so helpful because it is going to be a guide book of a sense to those who are left behind sadly.

August Rosado: Simply because of what Paul the Apostle said in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 he says, “But of the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write unto you. For ye yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord shall cometh as a thief in the night.” So even though we don’t know the day and the hour of the Rapture of the Church I do believe that we are indeed living in the times and the seasons of the coming of the Lord as Paul said in that passage I just quoted. So I know that every day that goes by Dr. Reagan is a day closer to the Lord’s soon return. We are living in the last days; we’ve been in the last days for the past 2,000 years since the birth of Jesus Christ. I believe that when the Rapture takes place those last days will turn into the end times. So every day that goes by is a day closer to His return. Maranatha. Ever since Israel became a nation May the 14th of 1948 God’s prophetic program, the ball just kept on rolling and ever since then we’ve been living in those last days. We see what is going on in the European Union right now. We see what’s going on in the Middle East. We see Iran looking to obtain nuclear weapons. We see Russia giving Syria all the technology to go to war against Israel in these last days. So everything that we see happening right now Dr. Reagan is indeed prophesized that Jesus Christ is coming back soon. Remember he said in Luke 21:28, “That when you see these things begin to come to pass,” not when they were fulfilled, but when they begin to come to pass, “look up lift up your head, for your redemption draweth nigh.”

Ed Hindson: I think the Bible always leaves you with the impression Jesus could come at any moment at anytime. The whole Church Age is actually described at times as part of the last days in which God is fulfilling His final purpose that He promised Abraham, “I would make you through your seed a blessing to all nations.” That is happening through the preaching of the Gospel through the Church in the very age in which we live. Do I personally think that we are coming down to the time of the end of the end so to speak? Yes I do. I don’t think we dare set any dates. The older I get the longer I realize the grace of God moves effectively. The judgment of God moves slowly. And that God continues to give people an opportunity to come to Christ. But there are five things that get my attention. (1) Israel is already back in the land. Every end times prophecy indicates they have to be back in the land in the last days for those prophecies to be fulfilled. They’re there. (2) There is a crisis in the Middle East. Biblical prophecies of the last days imply the nations coming against Israel at the time of the end. The fact that there is so much hostility in the Middle East today against Israel ought to tell us we’re moving very close to seeing that fulfilled. Thirdly the predictions of a global economy in the end times that the Antichrist will eventually control. We already have a global economy it already exists. Fifty years ago that would have been unheard of. And critics of Bible prophecy back then said, “How could one person control the economy of the whole world?” Well now it’s very obvious how, through computer technology. Fourth thing that gets my attention is the development of weapons of mass destruction. If the prophecies in the book of Revelation of trees burning up and the grass burning up are to be taken literally the very weapons that can accomplish that have already been invented. And then the fifth thing the rise of apostasy in the last days, we are seeing it today worse than ever before. It’s one thing for a person to say, “I don’t believe the Bible. I don’t believe its message. I don’t believe it’s inspired. I don’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I don’t believe the plan of salvation. I reject the whole thing out of hand.” But for people to stand up and say, “Oh, I believe the Bible. I even believe it’s the inspired Word of God. I even believe it’s inerrant in what it intends to say to us spiritually. But I don’t believe that Jesus really meant what He said. Or Jesus really claimed to be divine. Or that the promise of salvation is really an eternal promise that all, etcetera, etcetera.” We are seeing a denunciation of the basic fundamental principles of Christianity today within the Church that claims to be evangelical. And claims they believe in Jesus and preach the Gospel of Jesus. And yet they’re denying the very essential elements of that Gospel. Israel is back in the land. The Middle East is in a crisis. The global economy already exists. Weapons of mass destruction have already been invented. And the Church today is almost on a toboggan slide toward apostasy and unbelief. All of those to me are like flashing red lights to say, “Hey you’re running out of time, you better be ready. He’s coming soon.”

Part 3

Dr. Reagan: Well, if you were counting you may have noticed that we showed the responses of 12 persons and not 13 as we mentioned at the beginning of the program. And folks that’s because I forgot to ask one of our experts to respond to the question. That was Don McGee of Crown and Sickle Ministries in Amite, Louisiana. So, I asked Don to send me a written response and he did.

Here’s what he wrote, he said, “Yes, I believe we are living in the season of the Lord’s return. My reason for believing this, my reasons for believing this are rooted in the relatively recent yet unquestionably literal fulfillment of God’s promise to bring the Jewish people, dead as a nation for almost 2,000 years back to life as a reborn nation in their own homeland.” He then surveys Scriptures throughout the Old Testament that prophesized the regathering of the Jews to their homeland in the end times. He then comments, “Yet what it so mind boggling is that though most all Christians have some level of familiarity with these Scriptures. And though they can plainly see that what is happening perfectly fits with those Scriptures. Yet they vehemently deny that it has anything to do with end time prophecy.” He concludes with this observation he says, “The signs listed by Jesus in Matthew 24 are those events that immediately precede Jesus’ Second Coming and since we are witnessing the appearance of many of those signs today. And since the Rapture of the Church precedes the Second Coming by seven years then the only conclusion that makes any sense at all is that the coming of Jesus for His Church is imminent.”

So all 13 of our Bible prophecy experts agree that we are definitely living in the season of the Lord’s return. And I would like to add my voice to theirs because I believe with all my heart that we are living on borrowed time. I believe Jesus is at the very gates of Heaven waiting for His Father’s command to step out on a cloud and return to gather His Church from this world. And like the other Bible prophecy teachers and preachers we interviewed my belief is based on the end times signs revealed in the Bible, signs that are all around us today; literally shouting that Jesus is coming soon.

We recently prepared a video album, this one entitled, “50 Reasons Why We Are Living in the End Times.” It’s based upon a presentation I made to a conference in 2007 and here is a segment from it.

What are the signs that point to the fact that we are on the threshold of the Tribulation with the Second Coming on the horizon, and the Rapture just right around the corner? Well there are so many that it is really difficult to get a handle on them. And I might hasten to point out that this is a rather recent phenomenon, the fact that there are so many signs. Back in the early 90’s I had the opportunity to speak at a prophecy conference that was held in Orlando, Florida where I met a man I had heard about all my life but I never had met him personally. A great man of God by the name of Albert Peak from Abilene, Texas. He’s gone on to be with the Lord now. He was 80 years old at that time and his topic was the signs of the times. And I’ll never forget what he said. He got up and the very first thing he said was this, “Sixty years ago when I started preaching you had to scratch around like a chicken to find 2 signs pointing to the soon return of Jesus. Not so anymore,” he said. And then he said something I will never forget, “I am no longer looking for signs. I am listening for a sound; the sound of a trumpet.” And man I wanted to say, “Amen, that is what I’m doing, I’m listening for that sound.”

Do you realize that 100 years ago today in 1907 there was not one objective, tangible, measurable, identifiable sign that Jesus Christ was about to return. Not one 100 years ago today. We are a unique generation. The very first tangible measurable sign that you could get your hands on that came on the world scene was this one the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917 it was prompted by the fact that during World War I the Ottoman Empire became an ally of the Germans. And therefore when the Germans lost World War I the Ottoman Empire lost World War I. And just as the German Empire was carved up, the Ottoman Empire was carved up. And part of that Ottoman Empire was this area known as Palestine which today constitutes modern day Israel and Jordan. But in that day it was called Palestine, and that’s what it looked like. All of that was Palestine, nobody argues with that. And this particular piece of territory was given to the British and they were to become the tutors of the people there to lead them toward self government. Now what happened was that the British issued the Balfour Declaration, and it said, “His Majesty government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

So as a result of World War I God prepared a land for the people. The British said we are going to make it a homeland for the Jewish people. And the leading evangelical of that time a man by the name of F.B. Meyer, many of you are probably familiar with him. You’ve probably read his books on prayer. He was the leading evangelical in London at that time. He immediately recognized the significance of the Balfour Declaration. He sent out a letter to all of the Evangelical pastors of England and in that letter he made this statement, “The signs of the times point to toward the close of the times of the Gentiles and the return of Jesus can be expected at any moment.” He called for them to come to London for a meeting in late December and they did come. And they formed an organization called the Witness Movement International which still exists to this day, and sent out people all over the world to preach the soon return of Jesus because they recognized the significance of the Balfour Declaration. But before they could have their meeting another momentous event occurred and that was the liberation of Jerusalem on December the 11th 1917 when General Allenby took the city without firing a shot.

What you just viewed was a small segment from a 50 minute video presentation titled, “50 Reasons Why We Are Living in the End Times.” And believe it or not I really do present 50 reasons. I guess you’ve noticed that I have a tendency to talk fast. In just a moment our announcer will tell you how you can get a copy of the album.

Well folks that’s our program for this week. I hope it’s been a blessing to you, and I hope you will be back with us again next week. Until then this is Dave Reagan speaking for Lamb and Lion Ministries’ saying, “Look up, be watchful for our redemption is drawing near.”

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