IAUA End Time Ministry
Preparing for the End of Time
The Lord is Coming! Are you ready?
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IAUA End Time Ministry |
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Preparing for the End of Time | |
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The Lord is Coming! Are you ready? | |
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Dear Brothers and Sisters in IAUA (ee-ah-oo-ah) our Father,
Greetings on this day of preparation for the weekly Sabbath. I pray this newsletter finds you in good health and happy in the service of IAUA. This is day 1 of month 9 of the Biblical Calendar in the estimated year 6022 Anno Mundi. The Spring Sabbaths begin with the Biblical New Year's day on the First Sabbath of Unleavened Bread in 19 weeks, day 15 of month 1 (Friday, March 22 of the 2019, Gregorian Calendar, at sunset Thursday, March 21). On God's Calendar the Biblical month begins on the global day after lunar conjunction. The Biblical year begins with God's New Year's Day (Passover) after the spring equinox (Spring Passover Rule). The Millerite Calendar (Spring New Moon Rule) is a month late in the Gregorian 2019 year. The Calculated Rabbinical Calendar will also be a month late. A newsletter reader responded with a comment that triggered a reaction from me. _____ They wrote: Thank you for this message. This weekend I heard another insight into the reasons for the delayed return of our Lord and the falling asleep of the saints. We have been commissioned to be the ones whom our Lord works through to spread the 3 angels messages, to every nation, tribe, language, and people group. But we have not done our part. (I have been attending the first meeting of the Center for South Asian religions where we have been reflecting and planning a much greater outreach to Hindus). There are one and a half billion Hindus we have not warned that our Lord is returning soon. There are 500 Million buddhists who have not heard, and there are two and a half billion muslims. We have done some work among the "easy" populations, but have done little among the more complex religions. Our Lord has to delay because we have not done the work He has given us to do. He cannot return while so many have still been given no chance to come to Him. We are causing the delay and have fallen asleep in the job. May our Lord have mercy on us. _____ I responded: I am often concerned when people express the idea that we have caused a delay to the return of our Savior. Believers have always felt the time was short as even stated in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 7:29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short... Romans 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand... Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand" Revelation 22:6-7 The Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly; blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. Ellen spoke of this problem. "The angels of God in their messages to men represent time as very short. Thus it has always been presented to me. It is true that time has continued longer than we expected in the early days of this message. Our Saviour did not appear as soon as we hoped. But has the word of the Lord failed? Never! It should be remembered that the promises and threatenings of God are alike conditional." {1SM 67.8} Ellen often spoke explicitly of our part in the delay. "If every soldier of Christ had done his duty, if every watchman on the walls of Zion had given the trumpet a certain sound, the world might ere this have heard the message of warning. But the work is years behind. While men have slept, Satan has stolen a march upon us." {9T 29.2} However, it sometimes seems the idea of our causing the delay is expressed inappropriately as an attempt to lay a burden of guilt on us to manipulate us to some type of support or action. This is the balancing evidence I have considered. God is omniscient and knows exactly when sin will end. We are not in charge and cannot change His plan. Isaiah 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: We do need to consider carefully whether we are participating in support of His plan or failing to do our part. He will come at His appointed time. We must do our part and repent for our failures. _____ I wrote again when I didn't hear from him (He was having computer problems): I wanted to ask, if you understood the points I was trying to make. What are your thoughts or comments? Please share, if you have time. I was also remembering that I believe Ellen said that God would move the spread of the gospel quickly at the end. Probably through the greater work of the Holy Spirit and the 144k. It is important to be concerned whether we are doing our part but to think we are delaying His return is not appropriate. I believe using this idea as a motivational tactic is not appropriate. Doug Bachelor wrote a song for one of his campaigns titled "Jesus Will Come On Time". I like that thought. _____ They wrote: My computer is working again, so here is my reply I was not able to send last week, Perhaps I need to clarify what I am saying. Yes, we have a tension between statements that Our Messiah could have returned already and the concept that God knows the end from the beginning and His plans know no hastening and no delay. What I am saying is that in the parable of the 10 virgins, God indicates that our Saviour will not return as early as we may think. There will be an apparent delay. It is not a delay to God, which is why He tells us clearly that there will be a delay, but it seems to be a delay to us. The question is, Is there a reason for this delay? that God said would happen. The answer, as always, is Yes. His work is not yet completed in earth. And why is it not yet completed? This is nothing to do with guilt trips. It is discerning clearly the will of God. His church has fallen asleep in a Laodicean condition and failed to do the task allotted to it as yet, and does not even know it. Personally, I don’t feel guilty for that because everyone has freedom of choice, but it inspires me to work differently than I have been working. I need to put my efforts in the areas that God has allotted His people to work in right now. This means a more specific work to me than just generally preparing for our Saviour’s return. There are large people groups in our world, particularly other major religions, that need to be told about the love of God and the sacrifice and return of His Son to this earth, that have never heard this message. He wants them to be given the chance to respond to Him. And He has chosen to work through us. I hope this clarifies what I am saying. _____ I responded: We basically agree. As a writer I can be very picky. Words can clarify and sometimes they confuse. :-) It is the nature of any brief statement that it cannot explain all the nuances. It is not practical or desirable to write a dissertation for every idea. Even the Bible tells us that our study must put thoughts together from different places to begin to reach understanding. _____ What we see as apparent delay is our limited knowledge of the plan of God. The idea of His soon coming and our great desire for Him to return soon must be balanced with the idea that the end can come immediately when we die. Also the feeling that the time has been longer than we expected needs to be balanced with the short time of our lives in this world of sin compared to our eternal future.
Habakkuk 2:1-3 I suspect that the reason God and the angels emphasize the shortness of time is that they know we do not take His coming as seriously as we need to. We are not making the preparations that are needed. I was shocked about 2003 when God led me to see that I was Laodicean. He showed me explicitly a part of His truth of which I was completely unaware. Instead of explaining it away and accepting the intent of the denomination to excuse it, I recognized and accepted His truth. I committed myself completely to intense search and study with shocking results. I am grateful to God for His guidance. Do you believe in the power of God to achieve His purpose at the time He plans? I pray we may all continue to seek love, peace, and unity in truth preparing for the soon coming of IAUShUO (ee-ah-oo-shoo-oh) Messiah, the Son of God.
Frank T. Clark Next: 2018-11-16 What If |
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Revised 2018-11-16 |