davidbowerkingwood

It Came to Pass

It has been calculated the expression, “it came to pass” is found around 452 times in the King James Version of the Holy Bible. I’m sure we have all probably shared in the thought that some things are better off having passed on rather than staying. Passing on is not only the pattern of life in the Bible, it is the normal way of life in the world we occupy.

There is no person throughout history that was so powerful or important they did not come to pass; kings, presidents, emperors, billionaires all come to pass; governments, nations and eras also come to pass; if it’s not coming, it’s going! At the time, it can be very difficult to tell when the coming part stops and the going part begins; it seems as if hindsight is the only reliable way to know when the shift occurs.

Nations and eras are a case in point; sometimes it is only after the shift has taken place that the timing becomes easier to identify. Much has been written about the life cycles of nations; while the authorship of the following is disputed, it is often attributed to a Scottish history professor, Alexander Tyler, in 1787:

Regardless of the authorship, the content seems to be very sound; I believe the headlines today fully support we are at the “apathy to dependence” stage. It appears that each Democrat candidate is trying to outdo the others in seeing how much public money can be distributed to voters who will vote for them.

The United States is 243 years old and counting; I am convinced the Lord will determine when the United States will cease to effectively function as a nation! I believe the clues provided in the Bible suggest the United States will go out with a bang, not a whimper!

The Age of Grace

Another clock is ticking as I write this; the timing on the Church Age, the Age of Grace; it too had a starting point and will have a stopping point. The Age of God’s Grace began on May 25, 33 AD and has now continued for over 1,986 years; based on clues provided in the Bible, I suspect the going part has been underway for some time now.

I am convinced God has this all timed to the very second; I have long been intrigued by the statement in Revelation 9:15 where it is written:

^“15 Then the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were turned loose to kill one-third of all the people on earth.”

While the verse starts with the hour, I’m of the opinion it would be safe to add the very second and minute to that prophecy and still be an accurate statement of what is going to take place in the future. If that event is timed so precisely, then it is reasonable to believe other prophetic events are timed with equal precision including the Rapture of the Church!

The End of an Age

The Age of Grace will end with the removal of all born-again Christians and the end of the restraining ministry of God, the Holy Spirit; as bad as things seem to be now, I promise you they will get vastly worse after the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit is removed from the earth. I have written on the sequence of events following the Rapture of the Church in several essays including a four part series, “What’s Going to Happen Next?”.

The last 1,986 years have been a time of remarkable grace and blessing from God; God has been calling to himself a family who will be with him for all of time and eternity; this is a blessing which is infinitely beyond our ability to even imagine! As the down payment on this blessing, God has given us himself, in the form of the Holy Spirit, who serves as his guarantor on the blessings both present and future he has planned for all he calls to be his children!

We are given a new birth into God’s own family, a living spirit, and the eternal indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit as his promise to us of the future blessings to come!

It Came to Stay, Forever and Ever!

We are all creatures of time, it is natural for us to think in terms of time, I have great difficulty thinking of a timeless eternity; I join David as he writes in Psalm 139:6-

^“6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.”

I delight in the thought we have been adopted by one so high and lifted up that we cannot even attain unto it!

One thing we can know by faith, even if it is beyond our understanding:

The New World Order God has Planned, is Coming to Stay, not Coming to Pass; once it has Come, it will Never, Ever Pass!