The Meat of the Matter

 

 

I’d be amazed at a God

That would attempt to mislead

By giving a message to a prophet

To dispatch with great speed

 

Especially when that message

Was for a long time to come,

Playing with a person’s psyche

Is not God’s idea of fun.

 

Expressions like soon, at the door

And the time is near,

Cannot speak of far off events

As in thousands of years.

 

If so, why such great haste

To those seven churches?

Can anyone answer this question

Based on their Bible searches?

 

For years we have preached

Jesus is coming soon

And in our songs have indicated

It may be morning, night or noon.

 

There is absolutely no doubt

That Jesus will return

But a preoccupation with the time

Should not be our concern.

 

None of us knows for a fact

That he is coming soon,

But we speculate about world events

And as a result we assume.

 

Our assumptions become wrong

When they do not materialize

And the world scorns at our predictions

And call them all lies.

 

 

The Bible is God’s truth

And the words mean what they say,

And if it says today

Then it really means today.

 

Soon should not be calibrated

As in two thousand years

Certainly not to a people living then

Given their present fears.

 

The message was a source of comfort

To the present day Christians

In the midst of their persecutions

And their myriad problems.

 

When they saw certain things

Understand it was at the door!

No, that language could not have meant

Two thousand years or more

 

 

Do not seal up the prophecy

John the Revelator was told,

This was quite unlike the instruction

That was given to Daniel of old

 

 

It is clear that in Revelation

The events mentioned would soon occur

While regarding Daniel’s prophecy

Those events to a distant time referred.

 

Let us not look for events

Which have already happened

But do that which Jesus instructed

Regarding the great commission.

 

That is, to go into all the world

And tell of God’s great salvation

Known also as the glorious Gospel

Or our wonderful redemption.

 

Of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour

And heaven’s returning King,

The one to whom we offer worship

And of whom we joyfully sing.

 

Expressions like near and soon

Fitted in with that time

But spreading the Gospel of Christ

Should be foremost in our mind.

 

Stewart Russell © December 2019