Mission Venture Ministries

“Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:4) 

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoptions as sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5) 

Our Lord is an amazing God of order. He names and numbers the stars (Psalm 147:4), He set the boundary for the seas (Job 38:11), He numbers the hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30), and He orders the steps of the righteous (Psalm 37:23). 

The fullness of time refers to God’s appointed time in His plan for human kind; in Galatians 4:4-5 it refers to the time for Jesus to come from heaven to earth to be born as man. And without a doubt the fullness of God’s time will come to pass again when Jesus comes to earth at His second coming. 

As we wait, we must be careful not to mock or scoff and say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:4). Because, just as when the fullness of the time had come when He sent forth His Son to be born of a woman; when the next fullness of the times comes in God’s appointed times, He is going to send Jesus back to rule as King. 

When we look at history we come to understand that God is working in His time; and as hard as it is for humans to be patient we need obediently wait and let Him do what He has deemed in His eternal plan for us. 

Since God rules over human history, He undeniably shaped the history of the nations, including the dominance of the Roman Empire that had an impact on Israel, on Jesus, and on the spread of the Gospel by the early Christian church. Certainly this was a part of God’s preparation, for God uses the historical events to achieve His purposes as we see throughout Scripture. 

Our amazing God has not only arranged and ordered all things in the universe, He has ordered all things within His universe in their appointed times. Presently we are living in the time of the Gentiles and soon the world will experience the rapture of the church and the beginning of the 70th week written in the book of Daniel. 

Everything has an appointed time just as the vision Habakkuk had seen of the coming Babylonian Empire. “For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry” (Habakkuk 2:3). 

Waiting for the fullness of time requires patience because God works according to His own calendar and measures time differently than we because, “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). 

When we read the account in Daniel or future things to come we recognize that presently we are living in a huge gap between the 69th week and the 70th week since the prophetic clock has stopped now for nearly 2000 years. And the final “seven weeks” spoken of by Daniel, “the tribulation period”, is still to come. 

We see another significant pause or gap regarding the coming of the Messiah, when we compare Isaiah 9:6 prophecies to Luke 1:31-33. The book of Isaiah was written between 739 and 681 B.C. where he prophesied the coming of Messiah, and it was not until sometime between 6 and 4 BC that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. 

Our God is a God of order. He has pre-determined every moment in time, lasting no longer than it takes for a twinkling of an eye, when He commands His Son to meet the dead in Christ and the church in the air in their new incorruptible bodies (1 Corinthians 15:52). Yes, the rapture is always imminent and is getting closer by the day. Signs of Jesus’ coming are more visible now then at any other time in history. The Jews are back in the Promised Land, the church is becoming more and more apostate, and lawlessness and perilous times are upon us. Therefore, we could say that it is more imminent now than ever before. 

While no man knows the day or the hour of the rapture of the church, we do know that one morning we will awake to the day when in a twinkling of an eye the church age is going to end. Yes, people will get saved during the tribulation, but they will die for their faith under the reign of terror of the Beast. If you can’t live for Jesus now, what makes you think you will be able to die for Him when this takes place? 

Don’t wait! Today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:1-2), for our salvation from this world is nearer today than it has ever been before. 

The Bible tells us that the fullness of the Gentiles is coming…and the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again, but we do not know the moment when either of those things will happen. Some day in the future, God will once again gather His people unto Himself and bless His people with prosperity and peace, but that time has not yet come. It is coming, but not until the “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:25). 

How long will it take for God’s promised blessings to be completely fulfilled? No one knows because God has His own calendar, which He reveals to no one. Only when Christ comes again will we know that God’s promises have attained their intended fullness. Until then we witness and wait patiently with confident hope as the Psalmist wrights; “rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him” (Psalm 37:7). 

And we should also heed the prophet Micah as he writes: I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation (Micah 7:7). Therefore let us also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that we do not expect (Matthew 24:44). 

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