Get Ready

"Therefore BE YE ALSO READY: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 24:44; Emphasis Supplied).

My dear Brother or Sister in Christ, I don't know when Christ shall come. I am no prophet, though I love the subject of prophecy. Moreover, I hate date-fixing; it does great harm. I only assert that Christ shall come again one day soon to set up His kingdom, and that it shall take the world exceedingly by surprise. It shall come on men suddenly. It shall break on the world all at once. It shall not have been talked over, prepared for and looked forward to by everybody. It shall awaken men's minds like a cry of fire at midnight. It shall startle men's hearts like a trumpet blown bedsides their beds. Like Pharaoh and his army, men shall know nothing until the very waters are upon them. Before they can recover their breath and know where they are, they shall find that the Lord has come.

I suspect you think that the present order of things shall not end quite so suddenly. I suspect you cling to the idea that there shall be a time when all shall know the Lord's day is near, and shall be able to forsake their sins, abandon their earthly businesses, and prepare to meet the Lord. If you have got such a notion, give it up forever. If anything is clear in unfulfilled prophecy, this one fact seems clear, that the Lord's coming SHALL BE SUDDEN, and take men by surprise; and any view of prophecy which destroys the possibility of its being a sudden event, is deadly.

Everything which is written in Scripture on this point confirms the truth that Christ's second coming shall be sudden. "As a snare shall it come on the face of all those who dwell on the earth" (Luke 21:35), says one place. "As a thief in the night" (2 Peter 3:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:2), says another. "As the lightning" (Matthew 24:27), says a third. "In an hour when no man thinks" (Luke 12:40), says a fourth. "At a time when they shall be saying Peace and safety" (1 Thessalonians 5:3), says a fifth.

Our Lord Himself uses two most striking comparisons when dwelling on this point. He says in one place that as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the days when the Son of man is revealed (Luke 17:28). DO YOU REMEMBER HOW IT WAS?

In the days when Lot went out of Sodom the men of Sodom were eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage. The sun rose as usual. They thought of nothing but the things of the world. They saw no sign of danger. But all at once the fire of God fell upon them and destroyed them (Genesis 19:24)!

He says in another place that, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man" (Matthew 24:37). DO YOU REMEMBER HOW IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH?

Before the flood came on the earth, there was no appearance of anything so fearful near at hand. The sun rose and set as usual. The day and night followed each other in regular succession. The grass and trees and crops were growing. The businesses of the world were going on; and though Noah preached continually and warned men of coming danger, no one believed him!

But at last one day the rain began and did not stop. The waters ran and did not stop. The flood came and the flood swelled. The flood went on and covered one thing after another, and all were drowned who were not in the ark. Everything in which was the breath of life perished (Genesis 7:10 - 24).

Now, as the flood took the world by surprise, just so shall the coming of the Son of man be. It shall come on men like a thunderclap. In the midst of the world's business, when everything is going on just as usual. In such an hour as this, the Lord Jesus Christ shall return! He that hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 11:15).

Paul Fonsi