The Clock Strikes

What time is it
What’s going on
When will we care
When will we know

We scamper
Like squirrels
To and fro

What will we do
Where will we go
Why don’t we care
Why don’t we know

Our eyes are blind
Our ears stopped up

We scamper
Like squirrels
To and fro

Don’t stop to think
What time it is or
What’s going on

Tick tock tick tock
Clock strikes again
An age is gone
Where are we now
Where can we go

God has provided an ark of safety, as he provided Noah and his family, to keep us safe from the coming wrath of God against the wickedness of mankind. Jesus is the ark of safety.

Second Coming of Christ
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______________________|________|___________________________|___
Age of Grace >> Rapture   | 7 yr Trib.  |  Millennium >>>>>>>>White Throne

The second coming of Christ refers to the return to earth by Jesus Christ. The Bible describes two appearances of Jesus that will take place at the end of the Age of Grace, one secret and the other globally witnessed. We live in this Age of Grace, which began at the crucifixion of Christ. Many have heard about the time called the Tribulation or Jacob’s Troubles, during which seven year span the world will be afflicted with terrible tragedies. Before this day occurs many prophecy scholars believe that an event as described in the scriptures will happen as Jesus comes secretly in the clouds to call out his church. At this secret coming those who have died in faith knowing Jesus as Savior will be raised from the dead immediately to be followed by the living saints (believers) of that time, all to meet the Lord in the air and to be taken to Heaven at this time, before the Tribulation begins. Whether prophecy scholars have this timing right or not we will know after it happens. But Jesus cautioned believers to be ready and waiting.

There are many good reasons to expect Jesus to return to rapture the church before the Tribulation. The Bible says that believers are not appointed to wrath. The Bible clearly states that the Tribulation will be the manifestation of God’s wrath upon those that rejected the Father’s gift to the world of His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross as a substitution for all sinners. Also, we have three occurrences in Bible history that may speak to this issue. (1) Enoch walked with God and was taken by God without going through death. This event is recorded in Genesis 5:24 “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” This is a picture of the rapture. (2) Noah built the ark before the flood came and was delivered from the flood which drowned the inhabitants of the earth at that time. Noah and his family by faith believed God and did not suffer the wrath of God that came on the earth that day. (3) Lot, a righteous man according to the Bible, was taken out of Sodom by angels before fire and brimstone fell on the city, another example of believers being delivered from the wrath of God.

Bible prophecy foretelling the second coming of Christ officially refers to His public appearing when every eye shall see him. This is the event of which the prophets tell and toward which all the signs and seasons point. This coming is not the Rapture but the Second Coming of Christ. The Rapture is a quiet and unexpected event (unexpected by people that don’t know about it)  that could happen at any moment and which Christians expect to happen before the beginning of the Tribulation period and before the publicly witnessed Second Coming of Christ.

Confused? I’m not surprised. But I wanted to explain all of this because my poem may be bewildering without this explanation. In the poem I identify myself with those not knowing that the time is ticking away until the beginning of the Tribulation. The striking of the clock, heralding weeks, days, hours, minutes, leads to the Rapture, after which event, the age closes as the Tribulation begins. Many have heard of the series of books entitled “Left Behind”. The time frame of this series encompasses the seven years of Tribulation, and the characters in it are those that were not believers at the moment the Rapture occurred and were “left behind” to face the horrors of the Tribulation period. All believers raptured or snatched from the earth before the Tribulation period begins will not have to endure the Tribulation woes described in this very-exciting-but-not-to-be-desired-if-avoidable time period depicted in this famous series. It is not the will of the Father than any should perish (II Peter 3:9).

Matthew 24: 4-8 (These signs take place generally during the Age of Grace)

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

These scriptures describe the Rapture (secret appearance)
Matthew 24:2-42 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

I Thessalonian 4: 13-18 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.