The Importance of Understanding God’s Time Measurements
‘There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known’
(Matthew 10: 26)
Today man’s knowledge has come perilously near to the full in many fields, and, most will agree that when it comes to weapons of mass destruction, we wish that mankind did not know so much!
In several directions, human knowledge has certainly ‘overflowed its banks’ and the ‘tree of knowledge’ (Genesis 2:9) has never spread its branches over the race with such proliferation.
However, we are grateful to God that those who are wise have already listened to the advice of Isaiah 2: 22, when he says, ‘Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils. For wherein is he to be accounted of?‘
But, because of the danger of knowing too much on the human level, many Christians have taken refuge in not knowing, and, for instance, have regarded it as extreme presumption if anyone should confess to any positive knowledge of the true timing of the many events connected with the First Advent of our Saviour into the world. For one thing, they believe it is out of the question for God to have restored this lost understanding, and for another, they feel any recovery of it would only fill their heads with ‘knowledge,’ when what the world really stands in need of today is ‘love.’
However, view this from another perspective: Does God Himself desire His Church to ‘know the truth’ (John 8:32) concerning Jesus in the present hour?
Consider the result of lack of knowledge in the case of Israel, when Jesus was here in the flesh.
He was clearly here as ‘the Bridegroom’ (see John 3: 29) but Israel did not know it, and in Luke 19: 41-44 we find this one thing – the one vital thing – was hidden from the Jewish nation when they crucified their Messiah.
We know that this one thing was hidden from their eyes, for on the eve of His death Jesus had to warn them that a terrible destruction lay close ahead for their holy city – in fact, for their whole nation, for one sole reason – ‘because’, He said, ‘thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.’
It was the same in the days of Noah when, as Jesus reminded His disciples in Matthew 24: 38 & 39, ‘they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away,’ and He added, ‘so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.’
However, the ‘children of light’ (1 Thessalonians 5:5) are said to be in a different category, and not to be in darkness about the actual coming of the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
The Scriptures do contain an actual ‘knowledge of the times’ which could only be unlocked at the ending of this age. This is the ‘hidden’ part of His Word which God now intends to unveil, for it contains a glorious revelation of His Beloved Son ‘by Whom also He made the ages‘ (Hebrews 1:2 – literal translation from the Greek).
For centuries past God has called aside some of His servants to study His ‘ways.’
Psalm 103: 7 teaches that God ‘made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the Children of Israel‘.
It is clear from this that God’s ‘ways’ are in the main ‘hidden’ from His people; but to some it is needful that He should reveal them; for, as Amos 3: 7 says, ‘Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret counsel unto His servants the prophets.‘
The servant to whom God inscrutably chose to reveal His secret counsel was someone who would not pass for a prophet in these days when the world abounds in “charismatic prophets” and “5-fold ministry gifts”.His name was Dr. H. Graffan Guinness, whose book could aptly be called the Guinness Book of God’s Time Records. Click here.
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