Tuesday, May 01, 2012

SECOND COMING ... PART TWO

Tuesday May 1, 2012 12:00 am

Part one I wrote on Sunday and now this one I am posting less than 48 hours after the first one. Although I am off the next two days I probably won't write part three during these two off days. My little guy has been acting like he misses me and I am wanting to spend some time with him.

Now, when the Lord said that we could not know the hour, neither the day of His return: it was not that we are not supposed to know the date of His return... otherwise, why would He give us a list of signs which would herald His return? No, the reason Jesus said that He was looking into the future and knowing how we (modern men) keep time and seeing it would be literally impossible for any of us to know the exact hour or the day... why? That's easy: let me explain.


When I was originally preparing this message to be taped for a radio symposium I knew that if I ever delivered it in person that I would use a basketball as my prop and let that represent the Earth. Now, for any who reads this and might wonder why in the world I would not simply use a globe to represent the Earth... well, that only tells me that you do not live in Indiana and neither do you have Kentucky as your neighbor? Believe me... a basketball in this part of the world holds everyones attention far more than a world globe. (lol)

For those at home reading this you might have an actual globe to look at and this makes my explanation easier. And if you don't have a globe: well... you might try and picture what I am sitting on as I type this and imagine that  as representing the Earth? No, silly... not my Gluteus maximus: rather the big orange/red Jazzercise ball I am sitting atop as I hunt-and-peck my way through this. (The ball is supposed to help develop core strength because you have to  keep your muscles tense in order to try and maintain your balance as you are sitting down... otherwise you would become like a Weeble and tip over. Now to be fair, if I ever forget and become lost in what I'm typing and take a dive into the floor... you would never know because I wouldn't tell you? I don't know... now that the thought of me falling into the floor has captured my imagination I guess I would have to tell... because such an act would be too funny for me not to let all of you know about it.)

Actually, now that I am really looking at this ball beneath me it really is a fair representation of the Earth. It already has lines running around it in an east/west direction (26 to be exact) and (just like the Earth) it is largest around the middle, and it decreases in size as it nears the top and/or the bottom. (Pretty neat, huh?) Now I think I have decided to write about balls rather than the end time... just kidding: I think? Sitting (low) atop my red ball I begin anew.

Are you aware that people kept time differently (when Christ walked the Earth) than we do today? In fact... the way we keep time now is a fairly new invention. Most people consider Sunday, November 18, 1883... "The Day of Two Noons” as the date that began what all of us now know as keeping time. Although, even in our own country not everyone kept time as we do now until an official act of Congress in what was titled the Standard Time Act... and that wasn't adopted until March 19, 1918.

(I first became interested and began to study time and time zones about eight years ago when I started my blog and began to log how many different people were reading it from the various time zones around the Earth.)

Anyway, for less than 100 years we have been keeping time as we do now. In fact, since time began until only very recently people kept time based on the position of the Sun; of course, when the Sun was at its zenith in the sky... it was noon. (For many centuries church steeples and sundials were used to keep time.) The biggest problem in keeping time this way was that every single town, and city, and people, were on slightly different times... as the position of the Sun changed. 

In reality this was not that big of a problem until the railroad came into being and schedules had to be kept. So, enter man's ingenuity and imaginary lines were installed around the Earth and at a specific spacing so that each “zone” was 15 degrees wide and with 24 zones that would cover the 360 necessary degrees for the entire Earth. (24 x 15 = 360... and voila... there you have it!)

So... it is 11:33 pm here at home as I sit and type and there are three hours difference between my time and California time. Now, if a person would continue to travel in a westerly direction until you reach the IDL, (International Date Line) then you would add a day and suddenly it would become tomorrow. In fact... if Christ were to return between 10:00 and 11:59 UTC time... then THREE DIFFERENT DAYS are in play. (This has to do with daylight savings time in the UTC+12 zone and it is more technical than I am interested in writing. In fact... I have already bored myself to tears and alas... my poor readers to sleep with what I have thus far typed. I'm actually weeping this very second. lol)

Nevertheless it is an ingenious system really: overlay the Earth with imaginary lines running east/west (latitudinal) and imaginary lines running north/south (longitudinal) and if you keep making these imaginary lines closer and closer... then you can pinpoint with great accuracy any spot on Earth. You might try and picture a graph paper with intersecting lines so close together they are nearly impossible to distinguish apart... now, assign numbers and degrees to each intersecting point and you have a very accurate map: this is essentially how GPS works.

Now that I think about it I will tell you how you can use to your advantage what I have just typed. Contact Dick Cheney and call an air strike to the following coordinates ... 38° 16' 39" N / 85° 44' 14" W... and if that is done correctly it should demolish my house as I sit here on my big orange/red rubber ball! Then you would never have to read any more drivel as it relates to Jazzercise balls, and no more talk of Gluteus maximus... nor any more writing about lines of longitude and latitude! Please, do all of us a favor: call for that drone!

What follows is the reason I told all of that to you. When Christ returns... it will be one of 24 DIFFERENT HOURS and one of TWO... or even THREE DIFFERENT DAYS! (That is why we cannot know the HOUR or the DAY.)

I can imagine the conversation in Heaven one day as believers from different parts of the world talk about the “day” He returned. One might say He returned on Tuesday December 20, 2033 at 12:00 am. Another would say... "No, it was Wednesday December 21, 2033 and it wasn't am but pm:" and a third person could say... "I'm afraid both of you are wrong, it wasn't Tuesday or Wednesday... but Thursday" ... and depending upon the certain hour  of Christ's return... ALL THREE COULD BE CORRECT!!! 

The mystery is not that we (as believers) should not know, nor are we not allowed to know... it is simply impossible to pin down the HOUR or the DAY because it will depend upon where each believer was on planet Earth at the time of His return!

When next I write I will list the importance of the ten signs and what makes all of these ordinary signs become... well... extraordinary!

By the way... in case anyone might want to know: I really do know when He is going to return... but, I'm special that way. (lol)

 

 

posted by Robin Johnson @ 12:00 AM