God’s Prophetic Time Clock?
Does He have one? What is it? What will happen next?
© 2010 Earl Jackson
When I was a student in Bible College, at a well respected dispensational pre-millennial school, I heard this statement on more than one occasion. “When the nation of Israel was born in May of 1948 God’s prophetic time clock, (which had been stopped when Israel rejected their Messiah), was now re started, and the time of the end has begun. God‘s end time clock has now been activated”. This is a pretty significant statement to make, one that needs careful consideration, because if it is true, our interpretation of eschatology, and indeed of the whole Bible, will be dramatically influenced by it.
So the first question we need to ask, is “Does God indeed have a Prophetic Time Clock, which will be activated in the last days?” or does he have one at all? Paul may have given an important observation with respect to this in First Thessalonians. He said: “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1Thess.5:1-2). This seems to indicate that we do not need to know about “times and seasons” because "the Lord is coming as a thief in the night". Jesus’ words seem to say the same thing: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matt. 24:36) . And again in Mark: “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is” (Mk. 13:32-33).
And then there is the specific statement of Paul regarding “the fullness of times“. “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Eph. 1:10) . The phrase literally means “in the filling up of the times” or “in the course of the filling up of the times”. It is a phrase that seems to indicate that whatever sort of time keeping God has, it is progressing continuously, undisturbed, and unstopped or started. It runs continuously until filled up!
It is interesting that this term not only applies to the second coming of Christ and the end of time, but it was also used of his first coming. “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law” (Gal. 4:4). God’s clock is obviously concerned with God filling up the times according to His Divine purposes, and it has nothing to do with activating a prophetic clock on earth to satisfy man’s curiosity about the end times. There is not one verse of scripture speaking about God’s prophetic Time Clock. There is not one verse of scripture saying that God is going to activate a clock in 1948, or anything even remotely like that. Nor is there any verse saying that some sort of prophetic time piece is attached to the nation of Israel. Such ideas are purely human inventions. And I believe that they are very dangerous inventions. It is never good or appropriate to simply insert man made ideas into ones interpretation of the Bible, especially concerning prophecy.
I will not try to judge peoples hearts. I’m sure these teachers feel that they are making the last days clearer to their students by adding this sort of fluff and stuff into the scriptures. I’m sure their intentions might be noble and praiseworthy, but the results of their good intentions have been catastrophic. People actually now believe that God’s future for mankind is tied to Israel. But nothing could be further from the truth. This is a deception pure and simple. God’s future for mankind has never been tied to Israel. Israel remains a bunch of Christ rejector’s. And they are no closer to Christ because of 1948. Gods plan for the world has always been tied to Jesus Christ alone, who is Israel’s greatest Son. The clock doesn’t start or start based upon Israel, it presses ahead always and only based on God’s Sovereign purposes which are still all tied up in the Lord Jesus Christ, like they always have been. The whole Bible is about Christ. We cannot pretend that because of 1948 it is no longer about Him, it’s now about a worldly nation of unbelievers. Such a notion is a travesty against the continuity of God’s purposes of Grace and truth. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (Jn. 1:17). And God is never going to go back to anything less than grace and less than truth. When you take Christ off His throne, and make something else, or someone else central, you will only confuse people and mangle God’s word. That’s exactly what has happened.
The Bible declares: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Ps. 9;17) . This includes the nation of Israel! They have forgotten God, because they have rejected Him. His name is Jesus Christ. Their unbelief makes them just as lost as a pile of dung. That makes them a pagan and Godless nation, just like America, and all the rest of them. To make them the magical center of some kind of prophetic time clock, the activator’s of God’s purposes in the end times, or any time for that matter, is to besmirch the position and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to trash His name, and minimize His true nation (1Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6). To say that a lost and corrupt country is the current center of all his dealing on earth, is a sheer theological monstrosity. God’s say’s, that if Israel shall repent, believe and trust in Christ, they can be saved like everyone else, and be grafted back into the vine (Rom. 11:23-24)! But until they do, they are utterly lost, and without hope. Unbelievers are lost no matter what country they live in. They are nothing more than pagan unbelievers who will be destroyed because of their sinful rejection of Christ. To make them special because of that is indeed a grave sin.
These teachers have complicated matters by inventing more false doctrines to go along with this one. Since they know that this doctrine makes a mess of scripture, they have invented more false doctrines to try to correct their errors. But two wrongs don’t make a right. And adding more false doctrines on top of false doctrines does not make a tower of truth. They have invented the lie that God has two separate peoples, one earthly and one heavenly. The Jews are God’s earthly people, and the church is God’s heavenly people. And not only that, but, there are two separate ways of salvation as well. Christ is the Savior of the heavenly people , by grace. But Israel is saved by the law, the temple, the sacrifices, by being God’s national entity, and they will enter God’s millennial kingdom alive, without the need for the new birth. No verses can be found for any of these fanciful inventions.
I will not address the millennial concept here, because I want to discuss the blasphemous notion that God has two separate people and two separate plans of salvation for them. There is not a single verse in the Bible that teaches this figment of someone’s imagination. Please present your evidence. Where does it say in the Bible that God has two peoples? God has always had only one people, they are the holy, saved, people of God’s grace called “the remnant”, “the elect”, the “believers” (Rom. 9:27; 11:5,7). The idea that God has two people is an aberration, and a perversion of what the Bible clearly says. But the illusion that there are two systems of salvation, is an even grosser and malevolent doctrine. If you cannot find even a single verse saying that God has two peoples, I’m doubly certain that you will find nothing stating that there are two different plans of salvation. I’ll be anxiously awaiting your scripture proof for this heresy!
Jesus said that he was “The way”, and that “No man cometh unto the Father but by me”(Jn. 14:6). How can anyone stretch Jesus’ words to mean that there are two ways, one for the Jews and one for the Christians? “I am the way” can never mean “I am one of several ways“! It cannot be. The entire bible from cover to cover is the unfolding of the one way of salvation, through the one Savior, who was foretold and foreshadowed throughout the ancient ages of the Old Testament, and who came near and pitched His tent among us in the person of Jesus Christ, who died on Calvary to secure the salvation of a peculiar people, a holy nation, and who sent the Holy Spirit to apply the one finished work of redemption, and gather the Lord’s people to Himself. How can any Bible-believing preacher, mess up this glorious and true message, by saying God has two people, and two ways? These people do not know the gospel. How can we believe them when they talk about prophecy? They don't know the gospel! Anyone, even casually reading the Bible knows that it has only one message of hope, one message of salvation. A moron can figure this out, but these bug-eyed college professor prophecy guru's, sitting in a Bible college, invent the notion that God is not concerned about that message any more, the message of the entire Bible! Instead, now He is all of a sudden concerned about a different people, a different plan. 1948 has come. The long dormant clock has now started. Forget about Christ!… everybody turn your attention to the nation of Israel! They hold the key to God’s future dealings with mankind. It’s time to take your eyes off Christ and the New Testament, which is a better covenant, and turn them to Israel and the Old Testament,! Balderdash! This concept trashes God’s revelation, a substitutes very poor human reasoning in place of the inscripturated truths of the Bible.
People, I beg of you. Do not be so sidetracked away from the simplicity which is in Christ. “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2Cor. 11:3) . Christ, cannot be improved upon. “He is the same yesterday today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). So, for God’s sake, and for the sake of mens souls, and for the sake of the gospel…DON’T CHANGE HIM! Let Him be what he always has been, and always will be, the center of all of God’s dealings with man, both in time, and in eternity. "Let God be true and let every man be a liar" (Rom. 3:4). Christ is God’s everything. He is the center of God’s attention, and so He must be the only center of our attention as well. Christ is God’s clock, God filling up all the times, both now and forever with a Sovereign and Wondrous plan, which is perfect in every detail. At the next tick of that clock, Christ will come again. Get ready to meet Him, and forget about every other form of nonsense. “Even so come lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20). Amen.
Does He have one? What is it? What will happen next?
© 2010 Earl Jackson
When I was a student in Bible College, at a well respected dispensational pre-millennial school, I heard this statement on more than one occasion. “When the nation of Israel was born in May of 1948 God’s prophetic time clock, (which had been stopped when Israel rejected their Messiah), was now re started, and the time of the end has begun. God‘s end time clock has now been activated”. This is a pretty significant statement to make, one that needs careful consideration, because if it is true, our interpretation of eschatology, and indeed of the whole Bible, will be dramatically influenced by it.
So the first question we need to ask, is “Does God indeed have a Prophetic Time Clock, which will be activated in the last days?” or does he have one at all? Paul may have given an important observation with respect to this in First Thessalonians. He said: “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1Thess.5:1-2). This seems to indicate that we do not need to know about “times and seasons” because "the Lord is coming as a thief in the night". Jesus’ words seem to say the same thing: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matt. 24:36) . And again in Mark: “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is” (Mk. 13:32-33).
And then there is the specific statement of Paul regarding “the fullness of times“. “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Eph. 1:10) . The phrase literally means “in the filling up of the times” or “in the course of the filling up of the times”. It is a phrase that seems to indicate that whatever sort of time keeping God has, it is progressing continuously, undisturbed, and unstopped or started. It runs continuously until filled up!
It is interesting that this term not only applies to the second coming of Christ and the end of time, but it was also used of his first coming. “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law” (Gal. 4:4). God’s clock is obviously concerned with God filling up the times according to His Divine purposes, and it has nothing to do with activating a prophetic clock on earth to satisfy man’s curiosity about the end times. There is not one verse of scripture speaking about God’s prophetic Time Clock. There is not one verse of scripture saying that God is going to activate a clock in 1948, or anything even remotely like that. Nor is there any verse saying that some sort of prophetic time piece is attached to the nation of Israel. Such ideas are purely human inventions. And I believe that they are very dangerous inventions. It is never good or appropriate to simply insert man made ideas into ones interpretation of the Bible, especially concerning prophecy.
I will not try to judge peoples hearts. I’m sure these teachers feel that they are making the last days clearer to their students by adding this sort of fluff and stuff into the scriptures. I’m sure their intentions might be noble and praiseworthy, but the results of their good intentions have been catastrophic. People actually now believe that God’s future for mankind is tied to Israel. But nothing could be further from the truth. This is a deception pure and simple. God’s future for mankind has never been tied to Israel. Israel remains a bunch of Christ rejector’s. And they are no closer to Christ because of 1948. Gods plan for the world has always been tied to Jesus Christ alone, who is Israel’s greatest Son. The clock doesn’t start or start based upon Israel, it presses ahead always and only based on God’s Sovereign purposes which are still all tied up in the Lord Jesus Christ, like they always have been. The whole Bible is about Christ. We cannot pretend that because of 1948 it is no longer about Him, it’s now about a worldly nation of unbelievers. Such a notion is a travesty against the continuity of God’s purposes of Grace and truth. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (Jn. 1:17). And God is never going to go back to anything less than grace and less than truth. When you take Christ off His throne, and make something else, or someone else central, you will only confuse people and mangle God’s word. That’s exactly what has happened.
The Bible declares: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Ps. 9;17) . This includes the nation of Israel! They have forgotten God, because they have rejected Him. His name is Jesus Christ. Their unbelief makes them just as lost as a pile of dung. That makes them a pagan and Godless nation, just like America, and all the rest of them. To make them the magical center of some kind of prophetic time clock, the activator’s of God’s purposes in the end times, or any time for that matter, is to besmirch the position and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to trash His name, and minimize His true nation (1Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6). To say that a lost and corrupt country is the current center of all his dealing on earth, is a sheer theological monstrosity. God’s say’s, that if Israel shall repent, believe and trust in Christ, they can be saved like everyone else, and be grafted back into the vine (Rom. 11:23-24)! But until they do, they are utterly lost, and without hope. Unbelievers are lost no matter what country they live in. They are nothing more than pagan unbelievers who will be destroyed because of their sinful rejection of Christ. To make them special because of that is indeed a grave sin.
These teachers have complicated matters by inventing more false doctrines to go along with this one. Since they know that this doctrine makes a mess of scripture, they have invented more false doctrines to try to correct their errors. But two wrongs don’t make a right. And adding more false doctrines on top of false doctrines does not make a tower of truth. They have invented the lie that God has two separate peoples, one earthly and one heavenly. The Jews are God’s earthly people, and the church is God’s heavenly people. And not only that, but, there are two separate ways of salvation as well. Christ is the Savior of the heavenly people , by grace. But Israel is saved by the law, the temple, the sacrifices, by being God’s national entity, and they will enter God’s millennial kingdom alive, without the need for the new birth. No verses can be found for any of these fanciful inventions.
I will not address the millennial concept here, because I want to discuss the blasphemous notion that God has two separate people and two separate plans of salvation for them. There is not a single verse in the Bible that teaches this figment of someone’s imagination. Please present your evidence. Where does it say in the Bible that God has two peoples? God has always had only one people, they are the holy, saved, people of God’s grace called “the remnant”, “the elect”, the “believers” (Rom. 9:27; 11:5,7). The idea that God has two people is an aberration, and a perversion of what the Bible clearly says. But the illusion that there are two systems of salvation, is an even grosser and malevolent doctrine. If you cannot find even a single verse saying that God has two peoples, I’m doubly certain that you will find nothing stating that there are two different plans of salvation. I’ll be anxiously awaiting your scripture proof for this heresy!
Jesus said that he was “The way”, and that “No man cometh unto the Father but by me”(Jn. 14:6). How can anyone stretch Jesus’ words to mean that there are two ways, one for the Jews and one for the Christians? “I am the way” can never mean “I am one of several ways“! It cannot be. The entire bible from cover to cover is the unfolding of the one way of salvation, through the one Savior, who was foretold and foreshadowed throughout the ancient ages of the Old Testament, and who came near and pitched His tent among us in the person of Jesus Christ, who died on Calvary to secure the salvation of a peculiar people, a holy nation, and who sent the Holy Spirit to apply the one finished work of redemption, and gather the Lord’s people to Himself. How can any Bible-believing preacher, mess up this glorious and true message, by saying God has two people, and two ways? These people do not know the gospel. How can we believe them when they talk about prophecy? They don't know the gospel! Anyone, even casually reading the Bible knows that it has only one message of hope, one message of salvation. A moron can figure this out, but these bug-eyed college professor prophecy guru's, sitting in a Bible college, invent the notion that God is not concerned about that message any more, the message of the entire Bible! Instead, now He is all of a sudden concerned about a different people, a different plan. 1948 has come. The long dormant clock has now started. Forget about Christ!… everybody turn your attention to the nation of Israel! They hold the key to God’s future dealings with mankind. It’s time to take your eyes off Christ and the New Testament, which is a better covenant, and turn them to Israel and the Old Testament,! Balderdash! This concept trashes God’s revelation, a substitutes very poor human reasoning in place of the inscripturated truths of the Bible.
People, I beg of you. Do not be so sidetracked away from the simplicity which is in Christ. “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2Cor. 11:3) . Christ, cannot be improved upon. “He is the same yesterday today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). So, for God’s sake, and for the sake of mens souls, and for the sake of the gospel…DON’T CHANGE HIM! Let Him be what he always has been, and always will be, the center of all of God’s dealings with man, both in time, and in eternity. "Let God be true and let every man be a liar" (Rom. 3:4). Christ is God’s everything. He is the center of God’s attention, and so He must be the only center of our attention as well. Christ is God’s clock, God filling up all the times, both now and forever with a Sovereign and Wondrous plan, which is perfect in every detail. At the next tick of that clock, Christ will come again. Get ready to meet Him, and forget about every other form of nonsense. “Even so come lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20). Amen.
