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As I read through our fellowship forums I detect the same vague combination of excitement and dread that is nagging at the back of my own mind. It's more than just a sense of knowing what this world is coming to. It's a sense of knowing when it is coming.

By 'it' I'm referring to the secret coming of the Lord for His Church at the Rapture. When I say 'when' I don't mean that I know what day, or what week, or even what year. What I mean by 'when' is that I know that it will be soon.

Let me qualify 'soon' as well, so we're all on the same page. I have lived on this earth for almost six decades. (Good heavens!) I can reasonably expect another decade, maybe two.

By 'soon' I mean that I believe, to the point of certainty, that I will hear the trumpet call before I've filled out my allotted three score and ten.

"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." (Matthew 24:36)

"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." (Matthew 25:13)

While trying to figure out the exact day of the Rapture isn't exactly willful disobedience, (since there is no direct command to disobey) it is an object lesson in foolishness. And a deliberate sacrifice of one's testimony on the altar of self.

Let me explain.

First, the motive for attempting to divine exactly when the Lord will return. Who does it serve? Does it serve the Lord? If it did, doesn't it seem reasonable that He would have revealed, (rather than saying He would obscure) that information Himself?

I've heard such self-appointed truth-seekers argue that if people knew the exact day the Lord was coming back, they would repent and turn to Christ. That won't happen.

The story of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31) is illustrative. The rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus to testify to his five brothers so that they would avoid condemnation to hell.

Abraham refused, saying, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."

If anything, if people really, positively, absolutely knew the Lord would come back on September 29, 2012, they would postpone anything resembling repentance until September 28th, 2012.

(I pulled that date out of thin air -- I don't have any reason to think it means anything).

Does it serve the Church? I cannot see how it possibly can. What good is that knowledge to the Christian? We're expected to live as if Christ could return at any moment, but to plan as if He won't return in this lifetime. So how does knowing that He will return on September 29th, 2012 help me?

As noted, having that certain knowledge also means He WON'T return before that. While I don't see how it serves the Lord, the Church or me specifically, I can easily see how it could serve the Enemy.

The only one who would be served by the possession of that knowledge is the possessor alone. That is why there are so many who claim to have possession of it. And it is why the Lord drew a curtain around it. And why trying to peek behind it is an object lesson in foolishness.

But I also said that it was expensive; it involves the deliberate sacrifice of one's witness on the altar of self. The Christian who has dedicated a lifetime to building his Christian witness is betting it all on himself by claiming to know the unknowable.

It doesn't matter how convinced one is, or how convincing one is in attracting followers (for that is what the real motive is) on September 30th that person's testimony is destroyed. So too, are those that put their faith in the false promise instead of the Lord.

Nobody is saved by their faith in the timing of the Rapture. If that is where one has put one's faith, when that date has come and gone, the ones left behind will turn away on the principle of 'once bitten, twice shy'.

One's Christian testimony is of inestimable value. Proverbs 22:1 says "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favour rather than silver and gold."

It is amazing to me that the same people who would never play poker for money would bet their testimony on their private interpretation of prophecy.

I noted at the outset that I share the same sense of excitement and dread as is reflected in our fellowship forums.

'Excitement' at the prospect, as expressed in one thread, "Man, There is So Much Bible Prophecy Stuff At This Site at This Moment = We Need a Roundtable Discussion" mixed with a sense of dread as we witness what is coming upon the earth: "Anyone Else Notice the Pot is Boiling Over?" asks another?

I don't think that it shows a lack of Christian spirituality to feel a certain sense of dread at the soon coming of the Lord for His Church.

I know that I am not ready to meet the Lord. I doubt that I ever will be. As wonderful as Heaven will be, first comes the judgement -- in the case of believers, at the Bema Seat.

It is at the Bema Seat that each of us will give account of themselves for every word spoken, every deed done during this lifetime. There have been many a word spoken by me that I am not eager to have replayed, many a deed done I am not eager to relive, many a reward that I am sure I will not get.

With the Rapture, the fate of those left behind is sealed. There will be no indwelt Church to hold back the tide of evil, no indwelling Holy Spirit to convict the lost of their sin.

Paul says in 2nd Thessalonians that after the indwelling Holy Spirit is taken out of the way, then that Wicked is revealed. With the Holy Spirit's ministry on the earth taken out of the way and the man of sin given free reign on the earth, Paul writes:

"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. . . "

I don't know exactly what The Lie will be, but I know that the public is already being conditioned to accept it, whatever it might be.

The Bible says that God Himself sends the delusion, whatever it is, which precludes the presence of either the Church or the Holy Spirit of Truth at the time.

The purpose of the delusion is to judge those who believed not the truth because they preferred the pleasure of unrighteousness.

Paul notes both the judgment and the verdict: "That they ALL might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2nd Thessalonians 2:11-12)

The Rapture is also such an exciting prospect that it makes me want to do back-flips when I think about it.

The Lord Himself will descend with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel. The dead in Christ rise first. Then . . . ME!

(and you. But it's ME I'm most excited about - and you thought you were carnal)

I can practically see the Tribulation getting ready to start -- there remain a few things yet to be in place, like Israeli possession of Temple Mount, for example, but for the most part, everything is already in place. I often think of it like a line of dominos set up for one of those spectacular domino runs.

All the dominos are standing. The Rapture of the Church is that first domino to be pushed over that puts the whole process in motion. It is more than fitting that God Himself knocks over the first one, 'in the twinkling of an eye'.

"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1st Corinthians 15:51-52)

Maranatha!

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