Like A Thief In the Night

It would seem as though our time with Revelation 3 isn't done yet.

This is an excerpt from a previous post...

But it's not just me! Anyone else notice a similar theme with various Christian ministries lately? Everywhere I turn lately it seems like THIS is the subject on everyone's heart and mind -- even if it's to a community and forum that I've never been to before! Might that be the Holy Spirit moving throughout the Body of Christ in preparation for what's to come? I believe it very well could be.

You know, with Japan's devastation still weighing on us, the resulting symbolic analysis by other watchmen on the wall, and now plausible scenarios about what lies ahead for this nation (and the world) in the very near future, I'm beginning to wonder if "spiritual preparation" (but a "last call" of sorts) is what's at play here after all.

In other words, get ready for unfathomable RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT, WRATH, and HELL for the non-believers who perish during such divine judgment.

One tragic story from Israel (go figure) caught my attention in light of such a spiritual environment. When all is said and done, I believe it sends a clear message about the late and urgent hour we all find ourselves in -- believers and non-believers alike.

Israeli Family Killed In Terror Attack!
(WARNING: Some graphic images...)



PM Netanyahu's Response To Savage Murder Of Fogel Family



On the night of March 11th, 2011, when most of the world was glued to their TV screens watching the drama that was unfolding in Japan following the mega-earthquake and tsunami, another horrible tragedy took place in Israel. Yet, BOTH tragedies speak volumes about where we are on God's prophetic timeline.

In a sense, the Fogel family massacre in Itamar, Samaria is a microcosm of what's going to befall God's chosen people let alone the kind of rage that the demonically-inspired lost souls of planet earth (under the leadership of the Antichrist) will unleash against the saints as well as Israel during Daniel's 70th Week. But there's so much more that we students of Bible prophecy might want to take note of.

Check out this appropriately titled commentary from The American Spectator (with selected excerpts highlighted)...

Halfway To Hell
By Jay D. Homnick on 3.15.11 @ 6:07AM

This column about the murdered Fogel family was written a few times on other surfaces before I put it to paper. First I etched it into my heart with a scalpel, then I inscribed it on the sacred parchment of Jewish history with a quill; finally, I spray painted it onto the bulletin board of the human race in a jagged graffito. After all this, I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could be lucid enough to share it with my friends through the printed page.

There are two small communities in Israel, Elazar and Itamar, named after the two surviving sons of Aaron. Their two brothers died shockingly to disturb a happy period for the Israelites, not long after the Exodus. The tradition teaches that there was a divine decree for all the children of Aaron to die, but Moses prayed and succeeded in saving half of them. Now, 3300 years later, the tableau is repeated in the town of Itamar.

Six children live at home in the same family, brutal killers invaded their home, yet half the children survived. One kid was sleeping on a couch instead of a bed, the two-year-old was curled in a small ball on his bed, and probably escaped notice. The 12-year-old sister stayed out late in a Sabbath youth group; parents in Israel are astoundingly tolerant of these wholesome gatherings and suspend their usual curfews.

So a heartless, soulless, gutless murder of a sleeping family only got the parents and half the children, including a three-month-old baby. That is the good news. All the rest is hellish tragedy, atrocity, inhumanity. Hamas announced that although they did not send the killer, they applauded his handiwork. Those peace-loving Palestinians strike again!

THIS IS THE HAPPIEST SEASON of the Jewish calendar. The holiday of Purim, celebrating the heroism of Queen Esther saving her people from the Persians 2300 years ago, will be observed next week. It is a day of goofy costumes and comedy, eating and drinking, a giddy time of hope. School plays are being performed in advance of the holiday, so little glittery crown-wearing boys and girls are skipping up the steps of school buses all over Israel.

Against this backdrop comes a bloody act of random cruelty. Climbing into a peaceful suburban home to slash the throats of its sleeping inhabitants; now there's a political statement. What does that tell the world about the culture of the people who can perpetrate such acts -- not as isolated instances of twisted menace but as publicly celebrated expressions of a national spirit?

Yes, you heard that right. Gaza residents hit the streets to express their jubilance, handing out candy and sweets in honor of the occasion. We have our murderers, too, but we chase them into their dark dens and confine them in cages.

Can someone reasonably argue that a peace treaty negotiated by some people in suits is going to pacify a culture that throws a party to honor the murder of a three-month-old child?

Well, perhaps I have not becalmed myself into lucidity after all. I am enraged, offended, provoked into a state of war. I reject the notion of statehood for the bloodthirsty, legitimacy for the ruthless. Ruthless is an appropriate word here; the woman they killed with three of her offspring was Ruth Fogel. Fogel is a bird, so Ruth Fogel means Bird-of-Peace. It does not take a genius to get the message of slashing the bird of peace.

You and I love the image of the bird soaring high and free; we love peace so much we are willing to overlook all sorts of slights and affronts and irritations and provocations. We want so much to impute good will and good faith to all of mankind, to men and woman of every race and religion. But we cannot close our eyes to evil, to raw predatory evil, to naked evil wielding its scythe of destruction against all that is gentle and kindly and innocent.

I want so much to join my children and grandchildren in their Purim playlets, to get into the mood of the time. One more time the brutes have stolen the light right out of my eyes. Thank God they could not get it all; prayer has saved half of our goodness from the blade. Let us treasure what remains.

To reiterate, "peace" was killed by a thief in the night. It's really that simple.

Furthermore, how can we not think of some of the most well known prophetic verses in all of Scripture (not to mention others that connect "thief" with "night")?

Job 24:14-15 (KJV) The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth [his] face.

Zechariah 5:4 (KJV) I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 (KJV) For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

Matthew 24:43 (KJV) But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

2 Peter 3:10 (KJV) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Remarkably, but only until you remind yourself of Who we're dealing with here, "thief" featured prominently in...Jesus' letter to the Church in Sardis that we just looked at the other day!!!

Revelation 3:3 (KJV) Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

As incredible as that is, there's one more astounding piece here that must not be overlooked.

As you know, Revelation 3 and Christ's letter to the Church at Sardis has been at the forefront of our minds and studies lately. Go back and read the last 1-2 sentences of that piece from The American Spectator. Keep in mind that it was written a full 2-3 weeks BEFORE we all started to sense our attention being drawn to Revelation 3...

"Thank God they could not get it all; prayer has saved half of our goodness from the blade. Let us treasure what remains."

Revelation 3:2-3 (KJV) Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

I'm left with a laser-like focus upon the words "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee", and recall that He could come upon them (us?) in the sense of bringing immediate judgment, or, He could come upon them (us?) in these sense of His coming for the church at the rapture of the church (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) if not some other escape to come (Luke 21:36). Used in either sense, it shows that His coming can be sudden and unannounced, so they need to be watchful.

Look, the issue here is not about whether or not we're destined to die for His glory, honor, and praise, or destined to escape for His glory, honor, and praise. The issue here is about being "watchful" in all the ways we highlighted in the previous post.

It means not merely "watching the world all around us and spotting the signs of the times", but also (and more importantly I might add) "watching ourselves and our brethren carefully" so that we aren't false converts and/or hypocrites like those in Sardis were.

Folks, what could I possibly add to what should be absolutely clear to us by now especially to those of us who have ears to hear and eyes to see?

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Posted in: Four Horsemen,How Close Are We?,Islam,Israel And Middle East,Moral Decline,Political Signs,Religious Persecution,Seven Seals,Spiritual Deception,Symbolism,Synchro-Pop,Witnessing