By C. Eldon McNabb

What Time is it? This question is asked quite frequently in the world today; at least in the industrialized nations. However, Christians, who should be asking this question of God, have good reason to believe it is an irrelevant question. That is because our Christian "Overseers" have inherited a doctrine from their forebears which assures us that it is not possible to know the times and seasons of God's prophetic plan. We have all heard this preached many times, and expressed in different ways. Perhaps the most classic promotion of this error is the statement: "Jesus may come before morning."

As I read the New Testament, I find this "any time" assertion extremely difficult to believe. I hear Jesus heaping great condemnation upon the Pharisees and Sadducees when they, in the midst of all of His signs and wonders asked Him for a sign. He mentioned their ability to predict the weather, and used that to condemn their ignorance of God's time schedule. "O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"

God always gives signs to His prophets so they will know what He is about to do. (Amos 3:7) After the resurrection, the twelve asked Jesus about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. (Acts 1:6) Jesus told them that the knowledge of the times and seasons was reserved by God; apparently to be revealed at the proper time to a group of Gentile Apostles and Prophets. (1 Thess. 5:1-9)

We see this truth demonstrated in 1 Chron. 12:32. "And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do." It is interesting that it is commonly believed that prophecy, in general, is about the development of world history and the "bad guys." On the contrary, John, the son of Zebedee, said The Revelation of Jesus Christ was primarily the revelation of what the life and work of Jesus Christ was, and is, all about. That revelation includes the work of a group of His faithful followers. John said of them, "Blessed is he that readeth (explains), and they that hear (understand) the words of this prophecy and keep (fulfill) those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand (just prior to its fulfillment). Those saints, having ears to hear, are the group which Jesus ordained while He was here and the last days Gentile Church. They are the New Testament counterpart to "the children of Issachar." That group of Gentiles consists of a man who can explain the book, including when to fulfill it, and those who will fulfill it with him, unto great blessing. (Rev. 1:1-3)

To whom shall we go, and what must we do? (John 6:28,29) We must find the man whom God has chosen and sent to oversee the work of preparation for the coming King, because God has given him the volume of prophecy concerning the work of preparation. We see a parallel of this in Paul's experience in Col. 1:25. "I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God." Paul pioneered this work among the Gentiles, and told us in 1 Cor. 3:10, "According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon."

It is evident from recent events and the expressed plans of the United States government that the "troublous times" of Daniel 9:25 are here. It is time for the New Testament "temple" to be built again. God gave us the natural temple in the O.T. to foreshadow the spiritual one, which Paul called "the house of God which is the church of the living God." Becoming a part of that group is not achieved by having our sins forgiven by faith in Jesus Christ. That only makes you a part of the Kingdom of Heaven. In the O.T. there were many cities in the kingdom of Israel. But of them God chose only one to "put His name there." Likewise, in the N.T., there are many churches in the Kingdom of Heaven, and God will raise up one, just before the return of our Lord, to take for his bride and "put His name there."

When shall these things be? In Zephaniah chapter one and verses 1-3 of chapter two, we are told that when the events of 9-11-'01 take place, it is time to "Gather yourselves together, yea gather together O nation not desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you." It is time for the righteous to get hold of God that "it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger." This passage is not about God's anger against the "world of the ungodly," but about His anger against ungodly, wicked and adulterous Christianity.

Jesus told us in Matthew 24, in "the days of the son of man" it will be the same as it was in the days of Noah. In that ark, God saved some of every kind of creature which had "the breath of life." Now God is preparing to do the same for those who have the breath of eternal life. God is raising up a "Noah" who will save us from the wrath of the Dragon when it issues the flood out of its mouth. There are all kinds of Christians in the world, some less clean than others, and God intends to provide them a great deliverance from the edict of death which Pharaoh's modern counterpart shall impose upon us, as the coming of Jesus approaches.

In the last few years God has, figuratively speaking, caused all of the different churches to pass before the second Adam (Jesus) to see if there was one which could make Him a wife, just as God did with the animals when He was considering a wife for the first Adam. The results were the same the second time. But God has a plan. God put Adam into a deep sleep and took out one of his ribs. Somewhere outside the garden of Eden, God transformed that rib into a woman, and brought her unto Adam in the garden. When he saw her, he said, "This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." God is now ready to use the rib of the Second Adam, one of His twelve Apostles, to prepare a bride for Him.

The human body, which in the image of God, reveals the pattern of the Body of Christ. That body has twenty-four ribs. Jesus ordained twelve Apostles during His ministry, and while on the cross, He performed a unique ritual with John Zebedee, one of those twelve, which made John His brother. When John was on the Isle of Patmos, Jesus sent His angel to tell him, after he had eaten the book which Jesus had opened, "Thou must prophecy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings." That time has come, and a man in "the spirit and power of John" is here to reveal the mystery of God's will for us in these "troublous times," and he shall form Christ in God's Elect. Christ is not a shapeless mass, but must be formed in the image of "Jerusalem which is above." God's anointed man will complete the body of Christ partly by bringing forth twelve Gentile Apostles to complete the twenty-four for the Throne of David during the next one thousand years.

A flood will soon be issued out of the mouth of the Dragon against that "woman," and God will deliver her from the wrath of the Dragon, as He did Noah and his family from that flood. (Rev. 12:10-17) God will give her two wings of a great eagle to take her out; "a nation from the midst of another nation," even as He did with Israel out of Egypt by the hand of Moses and Aaron. (Deut. 4:34) God will not do this in a new and strange way. He will do as He has always done. He will anoint a man to accomplish it. In Heb. 3:4, God makes it plain. "Every house is builded by some man, but He that built all things is God." God intends to "build again the Tabernacle of David," in which is the Throne of David. That is, He will have it done, so it will be ready for Jesus to sit upon when He arrives.

Where is that man who, as Elias, will restore all things? (Matt. 17:10,11) Who is the man Jesus said would be ruling His house when He comes back. (Matt. 24:45-47) It is high time to get hold of God and find out what we need to do. Someone, in the manner of the children of Issachar, knows what we must do to prepare for the impending events and the coming of our King, for God has made known the times and seasons.

The time of harvest, which Jesus called "the end of the world," has come. (Matt. 13:39) In Moses we are told that "Jordan overflowed her banks all the time of harvest." In Jeremiah twelve, we are shown that the "swelling of Jordan" is persecution. And in Jer.49:19, we are told, "Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?" God posed these questions, prophesying of His intentions. We should now pose them unto ourselves and to God by way of inquiry, that we may know who it is whom God has appointed unto this work.

The lion-like attack of our adversary, the Devil, shall not be long in coming. Christian leaders insist that they do not know the times, nor can the times be known. Therefore God has given us the revelation of the times to declare the time for Him. "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." (Rom. 13:11-14)