Gary Varvel: The first GOP debate

Part 4 - God's 7000 timeline - The Lazarus Prophecy

Aug 24, 2023

The first GOP debate was overshadowed by the elephant that wasn’t in the room. On X, formerly known as Twitter, Tucker Carlson interviewed former President Trump and as of this morning has 195 million views.

Last June, Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin mounted a failed coup against Russian President Putin. So I drew the above cartoon. Well, I was right again. According to news sources, Prigozhin was among 10 people on a plane that crashed northwest of Moscow on Aug. 23. There were no survivors.

Now, since it was a plane crash, the cynical side of me wonders if he faked his death to get the target off of his back. According to the Guardian, I’m not the only one. We may never know.

RIGHT VIEWS

VIDEO - Tucker Carlson interviewed President Trump during the GOP debate.

Townhall - Guy Benson: Who won the debate last night?

Townhall - Leah Barkoukis: The one GOP candidate that got Praise from Trump during debate.

American Greatness - Jordan Boyd: Trump says Joe Biden is a ‘Manchurian Candidate,’ and owned by China.

American Greatness - David Harsanyi: Biden’s demented lies. The endless need to inject yourself into everyone else’s tragedies — often with lies — isn’t empathy, it is narcissism.

PART 4 — GOD’S 7000 YEAR TIMELINE

Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan
to his servants the prophets. - Amos 3:7

THE LAZARUS PROPHECY

God has revealed His plan to us in His word. So as you read this text, ask yourself, why “2 days and 4 days?”

John 11:5-7 says, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was 2 more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

I’m always curious about numbers in the Bible. God is not random. He has a reason for everything. So consider this: Jesus and his disciples were on the other side of the Jordan River when Lazarus’ sisters sent word to Jesus of their brother’s illness.

Instead of leaving immediately, Jesus waited 2 days before going to Lazarus in Bethany. I believe this is another clue that relates to the “one day is like a thousand years” prophecy found in Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8.

If that is the case, then the 2-day delay is telling us that Jesus will delay His return to Earth for 2000 years after he ascended to heaven in Acts 1.

In Part 2 of this series I wrote that I believe Jesus will rapture Christians off of the Earth (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15) prior to the 7-year Tribulation period described in Daniel 9 and Revelation 4-19. At the rapture Christians who have already died will be resurrected first and then those believers who are alive will be resurrected to meet the Lord in the air. This will happen in the “twinkling of the eye.”

In John 11:20, Lazarus’ sister Martha heard that Jesus was coming to her hometown of Bethany. So she ran out to meet Him. Jesus tells her that her “brother will rise again.” She says she knows he will rise on the last day.

Now read the words of Jesus in verse 25-26 of this chapter, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha confirms her belief in Jesus and then she goes to Mary and tells her that Jesus is asking for her. In verses 28-29, Mary runs to Jesus who had not yet entered the village.

Then Jesus goes to the tomb of Lazarus and tells the people to take away the stone. In verses 43-44, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

1 Thessalonians 4:16 says, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” What is Jesus’ loud command? It could be “Come out!” Or it could be “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).

Then John 11:44 says, “The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

The grave clothes represent our sin nature in these mortal bodies. At the resurrection, Christians will receive sinless immortal bodies free from sin (1 Corinthians 15:50-54). “For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”

The raising of Lazarus gives us a glimpse at the future resurrection. Remember Jesus delayed His coming for 2 days and when He arrives He finds Lazarus was already dead for 4 days, then Jesus raises Lazarus back to life from the grave.

Now, what is significant about the 4 days? I remind you that in God’s timeline there are:

2000 years between Adam and Abraham
2000 years between Abraham and Jesus
2000 years since Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.

Therefore, it has been 4000 years since Abraham, the father of the Jewish people until now. Using the “a day is like a 1000 years” analogy, it has been 4 days.

So there you have it, another prophecy that points to Jesus’ return. If Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and ascension was in the year 30-31AD, then 2030-31 could be when He returns to set up His kingdom for 1000 years on Earth. If, as I believe the Bible says the rapture of believers in Jesus will occur 7 years prior to Jesus Second Coming to Earth, then our generation must be one Jesus talked about.

If you find this hard to believe, Jesus spoke about you in Matthew 24:36-42:

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. 42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

“Keep watch” means, be prepared. That’s why I’m writing this series.

“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” — Proverbs 25:2.

My Latest Series of Essays

Part 1 — God’s 7000-year timeline

Part 2 — The Rapture

Part 3 — God’s 7000-year timeline

RIGHT LINKS

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