The Premature Honeymoon

The Pause on the Brink of Eternity, part 7

Imagine if Jesus were to get impatient up in Heaven, and decide that He has waited long enough to return.  He decides to hop over a few details in His prophecies and promises, and His passionate love for His people drives Him to abbreviate the history of the world.  He quickly finishes up His ministry in the Most Holy Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary, and marshals the armies of heaven for the great rescue they have been waiting for for millennia. The Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the earth, and the final events take place in rapid succession.  Those who are ready are sealed with the seal of God, and those who are not are marked by the beast.  The great time of trouble commences, and Jesus soon returns in the clouds to gather His jewels to Himself.  

“This is our God, the one we have waited for,” sing the waiting faithful, and they are caught up with the newly-risen dead in Christ to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall they ever be with the Lord.  Oh, bliss, oh, wonderful, glorious, heavenly joy.  One second of heaven would be worth more than all the sufferings of this earthly life, and now all eternity stretches out before the bride of Christ, the redeemed from the earth.  The wedding for which the Bridegroom has waited so long can now take place, and just imagine what the honeymoon will be like!

Well, yeah, imagine what the honeymoon will be like.  Sex will no longer be a part of human existence, but the personal knowing of Jesus in person will far surpass any joy that sex can bring anyway.  So, the honeymoon begins, with the joys and revelations that surpass anything the most-faithful couple have ever enjoyed.  Or, ... well, ... maybe not exactly.  As Jesus rejoices over His bride, He begins to inspect her more closely, and what does He find?  She’s not all there!  She’s missing some very vital and important parts of her body!  She looked ok from a distance, but so much of what would have made her beautiful is lacking, and can never be replaced!  

“Oh, no!” Jesus cries out!  “She wasn’t ready to get married!  She wasn’t whole yet!  What have I done?  It’s over, it’s too late to change anything.  There are over 12,000 nations, tribes, peoples, and languages that didn’t have the opportunity to be part of the body, My body!  Oh, no, now they are lost forever, beyond the reach of any hope, and my bride is crippled, maimed, blemished for all eternity!  She’s missing toes, fingers, teeth, one eyeball, half her heart, and an ear!”

“Count the patience of our Lord as salvation.”  “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”  2 Peter 3:15, 9.  “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.  See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.”  James 5:7.

As of today, there are still over 6,600 individual people groups, representing over 2.75 billion people, that are unreached, meaning that they do not have a significant Christian presence among them.  When we look at Adventists, the number is over 12,000 people groups with no SDA church established among them.  How could Jesus come back until members from those groups have been reached, warned, and gathered into His body, the church?  Jesus is a gentleman, a Lover who is passionately in love with one Beloved.  He will have nobody else, and even if decades and centuries pass, He will wait until she is ready for marriage.  Today she is not ready, so He waits.  And waits.  And still waits.  How long will He wait?  Hopefully not much longer, but according to His word we know that He will wait long enough for the prophecies to come true that there will be individuals “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” standing in the innumerable multitude before the Throne of God in heaven.  

Jesus doesn’t want to get married to an incomplete bride, and if you think about it, I am sure you would agree that you wouldn’t want to get married to an all-powerful being who doesn’t keep His word.  Could the saved really trust Jesus to keep other promises in His Word if He jumped the gun and came back to earth before every people group is represented in the church?  What other promises might He overlook down the road?  If He didn’t care enough about those nations, tribes, languages, and peoples, how much does He really care about those of us who make it?  

I have heard it said that when a person has sex with their lover outside of marriage, even if they are engaged, they are giving their future spouse permission to have sex outside of marriage.  If a person is not self-controlled enough to wait to get married, can they be trusted even after they are married?  If Jesus jumps the gun now, so to speak, ending history before His bride is ready, can His bride ever really trust Him?  The regret and remorse experienced by impatient lovers here on earth is surely next to nothing compared to the eternal remorse of hastening the second coming.

So, Jesus waits.  He is a gentleman, and He will keep His Word.  He will keep His Word to return, but before that can happen, His Word about who will be in heaven must be kept as well.  I don’t know about you, but I would like to be married to somebody like that, and I would want to do everything possible to be ready for the wedding and the eternal honeymoon following.  Do you want to receive the seal of God in your forehead?  Then consider that that process will be inextricably intwined with the carrying of the gospel to the unreached people groups of this world.  Those who are sealed will be involved to one degree or another in proclaiming the gospel.