Jesus Christ could return next month, next week, or even tomorrow!
How can that be? you ask. Doesn’t He return at the end of a 3 1/2-year tribulation? His return is at least that far off, right?
That is true only for those who live to see the return of Christ. Those who die in the faith before that great event are as far away from it as they are from their last breaths!
Fact is, we do not know how much time we have until Jesus Christ’s return.
The world and God’s Church are in a time of no more delay (Revelation 10:6). God is hastening our efforts, encouraging us to work faster!
This Being of perfect character and balance, in addition to being benevolently patient, is also extremely urgent.
God—Both Patient and Urgent
How often does God make us wait for things? We long for Him to pick up the pace and deliver us from a trial, grant us a blessing, or hurry up and establish His Kingdom on Earth. How often does it seem that He just doesn’t work quickly enough for us?
God, possessing perfect patience, is building that same trait in each of us.
Yet how often is the waiting reversed? Do we keep God waiting? How often does He wish we would cast off the weights of sin and move more quickly to finish His Work?
Notice a passage of instruction in 2 Peter 3. The brethren were being discouraged by scoffers saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (verses 3-4). Surely that question made some of them doubt, wondering whether the scoffers had a point.
The scoffers argue that everything has continued normally since the beginning of the creation and will continue to do so. But, as Simon Peter pointed out, they willingly ignore the fact that civilization came to an end at the great Flood (verses 5-6). Similar destruction awaits it again—yet this time destruction by fire! (verse 7).
Notice Peter’s encouragement. First of all, he said, scoffers were prophesied (verse 3). Then, the real encouragement: “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (verse 8). In other words, remember that God’s view of timing is quite different than ours. A thousand years is like one day. What may seem like a lifetime to us may just be a blip in time for the Almighty God. But the opposite is also true! It’s like God can get through a thousand years of work in one day. What an utterly patient, yet fast-moving Being!
Notice the purpose for God’s patience: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (verse 9). God is being extremely patient in order to allow as many as possible to come to repentance. That includes us! God is graciously giving us a period of time to get ourselves ready!
The Apostle Peter continues: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night …” (verse 10). You may think it’s taking a long time, Peter says, but when it happens it will happen unexpectedly and quickly!
So what does that mean about our spiritual development? “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness” (verse 11). This what the feast of Unleavened Bread is all about—becoming spiritually unleavened, because there is not much time.
Did you know there is even a historic, physical connection between bread being unleavened and a person having urgency?
Leaving Egypt in Haste
When the Israelites were granted their freedom by a grieved Pharaoh, they left Egypt rather quickly. Part of the reason was that “the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men” (Exodus 12:33). After the death of the entire nation’s firstborns, the Egyptians didn’t want these people inhabiting their land anymore.
In the next verse, it reads, “And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders” (verse 34). They didn’t have time to wait until the dough became leavened, because the Egyptians were forcing them out. Notice verse 39: “And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual.”
God draws attention to the physical connection between urgent times and not leavening the bread because it teaches us a deep spiritual lesson about our personal sense of urgency in coming out of sin and making ourselves ready for the return of Jesus Christ.
During the Days of Unleavened Bread, we should direct our minds to the haste with which we should leave sin and the haste in which we must be doing our part in this Work. How appropriate, during this last hour of man’s civilization, that we learn this lesson.
The Weight of Sin
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
The spring holy days teach us that leaven is a type of sin. Just as leaven would have slowed the Israelites down, so sin is like a weight that slows us down in this race toward our goal.
We are in a race against time, and—though we run with godly patience, as the verse points out—we must be ridding ourselves of these deadly weights!
Taking on Christ’s Urgency
Since May 2001, this Work has been proclaiming that we live in the “last hour” of man’s civilization—we have a book devoted to this subject. In it, editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes: “Is there a more urgent expression in the Bible than the last hour? … It’s all about the worst hour in human history! Was there ever a more urgent work than this? Are you reflecting Christ’s urgency in this last hour?”
As the Apostle Peter urged, we need God’s perspective on time. We need Christ’s urgency living in us—motivating us!
Zephaniah 1:14 mentions how the Day of the Lord “hasteth greatly.” Mr. Flurry commented on this in Who Is “That Prophet”?: “There has never been a time like this, and the pace of events will never be the same again! When I read the book of Zephaniah and study it deeply, I realize that I’m not as urgent as the spirit of this message. I don’t believe I’m as urgent as I need to be; I don’t believe our ministers are; I don’t believe God’s people are! We must realize just where we are in prophecy!”
Use the spring holy days to better learn these lessons. How many more feasts of Unleavened Bread do we have before the Day of the Lord?
Redeem the Time
Many scoff at the urgency the first-century apostles had in their day, believing Christ would return in their lifetime. Those who say, “My Lord delays His coming” argue that such urgency is extreme.
But, in a certain sense, did Christ not return in their lifetime? If a man of God penned an epistle just a year before he died, was Christ’s coming not a year away for him? Was his urgency unjustified?
What would you do if this year’s Passover was your last one before Christ’s return? How differently would you keep it?
What if you only had, say, 30 more days to live—that is, 30 more days until Christ’s return? How differently would you live?
Perhaps you would make a list of things to improve on: enter into more intense, effectual prayer, praying more earnestly for the Work and other brethren; study the Bible more deeply every day; get in one or two more meaningful fasts; devote yourself to your family more; serve more at Church services; practice “pure religion” by caring more for the fatherless and widows; work on those sins that keep coming up year after year.
Basically, we would think of all the things God expects of us and do them to the fullest! Questioning ourselves in this manner is a great way to examine our lives before Passover. And then, look at that list and realize: That is how we should be living all the time.
“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).
The word redeeming in the Greek means to buy up, ransom, rescue from loss. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon says this verse tells us “to make use of every opportunity for doing good.”
We must make use of every opportunity—especially in this last hour. Ecclesiastes 9:10 says to do whatever our hand finds to do “with thy might.” Why? Because “there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”
Our character development, the deleavening process, our part in the Work all stop at the grave. Death ends that supreme creation—that is when, for those called out today, Christ returns!
Consider how common it is for someone who has had a brush with death, or someone close to dying, to think about wanting to do everything with all their might.
In the last hour, the time window for building character and getting the leaven out is getting ever smaller.
Satan’s Sense of Urgency
Satan the devil is well aware of this. Revelation 12:9-12 reveal that he has been cast down and that he “knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Because of this, he is working harder than ever!
What about us?
Mr. Flurry wrote in Who Is “That Prophet”? that Satan “knows there is no more delay and that his time is about up, so he is very urgent in his evil endeavors. … There is nothing on his mind but destruction, especially the spiritual destruction of God’s people. These are dangerous and urgent times. … We must be aware of time—the way Satan is.”
We can learn from Satan’s example the kind of urgency we must have, and direct it, of course, to righteous endeavors—to finishing this Work and our part in the character development process.
Can we be as urgent as Satan the devil? That’s the only way we can face him!
The Opposite of Urgency
We have identified a godly sense of urgency as an unleavened quality. The Days of Unleavened Bread teach us that righteousness, or unleaven, has an opposite. So if urgency is the unleavened bread, what is the leaven opposite?
Is it laziness? Complacency? Not necessarily—though it can be (Matthew 25 speaks of 10 virgins who fell asleep). But urgency is not simply just being active. You can be lying physically still on your bed meditating on God’s plan and self-examination and be intensely urgent!
Matthew 24:48-50 give us the answer: “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of.”
What did the evil servant do because of this lack of urgency? Did he get lethargic? Or did he get very urgent about his own things? He obviously had a spiritual lethargy, but he looked quite busy.
Verses 37-38 reveal that the people in Noah’s day were “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark.”
Luke 17:26-28 show a similar scenario prior to Sodom’s and Gomorrah’s destruction. “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded” (verse 28).
These were busy people! These societies weren’t known for their physical lethargy. They certainly seemed extremely urgent—but about their own things!
Obviously, there is nothing wrong of itself with eating, drinking, planting, buying, building or marrying. But these peoples were wrapped up in the cares of this life.
What is the leaven opposite of urgency? Mainly, it’s worldliness!
The Bible reveals that even Lot, when the angels came to tell him to leave Sodom, “lingered” (Genesis 19:16). Getting caught up in this world is incredibly easy—yet spiritually debilitating and even fatal.
Christ warned us: “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged [or weighed down] with surfeiting, and drunknness, and care of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares” (Luke 21:34).
The biggest danger of this day coming upon us unawares is our getting caught up in certain activities—either the wrong ones, or the wrong quantity, or prioritizing them over the right ones.
“For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (verses 35-36).
What Christ is saying is that this is a particular temptation as the end draws near: When we should be most urgent, we will have the biggest pull to get caught up in frivolous things.
This holy day season reminds us to forsake Egypt—the material pleasures, the popular culture that inundates us and can so easily preoccupy our minds, from the latest celebrity court case to the newest insipid reality show.
Not that God doesn’t want us to experience material pleasure or entertainment, but we must never allow those things to cause us to fall asleep to God’s way. They get us urgent about the wrong things. Suddenly, we can find ourselves getting more excited about the next installment of a movie trilogy or television series than about supporting God’s great end-time Work.
The urgent devil knows that if he can direct our excitement away from God’s projects and into our own little universe, he can take us out of the God Family.
So we see the enemy of urgency. We see what the leaven actually is. So how do we root it out? How do we rid our lives of the leaven of worldliness?
Combating Worldliness
“And [Jesus] saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death; tarry ye here, and watch. And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed …. And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:34-35, 37-38).
Jesus Christ drew the connection between a lack of urgency and falling into sin. And the way to combat that? Watch and pray! Watching this world, what is happening to it—watching our lives, our everyday actions—all the while maintaining the line of communication with our Father—is the way to combat materialism, worldliness and spiritual lethargy.
These two tools, Christ said, help us to stay out of temptation.
Another component of watching relates to getting involved in God’s Work—supporting the message that God is sending through His chosen servant.
Amos 6 contains a dire prophecy about God’s own people who are “at ease” (verse 1), who are putting “far away the evil day” (verse 3), and are refusing to prophesy about what is coming upon this world.
Notice how this is tied to the sin of materialism: “That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; … That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph” (verses 4, 6).
These people are caught up in materialism to the point where they ignore what is happening to modern-day Joseph—the nations of Israel.
Mr. Flurry writes, “They are not urgent about the work to be done! They don’t shed tears for Israel, because they think its destruction is far in the future. Great woe will come into your life if you fall into this category. … Get into God’s Work! Don’t be at ease. Satan attacks those who are at ease. If you are not urgent for this Work of God, Satan will get to you” (ibid.).
This is how we fight temptations: Watch and pray. Get involved in the work God has given you to do!
Signs of an Urgent Christian
Here are positive attributes that we each must take on, with God’s power, in order to become more urgent Christians. An urgent Christian is:
1. Someone with a passionate, strong prayer life. He is excited about his prayer and prioritizes contact with God above all else. This individual heeds Christ’s command to “watch and pray.”
2. Someone who is wrapped up in the Work. He or she is focused on the projects going on at God’s headquarters. This person is also watching world events—building faith by seeing how they fulfill God’s infallible prophecies.
3. Someone whose conversation reflects excitement and urgency (for the Work and watching world events). This is a sign of the second point, for Christ said that “of the abundance of the heart [the] mouth speaketh” (Luke 6:45). What we think on comes out in our conversation. But it can also work the other way around—use fellowship about the Work and about world events to build urgency. Perhaps we have slight awkwardness bringing up a sermon out of the blue in fellowship with God’s people if that is not the topic at the moment. If you find it difficult, then bring up something going on at headquarters, a world event, a nugget you read in the Trumpet or saw on theTrumpet.com.
4. Someone who manages his or her time efficiently. Mr. Flurry wrote in The Last Hour: “How do you manage your time? How urgent are you in organizing your time? We all need to get motivated to do more. We have less than an hour left!” So an urgent Christian organizes time efficiently in order to get the Work done—because that hastens the day of Christ’s return.
5. Someone who has balanced emotions and perspective on life. When Ezekiel’s wife died, God commanded him not to mourn like other men. The reason? A sword was coming upon the land! “God had to implant within Ezekiel a special sense of urgency,” Mr. Flurry wrote. “How did He do it? As we look at this, we may see His method as heartless, but again—we must get God’s view. Let’s realize what this is really about” (Ezekiel: The End-Time Prophet). By testing our emotional control, God is cultivating urgency in us so we can focus on His Work more than we do on our personal feelings. He wants us to put the suffering that the world is about to go through ahead of our individual suffering.
Hasten the Day
As the Apostle Peter asked, seeing what events lie ahead, “what manner of persons ought ye to be”? What kind of feast of Unleavened Bread ought we to have when we see the world in the condition it is in?
Notice Peter’s next thought: “Looking for and hasting unto the coming [literally, “hastening the coming”] of the day of God …” (2 Peter 3:12). Not only is God speeding up our thinking, but He also says that if we work faster—if we are getting the leaven out more urgently—we can actually hasten the completion of this Work and the day of His coming!
“Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent [meaning, be prompt, use speed] that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless” (verse 14).
Let’s work this holy day season to reflect Christ’s urgency, to seize the hour, redeem the time and do God’s Work with all our might! Let us work to put the unleaven of urgency into our lives, and get the cares of this world out, so that we can hasten the return of Jesus Christ!