Reverse Engineering the Second Coming of Jesus
by Andrew Michell
June 13, 2013
by Andrew Michell
June 13, 2013
Jesus has not returned yet so I have been asking the question: Why not? Can we do anything to hasten His return? To find the answer to these and other questions we can apply some principles of reverse engineering. Simply stated, reverse engineering is first identifying what it is what you want (your end goal) and working backwards to define the steps and actions needed to get what you want. Below is an evolving project that began several years ago. It is the combined knowledge gained from interviews with pastors, missionaries, and theologians.
Steps to Reverse Engineering the Second Coming of Jesus
1. Jesus’ 2nd Coming. This is a future reality that will fulfill remaining prophecy. The certainty of fulfilled prophecy (example: Daniel 2) and Jesus' Resurrection from the dead are the two irrefutable and unassailable pillars of faith and trust in the Bible.
2. Great Commission will be completed. Matthew 24:14 and Revelation 14:6 are clear and unambiguous. %100 of the world will be evangelized. Forget conspiracy theories, Illuminatis, and earthquakes, those are escape routes to avoid personal responsibility. The follower of Jesus has been given no responsibility to control or facilitate natural or man-made disasters. However the Great Commission is the only sign of which Jesus' followers do have control and responsibility. It is the finishing of the Great Commission that signals the soon return of Jesus. In this context soon actually means soon. (for more on this read The Challenge of Missions by Oswald Smith).
3. - 4. The last people group will be reached and a time of probation will be given to them to accept or reject the gospel. Revelation 14:6 and Matthew 24:14 and the whole theme of the Bible dictates that %100 of every people group has witnesses sufficient to provide opportunities to learn truth. Current estimates by missiologists (those who study missions) put the progress of evangelism around 40-60% of the world as currently evangelized. This means that the most optimistic number of %60 still leaves over 2.5 BILLION people unreached. Many Christians are sitting and waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus when there are still whole people groups who have not yet heard about the First Coming. When the last people group is reached the evangelism counter will theoretically move from %99 to %100 and a time of probation will be given for them to accept or reject the gospel. Unfortunately that last group will not have the privilege of living in a culture with Christian influences for several hundred years as we currently do. (check out a great resource about missions progress at JoshuaProject.net).
5. Final obstacles removed. Satan and his forces will oppose every inch of ground gained in missions. There are currently massive Goliaths facing us and while they may offer resistance to the end it is in vain. No resistance or obstacle can remain in the presence of the God's Holy Spirit poured out in fullness upon His messengers upon the earth. Tip: to those who want a fat nest egg in heaven begin identifying the Goliaths and seek by God's grace to develop the Christlike character that David had in 1 Samuel 17. Then go forward and gain some victories.
6. Holy Spirit poured out in fullness. For the purpose of brevity this will fulfill Joel's latter rain and will complete what began in the former rain in the book of Acts. When God's people have the Holy Spirit they are effective and efficient messengers of gospel truth to those who have not yet heard. Today many people talk of having the Holy Spirit but they do not pray for the unreached, send to the unreached, go to the unreached, read about the unreached, or even pay someone else to go to the unreached. They have a spirit but it's not the Holy Missionary Spirit of Jesus. The next time you meet someone who claims to have the Holy Spirit ask them to name just three of the thousands of unreached people groups. Then ask them what they are personally doing so that they can hear about the One who came back from the dead.
7. Major obstacles removed. When God's people obeyed, the obstacles to advancement were vaporized. Now the obstacles to mission completion are big and small, both internal and external, and both at home and overseas. Nevertheless, when we do what we can do God is faithful to open doors to do more. It should be remembered that missions is not an option but a command from the King. Either obey or disobey, there is no neutral ground. Relegating missions to high school-dropout-drug-addict-unemployed-felons like myself is a terrible excuse and a disastrous theology.
8. Living breathing humans actually GO as witnesses to the unreached. Despite the lazy and indifferent nonsense indulged in today, neither angels nor the internet will finish the work. Actual people must be representatives.That is how Jesus set this program up and that is how it will go forward unless He comes and changes all of our Bibles to read differently. Angels and the internet will help but the Great Commission is given to sinners like you and me. (Overcome excuses and objections to missions with Do Not Say by J. Heywood Horsbugh.)
9 - 10 Paradigm Shift. At some point in the future people will actually WANT to go. This will be an enormous shift in the way we think about missions. Right now nobody cares about unreached people groups and that is a non-negotiable fact. However there will come a time when a desire and intense wanting will be created collectively among God’s people. People must want it and own it or it's not sustainable. Finishing the Great Commission regardless of cost or sacrifice will become the number one priority. This may be a painful step because one must ask a very disturbing question: What must God allow so that His priorities become our priorities? What experience must we go through so that the reaching the unreached is dearer to us than life itself? (Need some motivating missionary quotes? Try these.)
11. Some catalyst will precede THE SHIFT. What will it be? Some sort of event or example? Someone with success or mighty answers to prayer? Maybe a crisis? More than ever before something is needed to arrest peoples’ attention, not only the world but disinterested Christians. Somehow they have to be woken from their stupor to sit up and take notice. If the Great Commission is completed by God's people but they are not very interested in that Commission then something must happen. Consider the following quote from page 6 of Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine "Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.” While the author is referring to international politics, foreign policies, and economies, this principle is applicable to Christians as well. The long practiced indifference to the unreached will be met with enormous shearing forces or paradigm shattering pressures. Without much thought one can foresee that this time will not be pleasant but what if there exists a positive and more attractive catalyst?
12. This is where the reverse engineering gets really interesting. This will be the object of our focus and study: What precedes the catalyst? Is the catalyst something arbitrary where God rolls the dice one day and decides on a whim to bring about massive changes? Or is this a response to laws or prayer, obedience, and faithfulness? In the Bible, when God's people prayed and obeyed, breakthroughs always occurred. When we consider how much responsibility and privilege God has granted to us to be His representatives among the unreached and how the completion of this work determines the time of the end it becomes for practical purposes one incredible project with well ordered action steps completed by willing individuals. Peter must have thought about this when he penned the thought in 2 Peter 3:12 that we could hasten the great day of the Lord.
My speculation: People will not want to get involved with finishing the Great Commission unless they can see that the benefits outweigh any amount of cost or suffering. For them to see this there must be examples. God is waiting. The Holy Spirit is waiting. The angels are waiting. They are waiting for examples that must come from missions and reaching the unreached. They are waiting to cooperate with willing hearts consecrated wholeheartedly to God in bringing about extraordinary results. Why? The only lasting revival is revival through missions.
"Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist." — Oswald J. Smith
"Only as the church fulfills her missionary obligation does she justify her existence." — Unknown
Doubtless these catalysts/examples have experience with prayer and missions or else they could never be examples to call others to join the work. People listen to sermons but they only follow examples. Therefore the examples must come from missions. We are talking about unprecedented opportunity!!! Maybe you can be that catalyst!!! All the time prophecies have been fulfilled. Only the Great Commission remains to be completed. Being involved in missions, promoting missions, and seeking uncommon answers to prayer in missions will bring about the Second Coming of Jesus. We are talking about enormous wealth building that will only come this one time in eternity. No second chances to invest! We cannot come back from heaven to re-invest in missions. Paul wrote in Romans 8:18 and 2 Thess 2:19-20 that the most lucrative use of our time, money, resources, and life is to join Christ in His mission of reaching the unreached.
What about you? What will you do? As for me I have been involved in supporting missions by any means available to me. By God's grace I will continue until He returns. Why don't you pray today and ask God how you can join in supporting missions.
1. Jesus’ 2nd Coming. This is a future reality that will fulfill remaining prophecy. The certainty of fulfilled prophecy (example: Daniel 2) and Jesus' Resurrection from the dead are the two irrefutable and unassailable pillars of faith and trust in the Bible.
2. Great Commission will be completed. Matthew 24:14 and Revelation 14:6 are clear and unambiguous. %100 of the world will be evangelized. Forget conspiracy theories, Illuminatis, and earthquakes, those are escape routes to avoid personal responsibility. The follower of Jesus has been given no responsibility to control or facilitate natural or man-made disasters. However the Great Commission is the only sign of which Jesus' followers do have control and responsibility. It is the finishing of the Great Commission that signals the soon return of Jesus. In this context soon actually means soon. (for more on this read The Challenge of Missions by Oswald Smith).
3. - 4. The last people group will be reached and a time of probation will be given to them to accept or reject the gospel. Revelation 14:6 and Matthew 24:14 and the whole theme of the Bible dictates that %100 of every people group has witnesses sufficient to provide opportunities to learn truth. Current estimates by missiologists (those who study missions) put the progress of evangelism around 40-60% of the world as currently evangelized. This means that the most optimistic number of %60 still leaves over 2.5 BILLION people unreached. Many Christians are sitting and waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus when there are still whole people groups who have not yet heard about the First Coming. When the last people group is reached the evangelism counter will theoretically move from %99 to %100 and a time of probation will be given for them to accept or reject the gospel. Unfortunately that last group will not have the privilege of living in a culture with Christian influences for several hundred years as we currently do. (check out a great resource about missions progress at JoshuaProject.net).
5. Final obstacles removed. Satan and his forces will oppose every inch of ground gained in missions. There are currently massive Goliaths facing us and while they may offer resistance to the end it is in vain. No resistance or obstacle can remain in the presence of the God's Holy Spirit poured out in fullness upon His messengers upon the earth. Tip: to those who want a fat nest egg in heaven begin identifying the Goliaths and seek by God's grace to develop the Christlike character that David had in 1 Samuel 17. Then go forward and gain some victories.
6. Holy Spirit poured out in fullness. For the purpose of brevity this will fulfill Joel's latter rain and will complete what began in the former rain in the book of Acts. When God's people have the Holy Spirit they are effective and efficient messengers of gospel truth to those who have not yet heard. Today many people talk of having the Holy Spirit but they do not pray for the unreached, send to the unreached, go to the unreached, read about the unreached, or even pay someone else to go to the unreached. They have a spirit but it's not the Holy Missionary Spirit of Jesus. The next time you meet someone who claims to have the Holy Spirit ask them to name just three of the thousands of unreached people groups. Then ask them what they are personally doing so that they can hear about the One who came back from the dead.
7. Major obstacles removed. When God's people obeyed, the obstacles to advancement were vaporized. Now the obstacles to mission completion are big and small, both internal and external, and both at home and overseas. Nevertheless, when we do what we can do God is faithful to open doors to do more. It should be remembered that missions is not an option but a command from the King. Either obey or disobey, there is no neutral ground. Relegating missions to high school-dropout-drug-addict-unemployed-felons like myself is a terrible excuse and a disastrous theology.
8. Living breathing humans actually GO as witnesses to the unreached. Despite the lazy and indifferent nonsense indulged in today, neither angels nor the internet will finish the work. Actual people must be representatives.That is how Jesus set this program up and that is how it will go forward unless He comes and changes all of our Bibles to read differently. Angels and the internet will help but the Great Commission is given to sinners like you and me. (Overcome excuses and objections to missions with Do Not Say by J. Heywood Horsbugh.)
9 - 10 Paradigm Shift. At some point in the future people will actually WANT to go. This will be an enormous shift in the way we think about missions. Right now nobody cares about unreached people groups and that is a non-negotiable fact. However there will come a time when a desire and intense wanting will be created collectively among God’s people. People must want it and own it or it's not sustainable. Finishing the Great Commission regardless of cost or sacrifice will become the number one priority. This may be a painful step because one must ask a very disturbing question: What must God allow so that His priorities become our priorities? What experience must we go through so that the reaching the unreached is dearer to us than life itself? (Need some motivating missionary quotes? Try these.)
11. Some catalyst will precede THE SHIFT. What will it be? Some sort of event or example? Someone with success or mighty answers to prayer? Maybe a crisis? More than ever before something is needed to arrest peoples’ attention, not only the world but disinterested Christians. Somehow they have to be woken from their stupor to sit up and take notice. If the Great Commission is completed by God's people but they are not very interested in that Commission then something must happen. Consider the following quote from page 6 of Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine "Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.” While the author is referring to international politics, foreign policies, and economies, this principle is applicable to Christians as well. The long practiced indifference to the unreached will be met with enormous shearing forces or paradigm shattering pressures. Without much thought one can foresee that this time will not be pleasant but what if there exists a positive and more attractive catalyst?
12. This is where the reverse engineering gets really interesting. This will be the object of our focus and study: What precedes the catalyst? Is the catalyst something arbitrary where God rolls the dice one day and decides on a whim to bring about massive changes? Or is this a response to laws or prayer, obedience, and faithfulness? In the Bible, when God's people prayed and obeyed, breakthroughs always occurred. When we consider how much responsibility and privilege God has granted to us to be His representatives among the unreached and how the completion of this work determines the time of the end it becomes for practical purposes one incredible project with well ordered action steps completed by willing individuals. Peter must have thought about this when he penned the thought in 2 Peter 3:12 that we could hasten the great day of the Lord.
My speculation: People will not want to get involved with finishing the Great Commission unless they can see that the benefits outweigh any amount of cost or suffering. For them to see this there must be examples. God is waiting. The Holy Spirit is waiting. The angels are waiting. They are waiting for examples that must come from missions and reaching the unreached. They are waiting to cooperate with willing hearts consecrated wholeheartedly to God in bringing about extraordinary results. Why? The only lasting revival is revival through missions.
"Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist." — Oswald J. Smith
"Only as the church fulfills her missionary obligation does she justify her existence." — Unknown
Doubtless these catalysts/examples have experience with prayer and missions or else they could never be examples to call others to join the work. People listen to sermons but they only follow examples. Therefore the examples must come from missions. We are talking about unprecedented opportunity!!! Maybe you can be that catalyst!!! All the time prophecies have been fulfilled. Only the Great Commission remains to be completed. Being involved in missions, promoting missions, and seeking uncommon answers to prayer in missions will bring about the Second Coming of Jesus. We are talking about enormous wealth building that will only come this one time in eternity. No second chances to invest! We cannot come back from heaven to re-invest in missions. Paul wrote in Romans 8:18 and 2 Thess 2:19-20 that the most lucrative use of our time, money, resources, and life is to join Christ in His mission of reaching the unreached.
What about you? What will you do? As for me I have been involved in supporting missions by any means available to me. By God's grace I will continue until He returns. Why don't you pray today and ask God how you can join in supporting missions.