In celebration of the previous post on The Rapture showing a published total of 4,212 I’m re-posting this one from my testimony and which explains the deep significance of number 212 in my utterly unexpected and blessed foretaste of Jesus’ return:
‘…but mercy (full of glad confidence) exults victoriously over judgement’ – James 2:13 (The Amplified Bible)
Quite some time was needed to gain a full understanding of that awesome visitation 33 years ago and being confronted by the absolute holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. (On 13-14 September 1989.)
No wonder I was intensely convicted and suddenly knew personal judgement definitely IS TRUE! As mentioned, I fully expected to take my last breath there and then and be dropped down into Hell.
It was a few years until I heard that “mercy triumphs over judgement” – yes indeed it does and thank you for being so gracious to me, my Lord. May it be similarly so for the multitudes who don’t yet know You.
That life-changing encounter used two personally intimate aspects of my life, unknown to any living soul, to grab my attention and thereby validate the experience as being real, not imaginary. Even more amazingly, both validations are directly related to the 1st and 2nd Advents! Thus, they could not but enhance my interest in End-Times that had begun only a few years earlier when reading The Invisible Hand (as described herein). Yet it took me 30 years for it to dawn upon me that when that happened I’d been given the first two pieces of an ‘invisible jigsaw’!!!
The First Advent was when Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea about two thousand years ago. Hence, the four weeks leading into Christmas are designated within the church calendar as Advent, and which start the church year. The Second Advent is coming soon and is expected to begin in the city of Jerusalem.
FIRST VALIDATION
I inwardly ‘knew’ that heavenly visitor was indeed Jesus Christ himself, and that His impressive swift descent was a foretaste of His promised return in all His glory.
The event reminded me of my favourite picture in mother’s Missal, or service book of the Roman Mass. This gave the scriptures for Sunday services throughout the year together with a picture symbolising the theme for each service. As a boy very keen on astronomy I’d been fascinated by the picture for the First Sunday in Advent. It depicted Jesus standing on the clouds over a burning earth in the midst of sun, moon and falling stars, telling of events before his Second Advent! Continue reading