Suomeksi

My wife and I believe in the soon return of Christ for His church.  We believe that His return might be this week.  We have prepared an explanation for our family and friends here in Finland, so that, if it does happen this soon, they will understand what has happened and not be subject to the deception of the antichrist.

I am putting this text here in this post, just in case any of my readers want to take it, modify it and give this message to your friends and relatives who are not committed to Jesus Christ as their Lord.

Last Warning…

I am Alan Lake, an American believer in Christ.  I came to faith in my Lord Jesus at the age of seven years and have had a close walk with Him these sixty years.  I came to Finland in January of 2006 to marry my bride, Pirjo.  I have always felt that there was more reason for me to come here than just for our marriage.  I think I know this reason now.

I knew nothing about your country until shortly before I came. I soon learned some Finnish history.  I learned of the day in November 1939 when Finns listening to their radios heard that the Soviet Union had bombed Helsinki. My wife’s aunt was a teenager who had ridden her bicycle from her childhood home in Vihti to Helsinki about six months before. The bombing was a total surprise to her as it was to most Finns.

It was not a surprise to all Finns. The government officials who had rejected Moscow’s demand for Finnish territory probably figured that Stalin would do something. If they had told the Finnish people of Stalin’s demand and Finland’s rejection, some people would likely have moved out of Helsinki that did not move because they didn’t know. Perhaps the authorities didn’t tell the people because they didn’t know for certain that the Soviets would attack and they didn’t know when.

There is another event that is going to change life in Finland and in other countries to a greater extent than did the Winter War and the Continuation War. We don’t know when it will happen, but we can make an educated guess. My guess is very soon. Rather than to let it be a total surprise, I choose to share what I’ve observed and what I know so that when I’m not here to give an explanation after the fact, you will know that I said something beforehand. This event is the promised return of Jesus Christ.

Some theologians say that you cannot believe the Bible as it is written. You must have experts to interpret it for you. Others of us choose to accept the Bible text at face value, that is as it appears that the writers intended for us to take it. There are books written about Christ’s second coming. What I am sharing with you is a bare bones short version, so you can know what to expect.

Most people ignore God until they get into trouble. Then they cry out to Him. God hates to be ignored. If trouble is what it’s going to take, then trouble is what man will get. In the Bible, the prophets of God have said that there is coming a time of trouble on the earth that is more severe than any that has ever come before. It is His last call. This time will be seven years long, divided into two 3 ½ year periods.

Last summer, I was in a park in Jyväskylä talking to my wife about the last days that the Bible predicts. We were discussing the fact that natural disasters have been happening all over the world with greater frequency and greater intensity, like a woman’s labor pains. Jesus used that exact simile to describe the end of the age. Could these be a sign that the world as we know it is about to end?

A young Finnish man came from his nearby group of young men and asked me if I knew anything about 2012. I did not. It appears that there are some who believe that it will mark the end of the world. The planets will all be in a straight line from the sun for the first time in 26,000 years. The Mayan Indians of southern Mexico once had a great civilization. They created a calendar. This calendar ends suddenly in 2012.

A news article from the United States said that the year 2015 is a time when there will be great disturbances in the sun, moon and stars that will cause great trouble on earth.

Those who read the news know that there has been an economic collapse in the United States due to foolish decisions by politicians and financiers. When a similar collapse occurred in 1929, the ordinary person didn’t come to feel it until 1933, about three years later. The people who are in charge of minimizing damage over there are the same people who caused the problem in the first place! There are tough economic times ahead. You Finns know that when America stubs her toe, Finns often feel the pain. It’s not fair, but that’s the way it is.

Let’s look at the years we’ve mentioned. From some time in 2012 to some time in 2015 is 3 ½ years. Three years earlier than 2012 is 2009. Three and a half years could well be in 2008 – this year!  These two time spans of 3 ½ years each could well be the aforementioned seven years, the years of the Great Tribulation. The events in the economy and in natural disasters, not to mention the threats from terrorists in the Middle East, could well be the predicted time of trouble.

Your writer is among those who believe that the Bible teaches that Christ is going to catch those with a personal faith in Him up into Heaven shortly before the Great Tribulation begins. With them will be those who are too young or too mentally challenged to be able to be held responsible for their sins. In other words, millions of people will just vanish from the face of the earth. If you choose to wait and see what happens without putting your life into the Hands of Christ, you need to know who it is that has disappeared and what the disappearance means. It means that you can still turn to God, but that you will see more trouble than you can now imagine.

When might the believers disappear? It may be as soon as the morning of the twenty-ninth of September 2008! But, it may not be this year at all. We don’t know for sure. If it does happen this year, we want you to understand it.

Why 29 September 2008?

When God was organizing the Jews into a nation thousands of years ago, He had recorded in the Torah seven holy days, or “feasts”. (Some of these were more than a day long.) There were four in the spring season and three in the fall season. These holy days were to cause the Jewish people to remember things that God had done for them. They were also shadows of things that God planned to do.

One example is that Passover was to be observed as a memorial of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery. But Christians note that Christ is our passover, as He has delivered us from the control of sin. Each of the four spring holy days had a fulfillment during Christ’s first advent. He fulfilled them on the very day of the Jewish calendar that the Jews remembered what God had done for Israel in the past.

We don’t know what year He will come, but considering the years 2012 and 2015 and the trouble that has already started to happen, this day may be Rosh Hashana 2008. The calendar date changes each year, because it begins with the new moon. This year it begins at 11:12 A.M. (Jerusalem time) next Monday, 29 September.

I am not predicting that Jesus is coming within a week. The signs indicate that the likelihood is high that He will. I’d rather tell you that He might and have Him not come until later, than to tell you nothing and have Him come sooner.

It is only reasonable to think that a fulfillment of the three fall holy days will occur on the exact day of the feast. The first fall feast is called the Feast of Trumpets, or Rosh Hashana. If the pattern of fulfillment in the past continues, the Lord will come for his own on this feast day.

I Thessalonians 4:13-17 reads:

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from the heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

There will be a reign of evil and terror after the Believers are caught away. You will be lied to about what happened. But you will remember that it was explained to you before it happened.

P.S.
After I posted this, my brother shared with me the fact that there are many who expect the Lord very soon.
http://www.lamblion.com/articles/articles_second8.php
http://www.lamblion.com/articles/articles_second10.php