This Train is Bound for Glory

     This train is bound for glory. One of these days we are going to hear ‘all abroad’ and ‘last call. The question is when is that day going to come? My father, who is a skeptic, says that the world has been saying that Christ is coming forever, and it never seems to happen. I patiently point out that never ever before has Israel been regathered. When we see the fig tree got tender and put forth leaves, (Israel regathering) Jesus says that this generation shall not pass away until they see the coming of the Son of Man. What exactly does that mean? Bible scholars have variously defined a generation as being forty to seventy years. Moses himself defines it in Psalm 90. Moses, you remember, lived to be a hundred and twenty years old, with his strength and vigor not abated. Yet he himself said that a man lived to be seventy years, eighty if due to strength.
     So doing a little math we can confidently assert that the time is upon us. The Balfour Declaration set aside Palestine for the horribly mistreated Jews, and the Jews flooded back to their homeland. The year was 1948 when Israel declared itself a nation. Add seventy years to 1948, and you get 2018. Remember that we cannot get exact here; rather Jesus said specifically that that generation would not pass away until they saw the coming of man. I do find it interesting though to see that Iran is supposed to be five to seven years from developing nuclear bombs, and the present leader has sworn to destroy Israel.
     Now I have observed that Jerusalem was not part of the original regathering, and it was not until 1967 that Israel conquered Jerusalem and began occupying it. So it may be permissible to add seventy years to 1967, but I do think not. Jesus’ parable was simply put forth: when you see the fig tree beginning to bud. That would indicate 1948 as the more reliable starting point.
     But this is not all the evidence. It might interest you to know that early Bible writers were all convinced that the world itself was to last 6000 years until the coming of Christ. Over 1900 years ago, writers wrote convincingly of this, repeatedly stating that the coming of Christ was going to signal the coming of the last age- the age of Christ reigning on earth.
     I love my father. If I loved him less, I might have rejoined his last statement with Peter’s talking about the scoffers who said, “Where is the promise of his coming?” I do not like putting my father down, and I am not sure he would get it anyway. Skeptics seem to have a veil over their eyes, but in my father’s case it is a veil partly torn away. I do hope for its full tearing.
     This train is bound for glory. The next line says: Don't ride nothin' but the righteous and the holy. The time is upon us. Let us not neglect well doing; neither let us be timid in our warnings. Jesus Christ is coming and until he does there is still room for more!