"The Commission"

 "As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." (John 17:2 KJV)

  "Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven." (Hebrews 1:1-3 NLT)

 It might be verses like the one before us today that have convinced some people that there is no real choice in the matter; that the Father picks those who are going to be saved, giving them to the Son, and it is that which makes them the children of God. Not to create an argument; but the beginning of the verse is the pure truth of the matter: The Father has given the Son power over all flesh! 

 I heard something yesterday that was a complicated question, as someone that sounded pretty old called and asked: "If Jesus was God, why didn't He know the day or the hour of His return, but only the Father knew when it would happen?' Interesting thought, but there was something that I have believed from the first day of my salvation: even though Jesus is, was, and always will be God, while He was here in the form of a man, He was subject to some of what we are subject to, like the inability to know all things! 

 As previously mentioned, Jesus knew the hearts of men, even more than they knew their own selves. He also had the ability to know things that would be taking place, things on this earth, as well as the things that take place in heaven. The magnitude of knowledge that He could contain was limited, but not enough to allow Him to know the things that the Father has shown Him; things that are too far beyond the ability of man's comprehension. 

 The way that I have understood this answer, is that the Father is the one that decides the moment; He will know when that last Gentile will have accepted His Son, and in that moment, He will instruct the Son to go down and snatch His bride from the earth. It will be just as the days of Noah and of Lot; the earth will be judged with the Great Tribulation, but first, the church will be taken up into heaven. 

 That is why I believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, because Jesus will be taking His bride out of here before the destruction comes. We are not talking about trials and tribulation; this is about 1/3 of the entire earth being destroyed and devastated. 

 However, from what I have been told, there will be a great multitude of souls saved during that Great Tribulation; but they will suffer a great price to have made their choice to believe in Jesus! Don't wait for the right time to decide to believe in the Lord; the time is right now, while you still can! What makes you think that you will make your choice then, as if that will convince you that God is real?

  If you notice the circumstance that you will be living in, when it really gets nasty, the whole world will know that He is real; but they will still curse at Him, even with knowledge, it is He that is the One that is devastating them...

 "Because God's children are human beings - made of flesh and blood - the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could be break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying." (Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT)