We are one year closer to the completion of the “Church Age,” the present age in history when the Church began after Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, and the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost to Jerusalem in the Year of our Lord 33 A.D. Also known as the “Age of Grace” because throughout this period God, the Holy Father is calling or drawing people everywhere to His Son by the Holy Spirit. Acts 2.

We are now in the Year of our Lord+ 2023, and if we do our subtraction right (2023-33 =) we see that 1,990 years have elapsed since our Lord’s crucifixion death on the Cross, His burial, His glorious Resurrection, and His mighty Ascension from the Mount of Olives in March-April in 33 (Acts 1), and 50 days after that the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: that in just ten short years will mark 2,000 years of the “Church Age.”

Much to ponder. Because perhaps very near that time or shortly thereafter (could it be much longer?) is going to come the ‘Rapture of the believing Church.” those who will be “caught up” to meet the Lord Jesus “in the air” above the clouds” and follow Him to Heaven. -I Thessalonians 4:17. See also 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Corinthians 15:47-58; John 14:1-6.

This is one of the great, mighty promises that GOD will do for those that love Him. For before the future Great Tribulation- the Judgment Wrath of God shall come upon Israel and the whole earth as written in Daniel 9 and Revelation (a 7 year period known as the “70th Week” of Daniel), followed by the glorious, almighty 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (and His setting up the Kingdom of God on earth in Jerusalem and on David’s throne), before all these unprecedented events can happen as foretold in the Holy Bible, God will do His mighty act of promise:

“‘For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” I Thessalonians 4:16-17.

Wow! Could God’s love for us be greater than “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that all who believe shall not perish but have everlasting life?” That He shed his blood and died for our transgressions so that we might be forgiven and have eternal life with Him? Or that He is going to resurrect the dead believers and translate the living believers so that we all will be in glory with Him in Heaven? Can His love be greater than the Rapture? This then shows just how much God loves us, now and forever.

I take the year 2033 to be a year of great, great significance. Because in that future coming year, if the Lord wills, we will celebrate the 2,000th anniversary of our Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension and what it means to us believers. In conjunction with this, we shall celebrate 2,000 years of church history, 20 centuries of all the good, the bad, and the ugly she ever did in her saints. For as Jesus died, we shall die. As He was resurrected from them dead, so we also shall be resurrected from the dead. And as He ascended up to Heaven, so we also shall ascend to Heaven on that day God has appointed, along with the living, translated saints at that time!

This is the year to think about all God has done in the world, all that He is doing, and all that He will do according to the Scriptures. We should be watching, and looking up. and waiting for our Lord Jesus to come and take us out of all this mess and confusion and evil and wickedness. Can it get much worse? Stay tuned.

With God’s blessings to all who read this and look for the Lord’s coming, and who love the Lord’s appearing,

Even so, come Lord Jesus.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

Amen.