He is calling you who are reading this - to come to Him NOW
All who Call upon the Name of Jesus Shall Be Saved!"
I respect your intentions here, my FRiend. But, your theology is incorrect. Jesus has no more interest in this generation than He did the one three thousand years ago...and no less. (Yes, He was around 3,000 years ago). He is not "pulling out all the stops", in spite of what you may feel, think, spiritualize or "sense". That is your own mind at work.
If Jesus were to "pull out all the stops", you would see letters across the sky 50,000 miles high, prophets raising men from the dead, parting of the Pacific Ocean, a column of smoke/fire 6 million feet in the air. Get it? He is/has always been wooing people, but he effectively draws all those whom He has determined to save. Read John 6 and you will see that no one, not one single person ever, that God has given to Jesus has or will be lost. Don't panic. Paul did not panic, Peter did not panic, there was no frenetic tone in their voices. They simply said, God will rescue those whom He wishes. They calmly taught the Gospel, told folks to repent and come...and then watched to see what God would do. We should follow suit.
And, the converse of this is also true. Not everyone is being called. Again, read John 6, Romans 9, Eph. 1, I Peter. If you are laid hold of, you will be drawn into the kingdom. But, if you are not, you cannot come (John 6:44, Romans 9:16ff). He is the Ark, but God did not rescue all of the people...although He could have. In some senses you are offering a false assurance to men/women who have not been called. This is similar to the error of Campus Crusade a number of years ago when they used to say, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!". I think they have since changed this to "God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life." But, it is still wrong.
There is no question that "All who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved." The real question is...who is going to be permitted to genuinely call upon His Name? Can anyone who says, "Lord, Lord." consider this calling? Apparently not. Recall, there will be those pounding on the door who cast out demons AND performed miracles in Jesus' Name, but are told to depart because He did not know them, not they did not know Him. Hmmm.
Your zeal is commendable, but zeal without knowledge got the Jews nowhere. The Scriptures are clear. Jesus knows His sheep, and His sheep hear His voice. So, we call to those who have been granted eyes to see and ears to hear and we tell them that if they find themselves clinging to the cleansing blood of Christ to wash their sinful souls, if they recognize that there is no merit in themselves, they can be assured that this faith was born there by the Holy Spirit and they are rescued. They did not choose Him, but He chose them. That is where security comes from.
At least this thread isn't about pets.
You'll be called a "Calvinist" for that kind of talk but if you are, I'm another one.
Freedom'sWorthIt - I've heard the "end times" preached all my life and I'm almost 65 years old and I'm sure it has been preached for the past 2,000 years or so. It will happen in God's own due time and we cannot predict it.
It will not happen until God calls the last person He wants to call. That's not to say that we aren't to pray for those who haven't accepted Him yet and urge them to do so but He, most assuredly, has the final yea or nay.
I don't waste any time worrying about my own long term future. My name has been in the book of life since before the world was formed.
All rock solid theology. Thanks for the ping. Like you, I have sympathy for the good intentions of the message here. There may even be some legitimate comparison to the style of John the Baptist. However, there are tactics and there is truth. As your post reveals, God is always in complete control of everything according to His already set-in-stone time table. Nothing we say or do will change this so there is no sense in getting up in a lather about anything. But to be clear of course we are NOT saying that witnessing is therefore unnecessary. Witnessing is commanded so we do it gladly. There just may be a bit of a difference in the motivations and expectations behind that witnessing.