Look Up – Your Redemption Draws Near

The coming system, the Blessed Hope, and a word for those left behind

You know friends, we are living in exciting days. I know they can also feel heavy. But Jesus never told us to wring our hands. He told us to watch, and then He told us to look up.

“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” (Luke 21:28)

That is where I want your heart to rest. Not on the buildings going up on the Scottish hills. Not on the names of world leaders. Not on the latest video that kept you awake. On Jesus. He is coming for His Church.

We are not looking for the Antichrist

Now you see, a lot of believers get their eyes fixed on the wrong coming. They start hunting for the man of sin. They try to pin the tail on this leader or that one. I keep saying: we are not looking for the Antichrist; we are looking for Jesus Christ.

Paul said we are not appointed to wrath. “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). The Church will be caught up before the seven-year tribulation is poured out on this Christ-rejecting world. That is our Blessed Hope.

“Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13)

So when you see the signs, do not let fear sit in the driver’s seat. Let hope sit there. The same Lord who told us these things would come also promised to keep us from the hour of trial that shall come upon the whole world.

The scaffolding is going up

That does not mean we close our eyes. Jesus said, “Watch therefore.” And folks, there is plenty to watch.

All over the world they are building great houses of computers, data centres. They are going up quickly in Germany <—(Info point, good for you folk to look up) parts of Europe, and here in Scotland, America, and in many other countries.

Artificial intelligence needs power and space, and men are racing to supply it. At the same time the world is being tied together with digital identity, electronic money, cameras, and systems that can follow a purchase from one end of the earth to the other.

Men like Billy Crone, known among Calvary Chapel folk, have been saying that this kind of technology could become the very infrastructure of Revelation 13. For centuries we could read that chapter and wonder, How could one man control buying and selling for the whole planet? How could they know who worshipped and who refused? You could not hire enough people to do that. You would need something more than human. AI begins to make that possible.

Others, watching the skies and the networks, speak of a coming system: collect, connect, analyse, predict. The data has to go somewhere. That is why the buildings multiply.

Now hear me carefully. The data centre is not the mark of the beast. The mark is not here today. The man of sin is not yet revealed. What you are looking at is scaffolding. The stage is being set. The play has not begun.

Paul wrote that the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. But there is a Restrainer. We believe that Restrainer is the Holy Spirit working through the Church. When the Church is taken, then that wicked one will be revealed,  the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God (2 Thessalonians 2). Until that day, we watch. We do not panic.

A solemn warning if you are left behind

—>If you wake and millions are gone – read this with all your heart<—

If you are reading these words after a sudden vanishing of believers, then the Church has been caught up to meet the Lord in the air. That is not a story. That is 1 Thessalonians 4. You have been left behind.

What follows is the time of Jacob’s trouble. A man will rise. He will look like the answer. He will speak great swelling words. He will offer peace and a way to buy bread again when the world is shaking. Another will point the world to him and call for worship. An image will be made. And then the mark.

“He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” (Revelation 13:16–17)

Do not take that mark.

Not to feed your children —> not to keep your work —> and not because they tell you it is only an ID —> only a number —> only a wallet —> only a pass. The Word of God names the end of that choice, and it is forever.

“If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God… And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night.” (Revelation 14:9–11)

There will be a strong delusion. Many will believe the lie because they would not receive the love of the truth. The system will already be built. It will feel normal. It will feel necessary. It will be death to the soul.

Yet even then the blood of Jesus still saves. Refuse the mark. Call upon the name of the Lord. Be ready to lose this world’s bread rather than lose your soul. A great multitude will come out of that tribulation, washed in the blood of the Lamb. You can be among them. It will cost you everything this world can take. It will not cost you eternity.

But do not wait for that hour. If you are reading this now, while the Church is still here, today is the day of salvation. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). You are a sinner. So am I. Christ died for our sins. He rose again. Receive Him. That is the whole Gospel. It is enough.

How then shall we live, while we wait?

Keep your Bible open. Read 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5. Read 2 Thessalonians 2. Read Revelation 13 and 14. Do not skip the hard verses. God will give you the sense.

Tell people now, while the door is open. After the trumpet it will be far harder. Love the lost enough to speak plainly. Pray for those who will be easily led when the lie is strong.

Do not let the night-time steal your rest. The Lord is still on the throne. The Holy Spirit still restrains. One day the trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ will rise, and 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. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. Men will scar the hills with turbines and halls of machines. Their slogans will not save them. Neither will our anger at the landscape. Steward what He has given you. Then lift your eyes higher than the ridges.

He is coming, beloved. Maybe today.

Maranatha.