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This is DAY FORTY FIVE of the daily devotional.

I am releasing a 50 day daily devotional about the end-times as revealed in Scripture. Along with the text, I will be providing a video where I cover the text of the day, and Hive account@verbal-d will be providing an audio version of it. That way, whether you want to read, watch, or listen, you'll be able to enjoy this study as you wish.

The plan is to release this devotional over the next 50 consecutive days, but life may "get in the way." We will do our best, but please be patient with me if I fall behind.

The SoundCloud Audio from Hive account@verbal-d

The YouTube Video from Hive account@papa-pepper

The Text I Originally Shared on the Hive account@narrowminded Account

DAY 45 : THE FIRST WATCH

“Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” (Luke 12:37-40)

The same reasoning that lead yesterday’s “evil servant” to conclude that Jesus had delayed His coming may also be the root of the issue here. Pretribulationists believe that unless they expect the Lord to come at any moment, before any signs of events to come, then they are not properly watching. This is the ever-present “first watch” in which we live, before any prophesied events, such as the “Abomination of Desolation,” occur. If this is the only watch in which we expect the Lord to return, what will happen when such events occur first? What if “he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch? Why would a pretribulational “first watch” believer still expect Him to show up? That would go against their eschatology.

If this is accurate, then the very thing that they think is most appropriate for them to be doing (constantly watching for an any-moment “first watch” return of Jesus) is the very same thing that will lead to their spiritual downfall, when He doesn’t appear until later. Based on what we learned from the “Olivet Discourse” passages, the instruction to “watch” in those verses cannot mean to continually watch for an any-moment return of Christ. We are to be watching for the signs that show us His return is getting near. Just as a gardener does not go watch for fruit to appear early in the spring, but first watches the leaves, buds, and flowers appear before he ever starts looking for fruit, so must we be on this issue.

The return of Christ will come within a certain period of time, and if we are watchful for the signs of His coming, then we will know when His coming is close (“if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come.”) It is an unfortunate lack of reasoning that leads to the following argument, but since the argument has been raised, I will briefly expose the folly of it.

I have heard pretribulationists claim that believing in an imminent return of Jesus is great inspiration for holy living and faithful service; after all, you could meet Him at any moment if He suddenly comes back! Unfortunately, this logic is flawed. Since all of mankind has chosen to sin and is appointed to death, we all understand that our death is imminent. Though we may not always like to think of it, our death could happen at any moment. All of humanity understands this. Therefore, believers understand this as well, and are fully convinced that they could meet the Lord at any moment through death.

If we realize that there is a 100% chance we could be in the presence of the Lord at any given second through our death, how much more could this reality be increased if the rapture was imminent? This is already 100% true, so there is no room for increasing that reality. I would compare it to explaining to someone that they could be shot at any moment and, therefore, they should be ready for death. If the person then realizes that they could have a heart attack too, does this change the fact that they could die at any moment?

Point: Watching for Christ’s coming in the “first watch” could prove disastrous if He shows up in the second or third watch.

CLOSER

If anyone is really interested, I did post the entire volume through an alt account over a year ago. I did so as an experiment to see how hard it would be for a new user to get noticed on steemit, so I didn't let anyone know that I was doing it. You can click here to a post that has links to the entire 50 days of this devotional if you really want to read ahead. That information has always been available there since I first posted it. It is not the purpose of this series to just copy all of my previous work, but instead to transform it into some new outlets by releasing it in an audio and video format, to broaden the reach that this work has.

Again, though I will certainly never claim to know it all, I do believe that many are being lead astray by some popular beliefs. I hope that this project will be able to help many others understand the end-times more accurately. Thanks!

Just in case you are new to this series and wanted to check out the previous audio or videos, here are links to the posts from each day of this series.

Also - A special thanks to Hive account@allforthegood for helping design my cover image!

Until next time…

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GIF provided by Hive account@orelmely

50 DAYS TO UNDERSTANDING THE END-TIMES MORE ACCURATELY - DAY 45 : THE FIRST WATCH - AUDIO & VIDEO