Well, it’s finally here - the day for which you’ve been waiting breathlessly since January the 2nd. (Well, maybe not.) But it’s Ground Hog Day! Whistle pig, if you prefer. That is what my grandfather called them. This is the day when Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his burrow on Gobbler’s Knob and makes a grand meteorological prediction. If he “sees his shadow” (How would we know?!), there will be six more weeks of winter. Otherwise, we get an early spring. It’s all in fun, of course; a bit of American folklore. But I do wonder if anybody takes Phil’s prediction seriously. In this day and age, it wouldn’t surprise me.
This brought to mind the many other “Phils” out there who like to make predictions about “end times.” You know, mashing together the prophecies from Isaiah, Matthew 24, Thessalonians, Revelation, etc., and then telling you what’s going to happen and in what order. Right now, I have a page open in a catalog which has three books which are exactly what we’re discussing. Two are relatively new. It seems every couple of years, someone feels compelled to write such a book. Usually, it’s when something happens with Israel or the Chinese Communists or Russians start to do some “saber rattling.”
The scriptures are filled with prophecies about things yet to come, and we can learn a great deal from them. Yet, many are set in highly figurative language, and they are given to us in several different books. This makes assembling a composite view extremely difficult at best and next to impossible at worst. The many differing views which have been presented over time prove this point.
Even in Matthew 24, there is disagreement about the predictions which Jesus is making. He speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem, of a great tribulation, and of His second coming. He uses parables, and He says more than once that nobody knows the day when He is to return.
There is one prediction, though, of which we can be 100% sure. No Punxsutawney Phil shenanigans here. Jesus is coming back. The King will return. And you and I need to be ready.
><> Jeff
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