Look Up!
Your Redemption Draws Near
By David Henke
“And when these things begin to come to pass then look up, and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh.” Luke 21:28
Copyright 2012
Revised and Expanded 2014, 2017
Introduction
Watchman Fellowship derives its name from Ezekiel 33 where God tells Ezekiel that he is to be a watchman to the house of Israel and to warn of dangers that approach. For over three decades the mission of Watchman Fellowship, warning of religious deceptions, has been an application of God’s commission to Ezekiel to be a watchman for God’s people. Ezekiel is a book of prophecy. Does Watchman’s mission have any prophetic significance? It does. Religious deception will be one of the signs of the “last days.”
Watchman’s mission field is part of prophetic fulfillment, the rise of false Christs (Matthew 24 and Luke 21) and apostasy and heresy in the Church are a significant element of end time evidences. It wasn’t until the 1950’s that the Church began taking the gospel affirmatively to the cults. Previous to that the Church would expel and denounce the heretics and it ended there. Mission work with the cults, however, began with Walter Martin and a very few others. Most modern counter-cult ministries today had their beginning in the 1970’s as a sort of spiritual children of Dr. Martin. Isaiah 59:19 says, “When the enemy of the LORD comes in like a flood the Spirit of the LORD will raise up a standard against him.” The various ministries to cults and new religious movements are that “standard” that God has raised up.
Jesus said repeatedly in His Olivet Discourse “Let no man deceive you.” He also said one of the ways false teachers would deceive is to say that “I am Christ” and “the time is at hand” (Luke 21:8) as a way to entice people away from the true gospel. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this warning is fulfilled in Jehovah’s Witnesses. Their founder, Charles Taze Russell, claimed in Volume 2 of his Studies in the Scriptures, that they collectively are “the Christ class” (page 252), and that Armageddon will take place in 1914 (page 99), and the book is titled “The Time is At Hand.” It is as if Jesus had them specifically in mind when He gave his warning.
Jesus said “No man knows the day or the hour,” and that is always true. But He also chided the Pharisees for knowing the signs concerning the weather but not discerning the times they lived in. As the title of this booklet indicates, Jesus said, “When you see these things begin to happen look up for your redemption draws near.” We must pay attention to what Bible prophecy says and compare it with the news. However, we are not to venture predictions that will lead to misplaced hopes…
