In his comments on Isaiah 57, Dr. Harry Ironside shares this story:

Years ago, before the First World War, Professor Stroeter, a well-known prophetic teacher in Germany, used to go through the country giving lectures, and using charts to unfold the dispensations. His lectures attracted the attention of the German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm, who in spite of his many idiosyncrasies, was quite a Bible student, and used to preach in the palace chapel on many occasions.

The Kaiser invited Professor Stroeter to his palace to give him an idea of what he was lecturing upon. The professor was taken into the library and spread a roll of his charts out on the table. The Kaiser followed him as he pointed out various things in the dispensations until the Second Coming of the Lord. After a lengthy conversation the Kaiser said, “Do I understand you aright? Do you mean to say that Jesus Christ is coming back literally, and that when He returns all the kingdoms of the world are going to be destroyed and He will set up His kingdom on the ruins of them all?”

And Professor Stroeter said, “Exactly, your Majesty….”

“Oh, no,” said the Kaiser, “I can’t have that! Why that would interfere with all my plans!”

We don’t know if Professor Stroeter understood the dispensations well enough to have expressed to the Kaiser that the coming of our Lord to rapture His church must come before the wrath of the Tribulation and the Second Coming of Christ (I Thes. 1:10; 5:9). Regardless, what a frank admission from a man who professed to be a student and teacher of the Word of God!

How about you, dear reader? If you are not saved, you will be left behind when the Body of Christ is “caught up” to meet the Lord in the air (I Thes. 4:17). While we believers will “ever be with the Lord” in heaven, the seven years of Great Tribulation that will follow on earth will surely interfere with all that you have planned. Why not trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior by believing that His death, burial and resurrection paid for all of your sins. Then you too can look forward to being a part of all that the Lord has planned for His saints.

But we close by asking Christians if the Rapture will interfere with your plans, or be the triumph of His grace in your life? When John Wesley was asked what he would do the following day if he knew the Lord were coming, he replied that he would rise at his usual hour, spend time in his regularly scheduled morning devotions, and arrive promptly at his first speaking engagement of the day. In other words, he wouldn’t have to change a thing in his life to prepare for the coming of the Lord. May this be true of us too!

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

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