"Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand" (Romans 13:11,12).

If this was true when the apostle wrote it, how much more true today. Time is going swiftly by. Revolutionary changes are taking place both in the political and the religious world, and violence and corruption are rampant.

It has been said that there are no signs that have to be fulfilled before the Lord comes for His own. And this is true. But there are many things that must be fulfilled before He comes to reign. Daniel's last week of seven years filled with momentous events is quite fully outlined for us in many places in the Scriptures. When we see the stage all set for this seven-year drama of the world's history that ends with Armageddon and the Lord's coming with His own in power and great glory, and when we know that according to Scripture the rapture of the Church must take place before all this begins, then we are made to realize indeed that the Church's history on earth is at its very close. It is high time that believers awake out of sleep and make good use of what little time may yet be ours before the Lord comes.

—The Lord Is Near