THE KEEPERS OF TIME – A CENTURY-END WITNESS OF THE PROMISED KINGDOM

Last week I wrote about the TIMES AND SEASONS of the promised earthly kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. I noted that, while there were some who expected the kingdom to be established around the turn of the 21st century, it didn't happen that way. Nevertheless, we still didn't right them off, considering that the Lord had actually predicted a delay. But as I also noted in closing, something providential actually happened at that time that went unnoticed by the world. A remarkable testimony about the kingdom that was expected to be established at that time was given – by none other than “the keepers of time.”

Now, I have always felt that the very name of the globally renowned TIME magazine is significant. The Lord said of the “signs of the times” that lead up to the establishment of His kingdom, “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for [the time of] your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28). How would I at one end of the earth be aware of a sign that appears on the other end if not by the ministry of those who have been saddled with publishing such? They are the keepers of time! And as the saying goes, understanding comes with time. It is what it takes to understand the purposes and plans of God as revealed in His Word and followed up in several ways, including the “secular,” and especially the written.

So was it that the editors of TIME magazine – arguably the world’s foremost printed keepers of time, and to whose editors the expression would henceforth specifically refer to – ushered out the 20th century with a search for the Person of the Century, “the one who, for better or for worse, personified our times and will be remembered by history as having the most lasting significance.” There words:

What an amazing cast of characters! What a wealth of heroes and villains to choose from! Some shook the world by arriving [shook the world by arriving! Click here to read HERE THEY COME!]: Gandhi at the sea to make salt, Lenin at the Finland Station. Others by refusing to depart: Rosa Parks from her seat on the bus, that kid from the path of the tank near Tiananmen Square. There were magical folks who could make freedom radiate through the walls of a Birmingham jail, a South African prison or a Gdansk shipyard. Others made machines that could fly and machines that could think, discovered a mould that conquered infections and a molecule that formed the basis of life. There were people who could inspire us with a phrase: fear itself, tears and sweat, ask not. Frighten us with a word: heil! Or revise the universe with an equation: E= mc2 [click here to compare all this with THE NEXT WAVE]. So how can we go about choosing the Person of the Century, the one who, for better or for worse, personified our times and will be remembered by history as having the most lasting significance?

A logical approach was adopted. The editors identified five major categories of people that impacted the 20th century, and by extension all of man’s 6,000 years sojourn on earth. So they approached their choice of the Person of the Century by reviewing, in their ‘timestone’ TIME 100 Series, the one hundred most outstanding personalities of the 20th century, taking twenty from each of these five categories.

To my wonderful observation, and as I explain in detail in my coming book THE COMING GLORY (click here for more about it), these five categories of people identified by the keepers of time, which reflect the five major categories of human vocation, are the same five represented in the Elders and four Beasts that symbolise the composition and organisation of the “Armies of Heaven,” the Royal Priesthood of redeemed saints that will “reign on the earth” by mediating the millennial explosion of the divine know-how! (Click here to read KINGS AND PRIESTS).

It was an amazing century-end testimony – you could call it a celebration of the celebrities of the present world order in unwitting expectation of the emerging heroes of another! That’s true, for as the apostle wrote, “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21).

In the words of the keepers of time, these five areas in which the saints will “reign on the earth” – depicted in the Elders and four Beasts (the Lion, Ox, Man and Eagle) – are:

(1) Leaders and Revolutionaries.

(2) Heroes and Icons (a remarkable cipher that I interestingly decode in my book to reveal the most striking representation; of course, “heroes and icons” is not literally an area of human vocation).

(3) (Industrial) Builders and Titans.

(4) Thinkers and

Tinkerers.

(5) Artists and entertainers.

Yes, these are the five major areas in which the saints will wield “power over the nations” in the kingdom, as promised by their Lord (Revelations 2:26; click here to read THE GOLDEN PROMISE OF THE KINGDOM). I explain it all in detail in my coming book, with the initial and scriptural interpretations of the Elders and Beasts, but as we can see in brief here, the 20th century-end effort of the keepers of time was indeed a remarkable testimony about the wonderful “things which must shortly come to pass.”

But, truth is, they are not the only witnesses! There have been other remarkable and bold testimonies of these five areas in which the redeemed saints will “reign on the earth” in the kingdom. They are all unveiled in my book, but I hope to give you glimpses at them through this medium. So keep the faith, and remain posted.

In His Service,

David Olagoke Olawoyin.