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The following is a letter I recently sent to my brother. I am posting this here because it relates to another post I made nearly a year ago. Here is the link to the post that the following post relates to. jasonholman.blogspot.com/2009/09/are-tough-times-coming.html

Dale,

I am writing in regards to the emails we exchanged nearly one year ago.

Nearly one year ago, you sent me an email with the subject “Times Will Get Tough.” I later sent you a response. In the response I sent you, I spoke of things that I felt certain would soon come to pass. In the response, I gave a time frame in which I believed these things would come to pass. If you remember, I said that these things would be coming to pass in a matter of months and quite possibly even weeks. Well, as you can see, I was incorrect in my time table. Because of this, I feel I have an obligation to write and take ownership of that mistake.

Throughout my time on this earth, I have often been amazed at how many men make predictions that fail to come to pass. Once the prediction proves false, you wait to see how the false predictor will respond, only to find that they never mention their failure. Instead, they just ignore it as if it never happened. Personally, I have always found such actions rather cowardly and deceptive. Because of this, I feel that I need to write and take ownership for my missed prediction.

I suppose I could argue and say that by saying “months” I meant it could be many months (as in 24, 36, etc.), however, to do so would be a lie. Because when I said months, I truly believed that it wouldn’t be any more than three or four. Because of this error, I must say that I was wrong. I was wrong to make an absolute statement about something that God did not speak to me in an absolute manner.

Typically, I am not one to speak such things. However, at that time in my life, there was no doubt whatsoever that we were only months away from our home going. While God never directly told me that we would be going home before the end of 2009, he certainly let my heart believe it. He didn’t do this to deceive us, or make fools of us; instead he did it to bring us to the position that he wanted us to be in. Because of our belief that our time was very short, we made decisions that we probably wouldn’t have made otherwise. And though at times I am tempted to feel like a fool for some of our decision, I shouldn’t do this because I can clearly see that we are at the exact place our Father wants us to be.

This great confidence that we would be going home before the end of 2009 began just a few years earlier. It was in May of 2003 that God called me to follow Him (though I didn’t really recognize what was happening at the time). A few months later he saved me through His gospel and made me his son. Then, through His Spirit that was in me, He began to teach me through His word for the next couple of years. At the end of those two years, my learning reached a climax, at which time God compelled me to write the book (or letter) that I sent to you and several others at the time.

After writing the book/letter, the word of God grew very silent for a time. Though I still found comfort in reading it, there were no new revelations. This continued for several months. But then, shortly after moving to Joplin at the end of 2006, God once again began to speak through his word. This time, he began to teach me about times and seasons. It was during this time that He taught me that his kingdom had entered a new and final season. It was a season that would immediately precede the return of his Son. Needless to say, this was a very exciting season of learning. Up until that time, I really had no idea as to the time frame in which the saints would be caught up in the air, but this season of learning revealed that we were/are quite close.

Though I certainly can’t say that God told me so, I will say that he let me strongly believe that 3 years was the maximum amount of time we would have to wait for that great event. This belief wasn’t nurtured by scripture so much, but rather a whole lot of circumstantial evidence. Because of this evidence, I was very confident that 2009 would be our final year. One of the pieces of circumstantial evidence was the arrival of your email that spoke about tough times coming. I’m still not sure as to whether or not the arrival of your email was an important sign from God, or if it was just one of the biggest coincidences of my life. However, on the day it arrived, it was received as nothing less than an indication that we would not be on this earth much longer. Let me explain…

As you can imagine, because of our belief that 2009 would be our last year of waiting, each day of 2009 came and went with much anticipation. Every night I went to bed wondering if I would wake up to be with my Lord, and every morning I awoke wondering if that day could be the day in which the great trumpet would sound. This was pretty much the norm in my life for much of 2009.

In June of 2009 something interesting happened. On Saturday night, June 6th, I decided to sleep outside on our trampoline. On Sunday morning, June 7th, I woke up after hearing the words “98 days.” Now, I am pretty sure that I didn’t actually hear this audibly, but it was in a very strong fashion that made a strong impression on me. While I didn’t make a huge deal out of it, I did mention it to my family. I also counted up on the calendar 98 days and arrived at September 13th. I put a little note on the calendar.

As the days went by, I couldn’t help but be a little bit curious by that date. While I tried to blow it off as nothing but my imagination, it wasn’t real easy to do. The number just seemed too real to ignore. I eventually came up with three scenarios as to what might happen on that day. The first scenario was that nothing would happen. The day would pass without event and prove that there was nothing to the number that I heard in my head. The second scenario was that September 13 would be the day of the great trumpet. While this was an exciting thought, I didn’t really consider it to be likely. According to scripture, it seemed unlikely that God would tell anyone the exact day of this wonderful event. The third scenario I thought of was that September 13 would signal our entrance into the last, few, final days before our Lord returned. If this was the case, then I felt that something significant would happen that day to let me know that that was the case.

Well, the day finally came, but despite my anticipation, nothing seemed to happen. By all appearances the day went by without event. At first I was disappointed and felt a little bit foolish. I shared my disappointment, confusion, and feeling of foolishness with the Lord. I then took some time to read scripture. I read Romans 8. As I read Romans 8, I realized how real, wonderful, and true everything I believed and was a part of really was. I came to accept that even if I was off track regarding my understanding of this final season of time, I knew that I was at least on track with all the other essentials. And for that moment, that was enough. A sincere peace filled my soul.

Though it was still early (before 9 pm), feeling emotionally drained, I went to bed. After going to bed, I laid there for a little while enjoying the great peace that was in my heart. However, after about 15 minutes, Karen came into the room to get me. She told me that I had an email from you.

I can’t lie, I immediately realized the date on which your email arrived. Realizing the date, I was very curious to see if it would say anything that would relate to the things we were believing about our soon coming Lord. I didn’t take long to see that it did. As I read your words that expressed your belief that tough times were coming, I couldn’t help but be excited and receive your letter as the sign I was hoping for that September 13 marked our entrance into the last few, final days before the great trumpet. To me the coincidence was just too great (after all, nearly three years had passed since our last communication).

Because of this sudden assurance, I felt confident to write to you and express that terrible times were coming in the month ahead. Though, I realized the potential to look foolish if I was wrong, I didn’t really consider that outcome a possibility. I knew that I knew that shortly we would be called off the earth so that God could unleash a great punishment against the institution that falsely calls herself the church.

Obviously, I was wrong on my time frame. While the things I wrote about will still come to pass. I certainly cannot give a time frame in which they will. It could be tomorrow, or it could be ten years from now. I am just not sure. According to scripture is has to be fairly soon. But in light of the fact that the Bible covers six thousand years of history, who can exactly say what “soon” is.

I must admit, I am still a little bit puzzled by the arrival of your email on September 13. I know God had His hand in it, but I am not sure why. Maybe he was just sending comfort to someone who was disappointed and confused. Or maybe we truly did enter into our last few days, only my idea of a few is much smaller that His idea of a few. I really don’t know. I do know this; I will continue to follow regardless of how many days pass until I hear the trumpet sound.

Jason