If, if, and if, whoa!

"The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men.

The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth.

Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup." (Psa. 11:4-6).

If the heavenly sanctuary is located just across the way in the next arm of our galaxy, and if Jesus will leave there at the close of probationary time, and if we can only endure a little of the great tribulation such as never was since there ever was a persecution, a crusade, a genocide, or a totalitarian regime, then Jesus must travel much faster than the speed of light.

The Orion Nebula is 1,350+ a few light-years distant. To travel at the speed of light for a year it would take Him 1,350 years to deliver His children. If they can endure at least a year of starving, being blamed for the tormenting plagues that will blanket the world, and therefore being hunted like fugitives or like dangerous animals, then He must travel 1,350 X 186,000 miles per second, 251,100,000 miles per second over a period of a year. But a year of endurance is not realistic.

Nevertheless, cosmic distances are immense. If they can't endure a year long, never-before-seen time of trouble, then He must travel faster, and if they can only endure 3 months, then He must travel 4 times faster, at 1,104,400,000 miles per second. If only 1 month of hiding, fasting, and furious praying and supplication is all they can endure, then Jesus must travel 3 times faster, at over three billion miles per second. (Please do your own math and correct me if I'm wrong.)

If they can only endure two weeks, then He would need to double the last speed to over six billion miles per second. But nothing is too hard for the Lord.

And that might explain why His cloud appears visibly dark at first sight. Even when He is slowing as He nears Earth, He is traveling faster than the speed of light until His entourage comes to a stop, and the glory is insufferably brilliant for the angry wicked.