THE WORD "COME"
I continue our study of the truth of the teaching of the
return of Christ Jesus to this earth, with the word "come" that
is connect to the Messiah's appearing once more on this planet.
1. "....You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till
the Son of man be come" (Mat.10:23).
The cities of Israel are way more than the cities in the
land of Judah, the land we call the "holy land" in the country
called "Israel" in the Middle-East.
The truth of who Israel is today can be found on such
Websites as brit-am.org
This verse is a factual verse and says nothing about HOW and
WHEN Jesus will return.
2. "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father,
with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to
his works" (Mat.16:27).
Another factual verse - a little bit about HOW Jesus will
return, with GLORY and with ANGELS. It says nothing about WHEN He
will come back. Just take from it what it says, do not add or
subtract from it.
3. "And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you
be not troubled: for all these things MUST come to pass, but the
end is not yet" (Mat.24:6).
A verse that gives us a little fact - wars will come, false
people shall come admitting Christ is the Christ but shall
deceive many (verse 4, 5). It's all being going on for 2,000
years, but the end is obviously not yet. But these things
mentioned have and are coming to pass each and every day. The
signs continue, but that is all the verse gives us. Do not add to
it and do not take away from it. It says nothing about Christ
coming at any second without the signs given in this whole
chapter. This verse cannot prove a so-called "imminent" return.
4. "And the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the
world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end
come" (mat.24:14).
The Gospel has and is continuing to go to all nations, but
some nations, or peoples in those nations, still have not heard
about Jesus Christ. People live and die every day on this planet
who still have not heard the Gospel of Christ. This verse cannot
prove an any second "imminent" coming of the Messiah. And even at
the very last time, just before Christ does come, we have an
angel going to all nations to proclaim the Gospel, see Revelation
14:6.
5. "Watch therefore: for you know not what hour your Lord does
come" (Mat.24:42).
Of course we do not for Jesus had just got through telling
His disciples that no one but the Father only knew the day and
the hour of Christ's return (verse 36).
Yet, Jesus is in this chapter answering the question from
His disciples what the sign would be of His coming again (verse
3). And signs were given, just as Jesus amplified and expounded
those signs in the book called Revelation. In Matthew 24; Mark
13; Luke 21; and Revelation, there is not one word from Christ to
say, "Well do not set your thoughts too much on these signs for I
can come any second, without any signs." The whole sense and
logic of Jesus giving us signs is so His disciples living when
these signs come to pass, may know that His coming is near even
at the doors (verse 32-33).
Signs are only bench marks, they do not pin point the day or
hour of Christ's coming, hence we are to watch right up to the
very hour of His return, for the Father gives us general signs
but those signs He could shorten or prolong as He only can decide
the course of history and world time events leading to the very
hour of Jesus' return. Again, this verse within the CONTEXT of
all of Matthew 24, cannot prove an any second coming of Christ,
in disregards to the signs Christ was inspired to give us. That
kind of thinking would make all that Jesus expounded for signs to
us here and in the detailed book of Revelation, a useless waste
of time and energy to study or try to come to understand.
6. "The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks
not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of" (May.24:50).
What is the CONTEXT here. It is the context of a servant of
God deciding Jesus is taking too long to return, and gives up the
race, decides to "forget it all, this is too much to wait for,
I'll go back into the world, and forget about Christ, and His
coming again." Such a person then stops reading the Bible, stops
looking for the signs, just goes back to the eating and drunken
(certainly spiritually) state he was in before Christ and the
Bible came his way. Why, I have literally witnessed that
happening to many in the Church of God over the last 4 decades,
who gave up the Christian race and went back into the unconverted
world. Indeed such a mind-set will mean those people will not
have a clue about when the signs point to when Christ is near to
come and even at the doors. The context tells you what verse 50
is all about. And the context then has nothing to do with some
invisible secret rapture of the church, that nobody knows about
until it happens.
7. "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy
angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory"
(Mat.25:31).
A verse with part of HOW Christ will come. No invisible
coming here, no "secret rapture" of the church mentioned. Christ
comes with GLORY, and with the holy angels, a few of the things
the NT fully gives us in other books and verses, as to HOW Christ
will come. There is nothing in this verse to tell us WHEN Christ
comes. Do not add to this verse and do not take away from this
verse. Take from it what it teaches and no more.
8. "So you in like manner, when you shall see these things come
to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors" (Mark 13:29).
Read the CONTEXT folks! Context, and context, one of the
major keys to correct Bible reading and understanding. After the
tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, the moon
shall not give her light, the stars of heaven shall fall, the
powers of the heaven shaken ... (verses 24-25). I think the sun
and moon and stars are pretty constant right now, not any shaking
going on. The sun is still shining, the moon is still giving
forth light. All is undisturbed right now, the fig tree Jesus
gave as an example for the end signs, has not yet put forth its
leaves, when it does, and these things come to pass, then we
shall know Jesus' coming is even at the doors. The context of
this verse would actually DIS-prove the idea of an "any second,
without signs," coming of Christ.
9. "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh
shall find watching: truly I say unto you, that He shall gird
Himself, and make them to sit down to food, and will come forth
and serve them" (Luke 12:37).
Sounds like to me people are to watch the signs, in fact
such are called "blessed" and the Lord will serve them. If it
does not matter about there being signs to watch for in Jesus'
coming again, then there is no real need for people to watch, and
hence no need to see the signs of the Bridegroom coming from the
wedding to knock on the door, so His disciples can open to Him,
and so there then is no real "blessing" for such as who are
watching. We can all just forget about Bible prophecy and the
book of Revelation and Jesus' great prophetic passages of Mat.24;
Mark 13; and Luke 21. For if Jesus can come again without signs,
with a so-called "secret rapture" of the church, then why bother
with prophecy, and certainly why did Jesus give the detailed book
of Revelation. The logical sense is that certain events will
happen before Jesus comes again, and God the Father wants us to
know the basic outline of those events.
This verse 37 of Luke 12, tells us one thing the servants of
the Lord are to do to be prepared for His coming, it has nothing
to say about WHEN He comes.
10. "Let your lions be girded about, and your lights burning. And
be yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord ... blessed
are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find
watching ... And if He shall come in the second watch, or come in
the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what
hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have
suffered his house to be broken through. Be you therefore ready
also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when you think not ...
but and if that servant say in his heart, My Lord delayeth His
coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and
to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The Lord of that servant
will come in a day when he looks not for him, and at an hour when
he is not aware, and will cut him asunder, and appoint him his
portion with the unbelievers" (Luke 12:35-46).
We have seen already that the servants of the Lord will
never know the day or hour of Christ's coming, only the Father
knows that, but Jesus has given enough signs to us that we can
know His coming is very near, even as the door. The Christian
must always be watching the way he/she lives, right to the very
hour of Christ's return. that is pretty common sense to most
people who want to serve the Lord, you serve Him till you die or
if alive at His coming to the moment of change from human to
divine, from mortal to immortal at the last trump (1 Cor.15). If
you take off the armor of God and go back into the world, you
will be classified as with the unbelievers. You need always to be
ready and to be walking with the Lord in spirituality. Yet the
man who is expecting the thief to come, not only is mentally
ready, but is also watching for the physical signs that the thief
is coming. Jesus gave us many signs to see and notice that will
lead up to His coming again. The book of Revelation is an
amplification of the revealing of those signs.
There is nothing here in this section of Luke about not
bothering to look for the signs of Christ's coming. The word
"secret" anything is not here. It's only by reading into these
verses and ignoring the passages on the many signs Jesus gave,
that you can come up with an "any second" or "secret rapture"
with no signs doctrine, as has been done by many of the
fundamentalists of Christianity.
11. "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up,
and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh ... So
likewise you, when you see these things come to pass, know you
that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand ... Take heed to
yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with
surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that
day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all
them that dwell on the face of the whole earth" (Luke 21:28-35).
Verse 27 talks about the Son of man coming in a cloud, with
power and great glory. Before that event there are signs in the
sun, the moon, and the stars, the powers of heaven being shaken
(verses 25-26). We go backwards in the context and see other
signs Jesus gave. There will be great signs from heaven (verse
11) but before all that "they shall lay hands on YOU (my
disciples)" (verses 12-19) - some shall be put to death (verse
16) - some thrown into prison, and persecuted before kings and
rulers (verse 12). When Jerusalem is compassed about with armies
the destruction draws nigh, and those in Judea better flee to the
mountains. The time of vengeance has come, and all that is
written in the prophets will come to pass - Jerusalem will be
trodden down by the Gentiles (verses 20-24). Then comes the signs
in the sun, moon, and stars (verse 25). All in this chapter is
connected together, a time line of events leading up to the
coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God has
not yet come, so this prophetic chapter has not yet been
fulfilled. Jerusalem is not yet under the heel of the Gentiles,
the people of Judah have not yet fled to the mountains or been
led away captive, they are very much in control and leadership in
the area we call the Holy Land.
There is no "secret" anything here in this chapter. All the
signs are very much up front, and easy to see when they take
place. The coming of Christ is not "secret" or invisible, or some
"first-phase" of His coming. Christ's coming as to HOW it will be
is always explained in the NT as with open visible signs - coming
in a cloud, with power and great glory - with the voice of an
angel, the trump of God. There is no word in the NT about some
"first-phase-secret-coming of Christ" to rapture the church away
to heaven for 7 or 3 and 1/2 years. Anytime in the NT you read
about HOW Christ will come it is always visible, with open signs,
a powerful and glorious coming.
12. "Watch you therefore, and pray always, that you may be
accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to
pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:36).
How are some going to escape? Well we have just read in the
same chapter that some will be cast into prison and persecuted,
and some will be put to death. It will be as it has always been,
some will not be put to death while others will be. Peter and
Paul and others died for the faith, the apostle John lived to
ripe old age and was not put to death.
The basic history of the church is recorded in Revelation
12. There you will see that some have always been able to escape
into the WILDERNESS. Through the Dark Ages - the Middle Ages as
some call that period, it was the same - many of God's people
escaped to the mountains, the hills, the forests, the valleys. So
it has been and so it will be again during the last 42 months of
this age (Revelation speaks about only 42 months, 1260 days, a
time, times, and half a time - NOT about 7 years as fundamental
prophets talk about it).
13. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again,
and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be
also" (John 14:3).
This verse does not talk about HOW or specifically WHEN
Jesus will come again. It only mentions that He has promised to
come again, and receive His disciples to Himself, and in the mean
time, He is preparing for them a place to be with Him. That's all
this verse teaches, don't add to or take away from the word of
the Lord.
14. "Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come,
what is that to you? Follow you Me" (John 21:22).
Here Jesus responds to Peter about the work John would do,
see the context. And Jesus tells Peter not to be concerned, just
do what he was given to do. If John was to live until Jesus came
back that was up to God to decide. The Father does what He
decides with whomever He works with. We as individuals just need
to do what we have been called to do, if we have been called to
directly work in the ministry of the Church of God, as Elders or
teachers of the Word of the Gospel, then do it, and others God
will look after and use as He directs.
That is all this verse is teaching, no more and no less. We
now know the apostle John was not going to live to see Jesus
return to earth to establish the Kingdom of God. And 2,000 years
later we still await that event to come.
15. "Which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up
into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into
heaven, shall so come in LIKE MANNER as you see him go into
heaven" (Acts 1:11).
What could be more plainer and easy to understand. Why a
child can understand it. As a child, about 10 or 11 years old, I read
this verses many times, and just believed it. When I voiced it
one day in the church I attended in the local area I lived in, I
got stunned silence from the adults around, some of them "Sunday-
school teachers" for my church I attended did not teach or
believe in the literal second coming of Christ.
There is not a word here from the angels about Christ's
return being in "two-phases" - one secret and invisible and the
other open and visible. As a child reading my Bible I never once
got the idea that there would be two parts to the second coming
of Christ, as taught by many fundamentalists. The verses that
give you some "hows" on the second coming of Jesus, are always
with open signs, of power, glory, angels, shouts, trumpet, as
lightning, and with the saints. It is just that easy to
understand if you will but read the NT as a child. As Jesus once
said, "I thank you Father that you have hid these things from the
wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes."
My prayer for YOU dear reader is that you will rejoice and
praise the Lord for the simple truths of God's word, as you let
the Spirit lead you into all truths, most of which are not that
complicated to understand if your mind is not cluttered with
years of false teachings and beliefs.
WE HAVE ABOUT 17 MORE VERSES TO LOOK AT WITH THE WORD "COME" IN
RELATION TO CHRIST'S RETURN, SO I'LL DO THAT NEXT TIME.
...................
To be continued
May 2009
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