THE "IMMINENT" RETURN OF CHRIST #4
We shall continue our study of our Lord's return with the
words "comest" and "cometh."
1. "And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when you comest
into Thy Kingdom" (Luke 23:42).
A request from one of the malefactors hanging on a cross as
Jesus was.
Nothing here about HOW or WHEN Jesus will come into His
Kingdom.
2. "For as lightning cometh out of the east, and shines even unto
the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be"
(Mat.24:27).
We have covered this already, but we note again a verse that
tells us the coming of Christ will be anything but secret or
invisible.
3. "Therefore be you ready: for in such an hour as you think not
the Son of man cometh" (Mat.24:44).
Jesus had just got through saying that we would never know
the hour of His coming - verse 42. So what He stated in verse 44
should be an obvious natural added statement to verse 42. And the
next obvious statement to all of that is verse 46. Which then
leads to the obvious thought of those who give up waiting
patiently and throw in the towel and go back to the world.
4. "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold the bridegroom
cometh; go you out to meet him" (Mat.25:6).
The parable of the ten virgins and their lamps. From what we
have seen, this is not to teach the bridegroom Christ will come
at midnight. Parables give basic truths, but not every part of a
parable is meant to teach a specific truth. We have seen Jesus
has told us we cannot know the hour, nay, not even the day of His
coming (Mat.24:36), only the Father knows the day and hour. But
this parable in chapter 25 certainly contains no "secret" or
invisible coming, the bridegroom of a wedding was never invisible
to the bride or anyone else around. When the bridegroom came he
was quite visible to be seen by all.
5. "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour
wherein the Son of man cometh" (Mat.25:13).
Exactly as we have just seen. The parable of the coming
bridegroom is for those who may decide to sleep on the job. They
will miss out on the marriage (verse 10). Nothing here to prove
some "secret" or invisible return of Christ at any second,
disregarding all the signs Jesus gave us to watch for, leading up
to His return and marriage feast with His bride the church.
6. "After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh, and
reckoneth with them" (Mat.25:19).
A very interesting verse. It is to do with the coming of the
Kingdom of heaven (verse 14), which is then to do with the coming
of Christ (proved elsewhere in the whole NT). It is after a LONG
TIME, that the Lord comes to see what rewards need to be given to
His servants. So now, if the apostles knew this parable, as they
certainly did, then they must have had in their head somewhere,
that the coming of Christ would maybe not be until "after a long
time." That must have surely at least put a question mark on the
thought that Jesus could come in the lifetime of the apostles.
Surely the apostle John living to near the end of the first
century, must have given some note to this verse as he neared the
end of his life. At least the statement "after a long time" by
Christ in this parable, must have come to the apostle John as
being sometime in the second century at the earliest. We today of
course know that this "after a long time" was at least going to
be 2,000 years. And we still do not know how much longer the
Father will give until the Lord of the servants comes back.
Once more this passage does not say anything about a
coming of the Lord that ignores or abolishes the many signs
given, leading up to His coming.
7. "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in
this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son
of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with
the holy angels" (Mark 8:38).
In Jesus' own words His coming is in GLORY and WITH the holy
angels. Jesus never once uttered any word about a "two-phased"
coming, one invisible and the other visible. All we find in the
Gospels is that when Jesus talks about His coming, it is with
POWER, GLORY, ANGELS, might signs on earth and in the heavens.
Jesus gave no room for a secret invisible any second coming that
disallowed the many signs He gave, that leads up to His coming
again.
8. "...Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find the
(the word "the" is in the Greek) faith on the earth?" (Luke
18:8).
A statement and question only. The book of Revelation shows
that yes there will be those on earth at His coming that will
have "THE faith once delivered to the saints" as Jude put it. The
HOW and WHEN of Christ's coming is not mentioned in this verse.
9. "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so
cometh as a thief in the night" (1 Thes.5:2).
I have covered this section of 1 Thessalonians 5 in previous
studies in this series. It is the prophets "day of the Lord"
being spoken about and as verse 3 shows us it is far from secret
or invisible - it is SUDDEN DESTRUCTION after they think it is
peace and safety.
10. "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these,
saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints"
(Jude 14).
The Greek word "saints" here can also be translated "holy
ones" which may refer to angels and not saints per se. But even
if we stick with saints, there is no problem, for the
resurrection of the saints or instant change (1 Cor.15 with 1
Thes.4:13-18) will happen when Christ comes. For those saints
will be taken to meet Him in the air, the clouds (Mat.24:29-31),
and will come with Him to the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14) in
that day of His coming.
No secret anything here, mighty signs there will be when the
Lord cometh, to execute judgment upon all (Jude 15).
11. "Behold, He cometh with CLOUDS, and every eye shall SEE Him
... and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of
Him..."(Rev.1:7).
CERTAINLY no secret or invisible anything in this verse.
Some of the HOW is given here in the coming of Christ, the WHEN
is not!
THAT IS IT on these sets of words. The truth of the matter
should be getting clear to you. Surely a child can understand. I
certainly did when as a child I read all these verses.
We shall next examine the words "return" - "retureth" -
"reveal/ed" - "revelation" in connection to the return of Christ.
Keith Hunt
May, 2009
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