Where is the promise of His coming?
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What a year 2023 has been! In February 2022, Russia had launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and just when we thought that things could not get worse on 7 October 2023 the Hamas-led Palestinian and Israeli conflict began.
Some would say that these are signs of the End of the Age. We are certainly living in the last days because that originates with the New Testament and the early Christians were expecting Jesus to return in their lifetime – hence 1 and 2 Thessalonians and the words of Peter in 2 Peter 3:3-8:
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“In the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
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When I was young, I was taught that Jesus could return at any moment. Then we were taught that He could only return when the antichrist had appeared. There have been many candidates for this deadly person ranging from Adolf Hitler to the Pope and so far no one has come through as an authentic possibility even though the spirit of antichrist has been at work in the world since the time of the apostles (1 John 4:3). “Many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.” (1 John 2:18)
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Then there is the question of whether we as Christians will go through the great Tribulation or not. There are those who believe that we will be raptured before the Tribulation (Pre-tribulationists), and those who think that there will be a secret Rapture which will happen in the middle of the Tribulation (Mid-tribulationists) and those who maintain that we will go through the Tribulation and the Rapture will happen after this (Post-tribulationists). All of these points of view can be argued using various scriptures.
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There have been lots of speculations and imaginations about what the end times will look like, notably in the popular series of fictional books by Tim LaHaye entitled Left Behind which many evangelical Christians read avidly in the 1990’s and this was followed by a series of five movies made between 2000 & 2014 including the latest one: Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist (2023).
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To my shame - or perhaps wisdom? I have tried not to get caught up in all this speculation, preferring to stand with my teaching hero Jerry Cook who said he was a “pan-trib” – in other words that it will all pan out in the end!
I am not wanting to be blasé about it, so let me stress that I think we should all be on the tiptoe of expectation that Jesus is coming again - whenever the Father chooses, and Jesus himself taught us to have our lamps trimmed and ready.
So, in closing I would like to look at the scriptures and take note of the amazing statements that are made there and balance them with the qualifying statements which appear in the same context (in bold):
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Matthew 24
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
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“Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains… And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
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“When you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel… Then there will be great distress, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equalled again.”
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“After the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”
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“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
I Thessalonians 4
“According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”
“Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”
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2 Thessalonians 2
“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him… Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”
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“For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendour of his coming.”
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One thing is sure – however we imagine all of this to work out
– it will not be anything like we have imagined!
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We have just celebrated the first coming of Jesus about which there were many prophecies, but NO ONE could have guessed the way that it finally happened! All the lovely details of the first Christmas that we now take for granted in our nativity plays and the carols we sing – the star in the East, the manger scene, the magi, the gifts they brought, the shepherds – when it happened, everyone was taken by surprise and even Mary and Joseph were amazed by it all! (Luke 2:20, 33)
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But there is one thing that is absolutely certain:
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In whatever ways it happens circumstantially,
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just as surely as Jesus came the first time,
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He is DEFINITELY COMING AGAIN!
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Even so, COME LORD JESUS.
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