Tag Archives: end times

We Do Not Know When Jesus Will Return Pt 2 of The Rapture

Bible General, , ,

Part four of the Come Lord Jesus series on the final return of Christ at the end of time.

Part 1. Beginning of Series

Jesus promised to always be with His people (Matthew 28:20), and He promised to return and take those faithful followers to live with Him, in heaven, forever. But, we do not know when Jesus will return.

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

John 14:1 – 4

The return of Jesus to claim His own is more certain than tomorrow’s rising of the sun. While Jesus set no date, the promise to return is unquestioned.

Some have been lured into thinking that Jesus would make two trips to reclaim the faithful. First, a secret “rapture” of the righteous followed by a very public return to lead his people against the armies of evil. After that victory, Jesus will rule for a thousand years, and only then will he take the righteous to eternal glory. This claim, this system, is most curious and quite fanciful. But it clashes with clear and unambiguous Bible teaching. Simply, we don’t know when Jesus will return.

One Life, One Return

The Rapture idea is dangerous. His return is no longer about judgment and eternal life or condemnation. According to Rapture adherants, his first return (Rapture) is about avoiding a defined period of tribulation, which lasts seven years. Logically then, the time of Jesus’ final return is knowable because the period of tribulation has a defined ending, after seven years. 

But what does the Bible say?

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Matthew 24:30

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

Matthew 24:42

Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Matthew 25:13

For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 – 4

The passage from 1 Thessalonians is especially instructive. Notice that Jesus returns at a time when people do not expect Him. He comes at a time when people are saying “[T]here is peace and security.” There is no tribulation, only “peace and security.” It is at this time that “sudden destruction” comes upon them. It is not the beginning of destruction that takes seven years, but sudden or immediate destruction. There is no reason to take the word “sudden” to mean anything other than what it usually means.

So what shall we say about any teaching that slows or delays the Christian’s preparation for Jesus’ return? As Jesus said in Matthew 24, “stay awake.” Because we do not know when Jesus will return.

The Rapture: Come Lord Jesus

Bible General, Eschatology, Jesus, , ,

Part three of the Come Lord Jesus series on the final return of Christ at the end of time.

The Rapture is the idea of a secret, preliminary return of Jesus to take his saved away from the earth. It is an integral part of dispensationalism. The idea is novel and has no recorded basis in the Bible itself. There are, however, some early threads of dispensational thought in the second century. The Rapture was popularized by the Scofield Study Bible (1909), The Late Great Planet Earth (1970), and the Left Behind series of books (1995). Today, it is the subject of innumerable memes and posts on social media. Interest in the subject tends to rise in times of distress, such as the present COVID fears and political disruptions. Despite its appeal, it does not square with Biblical teaching on the return of Jesus.

Believers suggest that at some unspecified time, Jesus will return and suddenly take away believers. This they call The Rapture. Images of driverless cars, pilotless aircraft, and missing masses are common. Various flavors of dispensational teaching differ on what comes next, although the most common is seven years of incredible tribulation and suffering for those not taken away. After the seven years, Christ will return and wage battle against the forces of the antichrist. After a great battle, Armageddon, the victorious Christ will reign on earth for 1,000 years. We will study each of these ideas in coming articles.

Rapture Secrecy

1 Thessalonians 4:17 is a key verse for Rapture adherents:

“Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

The doctrine teaches that Christ takes his people away from the earth but does not appear to anyone other than the saved. Is that what the Bible teaches? No. Let us observe the context of the very verse they hold dear. The preceding verse (1 Thessalonians 4:16) describes the Lord’s coming:

“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”

The Bible uses words like “cry,” “voice,” and “sound of the trumpet.”  Instead of being a secret arrival of Jesus, as taught by the Rapture, it is a thunderous and public arrival. There is nothing to suggest any secrecy here!

A close parallel to 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is Revelation 1:7.

“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”

I say this is parallel because in both cases, Jesus is coming in the air (air = 1 Thessalonians 4:17; clouds = Revelation 1:7). Please note that everyone will see his return, even the wicked men who nailed him to a cross. “[E]very eye will see him.”

The only way this secret return of the Rapture can be sustained is if this coming is not related to the end of time and if there is a third coming of Jesus at the very end. To get around this, dispensationalists argue for a preliminary coming of Jesus. In our next article, we will examine the multi-return teaching.

Jesus’ Return and You Don’t Know When

Bible General, Church Bulletin, Daily living, Doctrine, Eschatology,

Good people struggle with knowing when Jesus will come again. Stressful times make us long for the shattering of earthly chains and the flight to unknown realms. Like a child waiting to be picked up by his parents after a first overnight away from home, we are increasingly homesick as we await the Lord’s coming. Some people call his return The Rapture, although that term is not in the Bible. We are certain that Jesus will return, but we just wish we knew when he would show up.

Jesus is with us right now. He promised the disciples that he was with us always (Matthew 28:18, 19). But he also told us of another return, one that would swiftly take us to glory (John 14:1 – 4). He alone is the way to the Father – there is no other path (John 14:6). But because we do not know the time and date of his return, we must work in his kingdom until we see him come.

When is Jesus’ Return?

This is where we stumble. In our breathless anticipation of his victorious return, we assume too much. “These are signs of the times,” friends say, or “it’s time for Jesus’ to return!” Self-styled prophets declare a date certain for the end. People have been saying these things for millennia, and they have all been wrong.

Avignon, France, was a lovely village in 1348. It lies on the Rhone river, about 50 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. During the late Spring, the Black Death, Bubonic Plague, swept through the town.

“When Avignon ran out of ground, Clement consecrated the Rhone; each morning that plague spring, hundreds of rotting corpses would flow down the stream like a mysterious new species of sea creature.” So wrote John Kelly in The Great Mortality. He also reports that 7,000 homes within the city lay vacant because everyone inside was dead. One resident estimates 62,000 people died in the first four months of the year. (Kelly, pg 150). Many believed that the plague was mentioned in the Bible and was a sign of Jesus’ impending return or the Rapture.

But Jesus didn’t come then.

At about the same time (1337 – 1453), the so-called Hundred Years’ War (actually 116 years) claimed close to 3,000,000 dead. In recent history, World War II claimed close to 100,000,000 across six years of combat capped by the final detonation of two atomic bombs in Japan. Indeed such a deadly war with such a horrendous climax must signal the Lord’s return! J. Robert Oppenheimer, who lead the American project to develop atomic bombs, shed a tear when remembering the testing of those bombs. He quoted from the Hindu holy book, Bhagavad-Gita, “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

But Jesus didn’t come then either.

William Miller, a founder of Seventh Day Adventism, announced that Jesus would return on October 22, 1844. Many believed his false teaching, disposed of their possessions, and sat down to await the Lord’s return. When the day passed, such sadness followed that the date has come to be known as The Great Disappointment. Miller and those who followed him became targets of jokes, taunts, and even violence. The people who followed Miller were ordinary, everyday people. They were good folk who worked hard and attended church services. They were true believers of Miller. They were confident.

But Jesus didn’t come.

When we declare the coming of the Lord or declare so-called “signs of the times,” we give the world one more reason to laugh and hold us in derision. That may not matter to your faith, but it could throttle those considering coming to Jesus. Let us stick with what we know and accept what we do not. I know Jesus is coming, I don’t know when, but he will come.

Ready for the Alarm?

Bible General, Church Bulletin, Eschatology, ,

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Alarm_Clock_3.jpg5:00 AM comes early at the Evans house. The alarm sounds and we soon rise to begin the day. Both of us head to work and  the children must be readied for school. Getting out of bed later than 5:00 always causes trouble.

I awoke one day this week four short minutes before the alarm went off. It occurred to me that an alarm clock offers several lessons about our spiritual life. Let me share some of them.

An alarm clock teaches there is an appointed time for all.

As the clock ticks slowly by it is moving toward a set time; a point when its alarm will sound. Nothing stops it. Even a power outage will not stop the constant movement toward the appointed time. The alarm is going to sound.

The Bible is clear. We all have an appointment to face. Hebrews 9:27 says it is “appointed for man to die once.” Jesus said that appointed time is set by the Father who alone knows the time (Matthew 24:36).  Just as my alarm clock testifies to a set time to alarm, so also has the creator set a time for me to die.

An alarm clock is not affected by my wants and desires.

Most mornings, I’d love to sleep in a few more minutes. Maybe I was late to bed the night before or perhaps a hard time left me in need of more sleep. Maybe I’m just feeling lazy. Regardless, that alarm will sound at 5 AM whether or not I am ready for it.

We all face death. The Lord is coming. Time is running out. Our preparedness, or lack of preparedness, is irrelevant. There’ll be no gentle reminder that minutes remain. Only a certain passage from this life into the next. Many will not be ready (Luke 23:30). Even though there’s ample opportunity to prepare, some will not be ready for His return (Matthew 25:1-13).

An alarm clock can be ignored.

It is possible to hit the snooze button so many times that the alarm will cease to sound. It is possible to turn off the alarm. But ignoring the alarm does not stop time nor does it change your responsibilities. You will still be late for work. You will miss that important meeting.

It is possible to ignore God’s plan warnings. Jesus is coming again (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Many of our friends are sleeping through the alarm right now. They are ignoring the most important alarm they will ever face.  The result? Eternal punishment (Revelation 20:15).

 An alarm clock can be changed and the snooze button can be used.

Finally, there is at least one important difference between an alarm clock and the coming of the Lord.  Not so with God. Some today teach the concept of the rapture. The idea that if you are not ready when the Lord comes you will still have another chance 7 years later. This celestial snooze button is false. The secretive rapture does not exist.

The Lord is coming. Are you ready?

 

Second Chance Salvation & The Dangers of Dispensationalism

Eschatology,

To some, the idea of the Rapture, Armageddon, the Antichrist and a 1,000 year earthly reign of Christ may seem harmless, although errant, variations on the end of time. But buried inside these teachings is a hideous  idea that will condemn souls to eternal punishment. It teaches a second chance salvation which is not taught in Scripture. A sort of reverse purgatory is taught where the unfaithful experience a period of terrible tribulation upon the earth for a period of time (no more than 7 years depending on the teaching). During that period they may come to Jesus and ultimately, eternally, be saved in Heaven. It is this idea of a second chance at salvation, that is so dangerous. The time of our preparation is now according to the Bible and there is no second chance. To declare otherwise is a devilish doctrine.

Christians agree that there is a coming judgment. Jesus told of his return (Matthew 16:27; John 14:1-4; John 21:22-23). The writer of Hebrews promised a judgment (Hebrews 9:27) and John told of it in the Revelation (Revelation 20:12-15). We all agree that a day of reckoning is coming and all teaching that we should live now in a way to glorify the Lord and serve his interests. Yet to teach people that if you miss the first judgment you can still make the second is profoundly different from clear Bible teaching.

Can you not imagine a man who reasons within himself that he will enjoy the pleasures of sin (Hebrews 11:25) in his youthful and adult years but become faithful as he ages? Does it take much more imagination to think that the man, is comforted in the idea that even if the Lord returns before he makes his life right with God he will endure but a brief, albeit terrible, period of persecution on the earth. What a surprise when, like the rich man of Luke 16:24, he opens his eyes in” torments.”

“Behold, now is the favorable time; behold now is the day of salvation” declared Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:2. The apostle was encouraging brethren to remain faithful and not hold the truth vainly. Salvation is present now for those who will obey. The present time benefits of salvation are many but beyond the scope of this short article. It is sufficient to say that one will enjoy many blessings today for his decision to follow Christ. While an ultimate, eternal reward is sought, hoped and dreamed of we know that even now we enjoy immeasurable comfort from our common faith.

We all prepare for undesirable events. We prepare for automobile accidents by wearing seat belts and carrying car insurance. We prepare for illness with health insurance policies. We even plan for our own death with life insurance policies. Those who fail to prepare are viewed with pity as being irresponsible. How much more should we prepare for the one time judgment that we know is coming to all? Let us reject the novel ideas those who teach falsely. Let us reject any idea that offers a second chance salvation unknown in Scripture. This idea of the Rapture was born in the late 1700’s in this country and so it is a new idea apparently unknown to the inspired writers of the Bible and to 1700 years of Christians. Let us stand safely in what we know and reject teachings that conflict with Scripture.


Does 1,000 Years Equal One Day?

Eschatology,

From time to time we hear people suggest that a 1,000 years is the same with God as 1 day. Is that really true?

“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8)

So yes, in a sense 1,000 years equals one day. However, as with most Biblical passages, we must look at the context to gain the proper understanding of what is said.

In 2 Peter 3:1-13 the writer is rebuking people who reject the idea of a coming final judgment. The scoffers argument is that nothing has changed and the world continues on as before. Since judgment has not yet happened, they reason, it never will. But Peter is arguing that God is not bound by any arbitrary time lines. He will do things in his own way and in his own time.  Judgment will come when God is ready for it.

Now, is Peter making a statement that every single day for God is 1,000 years in length? No.

When the Son of God said that he would rise from the grave in three days (Matthew 12:40; John 2:19) he did not mean three thousand years. If that were the case what did Mary see in John 20? In Genesis 7:4 we have God speaking to Noah about the coming flood. God said, “For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights and every living thing I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” If 1,000 years always equals one day then we should be looking for rain in about 2,000 years! And when the rains come they will be here a terribly long period of time!

So who would believe this kind of silliness? Probably no one. But I offer this as an illustration to show that we must use caution in interpreting the Bible. Often people who strive to determine the time the Lord will return use the 1,000 year equation as part of their date setting. For example, we have written before on the 1,000 year reign of Christ which sometimes is brought into this discussion. Some try to make the Creation week more palatable for our scientific enlightened minds and the equation is used to stretch creation into a 6,000 time table.

God, who created time, is himself not subject to time. But when he speaks to man he uses things we know and understand. Hence God speaks about hours, days, weeks and years. Let’s not take Peter’s single restricted use of this phrase out of context.

__________

What thoughts do you have about this article? Please feel welcomed to comment below. I am really interested in your thoughts.

The Beasts of Revelation 13

Book Review, Eschatology, Web sites, ,

Articles on the subject of Revelation and prophecy accrue many hits to Preacher’s Study. I’ve come across an article that you should read if this area interests you.

Wayne Jackson discusses both Revelation beasts and offers careful study to help understand them.

Jackson mentions a couple of books in his article. I would add Simon Kistemaker’s Exposition of the Book of Revelation as another well balanced view of this great book. Jesus gave the message of Revelation to John with the intent that John should write ot down and give it to us. Let us carefully study this great book.

1,000 Year Reign Comments

Administrative, Doctrine, Eschatology, , ,

Some good discussion is occuring under the comments section of our article on the 1,000 year reign of Christ. If this is an area of interest I invite you to go to the article, read it and consider the comments at the bottom. You are more than welcomed to participate in the discussion there.

This particular article is always among the most viewed article on the site and is frequently searched for. Please take a look.

Man of Sin and the AntiChrist

Bible General, Eschatology,

There has long been disagreement among Christians concerning the identify of the AntiChrist. We have before posted teaching about the AntiChrist in [cref identity-of-the-antichrist] and in [cref identity-of-the-antichrist-2]. However there is a doctrine that links the AntiChrist with the Man of Sin from 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. We should be able to study the two and see that they are not the same. While I plan to write a post which strongly points out those differences, I want to suggest you visit a site that offers a very good lesson on the Man of Sin and tries to identify him.

Wayne Jackson began the Christian Courier website some years ago and, with his sons, has done a fine job bringing many Bible teachings to us. Please take time and carefully review his study about the Man of Sin. I think you will see that he draws some very reasonable conclusions.

I am also very interested in your comments. If you will post your comments here (click on the link below), I can use your thoughts to help build my post on the subject.

The Thousand Year Reign of Christ

Doctrine, Eschatology, , ,

Within the current evangelical religious culture there is a great hope and longing for that is commonly known as the thousand year reign of Christ. Also known as the millenial reign of Christ this idea asserts that Jesus will one day return to earth, defeat all the enemies of the cross and will himself sit upon the throne of David in Jerusalem. From there the victorious Lord and his saints will reign upon the earth for one thousand years. At the end of the thousand years the saints will go with Jesus to their eternal heavenly home. There is a sense in which the idea of a thousand year reign of Christ is exciting. Certainly the idea of final victory over the scoffers and persecutors is attractive. But is it what the Bible teaches?

If you will continue reading I think you will agree that while attractive and inviting, the doctrine is not Biblical.

Can we first of all agree that everything we can know about the coming of Christ we know from Scripture? Can we join together on the basis of the Bible alone? If so, we can move forward.

Origins of the Thousand Year Reign of Christ

It is uncertain where the teaching of a thousand year reign began. We know there was some interest in the idea of  Christian chiliasm as early as the second century AD. Much of this arose, it is thought, from the earlier Jewish ideas of a messianic earthly reign. Today, this is known as millennial thought and is today seen mostly in the form of premillennialism and is caught up together with the idea of the “rapture.”

This doctrine, together with the idea of a rapture and a world-ruling antichrist was popularized first in modern times in the Scofield Reference Bible of 1909 and 1917 which remains today as a staunch defender of premillenial thought, in the writings of Hal Lindsey’s “Late Great Planet Earth” and later Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins’ “Left Behind” series of fictional novels. Today it is a generally accepted doctrine within most protestant faiths and often brings  surprise to adherents to learn that someone disagrees with it.

What we can say for certain, and what will set forth in this post, is that the one thousand year reign is not Biblical in its origin.

What is the Biblical Basis for the Thousand Year Reign of Christ?

Perhaps the key verse is Revelation 20:1-3 where Satan is bound for one thousand years. Proponents take this passage to be very literal in spite of strong indications to the contrary.

For example, several components of the context of Revelation 20:1-3 cry out for a figurative understanding. In verse 1, we read of a key and a chain. I know of no one who argues that these items are literal. Instead, they are correctly understood as being figures of speech used to help simple men to understand that Satan would not be allowed to run uncontrolled over God’s people. The abyss is also accepted as figurative as no one holds that it is a literal geographic location. There is also the problem of how a spirit, Satan, could be bound by a physical lock and chain in a literal abyss. Clearly, this proof text of the premillenialists fails miserably to support the idea.

The thousand year reign is better understood as a figurative period of time, very long but nevertheless measured. It is during this period of time that Satan is restrained but not destroyed for the Bible says he will be loosed near the end of the time period (Revelation 20:7). Satan’s destruction comes fully in verses 9 & 10 when we read of his eternal punishment. This ill-defined period of time is best understood as the “last days” which we find ourselves in now. The writer of Hebrews so confirms in Hebrews 1:2.

In a future posting we will discuss whether Jesus will ever again set foot upon the earth. But until then, we hope you will consider these writings and offer us your comments.