END OF TIME PROPHECIES 013

"Behold He cometh with clouds............Revelation 1v7. THE SECOND COMING continued........

"...if I go...I will come again....."  so said Jesus to His disciples in the upper room, John 14v3.    This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven"......so said the angels to the witnesses on mount Olivet in Acts 1v11.    The great message of the followers of Jesus was twofold: "He is risen, He is coming again!"

The evidence from scripture is that Jesus second coming will be in two phases.   The first phase will be to remove His people, comprising the church, from the earth; the second phase will be to return with them to set up His kingdom on the earth.   Not all interpreters agree, and the details are too numerous to investigate here.   Those who believe, as I do in a two phase coming, do so for the following reasons:

• He is coming to the air (1st Thessalonians 4v17).
• He is coming to the earth (Revelation 1v7; Revelation 19v1-11; Matthew 24v29-30).
• He is coming for His people (John 14v3; 2nd Thessalonians 2v1; 1st Thessalonians 4v15-17).
• He is coming with His people (Revelation 19v14; 2nd Thessalonians 1v10; Jude 14).
• Two Greek words are used for His coming in the New Testament; Parousia which means presence, and indicates His private presence with His people.   The other word is Apokalypsis which means public manifestation.

These are inescapable differences and lead me to believe He is coming for His people first of all, and then He is coming with His people in public display.   Another fact is that the church is mentioned many times in chapters 1,2 & 3, but no mention is made until Revelation 19, where it says  "The marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife has made herself ready."    Revelation 19v7.    How did the Lamb's wife get to heaven?   Only by means of a translation from earth to heaven similar to Enoch and Elijah in the Old Testament.    We cannot come with Him unless we are first where He is.  

The ultimate coming, of course, is when He returns to the earth with His saints in public view; and this is what is being referred to here.   It says  "Every eye shall see Him"  all of Israel, all the Gentile nations shall witness the glorious coming of Jesus Christ.   The nation of Israel will mourn in that day, when they realise that the Man whom they rejected as Messiah, and crucified (as seen in the word pierced) is in fact, and, was all along, the Anointed of God.   When He stands in awesome glory before them,   they shall understand in that day how badly they got it wrong.   A reading of Zechariah 12v10 - 13v1 is helpful here.   All the kindreds of the earth, representing Gentile nations, who for more than 2,000 years have had the offer of grace presented to them, will wail because their opportunity to be saved has gone.   The ramifications of His coming will be epoch-making and the details are recorded in scripture, a summary of which is as follows:

• There will be cosmic convulsions in the heavens.   (Revelation 6, Matthew 24)   There it is stated the sun is darkened, the moon fails to shine, the stars fall from heaven and the heavens depart as a scroll rolled up together.   What all that means is left to our imagination.
• There will be topographical change across the landmass of earth.   This process will have begun some years before; every mountain will be moved out of its place and all the islands will be scattered.   According to the prophet Zechariah in chapter 14 when His foot touches the Mount of Olives there will be an earthquake which splits the mountain in two and will cause a ravine to open up allowing the Mediterranean sea to flow towards the Jordan river and so on to the Dead sea. (read Zechariah 14 with Revelation 6, and scattered portions of Isaiah.
• The trumpet call of the angel will gather all Israel into their land  (Matthew 24).
• The great world leader and his false prophet will be banished as the first entrants into the lake of fire (Revelation 19).  
• Satan will be bound for 1,000 years (Revelation chapter 20).
• The judgement of the living nations will take place in the course of 75 days after His return (Matthew chapter 25 with Daniel 12).
• The apportionment of the land that God promised to Abraham will take place (Ezekiel chapter 45).
• Jesus will set up God's kingdom in Zion (the new Jerusalem, as per Daniel chapter 7. Isaiah 11 etc.

This is the message of the book of Revelation.   This is the summary of all the end of time prophecies.

                                                  BEHOLD HE IS COMING

Are we ready for that day?