Monday, March 27, 2017

The Second Coming: The ONLY Thing to Expect Is the Unexpected

No matter how big of a box you build, God won’t fit inside of it. No matter how clever you think you are in figuring out the riddles contained in the scriptures concerning the second coming of Jesus, God is still going to work beyond your wisdom to carry out His will. Therefore, the ONLY thing to expect concerning Jesus’ second coming is the unexpected. His second coming will be just like His first; unpredictable. Consider this passage from the seventh chapter of John:

Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, “Truly this is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.”


 But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” So there was a division among the people because of Him. Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.


 Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?”


 The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!”


 Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”


 Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”


 They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.” - John 7:40-52


Jesus didn’t fit into their box. According to what they knew about Him, He didn’t come out of Bethlehem, He came from Nazareth in Galilee. We only know better because we have the gospels and the books of the New Testament. The major point to understand here is that Jesus didn’t fit into their box; in fact, Jesus was a law breaker because He healed on the Sabbath and He was a blasphemer because He claimed to be the Son of God. Look at another discussion between Jesus and the Pharisees in the fifth chapter of John:

 
“But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” – John 5:36-40


We are in exactly the same situation now. Those who are building boxes (or timelines) to fit Jesus into for His second coming are committing the exact same error. In fact, when I called out a particular date setter concerning an error in his interpretation, He told me that I am ignorant, another not so nice name, which I won't repeat here, and then assured me that his timeline was elegant and bulletproof and was put together by great theological minds.

We can see the signs, just as Jesus said we would, but we don’t really know the who, what, when, where, why and how things are going to play out. There are plenty of holes that no one knows how to explain. Here is an example of one of those errors, but there are many.

Many are saying that a third temple must be built so that the Anti-Christ can stop the sacrifice in the temple. Yet the scriptures teach that our bodies are the temple in which Christ now dwells in spirit and truth. Additionally, Christ was the ultimate sacrifice, which fulfilled the purpose of sacrifices; atonement for sin. With those two things in mind, why does God need a third temple and why would He be angry if sacrifices in it were stopped? I would think that the exact opposite would be true. The building of a third temple and resumed sacrifices would anger God, because it rejects the new covenant that He made through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

Let me ask a few more questions. Isn’t there already an abomination which causes desolation sitting in a place where it should not be? Isn’t there an anti-Christ sitting on the temple mount of Jerusalem? Could we be constructing our timelines based on certain passages of scripture that we draw out to use as building material and by doing so we’re missing critical truths? The Pharisees did, what makes us think we are above that now?

Return to the passage from John 5 above. Why didn’t the Pharisees see the truth? Jesus explains clearly in verse 38, “But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.” Constructing timelines and boxes to hold God in are completely backward and cause the scriptures to become an enormous stumbling block.

Brothers and sisters, work on causing the Word of God to abide in you rather than using it to build a box in which to put God. Jesus will come in the same way that He came the first time; unpredictably. The only thing to expect is the unexpected. Be found in Jesus, because the who, what, when, where, how and why won’t matter when it all plays out. The ONLY thing that will matter will be whether or not you and Jesus have a relationship.


NOTE: Pay close attention to Quail Songs this week.

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