People get ready, Jesus is coming!!!
One of the reasons I have always loved prophecy is because of the exaulted view it gives our Lord. The prophetic portrayal of Christ is different than that of the Gospels, which tell the wonderful story of His humiliation, including His birth, suffering, and death. In order to "taste death for everyone,"Christ had to humble Himself and make Himself "lower than the angels" (Hebrews 2:9); and during His time on earth, He was abused by mankind. It was not a pretty sight to see our Lord abused, rejected, and crucified by His creation. But the second coming is a different matter! Never again will Jesus Christ come into this world to suffer or be subject to the whims of man.The next time He comes it will be "in power and great glory" as "King of kings and Lord of lords." At that coming the Bible says that "every eye shall see Him" (Revelations 1:7 KJV) and that "every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10,11). Scripture teaches that false Christs and false teachers will arise in the last days. Although there have always been false teachers, their numbers will increase as we approach the end times. The best defense is to "put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes" (Ephesians 6:11 NIV). Our Lord predicted that these false Christs and false prophets will be able to perform great signs and miracles and decieve even the elect-that is believers who do not know the Scriptures well, particularly those Scriptures that relate to future things. While some Bible teachers believe that the rapture and second coming happen simultaneously, many others believe that there are two different parts or phases of His one coming. For example, Christ is now in heaven, from which the angel promised He would come again to this earth. The first phase of His coming is "in the air" for believers; it will be a great blessing to all who participate in it. This is called by Bible scholars "the rapure," based on the Greek word harpazo, which means "to snatch away." The same word is used in Acts 8:39 and describes how the Holy Spirit "caught Philip away" after he baptized the Ethiopian. Paul also used this word to describe his experience of being,"caught up to the third heaven" (Corinthians 12:2-4). "Rapture" has come to refer to the phase of our Lord's return when He appears in the air just for Christians, who are "caught up" together with the resurected saints who have been "asleep in Jesus." According to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, which is the most complete description of the "rapture" phase of Christ's coming, the rapture is preceded by the resurrection of all Christians who have died since the founding of Christianity.They are not really dead, since their souls and spirits have been "absent from the body at death and are present with the Lord" (2Corinthians 5:8). That is what is meant by "asleep in Jesus", which goes on until the Lord comes. Only a few passages in the New Testament and none in the Old Testament describe the rapture phase, which will be described in detail later. But because it is a time of reuniting both dead believers and those who are "alive and remain," plus the fact that they will all "meet the Lord in the air," it is a time of great blessing called "that blessed hope" (Titus 2:3). And it is immediately after the rapture that the judgement of Christians will take place. The second phase of the Lord's second coming is the public appearance of Christ to this earth, when He is accompanied with power and great glory as well as the angels of heaven. At that time He will set up His earthly kingdom. We call this "the glorious appearing of Christ." At that time "every eye will see Him"(revelation 1:7), and those who reject Him will mourn because they will finally realize who He really is and now it is too late to accept Him by faith as Lord and Savior. The overwhelming number of references to the second coming in both the Old and New Testaments have to do with this phase of our Lord's coming; only a few references describe His coming for His church, or the rapture. So we see that there are not two comings of Christ, but rather, there are two phases of His one coming. The first phase is for Christians and the second phase is for the world of unbelievers.The Lord will leave heaven only once at the first phase of His coming "in the air" (the rapture), which we have seen is only for believers. Then, while still in the air, He conducts the judgement of believers. It is not well understood by Christians that all people will be judged, both believers and unbelievers.The Lord will then remain "in the air," where He conducts this judgement of Christians and where their rewards (or lack of them) will be administered. (Believers will "rule and reign with Him" according to this judgement on the basis of what good works they performed after they became Christians.)Then, after an undisclosed period of time during which that judgement takes place, the Lord finishes His second coming by descending the rest of the way to the earth "in power and great glory, with the holy angels" to rule and reign literally during what Scripture calls the kingdom age. For your benifit, here is a detailed chronology of the rapture, along with the relevent Scripture references: 1. The lord Himself will descend from His Father's house, where He is preparing a place for us (John 14:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). 2. He will come again to recieve us to Himself (John 14:1-3). 3. He will resurrect those who have fallen asleep in Him (deceased believers whom we will not precede (1 Thessalonians 4:14,15). 4. The Lord will shout as He decends (loud command," 1 Thessalonians 4:16 NIV). All this takes place in the "twinkling of an eye" (1 Corinthians 15:52). 5. We will hear the voice of the archangel (perhaps to lead Israel during the seven years of the Tribulation as He did in the Old Testament) (1 Thessalonians 4:16). I will add more later. Please come back!!!
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