Jesus’ Second Advent
DO YOU KNOW:
That Jesus promised His disciples that He
would return to earth personally and
receive them to Himself, so that where He is (in heaven) they would be
also (#Joh 14:3; 17:24)?
That God did not plan to convert the world
before Jesus’ Second Coming, but rather
"to take out of them [from every kindred, nation, etc.-#Re 5:9, 10, a people for his
name" (#Ac 15:14), to reign over earth with Him in
His 1,000-year Kingdom, for the
blessing, judging and conversion of the world (#Ac 17:31;
#Re 3:21; 20:4, 6; #Mt 19:28; #1Co 6:2)?
That when Jesus in His Second Advent takes
to Himself His great power and begins
to reign, the nations are "angry," far from
converted-"When the Son of man cometh,
shall he find the [so the Greek] faith [the true Gospel] on the earth" (#Lu 18:8; #1Ti 4:1; #2Ti
3:1-8, 13; #2Pe 3:3, 4; #Ps 2; #Re 2:26, 27; 11:17-19; 19:11-21)?
That at Jesus’ First Advent He laid down
His perfect human life as a Ransom (a
corresponding price) for Adam and the race in his loins (#Mt 20:28; #Mr
10:45; #Ro 5:12-21; #1Ti
2:5, 6; #Ho 13:14) and opened for the Church a new and living way, to
immortal life, the Divine nature (#Joh 14:1-6; #2Ti 1:10; #Heb
3:1; 10:19, 20; #2Pe 1:4)?
That in Jesus’ Second Advent, a 1,000-year
period, He first exalts the Elect Church, His Bride (#1Co 15:50-54; #1Th 4:15-17; #2Ti
4:8), and the Great Company,
"the virgins her companions" (Psalm 45:14, 15; #Re 7:9-17), and
the rest of the elect (Psalm 45:16; ##Isa 32:1; #Lk 13:28), and then blesses all the rest ("the residue")
of mankind, the non-elect (including awakening the dead-#Joh 5:28, 29, R.V.; #Da 12:2),
in "the times of restitution [restoration, R.V.] of all things, which God
hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began" (#Ac 3:19-24; 15:16, 17; #Isa 35)?
DO YOU KNOW:
That Christ’s joint-heirs, the Church,
will as a part of Abraham’s Seed assist
Him in the coming "times of restitution" in blessing "all
the families of the earth," giving
to "whosoever will" the "water of life freely" (#Ro 8:17; #Ge 12:3; 22:18; #Ac 3:25; #Ga 3:8, 16, 29; #Re 22:17)?
That while God grants no second chance to
any of Adam’s race, He gives one full,
complete opportunity for everlasting life to all-if not in this life,
then in the Restitution times-for Jesus
tasted death "for every man" and the "good tidings of great joy shall be to all
people" (#Heb 2:9; #Lu 2:10, 32; 3:6; #Joh 1:9, 29; 12:32; #1Ti 4:10; #1Jo 2:2)?
That Christ "must reign [in His
1,000-year Reign], till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is
[Adamic] death" (#1Co
15:24-26; #Re 21:4)?
That Jesus was "put to death in the
flesh" for the life of the world (John
6:51), but was raised, born from the dead (#1Co 15:20; #Col
1:18), not as a human being,
but as a spirit being (#1Pe
3:18, R.V.; 1 Corinthians 15:45, 50; #2Co 3:17; 5:16), far higher than the angels (##Eph 1:20-22; #Php 2:8-11), in the exact image of God’s person (#Heb 1:3-5),
invisible to human eyes ("whom no man hath seen, nor can see"-#1Ti 6:16; 1:17; #Joh 1:18; 5:37),
and able to come and go like the wind (#Joh 3:6, 8)?
That while spirit beings in their normal
condition are invisible to human eyes,
they have been permitted to materialize in human bodies, and then
later dematerialize, e.g., the angels
that appeared to Abraham, Gideon, etc. (#Ge 18:2; #Jud 6:12, 21)?
That similarly Jesus as a spirit being
appeared to His disciples after His resurrection
in various fleshly bodies, or forms (#Mr 16:12), with
clothing created to suit (the soldiers
had taken His clothing-#Mt
27:35): e.g., as a gardener (#Joh 20:11-18); as a traveling stranger (the Emmaus disciples knew Him only
after He broke bread with them, after which He dematerialized and vanished-#Lu 24:13-35);
as one with nail-prints in hands and feet (John 20:25-29); as one seeking fish, etc. (#Joh 21:1-14; #Mt
28:16, 17)?
DO YOU KNOW:
That only as a spirit being could Jesus
have entered His disciples’ assembly
room with its doors closed for fear of the Jews, when He materialized in
a fleshly body, ate material food (as
He had done in Abraham’s day-#Ge
18:8), had them feel the body, and told them,
"a spirit [which since His resurrection
He is-#2Co 3:17] hath not flesh and bones [like He had
created then and there in order to
appear to them], as ye see me have [obviously flesh, bones, clothing, etc., could not have come through
walls or doors of the closed room,
though a spirit being, not having such hindrances, could do so-#Joh 3:8]"-thus proving before He dematerialized that He
really was present (#Joh
20:19-23; #Lk 24:36-48)?
That Jesus did not materialize a fleshly
body when He appeared to Saul, and the
glory light from His spirit body (#Php 3:21)
struck Saul blind, a miracle being
needed later to restore partially his sight (#Ac 9:1-18;
2 Corinthians 12:7; #Ga 4:13-15)?
That the first stage of Jesus’ Second
Advent, His parousia (presence), is secret
("as a thief in the night"-#Re 16:15; #Lu 21:34-36; #2Pe
3:10), in which the world is unaware of it (#Lu 17:26-30; #Mt
24:37-39; the Greek word parousia, meaning presence-see R.V.
margin-is here mistranslated coming),
but in which God’s true people know of it through Bible chronology and
prophecy (many fulfillments) and signs
of the times (#1Th 5:1-5)?
That thus He comes "in like
manner" as He departed at His ascension (#Ac 1:11),
i.e., quietly, without any great demonstration, unknown to the world, but known
only to His true disciples (note that this verse does not state that He would
come in like form or like body, but only in like manner)?
That Jesus said before His crucifixion,
"Yet a little while, and the world seeth
me no more" (#Joh
14:19), and therefore they
will never again see Him with their physical eyes, though in the second stage
of His Second Advent, His epiphaneia (manifestation), or apokalupsis
(uncovering), they will with mental perception see Him "coming in a cloud
[the severe trouble of the Great Tribulation] with power and great glory"
(#Lu 21:27; #Mt 24:21, 30)?
DO YOU KNOW:
That as Jesus is revealed to the world in
His Second Advent, eventually "every
eye shall see him [discern Him mentally, recognize His presence, power
and authority in the destruction of
Satan’s empire and the establishment of His
Kingdom on earth]" (#2Th 1:17, 8; #Re 1:7)?
That Bible prophecy, chronology and the
signs of the times show that we are now
in "the time of the end" with its great increase of knowledge
and travel, and its unprecedented time
of trouble (#Da 12:1, 4, 9,
10; #Lu 21:25-27; #Jas
5:1-8)?
That "in the days of these
kings," present earthly governments represented in the toes of Daniel’s great image, God is
destroying Satan’s empire and
establishing His righteousness rule on earth (#Da 2:35, 44; Psalm 46; #Zep 1:15-18; 3:8, 9; #2Pe 3:7-13)?
That the "gospel of the kingdom has
been preached in all the world for a witness
[though not converting them]," so the Age’s end is here (#Mt 24:14; 13:39)?
That one of the many signs pointing to
Jesus’ Second Advent and His Reign of
peace is Israel’s return to their land, preparatory to their acceptance
of their Messiah and great blessings on
them and the Gentiles (#Zec
8; 12:9, 10; 14:16-21; #Mt 23:39; ##Isa 2:2-4; #Jer
23:5-8; 24:6, 7; 30:7-11, 18-24; 31:8-12, 27-34; #Am
9:11-15; #Ro 11:25-29)?
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