#49 THE RETURN OF CHRIST: THE THEMES, PART 1

     Looking at what we’ve been discussing about the biblical prophecies of the return of Christ, I’d like us to think about any main messages that are intertwined with the events taking place. I’m thinking there are two themes, in particular, that provide a perspective and a context that will strengthen us as we face unprecedented trouble and turmoil in our world. To set the stage for these themes, let’s start by looking at a passage that we’ve talked about before–listen to what Isaiah 25:6-9 says:

   The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all people on this mountain; a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine. And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken. And it will be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

For some reason, many of us believe the salvation of the Lord consists of us going to heaven when we die. However, this passage puts this concept in much different terms–God’s salvation is when He prepares a lavish banquet for everyone, when He swallows up death forever, and when He wipes the tears away from all faces. Now, think about these verses and keep the wording of what Isaiah wrote in mind as we go back to Revelation.

     Amid all of the frightening details of his vision of the time surrounding the return of Christ, John did describe some wonderful moments. For example, when he wrote of  the vast multitudes of people who came out of the great tribulation and washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb, he went on to tell what happened next in their lives (Revelation 7:15-17):

   For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to the springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Here are those words again–God will wipe every tear from their eyes. The same words that Isaiah used.

     Now, in my last post, we talked about the White Throne Judgment. Immediately after describing that process, John began to discuss the next occurrence, the new heaven and the new earth. Before we read his description, let’s take a quick look at something Peter wrote in his second letter, “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (II Peter 3:13). The force of the new heavens and the new earth will be righteousness. Because evil has been dealt with and cast into the lake of fire, the new heavens and the new earth will be free from sin and guilt. With this verse in mind, let’s read John’s description of this new world (Revelation 21:1-4):

   Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.

Now, here’s a question: In Revelation 7, God wipes away the tears of everyone who came out of great tribulation before the return of Christ. If those are the people who put on immortality at the return of Christ, then whose tears is God wiping away as the new heaven and the new earth manifest? As far as I can see, this second group of people are those who have stood before the White Throne Judgment. They are the ones who carried a load of deception and evil deeds to their physical deaths and who faced God before His throne to learn truth and to go through the fire. I propose that every human being has to go through the baptism of fire–not because God is mad at us, but because the deception and evil deeds cause death, loss, and destruction. God wants us to have life, the life more abundant than the workings of evil, so He pulls all evil from our lives and casts it into His consuming fire.

     With this context, let’s look at the words that God spoke to John in Revelation 21:5-8,

   And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Here is what we should understand about these words. All of us have deceptions and evil deeds in our lives (anyone who has never lied raise your hand). The question is when do we deal with that evil? If we thirst for God  and if we are willing to go through the baptism of fire while we are alive, then we will be transformed into sons of God, we will put on immortality at the point of Christ’s return, and the second death will not touch us (Revelation 2:11). However, if we do die without going through the fire, we will face God in the final judgment and go through the fire then. No matter when we face God and find truth, He will be there to wipe our tears away because He loves us! God knows the battle that is raging against the human race and He does not condemn us. He sent His only begotten Son to destroy Satan’s ability to keep us separated from Him. In the end, every human being will have the opportunity to look God straight in the eye and to find the love that makes us His sons.

     So, here is one of the two major themes intertwined with the return of Christ: God’s absolute love will prevail, thus Satan’s plan to destroy God’s creation will completely fail. To put in other terms, God’s absolute love is greater than the kingdom of evil. To repeat part of Isaiah 25:6-8, “And the Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain…He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces…” This, my friends, is the good news of the gospel!

     All scripture passages are taken from the NASB. Please feel free to comment, just keep it respectful.

     ©2009-2010 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.

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patriciazell, June 27th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in THE RETURN OF CHRIST

#43 THE RETURN OF CHRIST: THE CAST, PART ONE

     In order to understand the entities involved in the return of Christ, we should first look at a couple of verses which will give context to who the characters are and how they interact during this time. Let’s start with Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Next, let’s consider Hebrews 5:13-14, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” Think about these verses and remember what happened in the Garden of Eden. Up until Satan lied to Eve, she and Adam had only known good. Once she innocently fell for the con (because she had no concept of a lie whatsoever), the couple was plunged into knowing evil. Satan wanted to keep them and their descendants away from God, so he began manipulating them into confusion by disguising himself as an angel of light (II Corinthians 11:14). He and his forces have filled our world with deception so strong that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to discern good and evil without help. Christ opened the door to that help when, on the cross, he obliterated the wall between God and the human race. He gave us the access to God that we need in order to discern good and evil. 

     At that point, we might think the job was done, but it wasn’t. God did His part by sending Christ, Christ did his part by dying, and God again did His part by raising Christ from the dead. But, there was still action needed and that action had to be taken by the human race. We had and have to choose life and blessings and reject death and cursings (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). Satan had a back-up plan to keep us from doing so–even though the separating wall was demolished, he still had the power of deception. If he could keep humans from discerning good and evil, then he could keep them in throes of woes. So, he has been building camouflages all over our world to hide himself, his forces, and his intent from the human race. He also has been raining deceptions on us to convince us that God is a double-minded control freak who uses destruction to teach lessons that we won’t understand until we die and go to heaven.

     Now, let’s use this context to start understanding some of the “cast” involved in the return of Christ. Beginning in Revelation 4, the Apostle John describes the scene where Christ takes a book from God and opens it. The first event that happened was the release of a white horse and its rider. Listen to the description in Revelation 6:2, “I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.” Our first reaction might be “Uh-oh” at the words conquering and to conquer, but let’s take a closer look. Did you know that white is the color associated with righteousness, the freedom from sin or guilt? Isaiah 1:18 is a verse many of us know, ” ‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow…’.” Think about this–if white is truly representative of righteousness, then the first “force” that is released is that of freedom from sin. And, that freedom from sin is what makes us conquerors. Even better, let’s look again at Hebrews 5:13-14 which infers that the word of righteousness is for those who have trained themselves to discern good and evil. This white horse with its rider that is first to be sent forth is the force that will enable the human race to distinguish between good and evil.

     Next, let’s look at the anti-Christ. I know many people have been taught that the anti-Christ will be a man who will rule the world with an iron fist. Let me share a different way of looking at this being that is against everything that Christ is and represents. II Thessalonians 2:3-4 says:

   Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy (or, falling away from the faith) comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”

In Isaiah 14:12-17, the prophet talks about the star of the morning (NKJV uses the name Lucifer) and calls him the son of the dawn. Isaiah then describes how Lucifer decided he wanted to be like the Most High and made his move. (We can infer that Lucifer became the son of destruction because he let go of God.) Isaiah then passed along God’s promise that Lucifer would end up in the lowest of all positions and that those who would see him at that time would ask the question, “Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a wilderness and overthrew its cities, who did not allow his prisoners to go home?” (verse 17). The use of the term “man” in this passage makes me think that the anti-Christ is Satan himself–he wants to be like God and I’m sure he’s not going to share that position with any measly human being.

     Now, let’s go back to II Thessalonians 2 and look at verses 6-8:

   And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed who the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming.

These verses are not exactly clear-cut with all the talk of restraining and revealing. So, let’s think about an analogy. Take any dictator from history and think about how that one person acquired enough power to rule over people single-handedly. The first and most important “thing” any dictator has to have is a protective force around him–usually an army who is loyal to him and him alone. That army would also keep him hidden from the ill-wishes of any of his “subjects.” Well, that’s exactly what Satan has, a protective army. His forces are so good at keeping him hidden that human beings, in their own strength, cannot begin to penetrate his protection. However, since the time that Christ died on the cross and was resurrected and since the time that the Holy Spirit was sent to indwell the sons of God, the potential to break through Satan’s defenses has been in the world. As Christ prepares to return to earth and as the power of righteousness is sent forth, that potential will turn into kinetic energy and believers will start removing Satan’s protective forces by binding them up and taking them prisoners of war. As we stand strong in our prayer closets and follow our Commander’s orders, we will take the “restrainers” out of the way and Satan will be revealed. Then the words prophesied in Isaiah 14 will be the ones we speak, “Is this the man…” 

     As always, please feel free to comment–just keep it respectful.

     ©2009-2010 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.

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patriciazell, May 23rd 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in THE RETURN OF CHRIST