<I don't believe in a future coming of Christ,
but I thought this was cute and it shows the
difference between reading the Bible and
believing it and believing doctrines based
on books, etc. and I think there's a lesson
to be learned here. :)>
A Humorous Look at a Serious Subject. :)
The account of my efforts to straighten out my family
regarding events at the end of time is very interesting.
It all happened one evening when we were sitting
around the living room, my wife, my four children and I.
For some time I had been concerned about their unwillingness
to devote the majority of their time to a study of end-time
doctrines.
“What do you think is going to happen at the end of time?”,
I casually asked one of my daughters.
“I think the Lord is coming back to earth to judge the quick
and the dead, Daddy,” she replied, barely looking up from
her sewing.
“Yes, yes,” I replied impatiently, “but what about
the details?”
“Well, the angels said He’d come again in the same manner in
which He left, and since he went from earth to heaven at that
time, I believe He’s coming from heaven to earth this time.”
“Oh, now I see where you’re confused,” I said, with a sigh
of relief. “That’s at his second coming. I’m referring to
his one-and-a-half coming.”
“His what?”, asked my wife.
“You know, I said, with a touch of irritation. “When He comes
at the Secret Rapture. This book I’m reading says only the
Christians know about that coming of the Lord. It’s all in
1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17.”
“That 16th verse says He’ll come with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel and with the trumpet of God”, my wife said
with a yawn. “How could an event that noisy be kept a secret?”
“It’s because it all happens so fast,” I protested. “This book
quotes 1 Corinthians 15:52 which says it happens in a moment,
in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. After that
there’s a seven-year period called the Great Tribulation
when the people who are left on the earth have to go
through all those horrible things in Revelation 6 through 19.”
“I thought you said all those horrible things happen after
the last trumpet, Daddy,” my second daughter said.
“That’s right, that’s right,” I said excitedly,
“But seven more trumpets sound during those chapters in
Revelation that you say take place after the last trumpet”,
she replied with a puzzled look.
“Okay, I said, “let’s forget about the trumpets and whether
it’s a secret or not. That’s probably too deep for you. Let
me show you how the Rapture works. There are going to
be two in a bed, or grinding together, or in the field, and
the one will be taken and the other will be left. The one
that’s taken goes to be with the Lord and the other is left
to go through the seven years.”
“I read about that in Luke 17:34-36,” my wife said, “but a few
verses before that it said it would be the same as when Noah
entered the ark and when Lot left Sodom.”
“That’s it,” I said. “Noah and Lot were taken out and the
others remained.”
“Yes, dear,” she replied, “but if it’s going to be like it was
then, Luke says those that remained were all destroyed,
not consigned to seven years of hardship.”
“You have the same problem with 1 Thessalonians 4,
Daddy”, my third daughter said. “You said the taking away
of the church is described in verses 16 and 17 but, as
I recall, just a few verses later it says sudden destruction
comes upon those who are left. And sudden destruction
sounds a lot different to me than seven years of suffering.”
“I never could see where it says in which direction the
believers go with the Lord after meeting Him in the air”,
my wife said. “To me it’s always been the same as if an
important person were coming to visit our city and the
mayor and other officials met him at the airport to escort
him downtown. It looks to me as if the Christians are
meeting the Lord to escort Him back to earth.”
A few moments of silence passed while I regrouped.
Then I returned to the attack.
“What about the four resurrections that are coming?”,
I said with a confident smile.
The five members of my family exchanged anxious glances.
“Now get this,” I said, leaning forward in my chair. “This
is a very important doctrine. You’ve got to be right on the
resurrections or you’re nowhere. Now here’s the way it’s
going to be, right out of the books I’ve read. First, when
Christ comes for the church there’s the resurrection of all
the believers of history—right?”
They nodded in tentative agreement.
“Then, seven years later there’s the resurrection of those new
believers, who were somehow converted after the church and
the Holy Spirit were gone, and who were killed during the
Great Tribulation. You’ve got to get them out of the ground
to enjoy the Millennium that follows—right?”
This time there were no nods of agreement, and I realized
with some disappointment that it was getting too deep again
for their shallow spiritual understanding. But I plunged on;
they had to learn sound doctrine.
“Next is the third resurrection, this time of those mortals,
believers, who die on earth during the Millennium. You’ve
got to get them out of the ground to enjoy eternity—right?”
Again, only hopeless confusion on their faces.
“And finally,” I said in triumph, “the fourth resurrection
is necessary to resurrect all the wicked of all time for
condemnation.
I sat back to relish their enlightenment. I knew I had stuck
to just what the books said, and that it would bear fruit.
“I think there are only two resurrections, Daddy,” one of my
daughters said cautiously. “First, the spiritual resurrection
or new birth that makes us alive in Christ after being dead
in sin, like it says in Romans 6:13 and the first five verses
of Ephesians 2, and second, the general resurrection at the
end of time when all the saved and unsaved who ever lived
will be raised together at the same time.”
“That’s true, dear,” my wife added. “John 5:24-29 speaks of
one resurrection which even 1,900 years ago was a present one,
when some of those who are spiritually dead hear the voice of
the Son of God and receive eternal life, and then of another
resurrection, sometime in the future, when all shall hear His
voice and come forth, some to life and some to condemnation.”
“Yes, Daddy,” another irritating voice said. “in John 11:24
Martha told Jesus she knew her brother would rise in the
resurrection at the last day but you said he’d rise at the
Rapture which you say takes place 1,007 years before
the last day.”
“I knew you people wouldn’t be able to understand these
things!” I said with great agitation. “How can you refute the
clear statements of all the books and commentaries I’ve read?
Listen, when I became a Christian I believed what people told
me, and the books they gave me, and I wasn’t argumentative
like you are.”
There was silence about the space of half a minute. Then
my little boy apprehensively raised his hand and I graciously
encouraged him to speak.
“Did you say there were mortals living on earth during the
Millennium, sir?”, he asked hesitantly.
“Yes, my boy,” I said tenderly. “Let me tell you what the
books say. At the start of the 1,000 years the unbelievers
who survive the Great Tribulation are cast off the earth
and the surviving believers inherit the Millennial Kingdom,
and they live and prosper on a peaceful earth.”
“And are they mortal people just like us, sir?”
“Yes, my boy,” I said warmly, “just like us.”
“But, Mom,” he said, “didn’t you tell me flesh and blood
can’t inherit the kingdom of God?”
“Yes, dear,” she replied. “I Corinthians 15:50.”
I gnashed my teeth, ignoring repeated warnings from my
dentist, and resolved to start again from the beginning.
“Look,” I said, after my breathing returned to normal,
“let’s get down to basics. You’ve got to understand that God
has two people and you’ve got to keep them apart. That’s
why the Church goes up in the Rapture, so that those
Scriptures that apply only to the Jews, like almost all of
Revelation after Chapter 5, can work themselves out.
God started out working with the Jews and His Son came
to sit on old King David’s throne in Jerusalem but when
the Jews surprised God by rejecting Jesus, God had to
change His plans and allow Jesus to be crucified. Then
God set up the Church to fill in the gap between the first
and second coming of Christ. At the second coming,
Christ will finally sit on David’s throne.”
“I don’t understand about God having two different people”,
one of my stubborn daughters said. “There is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, it says in Romans 10:12.”
Another said, “There is no respect of persons with God,
Romans 2:11.”
The third added, “There is neither Jew nor Greek,
Galatians 3:28.”
When no similar insolence was forthcoming from my son
I turned my gaze on him. He had been thinking hard, and
finally he turned to his mother and asked, “Mom, what was
that about the wall being broken down?”
“That’s Ephesians 2:14-16, dear,” she said, smiling sweetly at
him. “It tells how the Lord at Calvary broke down the former
wall of partition between the Jew and the Gentile and made
of the two one new man, one body.”
“Well, isn’t Dad wrong then?” my only son asked.
“Well, he has studied a lot of books and charts, dear”,
she said. “The girls and I are only going by the Bible.”
“Look,” I said impatiently, “if you don’t understand that,
do you at least see that the Jews are God’s special people,
a peculiar treasure to Him?”
“I know that in Exodus 19:5,6 the Lord told the Israelites
that if they obeyed and kept His covenant they would be
a peculiar treasure to Him, and a kingdom of priests,
and a holy nation”, my wife said.
“Yes, yes,” I cut in, “that’s it!”
“But I haven’t finished, dear”, she said. “I think they must
have disobeyed and then God found a new people to replace
them because Peter uses those same verses to describe
everyone who has been converted to Christ.”
“I never saw that”, I snarled.
“It’s in 1 Peter 2:9, dear”, she said.
I gnashed my teeth some more, audibly this time. When
the noise died down, one of my daughters said she thought
the church had succeeded to the promises originally made
to the Jews.
“Listen, kid”, I snapped, “those promises were made to Abraham
and his descendants through his son Isaac and through Isaac’s
son Israel.”
“That’s clear from Genesis 12:7 and 22:18, Daddy, but viewed
in the light of the New Testament it seems that we—all who are
Christ’s through the new birth—are in fact the descendants of
Abraham.”
Thinking that I was rising from my chair to strike the child,
my wife threw herself between us. When she saw that I only
intended to pace the floor, she sat down again and asked her
daughter to continue.
“Well, Mom, as you pointed out to us long ago, the third
chapter of Galatians makes it all very clear. Verse 7 says
they which are of faith are the children of Abraham.
Verse 16 explains that the seed of Abraham to whom the
promises were made was Christ. Verse 27 says we who
have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And
therefore verse 29 says that if we are Christ’s then we are
Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.”
“I can quote scripture, too!”, I shouted. “How about,
children, provoke not thy father to wrath! That’s in
there some place, too, you know!”
“That’s Ephesians 6:4, dear”, my wife said gently, “but you’ve
got it backwards. It says, fathers, provoke not your children
to wrath.”
“Well, how can I help it?” I exploded. “She takes one isolated
passage of scripture and uses it to tell me I’m an Israelite!”
“A spiritual Israelite, dear,” my wife said, watching with
compassion my spastic ambulations across the living room
floor. “But she didn’t really take an isolated passage.
That one was about Abraham but you also mentioned Isaac
and Israel. Well, Galatians 4:28,29 says that we who are
born after the Spirit are, as Isaac was, the children of
promise. And Romans 9:6-8 makes the same point,
saying they are not all Israel which are of Israel.”
“Any more?” I asked sarcastically.
“Well, yes, she replied. “Romans 2:28,29 says that a person is
not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward In the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit.
Oh, and Philippians 3:3 says we, that is, all the saints in
Christ Jesus, are the circumcision, who worship God in the
spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in
the flesh.”
“Well, if you’re going to favor all those New Testament
scriptures above the Old Testament you certainly won’t reach
the conclusions my books reach,” I said, again striving for
sarcasm. Somehow my remark didn’t seem to make the point
I intended so I hurried on.
“Can you at least see that Jesus came to set up a restored
Jewish Kingdom but that His rejection by the Jews made it
necessary to postpone His kingdom for a couple thousand
years?”
One of my daughters immediately said that John 6:15 shows
that when Jesus saw that the people wanted to make Him a
natural king He departed from them and went off to be alone
in the mountains. Another said that if Jesus had sought such
an earthly kingdom in Israel He would have been technically
guilty of the accusation brought against Him by the high
priest and rulers of the Jews, and His crucifixion would have
been justified by law. The third added that Jesus himself
said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (Jn. 18:36).
My wife said my statement implied that Christ didn’t complete
the task that was given Him at His first coming while in fact
John 4:34 and 17:4 quoted Jesus as saying that He came to
do His Father’s will and did it.
“And Luke 24:25-27 says that the risen Lord told His disciples
that the Old Testament prophets clearly foretold His suffering
and crucifixion.”
“Maybe,” I said, “but what about His kingdom? At some point
that’s got to be set up and I don’t see it yet.”
“Oh, Daddy,” one of my daughters said, “you know
Luke 17:20,21 says the kingdom of God doesn’t come
with observation, or visual evidence, but the kingdom
of God is within you. It’s the Lord’s rule in the hearts
of His people.”
“You can’t see or enter it except by the new birth, it says in
the third chapter of John,” another said. “Yes, Daddy, we’ve
already been translated or transferred into the kingdom of
God’s dear Son, according to Colossians 1:13,” the third
added.
“And Romans 14:17 says the kingdom of God isn’t physical
things like meat and drink but is actually righteousness,
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost,” my wife said.
“A man’s enemies are those of his own house!”, I shouted,
and then a brilliant thought occurred to me. “Look,” I said,
thumbing eagerly to Revelation 12:10, “here it shows exactly
when the kingdom of God is going to be set up. Isn’t that
something that’s going to happen at the start of the
Millennium? See, it’s in the next chapter after the seventh
trumpet sounds.”
My wife turned to my proof text and smiled as she read it to
herself. Then she read it aloud: “Now is come salvation, and
strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his
Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down.”
A chorus of giggles and shrieks came from the children.
My wife shook her head at them tolerantly, and said,
“What they’re trying to say is that all of those things took
place at Calvary more than 1,900 years ago. In John 12:31
Jesus predicted that at His crucifixion Satan would be cast
out, and in Colossians 2:15 Paul confirms that through the
cross Christ triumphed over all His enemies and made a show
of them openly.”
“Why wouldn’t you think salvation and strength and the power
of Christ came long ago, Daddy?” one of my youthful tormentors
asked me. “We all know when salvation came, and we know
where our strength comes from, and in Matthew 28:18 Jesus
said all power, or authority, in heaven and earth had already
been given to Him.”
My young son twisted the knife. “If the other three have come,
then I guess the kingdom has come, too, Dad.”
“The kingdom couldn’t have come yet,” I raged, “because when
it does come then finally we’re going to reign with Christ.”
Again the children laughed. “Daddy, we’re already reigning
with Him,” one of them said. “Romans 5:17 says that we who
have received abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.”
“That’s true, dear,” my wife said. “if you read Peter’s speech
on the day of Pentecost, particularly Acts 2:30-33, it seems
clear that Peter felt that Christ’s resurrection and ascension
to the right hand of God fulfilled the promise that a
descendant of David would occupy his throne.”
“Let me see that,” I grumbled, picking up my Scofield Edition.
“God had sworn .... of the fruit of his loins .... would raise
up Christ to sit on his throne .... he, seeing this before,
spoke of the resurrection of Christ .... this Jesus hath God
raised up .... by the right hand of God exalted... .”
As I scratched my head over those verses, my wife added:
“And, of course, Ephesians 2:6 says God has already raised
us up to sit with Christ in the heavenlies. So we’re already
reigning—or should be—over every difficult problem or
situation or circumstance.”
“You’d better talk to him about 1 Corinthians 15, too, Mom”,
one of the kids said.
“What!” I exclaimed, mopping my brow. “I’ve already covered
that. I told you that verse 52 says all the dead believers
will be resurrected to meet Christ in the air along with all
the living believers.”
“Yes, dear, we know,” my wife said, “but the point is that
verse 54 says that the resurrection described in verse 52
fulfills the saying of Isaiah 25:8 that death is swallowed up
in victory.”
“So what?” I thundered.
“Well, don’t you see, dear? Verses 25 and 26 of chapter 15 say
that Christ’s present reign must continue until He has put all
His enemies under His feet, and the last enemy to be destroyed
will be death. So, since verse 54 says His last enemy will be
destroyed when the saints are resurrected, that means His
reign ends then. At that time He delivers the kingdom up to
the Father (verse 24) and the Son Himself becomes subject unto
God in order that God may be all in all (verse 28). So if
you’re going to reign with Christ, you’ve got to reign with
Him now.”
“But if His reign ends at the time He comes for the church
that would mean there would be no 1,000-year reign later on
the earth,” I said, with exasperation.
“That’s true, dear,” she replied.
I excused myself from my oppressors and, determined to rebuke
and admonish them scripturally, took my Scofield Edition with
its concordance into the next room. I found that Proverbs
19:13 took care of both my wife and my son (“A foolish son is
the calamity of his father, and the contentions of a wife are
a continual dropping”) but the only verse I could find about
daughters was Proverbs 31:29 (“Many daughters have done
virtuously, but thou excellest them all”). Obviously that
wouldn’t do so, disappointed, I postponed my thoughts of
revenge and returned to the living room.
“Look,” I said as calmly as I could, “I believe most of your
confusion occurred right at the beginning of our discussion.
After explaining the Secret Rapture I should have told you
about the Antichrist because during the seven years after the
Rapture he’s going to do some incredible things.”
“No, he’s not, dear,” my wife said quietly.
“What do you mean?” I sputtered. “My books spell it all out.
He’ll be a beast, and put marks on people, and they’ll have to
worship him, and he’ll execute people, and .... and ....
and....”
“Now just relax, dear,” my wife said soothingly. “Some of the
other ladies and I have looked into that situation and found
out that the Antichrist won’t be around to do anything after
Christ comes for his church.”
“You can’t prove that!” I yelled, but I feared she could.
“Well, dear,” she said calmly, “one of the ladies had an
Interlinear Greek-English New Testament that shows each of the
original Greek words and the English equivalent. The Greek
word for the coming of the Lord for his church is parousia and
that’s the word used in 1 Thessalonians 4:15. Then in 2
Thessalonians 2:8 this same word is used for the coming of the
Lord, and in that verse it says the Lord will destroy the
Antichrist with the brightness of his parousia. So when the
Lord comes for the church, He simultaneously destroys the
Antichrist.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I said, but I was perspiring freely now.
“Listen, if you don’t believe anything I’m telling you,
suppose you tell me what you do believe.”
“We believe that Jesus Christ is coming again, all the way to
earth,” my wife said, “and that when He comes all the dead
will be resurrected, and they and the living will be judged
worthy either of an eternity in the presence of the Lord or an
eternity of punishment. Satan will be eternally punished. The
kingdom will be turned over by Christ to God the Father, and
there will be a new, or probably renewed, heaven and earth.
Every person will be as close to the Lord throughout eternity
as he or she is in this life.”
“You mean that’s it?” I said. “That’s the whole thing?”
“Basically, yes,” she said.
“But if that’s all there is to it,” I said, “people wouldn’t
need all those books and charts to figure it out. Why, it’s so
simple that even a child could understand it.”
“Precisely,” said my wife.
“Exactly,” chorused my daughters.
“I understand it,” said my son.
Later, our neighbors said the smoke from the pile of books
and charts I burned in the back yard could be seen three
blocks away.
--
It is a sad commentary, when people sift the Bible through
their doctrines and their doctrines become absolute in
their minds and the Bible is manipulated and twisted up
like a pretzel to make it match their doctrines. This
happens because so many believe that the Bible is useless,
if it isn't all about them today. They deny that, but
why is it then, that their supposed fulfillments of Bible
prophecies that they preach, always end up being about
whatever is in the news lately and the news always
becomes, "The fulfillment of Bible prophecies right
before our very eyes!". And that folks, is Futurism!
Selfishness, conceit, ego, arrogance and vanity! (:
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