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WHY "IN LIKE MANNER" OF ACTS 1 DOES NOT PREDICT A BODILY RETURN OF CHRIST
Prophecy Questions Blog ^ | June 15, 2017 | Charles Meek

Posted on 07/02/2017 5:37:17 PM PDT by grumpa

“And when He had said these things, as they were looking on, He was taken up [Greek EPAIRO], and a CLOUD received Him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?’ This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come IN LIKE MANNER [Greek HOS TROPOS] as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)

This passage is one that futurists hold up to preterists to show that the Second Coming has not yet happened. “What,“ they say, “are you nuts? If Jesus had come in AD 70, everyone would have seen Him.”

As I began studying eschatology seriously over 15 years ago, it became increasingly obvious that my futurist assumptions about the last days and Second Coming could not hold up to the test of Scripture. But my passion is to teach what the Bible teaches, even if it conflicts with my presuppositions or denominational traditions.

I considered every passage in the Old and New Testaments about eschatology and concluded that the popular views are mostly regurgitations from denominational echo chambers, rather than from Scripture. My previous assumptions radically failed to consider Old Testament apocalyptic language, as well as the over 100 prophetic imminence statements in the New Testament. The preterist arguments persuaded me that Jesus was never claimed to return in his physical body, but rather in divine judgment just like Yahweh in the Old Testament. I became convinced that the preterist view is the only view of eschatology that could hold up to Scripture.

In case you are not familiar with the preterist view, there are dozens of passages that clearly teach that the culmination of the biblical “last days” and the “Second Coming” would happen while some of those living in the first century were still alive. Preterists believe that Jesus and the biblical writers were telling the truth about the timing of these things, and that these passages were fulfilled by Jesus’ non-bodily PRESENCE IN JUDGMENT against Old Covenant Israel in AD 70.

As I continued to study, I considered every objection I could find against the preterist view. I now see that my own previous objections as a futurist were grounded in ignorance, presupposition, and wishful thinking. Looking back, it still amazes me what hoops I went through to explain away, especially, the imminence passages. Wanting to cling to the popular views of prophecy, I had become skilled at Scripture-twisting.

Indeed, at first glance, it seems clear in Acts 1:9-11 that Jesus was predicted to return to earth literally, bodily—in (or on) a literal cloud. Unlike almost all other Second Coming passages, there is no time-constraint on its fulfillment, so it could still be a future event. However, to properly interpret this passage we must reconcile it with other passages about the Parousia (“Second Coming”). Let me offer ten points of exegesis of this passage about why it does not predict a literal, bodily Second Coming. . . .

In this article, I describe why the futurist view fails on critical analysis:

https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=D3BD424B0B25B83F!16252&ithint=file%2cdocx&app=Word&authkey=!AO7aCIxpe1YGP6Q


TOPICS: Theology
KEYWORDS: bible; coming; heresy; prophecy; second; secondcoming
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There is a lot of background information on this, such as "What Are the Biblical Last Days," "What Does the Bible Say about the Nature of the Second Coming," "What Does the Bible Say about the Timing of the Second Coming," etc. I have over 60 articles about eschatology at my site:

https://prophecyquestions.com/2014/02/01/articles-by-charles-meek/

1 posted on 07/02/2017 5:37:17 PM PDT by grumpa
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To: grumpa

Christ will return the same way He departed. He will come back down feet first. His feet will touch first and Temple Mount and Jerusalem will be split into. Zechariah speaks clearly of this.


2 posted on 07/02/2017 5:41:24 PM PDT by RetiredArmy (Believe or not, we R in the Last Days of human history. Jesus is coming back, & soon! RU saved?)
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To: RetiredArmy

yes He’ll be back physically. Lord Jesus is no liar like everyone else. Should be back soon, as well


3 posted on 07/02/2017 5:43:36 PM PDT by brucedickinson
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To: brucedickinson

I pray every day that He comes today. I pray He does. Hopefully one day very very soon He shall return for His Bride, His Church, us!!! I simply cannot wait. I want to leave this place so bad it gives me headaches. I pray to be with my LORD soon!!


4 posted on 07/02/2017 5:46:16 PM PDT by RetiredArmy (Believe or not, we R in the Last Days of human history. Jesus is coming back, & soon! RU saved?)
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To: grumpa
‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?’ This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come IN LIKE MANNER [Greek HOS TROPOS] as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)

In like manner = from the ground, up.

Pattern: Elijah, who was taken up alive in a whirlwind, yet returned as John the Baptist. Then Elijah appeared as Elijah [in the Transfiguration].

But nobody's expecting that.

5 posted on 07/02/2017 5:46:16 PM PDT by Ezekiel (All who mourn(ed!) the destruction of America merit the celebration of her rebirth.)
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To: RetiredArmy
He will come back down feet first.

Why would He not? What would be the point of His coming back head first? That would just be nuts.

6 posted on 07/02/2017 5:46:29 PM PDT by Tax-chick (The Golden Rule. Just that.)
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To: Tax-chick

Good grief. Git a grip.


7 posted on 07/02/2017 5:52:23 PM PDT by RetiredArmy (Believe or not, we R in the Last Days of human history. Jesus is coming back, & soon! RU saved?)
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To: RetiredArmy

Excuse me? I’m serious. The Bible says Jesus is going to return “in the way He ascended.” That was upright, I assume (head first) and therefore when he returns, feet first is to be expected.

It’s just common sense.


8 posted on 07/02/2017 5:54:38 PM PDT by Tax-chick (The Golden Rule. Just that.)
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To: grumpa

Proverbs 18:17

TLB

Any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight.


9 posted on 07/02/2017 6:00:19 PM PDT by Redcitizen
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To: RetiredArmy

You and me both. Oh I’m done here. Ha!


10 posted on 07/02/2017 6:02:04 PM PDT by brucedickinson
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To: RetiredArmy

I do too! Look up!


11 posted on 07/02/2017 6:14:12 PM PDT by FES0844 (G)
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To: grumpa

As an LDS Non-Creed Christian, it is clear that the only reason why you would try to impose this view on the scriptures is to twist them to conform with the Nicene Creed.

Christ was resurected in the flesh. There’s no where that says that he ditched his body.

The only reason why you can’t accept that is because Christ with a ressurected body conflicts with homoousis (sp?) of the Nicene Creed.

I say, throw away the creeds, and read the scpriptures anew.... and if you really want to know what Christ is up to lately, call up the Mormon Missionaries for a chat! :)


12 posted on 07/02/2017 6:40:15 PM PDT by teppe
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To: Tax-chick
The Bible says Jesus is going to return “in the way He ascended.” That was upright, I assume (head first)....

That sort of implies He landed head first in Heaven........

13 posted on 07/02/2017 6:46:35 PM PDT by varon (There's always room for one more on the hanging tree.....)
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To: grumpa

Jesus is the incarnate Word of God. He became a man.

And He died as a man.

He rose again, bodily, as a man.

He ascended into Heaven, as a man.

He is a man, right now, in Heaven, interceding for us who believe on Him.

He will return as a man.

And he will sit on His father David’s throne, as a man, and reign on the earth.

1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.

Luke 1:32
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.

1 Corinthians 15:47
The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.

Revelation 1:7
Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

The visible, bodily return of the Lord is a non-negotiable tenet of the Christian faith.

Certainly there are prophecies of Christ that were fulfilled in 70 A.D. “Not one stone shall be left upon another.”

But this was not the time of trouble that is coming on the whole world. It was not the time of tribulation greater than all others before or after.

It was not a time when all of the world would be forced to take the mark of the beast to buy or sell.

It was not the time when anti-Christ was revealed, and with the false prophet was promoted with all signs and lying wonders.

It was not the tribulation that was followed by the sun being turned to darkness and the moon into blood, along with the powers of heaven shaken.

It was not the time of tsunamis, earthquakes, plagues, famine, and war across the globe.

It was not the time which was so frightful that men were dying of fear.

It was not the time in which people hid in the dens and rocks of the earth to hide from the face of Him who sits on the throne and of the Lamb, whose wrath had finally come.

It was not a time of tribulation followed by fire being poured out on the earth the way God judged the cities of Sodom and Gomorra.

These days are still ahead.

But there are mockers who deny His coming.

2 Peter 3:4, 7, & 10
[Scoffers will be] saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?...”
But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men...
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

On God’s timetable, God will bring Israel to national repentance during a final seven-year period. In the middle of this seven-year-period, the anti-Christ will be publicly revealed by desecrating the third temple and setting up a throne for himself where he will be worshipped. And the “great tribulation” will commence.

The Lord Jesus will return after intense persecution against His followers, and receive to Himself those of us who remain, who will be caught up to meet Him in the air.

Then He the baptism of the earth by fire will commence. This is represented in the book of Revelation as the trumpet and bowl judgments.

And after these things are complete, Christ will return to the earth and establish His kingdom. And we will reign with Him on the earth.


14 posted on 07/02/2017 6:47:39 PM PDT by unlearner (You will never come to know that which you do not know until you first know that you do not know it.)
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To: Tax-chick

Upright..
IIRC...
Jesus’s foot first touches
Mt.Olives and it splits
With a river forming out
of it.

Am I wrong?


15 posted on 07/02/2017 6:50:11 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (UNSCANABLE in an IDIOCRACY!)
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To: grumpa

“.... If Jesus had come in AD 70, everyone would have seen Him.”


Yeah, that would have probably made history. Also, it would have dramatically changed early Christianity.


16 posted on 07/02/2017 6:57:09 PM PDT by boycott
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To: grumpa

Cue the “not this $hit again” guy - more preterist poppycock.


17 posted on 07/02/2017 7:08:39 PM PDT by beethovenfan (I always try to maximize my carbon footprint.)
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To: teppe

The bodily, human Jesus does not conflict with the Nicene Creed because when the Creed says the Word or Son or Logos is consubstantial with the Father, it is speaking of the fact that God is one substance. The hypostatic union of the Logos with a human nature does not affect the unity of the three divine Persons in the one substance of God.


18 posted on 07/02/2017 7:13:00 PM PDT by Arthur McGowan (https://youtu.be/IYUYya6bPGw)
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To: varon

Not “landed,” but (as it were) broached the event horizon head-first, and then “landed” on his feet.


19 posted on 07/02/2017 7:13:10 PM PDT by Tax-chick (The Golden Rule. Just that.)
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To: teppe
...call up the Mormon Missionaries for a chat!

BS!

20 posted on 07/02/2017 7:18:40 PM PDT by GGpaX4DumpedTea ((I am a Tea Party descendant...steeped in the Constitutional Republic given to us by the Founders))
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