Posted on 07/23/2019 5:26:09 AM PDT by Cronos
I have always thought that verse was referring to the whole world..You
see when we are working in America it is day but on the other side of the world people are sleeping... It is also because salvation is very personal.
Salvation is a person not an event, Salvation is a love affair...The more we
know our Jesus the more we love him...
But no matter whether there is a raprure or not... to be ready to meet Him when He comes is key. Why churches study books written by man and not
The Book written by God is a mystery to me. It is in the scriptures we see our Jesus.
Excellent post!
All of our words and deeds
will echo forever into eternity.
May God have Mercy on us all.
Be Ready!
7
We do not know the day or the hour. We are commanded to know the season. As Christ wept over Jerusalem on of the reasons He listed for her destruction was she did not know the time of her visitation.
Your commentary shows you have excellent intelligence. But like the Pharisees prayers that are but words falling on deaf ears, your intellect will not help you meet and experience Christ.
You can read and know every word of a bicycle operating manual, but still not know how to ride. It is similar with meeting Christ Jesus.
Most Christian’s proclaim Jesus as you Saviour, as I do. Then they treat Jesus as a lifeguard that can pluck you out when drowning (save you when you die.) While Jesus can do that, which would you sooner have, a lifeguard that waits until you are drowning to rescue you, or a lifeguard that teaches you how to swim?
Jesus is teaching us how to swim (act as Jesus would) and when we do, we too will do the things that He does and even more with Him in us.
It really is that simple.
Jesus is here already, but those without ears can’t hear Him and those without eyes can’t see Him. We must be raised up to do so. How do we raise up? By following the two most important commands He gave us.
Just as a swimmer can raise up in the water, those who embrace Jesus in Love can raise up in consciousness. When you do, you are born anew and experience Jesus.
7 - the number signifying completeness - at the throne of God is the 7 spirits signifying the Holy Spirit (who is complete).
6 - incompleteness - and just as the Bible repeats something thrice for emphasis, so 6 6 6 - the numerical number for Nero, is a repeated incompleteness.
1000 - signifying a very long period. 1000 is taken in other cultures for "a long time" - even in anti-Christian ones like theNazis 1000 year Reich
The 1000 year is also symbolical and perhaps literal in indicating the timeperiod between the establishment of the Davidic Kingdom (traditionally about 1000 BC) and Jesus
Jesus Kingdom will not be of the earth - John 18:36
Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If My Kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is My Kingdom not from hence.”Incidentally, Rev 20:4 doesn't talk of Jesus reigning on the earth - His Kingdom is not of the world
That makes sense.
That was well said. Dr Michael Heiser has a phrase regarding the Kingdom of heaven being here as you described: Already, but not yet.
His kingdom is HERE, but not yet complete. My belief is that the believer enters that kingdom when they accept His free gift. At that point it’s not about waiting. I compare it to a soldier in a war. You don’t claim citizenship and then wait around for the end of the war to enjoy the country’s blessings. You grab a rifle and join the fight, and also enjoy the fruits of victory. And the fight itself, and all you learn from it, is very rewarding in what you learn about your creator, and how you really can trust in Him.
Jonty - every one of us has sinned and has fallen. The only thing that saves us is the blood of the lamb.
The day or the hour referred to in Matthew is clearly about the day or hour of the destruction of the “center of the world for the Jews” - and btw, until 69 AD “the Jews” included both the Christ-followers (future Christians) and the Pharisee followers (future modern Jews) as well as Sadducees, Zealots, Essenes etc.
Thanks for posting will review later
He won’t “catch you up” - except at the point of your death. There is no such “left behind”
I just recently made the choice to discern between “sin” and “dead works”, dead works being a subset of sin:
Sin: Disobeying God’s law.
Dead works: Doing good things to improve your chances of salvation.
In fact, Hebrews 12:1 nails it: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles...”
IMO, the “sin that so easily entangles” is the belief that we must “be good” to receive salvation, coupled with working towards salvation, rather than simply accepting it and then going forward knowing we are His heir.
Every Eucharist is Parousia, the Lord's coming as Luther might say
This will be a Good thread.
The Latin Vulgate uses the word “rapturos”...or rapture. The reason why we protestants use it despite no English direct translation was because of the Vulgate’s influence on the vernacular translators...
So how about that?!... the Catholic Latin Bible has the “rapture”(rapturos in it...meaning of course “to be carried off”)in it!
So be ready Catholics in good standing with God....Christ will take a bunch of you as well along with those pesky Baptists and evangelicals and other “ick” protestant types(might be a few chastened snake handlers who will be told...”told ya not to test me”)....might as well start learning to get along with each other...eternity is a long time!
Let me be a bit whimsical here.
If Christ is going to perfect his kingdom on Earth, does that mean I will be able to read every book ever written through all eternity?
That would be paradise enough for me. Along with pastries that by His grace no longer put weight on you.
parousia can mean either presence or coming depending on the context. Certainly Christ, as God, is “present” in everything not just the Eucharist.
I’m sorry, but Jesus said that he is going away to PREPARE A PLACE FOR US, admittedly not HERE. That where He is there we may be also.
I don’t know how else that passage could be interpreted any other way without a lot of tortured pretzel logic. Jesus was more plain-spoken than you give him credit for.
Not to say that we won’t be back, or that that place won’t be the permanent dwelling for us. But there it is.
1. there is no mention of "rapture" 1 Thessalonians 4:16 very clearly is talking of those who died before Christ -
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope.Rev 4:1 is about John seeing in his vision.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so will God bring with Him those also who sleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord: that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who are asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first;
17 then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Jesus HAS resurrected. He went down to the dead and opened the gates of heaven for all - including those asleep
it wasn't in the Bible in the sense you use it in - not even in the Vulgate
The Tribulation period is clearly as you read from REv 1 when John who shares in the reads tribulations talks of the Nero based persecutions of the Church, just at the same time that Sadducee and Pharisee persecution of the Christ-follower sect (yes, the Christians were still a sect of 2nd temple Judaism along with the Pharisee sect) was also peaking
Possibly not, but again, the key question is are you ready in case there is one?
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