Day of Christ

The Day of Christ begins with the appearing (the epiphaneia) and kingdom (basileia ) of Jesus Christ (2 Tim.4:1) and the blazing forth of the glory of the great God, even our Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). This is when the hope of the calling of the Mystery is realized. This is when our faith gives way to sight. This is the next event on God's prophetic clock. This is when Christ Jesus, in His role as the Head of the high calling, convenes [calls into session] His Ecclesia (Church) which is His Body. As the Great Convoker, He, alone, calls His Ecclesia into session. This marks His assumption of sovereignty over the nations. Those who have been memberd into “the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” will either be raised out from among the dead, or will be changed from mortal to immortal, and will take their place, or station, in His Government. Concurrently with the many events taking place when Christ Jesus assumes sovereignty over mankind and the nations, the Holy Spirit (the Comforter) will actively and aggressively restrain evil (John 16:7-13). People who sin will die for their own sin (Jer. 31:30). The Spirit will hinder transgressions because man’s conscience will have been quickened (made alive). The Day of Christ is synonymous with all of the above, including the Kingdom of God, and comes before the tribulation and the second coming (Parousia) of Christ. During the Day of Christ, heaven and earth will be governed by Christ Jesus from His heavenly Throne. This dispensation is set in contrast to the Millennium or the Day of the Lord. To say the two are the same is to say that “one-plus-one equals one.” Most all Christians realize that the Day of the Lord (i.e. the Tribulation and the Millennium) begins with revolution, bloodshed and violence which will be an unprecedented event in all of human history. The Old Testament has a lot to say about this Day—the Day of the LORD. Isaiah speaks about the Lord's imposition upon the world of His Millennial Rule; “For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with wrath, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord will be many” (Isa. 66:15-16). Psalm 50:3 says; "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: A fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him." Psalm 97:3; “A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about.” These verses relate to Jesus Christ Personally returning to earth to put an end to the nation’s revolt against His Rule from heaven (2 Thess. 2:1-12). When the Kingdom of God comes to Israel, it comes silently, “without observation” (Lu.17:22). It will not come suddenly or dramatically. Its’ coming is likened; “as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” (Mk. 4:26-28). When the Kingdom comes, it comes without calamity with no harm being done to anyone. Notice a much overlooked passage; “He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory” (Matt.12:19-20). Matthew quotes from Isaiah 42:1-4 which informs us that the Kingdom (i.e God’s Government) begins with the Gentile nations. Israel will not be a nation at this time. They will still be scattered, or dispersed, among the nations. While ruling over the nations, the Lord begins His work of re-gathering the Jews. Over time, He leads them back to the Promised Land ─as believers. No unbelieving Jew will be brought back to Palestine; no, not one! The unbelieving will remain scattered among the nations. [This brings up the question; ‘What about the Israel that now is?’ All we’ll say for now is; the present Israel is not of God’s doing. When He brings them back, there will be no disputes regarding borders or whose land it is]. “And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezk.20:38). If words have any meaning, then we must conclude that something begins silently, mysteriously, without observation, without strife, without Christ being heard, and without damage being inflicted. On the other hand, something else begins (i.e. the Lord’s Day) with a colossal display of vengeance, wrath, and cataclysmic punishment which will be openly displayed. It is a contradiction to insist that the two descriptions relate to the beginning of the same event. In plainer words, the Prophetic Word informs us that there is coming the Day of Christ which is another term for the coming Kingdom of God. We are met with a non-Scriptural term, The Millennium, which relates to the 1000 year reign of Christ upon the earth. The Biblical term for this is the Day of the Lord. It is essential to distinguish between the two. The Holy Spirit does. We should do so, also. If we force all truths connected to the Day of Christ into the Day of the Lord, the result is utter confusion. Not only that, but we rob the Lord Jesus Christ of His Day of Exaltation. During the Day of Christ, He will draw, or compel, all men unto Himself. He will be exalted from the earth as every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord to the Glory of God the Father. His Day begins with His “appearing and Kingdom,” and He begins to judge the quick and the dead. (2 Tim.4:1). This is when the glory of the great God, even Jesus Christ our Savior, blazes forth (Titus 2:13). Isaiah speaks of this event in 40:5; “And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” and at the same time. What is seen is the glory of the LORD, not the LORD descending from Heaven; to this, Numbers 14:21 agrees; “But truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.” When the Kingdom comes, “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters covers the sea” (Hab.2:14). The Psalmist says; “And blessed be His glorious Name forever: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory” (72:19). The world will experience the revealing of His Glory without Christ Jesus leaving His Heavenly Throne. The shining forth of the glory of God takes place before the Day of the LORD. It is noted in Isaiah's vision that the seraphim see Christ's Day and say; “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Hosts: the earth is full of His glory.” During the Day of Christ, the “times of refreshing comes from the presence of the LORD.” All things are rejuvenated while the Heavens retain Christ (Acts 3:19-21). The pristine, pre-Noah flood conditions will be re-created (Isa. 65:17; 66:22). When the Day of Christ begins, all of mankind will be enlightened by the Holy Spirit and realize that Jesus Christ is LORD! Christ will begin His benevolent rule of the world. Then, He will begin converting His ancient people, Israel. Read Ezekiel 20:23-33, and notice how the Lord begins a work in their hearts and will lead them back into the Holy Land as a Christ-believing people. As the Day of Christ draws to a close, the restraints of the Spirit are gradually withdrawn.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The Appearing And Rapture Timelines Are Not The Same

In the sermon that is presented in a post I made in FaceBook, and the link is presented below,
The presenter did not see that the Appearing he talked about does does not fit in with the Parousia after the Great Tribulation. It fits, in the end of our current evil and perilous age, we now find ourselves living....
What happens NEXT ?


https://www.facebook.com/YourBrotherMark/posts/10204956762694506:1

http://freespace.virgin.net/geo.morris/sb041.htm

 *...... In the sermon tape the speaker did not recognize the time period for Christ appearing in Glory and we with Him at that moment.
SEED & BREAD Number 41: NEXT

GOD’S NEXT MOVE NO RAPTURE RIGHT NOW !

At the time this is being written, I have been a reader, student, interpreter, and teacher of the Bible for fifty-five years. This is not said in any spirit of boasting. It is simply the fact in the case, and I cite it as my right to speak concerning the subject of this study. I started out fully accepting and following the Darby-Scofield system of Biblical interpretation and came up through the dispensational-premilennial school of thought, but in time I became convinced that this method of interpretation failed to answer a multitude of questions which an ever increasing familiarity with God’s Word imposed upon me. I also became convinced that this school of thought was somewhat arbitrary in its interpretation of many passages of Scripture in order to make them fit what had become a fixed and unchangeable creedal position. Furthermore, those who made up this group were quite intolerant toward those who raised any doubts or questions concerning its favorite and widely proclaimed doctrines such as the restoration of the old Roman Empire, and especially that teaching commonly called "the rapture of the church," which was then, and still is, being set forth as God’s next move.

The term "the rapture" is nowhere found in Scripture, and it is not the proper translation of any Greek word found in it. Therefore, it cannot be considered as a word "which the Holy Spirit teacheth" (1 Cor. 2:13), but as a word which man’s wisdom has produced. The idea of "the rapture" is based upon a passage found in 1 Thess. 4:16, 17, where we read:

For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which 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.
It is my conviction that this passage describes that future moment in time when the Lord Jesus shall leave His present position at the right hand of God in heaven and descend to the earth in order to be personally present here for a thousand years (His parousia). See SEED AND BREAD, Nos. 24 and 25. I feel it is the wildest form of human imagination and false interpretation to make this event to be a partial descent from heaven in order to catch away all believers and take them back to heaven, as so many today are declaring and still more are blindly believing. This is His personal coming to earth, not an approach to it in order to remove His own from it. As a high honor and privilege a vast multitude of those who are then living upon the earth and many who have been raised from the dead will ascend into the air to meet Him and to return with Him. Let us not be afraid to think about this event.

The planet earth is a sphere, as the beautiful and impressive pictures taken by the astronauts have clearly revealed. Thus, the direction which is up at one point on its surface would in contrast be "down" at the opposite point. At the time of the Lord’s descent to the earth all of the outcalled of God will be "caught up" wherever they are, and this will be a glorious spherical grid or canopy that will enclose the earth. Through this grid the Lord will enter; and as He settles toward His appointed place upon the earth, probably the Mount of Olives, all who have gone forth to meet Him in the air will settle back to the place from whence they were caught up. And while it is true that this is only my conception of what will take place, I think all friendly readers will admit that it is a much more beautiful picture than that of all of God’s people coming together at the same point in one big ball of confusion. The God I worship is a God of order.

This conception is in complete harmony with Rev. 1:7 where it is declared that "He cometh with clouds." These are clouds of people, not clouds of moisture. See also Jude 1:14. The added declaration, "and every eye shall see Him," does not have to do with the physical eye or physical sight, but with the discernment that will be granted to every human being upon the earth. This will bring to them the full realization that the Lord Jesus has returned, that He is upon the earth — not as the emptied One in abject humiliation, but as the exalted One in all the glory of His Father with the holy angels (Mark 8:38).

If any dispensational-premillenialist who holds that the removal from earth of all believers will be God’s next public move will trace out the word parousia, even in its first four occurrences (Matt. 24:3, 27, 37, 39), he will find that it is an event that takes place after the three-and-one-half years that are called "the great tribulation." Every event listed in Matt. 24:1-32 must be fulfilled to the letter before the parousia can be a reality. Even as our Lord declared, "when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors" (Matt. 24:33). Among these things that must be realized is the appearance of "the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (Matt. 24:15). This detail alone is an event that can never take place until Israel has been restored to her land by God, until the priesthood is restored and duly consecrated by Elijah, and the temple is rebuilt with its "holy place" as the center.

The "catching up" of living ones and the resurrection of dead ones set forth in 1 Thess. 4:16, 17 are events that introduce and are part and parcel of the parousia of Jesus Christ. If they are separated from it by seven years, as so many are teaching, the events become meaningless. They might well be likened to a home run in a baseball game. A batter could knock fifty balls over the fence and they would count for nothing if the game were not in orderly progress.

Those prophets of doom who try to frighten people into taking some action (so they can be displayed and counted) make much of the great tribulation, magnifying every detail into a sadistic tale of torture and horror. They also make much of "the rapture," holding it forth as a means of escape for those who will "come forward and receive Christ." Their conception of God’s next move is the removal of all believers from the earth, followed by the pouring out of indiscriminate wrath upon all who remain. However, at times seeming to recoil from their own descriptions of this terrible visitation, they attempt to alleviate it by making it one of the greatest times of salvation the world has ever known. C. I. Scofield declared "that between the coming of the Lord for His church, and His return to the earth with His saints, the overwhelming majority of living humanity will be saved." He held that this would be the outcome of "the simultaneous appearance of 144,000 Pauls," an idea which Hal Lindsey has fawningly changed to "144,000 Billy Grahams."

If the fulfillment of 1 Thess. 4:17 is God’s next move, then let all who hold this be honest with the Word of God and declare that the parousia (personal presence) is next. Note carefully that Paul said, "we which are alive and remain unto the parousia of the Lord." God has joined the "catching up" and "the parousia" together, and what God has joined together, no man should separate by a period of seven years.

It will always be a source of amazement to me that most students of prophecy can find nothing but predictions of divine wrath when they consider God’s next move. Why is it that they do not see that present conditions upon the earth, both moral and spiritual, are very much the result of God’s present silence, the lack of positive light direct from Him, and the absence of any public manifestations or evidential miracles on His part? God, being a God of justice accepts full responsibility for this. This lack of action and restraint upon His part are necessary while He works out His present purpose in grace; but the time will come when His present purpose will be accomplished and then He will act openly and manifestly as He should act in relationship to the needs of mankind upon the earth.

BINGO
This is what happens at His Appearing.... This could happen today, and will not be one of three parts of the Parousia mentioned in the tape......
God will next, ACT to intervene in the affairs of this present evil and sick world !

God will arise; He will go into action; He will plead His own cause; He will enlighten and rebuke the foolish men who now reproach Him every day; He will no longer ignore the challenge of His enemies; He will bring an end to the ever-increasing tumult that now grows continually. See Psalm 74:22, 23.

It is my firm belief and my constant proclamation that God’s next move is to assume sovereignty over this earth, all men upon it (the living), and all men in it (the dead). This will be accomplished by God speaking in heaven, by a revelation of His glory to all flesh, and by causing His judgments to be heard from heaven. Jesus Christ will blaze forth (His epiphaneia) in all His glory, and this will result in the manifest kingdom (government) of God becoming a reality upon the earth. This is what we are asking for when we pray, "Thy kingdom come."

The present-day preachers of wrath-to-come do not seem to know or care that God has declared, ‘When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him" (Isa. 59:19), and that this shall result in men fearing "the name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun." They neither know nor care that at a time when darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the peoples, the LORD shall arise upon Israel, and His glory shall be seen in them (Isa. 60:2). They are ignorant of the fact that whenever God begins His great work of restoring and repatriating Israel, He will seek them out as a shepherd seeks out His flock when they are scattered (Eze. 34:11-15). Why then do they present Him as a wolf who will first tear the flock into pieces?

If there ever were a time in human history when the enemy has come in like a flood (Isa. 59:19), when there is an insurrection of the workers of iniquity (Psa. 64:2), when there are recurring periods of fierceness (2 Tim. 3:1), when evil men and seducers have waxed worse and worse (to the worst) (2 Tim. 3:13), it is this time in which we now live. The world needs divine intervention. God must assume sovereignty. He must take to Himself His great power and govern. Sin and death have reigned long enough. We need His kingdom. We want it to come. Tomorrow will not be too soon. May God speed the day.




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