Posted on 12/16/2008 9:33:18 AM PST by TaraP
The Scriptures speak more than once, that no-one knows when Jesus will return only the Father. Mark 13:32 No one knows when that day or hour will come-not the angels in heaven, not the Son, but only the Father.
Matthew 24:36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone
ACTS 1:7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;
I know many Christians all over the world are trying to pin down a date when Jesus might return, especially in these perilous times we all are living in....
My question is: Do we as believers have the power to bring fourth Jesus Christ by praying for his return consistently?
Or is GOD waiting on the Jewish people to call on him? Blessed Is He Who Comes In The Name of the Lord Matthew 21:1-11 Zechariah’s prophesy of hope extends from chapter 9 through 14. In chapter 9, verses 9-10, Zechariah speaks of the Zion’s King coming to his people –
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna[b] to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”[c] “Hosanna[d] in the highest!”
Do you think the Father is waiting on us? rather than us waiting on him to return to earth?
I’m going out on a limb and guessing that Jesus himself will be making that determination.
Let's see what Scripture has to say. The OT chapter most frequently quoted or cited or echoed in the NT is Psalm 110. For example, see I Cor. 15:25-28:
Every other enemy needs to bite the dust first. At this point in history, I still see too many butts that need to be kicked. The prevalence of the scatological ends indicates the remoteness of the eschatological end. 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
Nothing in the scriptures would indicate that. "The time of the fullness of the Gentiles" is the stated time of his physical return.
“...pin down a date when Jesus might return, especially in these perilous times we all are living in....”
People in despair have often wanted the end of the world hoping to enter a better world or an end to their suffering. I am sure that many in the Nazi concentration camps would’ve welcomed the end and perhaps even prayed for it.
Every other enemy needs to bite the dust first. At this point in history, I still see too many butts that need to be kicked. The prevalence of the scatological ends indicates the remoteness of the eschatological end. 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
Excellent post, RJR_fan. You beat me to it!
However Jesus said: Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved..
So we know the earth will continue to get worse as we are suffering the birth pains of a fallen world currently.
Since we have overcome death by the Blood of the Lamb, haven’t we (Believers) already achieved *Victory*?
I thought it was the day I win the lottery...
Try looking through the scriptures for support for that theory; it isn't there. The Lord's victories will be his own, not through men.
I’ve always wondered how the MSM would report the second coming of Christ.
He is probably waiting until people stop playing know it all and stop predicting when...
Is this even physically possible, given the worldwide birth rate?
“When”?
Would Jesus care at all about something (”time”) that is individually marked by the lifetimes of billions?
And with so many many thousand of Jews who do not recognize the Messiah from there Torah and have been presented a Jesus they do not recognize due to persecution over thousand of years, what determines there conversion?
Matthew 24:34-35 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till al these things be fulfilled.
1. Whether the responder believes the Bible in a literal fashion (”normal-literal” interpretation), or in an allegorical fashion.
2. Whether the responder believes that Israel will one day be restored, or whether he/she believes that all of prophesy has been fulfilled already some time in the first 150 years of the “church age.” Some interpret the Bible according to historical events, instead of judging historical events by the Scriptures.
3. Whether the responder believes that the Church has replaced Israel entirely; the idea that Israel sort o’ metamorphosed into the Church. The converse would be that, although “in Christ” there is neither Jew nor Gentile, God's prophetic program still distinguishes three kind of people on the earth, Jew, Gentile, and the Church of God (1 Cor. 10:32).
During the “days of His flesh” the Lord Jesus did limit His knowledge, and so He could say that men, nor angels, nor He Himself knew the day or hour that the Son of Man would come - - - and He IS the Son of Man. Of course, there would be no reason to teach that as the resurrected Head of the Church at His Father's Right Hand, His knowledge of these matters is still restricted.
The differences between the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man on earth, and the ministry of the exalted Christ, the Head of the Body (Ephesians 1:17-23; Colossians chapter 1; etc.) are very important to understand.
Prior to the conversion of the “Apostle to the Gentiles,” Paul, and while the ministry of the Twelve was restricted to Israel as a Nation (Acts 1-9 especially), it was not for them to know the times and the seasons.
But Paul instructed the Thessalonian church, which would be after Acts chapter 17, that there was no need that he write to them concerning the times and the seasons, because they KNEW PERFECTLY WELL . . . (see 1 Thess. ch. 5).
Revelation was progressive through the Acts period, after the “fall” and during the “diminishing” of Israel, the time in which Paul “magnified” his office of Apostle to the Gentiles (Read Romans ch. 11).
That men did not know the day nor the hour of the coming of the Son of Man during our Lord's earthly ministry does not necessarily mean that men during a future time will not be able to roughly date it.
When the man of sin, the son of perdition, appears and takes power, and especially when he stands in the holy place and declares himself to be “God,” (2 Thess. ch. 2) the believers facing his onslaught will be able to calculate how much time remains from the prophesy of Daniel. The Son of Man Himself confirmed the validity of Daniel's prophesy and suggested that would see this, the Abomination of Desolation (Daniel 9).
I don’t know how much we can do but it may be possible for nations to open up to missionary work and when they do, it will be incumbent upon Christians to set up churches in those nations. I don’t see it meaning every single person should hear the gospel, but I think they need to have the means to do so if they hear about it and are wondering. Right now, I don’t think that exists, even with the internet.
I believe He will come when nobody is expecting him, like the Bible says. This ties in perfectly with Jewish messianic beliefs - they say that when the Messiah comes NOBODY in the world will question him - either because the world has become perfected and everybody has understanding of the prophecy and believes it to be true, or because the world has become so evil that not one person in the world cares if he is the Messiah.
I don’t believe He will return in our lifetimes. Jesus will return after there are no Christians left in the world, which could be thousands of years from now. Only then will there be nobody expecting him.
Or the Rapture of the True Church....
That is how all the Christians will be removed.
Do you see any that have been kicked??? Looks like Jesus is off to a pretty slow start to butt kicking and putting His enemies under His feet...
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