The Pastor's Page - 11/12/08
Renewed Hope for an Old Promise
The Evangelical church leads the way in viewing Scripture as predicting the return of Jesus to reign on the earth. There are of course differences in some of these views, but all believe in it and for the most part have predicted this return using Bible passages for support. Because some have predicted specific dates and because the world seems to roll along many people have become disenchanted with these claims. After all the world has been in serious trouble before as witnessed in the last century and if Jesus was really going to return wouldn’t that have been a perfect time, especially during the holocaust??
While it is true that there have been times which might have seemed appropriate for the fulfillment of this promise of Christ to return to earth there are things true now that have not been true in any other time in history that reaffirm that expectation.
- THE BIBLE’S PREDICTION OF SCOFFERS -
Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." —2nd Peter 3:3,4
Without realizing it people who mock the possibility based on the failure of it to happen yet fulfill this Scriptural prediction with their words.
- THE BIBLE’S PREDICTION OF KNOWLEDGE AND TRAVEL - "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."— Daniel
12:4
It is hard to overemphasize this passage when compared to our modern world. Technology and medical science alone have made quantum leaps in the last century. In the last hundred years alone we have gone from not being able to fly here on earth to exploring our solar system and beyond.
- THE BIBLE’S PREDICTION OF ISRAEL RESTORED -
The passages related to this are too numerous to list but this belief was part of the rise of Zionism in the late 1800's. In 1948 the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine were given the right of self governance by the United Nations and the State of Israel was reborn. This was the first time an official Jewish nation existed since the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans in 70 AD.
- THE BIBLE’S PREDICTION OF UNSOLVABLE PROBLEMS and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; —Luke 21:25
Here Jesus uses both a clear statement and a metaphor. The word perplexity means without answers or resources to solve problems. The waves and seas roaring are a metaphor for the social upheaval that will persist in the last days. We can see this in the Israeli Palestinian conflict which has defied a suitable solution. - THE MORAL DECLINE EVIDENT IN THE WORLD - Here again the passages are too numerous for this format but the continuing conflict over the homosexual question can be an example. Never in the history of humankind has a nation sought to legitimize behavior which is so contrary to the nature of human sexuality, and in the process of legitimizing it ignores the medical and psychological information which warns against doing so.
These are but five of the things that are true or truer now than they have ever been before since Christ was here. And they are a strong voice for expecting the soon return of Jesus.
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