Second Coming Confusion
When is the second coming? In about AD 50, Paul implied that he thought he would be alive when the rapture took place. 1 Th 4:15 " For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep." Then, in approximately 57 AD, the Apostle Paul thought it was soon. 1 Co 7:29 " But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none." About the same time, James thought it was soon. Jam 5:8 " You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand." The Apostle John thought it was the last hour in about AD 70. 1 Jo 2:18 " Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour." When he wrote Revelation, he quoted Christ, Rev 22:7 " Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."
The prophet, Montanus, in the 2nd century, predicted the soon bodily return of Christ. Novatian, in the 3rd century, expected the second coming of the Lord Jesus. The sack of Rome in the 5th century by the Vandals was supposed to bring the end. Pope Gregory, in the sixth century, told the Christian world that " of all the signs [describing] . . . the end of the world[,] some . . .[are] already accomplished. . . . we do not behold signs in the sun and moon and stars but . . . these are not far off . . ." On the last day of 999, the old basilica of St. Peter's at Rome was thronged with a mass of weeping and trembling worshipers awaiting the end of the world. There were repeated warnings in the dark ages.
Martin Luther wrote in January of 1532, " The last day is at hand. My calendar has run out." Many Adventists predicted the second coming in the 1840's. Dahl, in The Midnight Cry, predicted this era would end by 1980. Many predicted the rapture would take place in 1988 because it was 40 years after the reestablishment of Israel as a nation in 1948. Edgar Whisenant gave 88 reasons why in it would be in 1988. When it didn't happen, he then said it would take place in 1989. At one time I thought we could know the year of the rapture by figuring out the beginning of the 1000 years and subtract 7 years. But who can be sure when the millennium will begin?
A Korean group placed a large newspaper ad in many papers predicting the rapture would take place October 28, 1992. Grant Jeffrey says it will be 2000. What do you think?
The next thing that will happen is the rapture. 2 The 2:1-4 " Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the departure comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition."
That will start a sequence of many prophetic events which are displayed in the following chart:
Eschatology – from Now to Eternity
Grace
The rapture ends this dispensation
2 Th 2:3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the departure comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.
1 Co 15:51,52
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorrupt-ible, and we shall be changed.
| Tribulation
The beginning of the Lord's Day
Mat 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Dan 9:27a And he will strengthen a covenant with the many for one heptad; and at the midpoint of the heptad he will stop sacrifice and grain offering.
Dan 12:11a And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, one thousand two hundred and ninety days.
| Great & Awesome Day of the Lord
After the tribulation
Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
Mat 24:29,30
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
| Judgment
Sheep and goat nations judged.
Mat 25:31,32 When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
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CHART CONTINUED......
1,000 year reign
Tribulation martyrs reign with Christ
Rev 20:4,6 Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
| Satan Loosed
After 1,000 years
Gog and Magog
Rev 20:7-9 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. 9 They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
| Great White Throne
The rest of the dead are judged.
Rev 20:11-15 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it . . . 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 . . . And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
| New Heaven and Earth
Israel's kingdom is established
Rev 21:1,3,27; 22:5 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. . . . 3 Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. . . . 27 only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. 22:5 And they shall reign forever and ever.
Robert T. HillÊ 1998
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Then the tribulation. The rapture is before the tribulation because nothing in this dispensation is prophesied. Eph 3:8,9 " To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the dispensation of the mystery, which has been hidden from ages in God who created all things through Jesus Christ." That's what we call the nature of the mystery. Israel was identified as the people of the tribulation by Daniel (Dan 9:24; 10:14; 12:1). Our Lord Jesus Christ mentioned Daniel's abomination of desolation (Dan 9:27; 11:31) in the tribulation's setting (Mat 24:15-21).
The purpose of the tribulation is to purify Israel for her kingdom reign (Dan 9:24; Zec 13:9). In fact, in Jer 30:7, the tribulation is specifically called a time of tribulation for Jacob. Therefore, a tribulation which is specifically designated for Israel is irrelevant to the church which is His body.
Since the nature of the mystery shows us that the body of Christ is never referred to in biblical prophecy prior to Paul's conversion, we can make some conclusions about when it occurs. They are:
A. Prophecy about the people in the tribulation would not refer to the body of Christ.
B. Prophecy about the day of the Lord would not apply to the body of Christ.
C. Prophecy about the people under the wrath of God would not apply to the body of Christ.
Therefore, the rapture, since it only applies to the body of Christ, must take place prior to the prophetic program which follows it for the next 1,007 years. Then the great and awesome day of the Lord is next. This is what is normally called the second coming. Then the judgment of the nations takes place. Then the millennial reign of Christ begins. Then Satan is loosed. Then the great white throne judgment takes place. Then the new heavens and earth are established. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Come, Lord Jesus.
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