Rapture Fever: Thoughts on the Revelation 12 Sign Saturday, September 23rd, 2017, Back to homes, Nothing to see Here
Oct 8, 2017 12:20:21 #
09/22/2017 Rapture Fever – Thoughts on the Revelation 12 Sign
Frank Viola
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankviola/revelation12sign/
I’m writing this Friday morning, September 22nd, 2017.
I’m told that the rapture is supposed to take place tomorrow – Saturday, September 23rd, 2017.
Someone asked what I thought about it.
Back to homes, Citizens. Nothing to see here.
I wrote the following back in 2012, but it (obviously) bears repeating …
1248, 1306, 1689, 1792, 1836, 1844, 1914, 1936, 1960, 1974, 1981, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, 2011.
Let’s add September 23rd, 2017 to the mix.
Do you have any idea what these dates have in common?
They all represent the times in which people predicted that the second coming of Christ would occur.
According to a 2006 survey by Pew Research Forum, 79% of Christians in the USA say they believe the return of Christ will happen someday. 20% say it will happen in their lifetime. 34% say the world situation will grow worse before He returns.
Many Christians, especially those who live in America, are obsessed with the second coming of Christ. Various interpretations surrounding the when, where, and how of this incredible event have spawned endless divisions among Jesus’ followers. In fact, some Christians are so fixated on the second coming of Christ that they haven’t given sufficient time to understand His first coming.
In our book, Jesus: A Theography, Leonard Sweet and I explore the return of Christ in a way that transcends classic interpretations. Rather than enter into the eschatological wars that have raged over the last two hundred years, we focus our attention on how the First (Old) and Second (New) Testaments harmonize in telling us what God has in store for the future as it concerns His Son.
As I’ve sketched out elsewhere, God’s intention from the beginning was to bring heaven and earth together. It was to expand the garden of Eden to the rest of the world. Consequently, God’s intention is centered upon earth. God loves the earth and regards it highly. After God created the earth, the Bible says, “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” Contrary to what many believe, Scripture teaches that the earth will exist forever.
Although the Bible speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, the foundation of the earth will never pass away. The Lord is not going to do away with the world of space, time, and matter. Instead, God is going to renovate the earth, judge all things by fire, and burn up certain of its elements.
Some have mistakenly embraced the notion that God hates this dirty little planet and has promised to rescue His people out of it before He trashes it. But Scripture teaches no such thing. Indeed, Scripture repeatedly warns that “the world” is evil. But the Greek words translated “world” in these passages do not refer to the earth, but to the world system (kosmos) or the present age (aion) that is marked by the corruptions of sin.
The Bible makes clear that this present age is evil, that the world system is headed up by satan, and that God will judge the world system in the end. But it teaches with equal force that the earth itself is precious to God, who has wonderful plans for it. Because the world presently stands under the defilement of sin, God’s people are strangers and pilgrims to it. We are told that our citizenship is in the heavens, and we are not to be attached to that which is earthly.
This present age and the world system are temporal and will pass away.
At the same time, the new creation has arrived with the resurrection of Jesus. While we are not from this world (the world system), we are certainly for the world (the earth and the people who populate it)—just as Jesus was not from this world but for it. The kingdom of God is certainly for the world, as Jesus prayed: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
The Appearance of Jesus
Some scholars believe that Jesus never talked about His second coming.
For them texts like Mark 13, Matthew 24, Luke 17, and Luke 21 all speak about Jesus’ vindication in AD 70 when the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed.
The coming of Christ will also be an apokalypsis, an “unveiling” or “disclosure.” The power and glory that are now his by virtue of his exaltation and heavenly session must be disclosed to the world. —George E. Ladd
Other scholars believe these texts have a dual meaning. One layer of prophecy speaks of what happened in AD 70, while another layer speaks of what will happen in the future when Jesus returns to earth.
We are not going to weigh in on this debate. It is both technical and complicated, and if properly treated, it would demand an entire book of its own. Instead, we will list some of what the First and Second Testaments have to say about the Lord’s return with great consistency—when the personal presence of Jesus Christ within God’s new creation will occur:
• God will remake heaven and earth completely, affirming the goodness of the original creation and ending its corruption and finality.
• Jesus will reappear and usher in the age to come.
• When Jesus appears, those Christians who are still alive will be changed, transformed, so that their mortal bodies will become incorruptible, like Christ’s glorified, resurrected body.
• When Jesus appears, the resurrection will occur. All who have died in Christ will rise again from the dead and take on a body of immortality, just like Jesus’ glorified, resurrected body.
• The day the resurrection occurs is also called “the last day” (or “the latter day) and “the day of the Lord,” and it will come unexpectedly.
• The coming of Christ in glory, which will usher forth the resurrected, glorified bodies of the redeemed, is the Christian’s hope.
• The resurrection will occur on the “day of redemption” when our bodies will be redeemed, as well as the earth itself.
• Both the “just” and the “unjust” will rise again. And Jesus will judge both.
• The Lord will be revealed from heaven and return with thousands of His holy ones to judge the earth and show Himself to be King over all.
• In texts such as 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul used imagery from the story of Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the Law. The trumpet sounds and a loud voice is heard. Paul also drew on the imagery of Daniel 7, in which God’s people were vindicated over their pagan enemies by being raised up to sit with God in glory.
• Jesus Christ is the omega point of creation. Upon His return, Jesus will defeat the last enemy, death. He will transform the world as the Judge. He will sum up and subdue all things to Himself. Finally, He will hand the kingdom back over to His Father, and God will become all and all.
C. S. Lewis has summed it up this way: “Unlike His first coming, Jesus’ second coming will be with power and splendour. The Bible states that everyone will see Him, and everyone will appear before Him in judgement. Simply put, He will confront every person and pronounce his or her destiny.”
The return of Christ is presented by the Second Testament authors with various rich metaphors. One is the new creation being born from the womb of the old creation. Another is the marriage of the new heavens and the new earth. Another is the kingdom of God triumphing over and swallowing up all other kingdoms.
Still another is drawn from the Roman imperial world of Caesar.
The Greek word parousia is one example. When Caesar was away on a journey and he returned, his royal appearing—his imperial return to the city—was called the parousia. Caesar’s followers would go out to meet him and welcome him back to the city.
Paul used this exact language and imagery when he spoke of Christ’s return in 1 Thessalonians 4. Paul talked about meeting the Lord in the air, and how God will bring with Jesus those who have died with Him.
Putting all of the texts together on the subject, the scenario of Christ’s return perfectly fits how the Romans and Greeks understood the word parousia. Jesus will appear, the resurrection will occur, and those Christians who are alive will be transformed “in the twinkling of an eye” and meet Jesus in the air. They will then escort Him down from heaven to the newly recreated earth.
The parousia (“bodily presence,” “appearance,” “revelation,” or “unveiling”) of Jesus on earth draws all of the promises, prophecies, and unfulfilled events in both First and Second Testaments into a whole. They all come rushing together in this amazing event—an event that Luke called the “restoration of all things”—and “heaven must receive” Jesus until it occurs.
In this connection, the First Testament writers would often prophesy an event in the space of a few paragraphs, all of which have elements in them that occur thousands of years apart.
So the two-part coming of Jesus, His appearance in the first century and His second coming (which hasn’t occurred yet) are stated as if they are a single event.
Frank Viola
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankviola/revelation12sign/
I’m writing this Friday morning, September 22nd, 2017.
I’m told that the rapture is supposed to take place tomorrow – Saturday, September 23rd, 2017.
Someone asked what I thought about it.
Back to homes, Citizens. Nothing to see here.
I wrote the following back in 2012, but it (obviously) bears repeating …
1248, 1306, 1689, 1792, 1836, 1844, 1914, 1936, 1960, 1974, 1981, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, 2011.
Let’s add September 23rd, 2017 to the mix.
Do you have any idea what these dates have in common?
They all represent the times in which people predicted that the second coming of Christ would occur.
According to a 2006 survey by Pew Research Forum, 79% of Christians in the USA say they believe the return of Christ will happen someday. 20% say it will happen in their lifetime. 34% say the world situation will grow worse before He returns.
Many Christians, especially those who live in America, are obsessed with the second coming of Christ. Various interpretations surrounding the when, where, and how of this incredible event have spawned endless divisions among Jesus’ followers. In fact, some Christians are so fixated on the second coming of Christ that they haven’t given sufficient time to understand His first coming.
In our book, Jesus: A Theography, Leonard Sweet and I explore the return of Christ in a way that transcends classic interpretations. Rather than enter into the eschatological wars that have raged over the last two hundred years, we focus our attention on how the First (Old) and Second (New) Testaments harmonize in telling us what God has in store for the future as it concerns His Son.
As I’ve sketched out elsewhere, God’s intention from the beginning was to bring heaven and earth together. It was to expand the garden of Eden to the rest of the world. Consequently, God’s intention is centered upon earth. God loves the earth and regards it highly. After God created the earth, the Bible says, “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” Contrary to what many believe, Scripture teaches that the earth will exist forever.
Although the Bible speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, the foundation of the earth will never pass away. The Lord is not going to do away with the world of space, time, and matter. Instead, God is going to renovate the earth, judge all things by fire, and burn up certain of its elements.
Some have mistakenly embraced the notion that God hates this dirty little planet and has promised to rescue His people out of it before He trashes it. But Scripture teaches no such thing. Indeed, Scripture repeatedly warns that “the world” is evil. But the Greek words translated “world” in these passages do not refer to the earth, but to the world system (kosmos) or the present age (aion) that is marked by the corruptions of sin.
The Bible makes clear that this present age is evil, that the world system is headed up by satan, and that God will judge the world system in the end. But it teaches with equal force that the earth itself is precious to God, who has wonderful plans for it. Because the world presently stands under the defilement of sin, God’s people are strangers and pilgrims to it. We are told that our citizenship is in the heavens, and we are not to be attached to that which is earthly.
This present age and the world system are temporal and will pass away.
At the same time, the new creation has arrived with the resurrection of Jesus. While we are not from this world (the world system), we are certainly for the world (the earth and the people who populate it)—just as Jesus was not from this world but for it. The kingdom of God is certainly for the world, as Jesus prayed: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
The Appearance of Jesus
Some scholars believe that Jesus never talked about His second coming.
For them texts like Mark 13, Matthew 24, Luke 17, and Luke 21 all speak about Jesus’ vindication in AD 70 when the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed.
The coming of Christ will also be an apokalypsis, an “unveiling” or “disclosure.” The power and glory that are now his by virtue of his exaltation and heavenly session must be disclosed to the world. —George E. Ladd
Other scholars believe these texts have a dual meaning. One layer of prophecy speaks of what happened in AD 70, while another layer speaks of what will happen in the future when Jesus returns to earth.
We are not going to weigh in on this debate. It is both technical and complicated, and if properly treated, it would demand an entire book of its own. Instead, we will list some of what the First and Second Testaments have to say about the Lord’s return with great consistency—when the personal presence of Jesus Christ within God’s new creation will occur:
• God will remake heaven and earth completely, affirming the goodness of the original creation and ending its corruption and finality.
• Jesus will reappear and usher in the age to come.
• When Jesus appears, those Christians who are still alive will be changed, transformed, so that their mortal bodies will become incorruptible, like Christ’s glorified, resurrected body.
• When Jesus appears, the resurrection will occur. All who have died in Christ will rise again from the dead and take on a body of immortality, just like Jesus’ glorified, resurrected body.
• The day the resurrection occurs is also called “the last day” (or “the latter day) and “the day of the Lord,” and it will come unexpectedly.
• The coming of Christ in glory, which will usher forth the resurrected, glorified bodies of the redeemed, is the Christian’s hope.
• The resurrection will occur on the “day of redemption” when our bodies will be redeemed, as well as the earth itself.
• Both the “just” and the “unjust” will rise again. And Jesus will judge both.
• The Lord will be revealed from heaven and return with thousands of His holy ones to judge the earth and show Himself to be King over all.
• In texts such as 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul used imagery from the story of Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the Law. The trumpet sounds and a loud voice is heard. Paul also drew on the imagery of Daniel 7, in which God’s people were vindicated over their pagan enemies by being raised up to sit with God in glory.
• Jesus Christ is the omega point of creation. Upon His return, Jesus will defeat the last enemy, death. He will transform the world as the Judge. He will sum up and subdue all things to Himself. Finally, He will hand the kingdom back over to His Father, and God will become all and all.
C. S. Lewis has summed it up this way: “Unlike His first coming, Jesus’ second coming will be with power and splendour. The Bible states that everyone will see Him, and everyone will appear before Him in judgement. Simply put, He will confront every person and pronounce his or her destiny.”
The return of Christ is presented by the Second Testament authors with various rich metaphors. One is the new creation being born from the womb of the old creation. Another is the marriage of the new heavens and the new earth. Another is the kingdom of God triumphing over and swallowing up all other kingdoms.
Still another is drawn from the Roman imperial world of Caesar.
The Greek word parousia is one example. When Caesar was away on a journey and he returned, his royal appearing—his imperial return to the city—was called the parousia. Caesar’s followers would go out to meet him and welcome him back to the city.
Paul used this exact language and imagery when he spoke of Christ’s return in 1 Thessalonians 4. Paul talked about meeting the Lord in the air, and how God will bring with Jesus those who have died with Him.
Putting all of the texts together on the subject, the scenario of Christ’s return perfectly fits how the Romans and Greeks understood the word parousia. Jesus will appear, the resurrection will occur, and those Christians who are alive will be transformed “in the twinkling of an eye” and meet Jesus in the air. They will then escort Him down from heaven to the newly recreated earth.
The parousia (“bodily presence,” “appearance,” “revelation,” or “unveiling”) of Jesus on earth draws all of the promises, prophecies, and unfulfilled events in both First and Second Testaments into a whole. They all come rushing together in this amazing event—an event that Luke called the “restoration of all things”—and “heaven must receive” Jesus until it occurs.
In this connection, the First Testament writers would often prophesy an event in the space of a few paragraphs, all of which have elements in them that occur thousands of years apart.
So the two-part coming of Jesus, His appearance in the first century and His second coming (which hasn’t occurred yet) are stated as if they are a single event.
Oct 8, 2017 14:26:55 #
Thank you for this summation! As far as I can understand, you have the true meaning of Revelation staked out.
As a side story, I owned a property in Groton, Mass. where it was said that the Luddites sold all of their property and goods and then gathered there one day to await the Coming. Nothing happened, so they restudied their Bible, and declared that there had been a mistake, and it was to be the next year. So the penniless Luddites went away, to return the next year on the same day. They awaited the Coming for two or three days, and finally realized there would not be a Coming, perhaps in their lifetimes. As the story goes, this was the end of the line for those Luddites...perhaps it was your date of 1836 or 1841, since either would fit the property status.
As a side story, I owned a property in Groton, Mass. where it was said that the Luddites sold all of their property and goods and then gathered there one day to await the Coming. Nothing happened, so they restudied their Bible, and declared that there had been a mistake, and it was to be the next year. So the penniless Luddites went away, to return the next year on the same day. They awaited the Coming for two or three days, and finally realized there would not be a Coming, perhaps in their lifetimes. As the story goes, this was the end of the line for those Luddites...perhaps it was your date of 1836 or 1841, since either would fit the property status.
Oct 8, 2017 15:45:28 #
Doc110 wrote:
09/22/2017 Rapture Fever – Thoughts on the Revelat... (show quote)
More signs? The signs on the ground are plain enough.
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