Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 26)
Part Two – The Timing of the Second Coming
Chapter 4 – What the Epistles Say
What Paul Says About Timing (continued)
By the way, if, as those who believe in a “future, physical” coming of Jesus say, Jesus’ coming is something that could not be missed, why in the world did Paul answer the Thessalonians the way he did? The fact that the Thessalonians thought the day of the Lord had already come, and that Paul explained that it had not yet happened in terms of the signs Jesus gave, indicates that none of them considered the day of the Lord to be something physical and visible. For if they were looking for Jesus to appear physically from the skies, then they never would have thought the day of the Lord had come! And if Paul was looking for Jesus to appear physically from the skies he would have corrected them by saying that since that sort of physical event hadn’t happened, the day of the Lord couldn’t have come. But we will say more along this line when we get to the next part of the book about the nature of the coming. Here we are still focused on timing.
Paul again makes reference to “deceitful spirits” and “doctrines of demons” as being signs of the later times in 1 Timothy 4:1. By the time he pens
2 Timothy, Paul realizes that he will be one of the ones who will “taste death” before the Lord’s coming. History tells us he was beheaded in Rome in the mid-60’s. 2 Timothy reads like a last will and testament of all that was precious to Paul. He warns extensively of the false teachers with their signs and wonders who would abound in the last days, reminding Timothy that godly living and adherence to the Scriptures would keep him safe until the kingdom came. Earlier in the letter, Paul made reference to two men who were saying the resurrection (another way people referred to the Second Coming, since these events had been linked by the prophets) had already taken place. Paul condemns the two teachers because their teaching was not in line with the time outline Jesus had given. In Matthew 24 Jesus had said of the time just before His coming “at that time many will fall away” (Matthew 24:10) and “most people’s love will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). In
2 Thessalonians, Paul said “the apostasy” must come before Christ’s coming. And here in 2 Timothy 3:1, Paul says “in the last days difficult times will come” and describes the ways in which people will be “holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). All these phrases speak of the same penultimate phase of the Lord’s timetable for
His coming. There is no inconsistency because Paul believed and taught what Jesus had taught (whether it had been passed on to him by the original apostles or he had received it directly by revelation from the Lord). Indeed we are seeing unfailing consistency in how the apostles understood, taught, and lived according to the timetable Jesus laid down.
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