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 33)
Part Two – The Timing of the Second Coming
Chapter 6 – Conclusion on the Timing of the Second Coming
There is no getting around the fact that those who wrote the documents we call the New Testament considered themselves as living in the last days, to soon be climaxed by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you have read the New Testament very much you are probably aware that what has been said in this part of the book about timing is not all that could have been
said in support of this point. There’s hardly a page of the New Testament that does not pulsate with the expectation of the coming of the Lord. Even when the coming of the Lord is not explicitly stated, it is the driving force of urgency, the common understanding between the authors and recipients of every letter, and the underlying reason why, even though the apostles had a
lifetime to do their work, there was not a moment to spare.
It is also important to notice what the New Testament does not say. There are no contingency instructions for what people should do if the Lord didn’t come in that generation. No directions about the exact method of church government to be followed and how the leadership was to be passed from generation to generation. The apostles made no plans to be succeeded by anyone – except the Lord Himself. There is not a single instance where the
apostles give themselves a way to save face by saying that though the Lord’s coming would probably come soon it could possibly be delayed for nineteen centuries or more. Note that if some group today were to take the type of strong position that the apostles took, leaving themselves no out, they would be regarded as irresponsible and shunned by evangelicals as being unscriptural. Maybe then we should not be surprised that so many of today’s “Bible believers” don’t really give serious consideration to what the apostles taught.
By the way, we should also note and appreciate that Jesus and the apostles work out of a sense of general time periods and not specific calendar dates. This is much in keeping with the nature of God who, for example, when he gives us time to repent, does not assign a date and time when the period of grace expires but rather watches us from heaven and decides in His own
impartial goodness when we’ve had enough time. As for the end-time prophetic interpretations of man, there is something in all their stiff and overly literal schemes of date-setting and year-counting that some people have produced to state when the “future, physical” Second Coming would be that sounds more like a fortune-teller than the God of justice whose primary interest is that people live right – not how to decode some secret number or date. The apostles were definitely not saying that Jesus would return by some fixed day, month, and year. Rather, they just kept saying, “He is coming” and as the time drew closer they kept saying, “He is coming soon.”
(this conclusion to be continued tomorrow)
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