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 61)
Part Three – The Nature of the Second Coming
Chapter 9 – How the Apostles Explained the Prophets
Relating to Things Spiritual and Physical (continued)
The physical gathering at the Tower of Babel was not at all to God’s liking. It represented a spiritual scattering from Him, for He had commanded people to “fill the earth” and not stay holed up together. Those who obey God are gathered to Him now. They are the flock of which He is the shepherd. They are not gathered physically, for they are spread through the world. They are gathered spiritually and are close to Him. For the most part, they do not even see each other. This is the gathering that He seeks.
Jesus oriented His disciples to expect a spiritual coming. His references to Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter as being “asleep” before He raised them from the dead, to the Pharisees’ hypocrisy as leaven in the bread, and many other such things point us to a new way of thinking – God’s way (see Isaiah 55:8). It is the way of viewing spiritual things as more consequential than physical
ones. God Himself is spirit and we are primarily spirit (for the body perishes). What more reason do we need for esteeming spiritual things more highly than physical ones? If a spiritual Second Coming seems a puny let down from the great display we were expecting in the traditional Second Coming doctrine, then it only means we are still needing a lot of weaning from our fleshly orientation. The spiritual Second Coming of Jesus Christ was not less dramatic, less cataclysmic, less staggering than the one we have traditionally imagined. It was more of all these things. And as we grow spiritually, we will be able to better appreciate the spiritual fireworks that attended it.
If the Second Coming was to have been a worldwide physical cataclysm then, as we discussed earlier in the discussion of timing, Paul’s explanation to the Thessalonians as to how they could know it had not yet occurred doesn’t make sense (2 Thessalonians 2). You don’t explain to people that the earthquake of all earthquakes (that would physically disrupt all space
and time) has not happened yet – they would know as well as Paul would whether a worldwide physical cataclysm had or hadn’t happened yet. If, however, the Second Coming was to be a worldwide spiritual cataclysm then such an explanation from Paul was altogether appropriate. Similarly, recall the passage from 2 Timothy 2 we discussed where Paul talks about some who
were prematurely saying that it had already occurred. This, he rightly said, “upset the faith of some.” Again you see that it is faith, not sight, that is at stake. If the Second Coming was a physical event that interrupted everyone’s life then there could be no upset of faith – or even need of faith, for that matter. Faith is for what you cannot see.
It was wrong to announce prematurely that the Lord had come. Those who did so were rightly condemned. But it would be equally wrong to deny the coming once it had occurred. People send belated birthday cards in the belief that they are better than no birthday acknowledgment at all. In a similar vein, it is better to just admit we missed the passing of the date of the Lord’s Second Coming. And so we can say to Jesus, however belatedly, “Welcome home!” That is, our answer can be “yes,” however belatedly, to His thought-provoking question:
“…when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8
Has He found faith in you? If not before you read this book, how about now?
(This concludes this section and this chapter.)
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