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 Implications of the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 27)
The Scope of the Second Coming
Chapter 1 – References to the Second Coming
References to the Second Coming in Revelation (continued and concluding)
The book of Revelation describes what was going on during the final years leading up to Jesus’ Second Coming – the period of time He had called “the great tribulation.”
Matthew 24:21 “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.
Matthew 24:22 “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
No wonder then that the book of Revelation describes times of great turmoil – descriptions that fit the prophetic warnings given not just by Jesus, but by all the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New Testament. Here’s an example of such tribulation.
Revelation 6:15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;
Revelation 6:16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;
Revelation 6:17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
All this was leading up to the arrival of the kingdom that had been promised for centuries, that had been called “at hand” from the very beginning of the New Testament, and that was by this time “imminent.”
Revelation 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”
The old heaven and earth, with a sea for holding the dead (Sheol/Hades), would be passing away, as it says here:
Revelation 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.
Revelation 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.
Revelation 20:14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
…and the new heaven and earth (with no sea because everyone now goes to heaven instead) arrives, as described here:
Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
Thus did the greatest cataclysm that has ever occurred take place with most people being oblivious to its full importance…because their minds were set only on its earthly aspects.
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