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 30)
The Scope of the Second Coming
Chapter 2 – Contrasts of the Second Coming
The Contrast of Focus
So much took place in the Second Coming that it’s very hard to focus on all of its aspects at once. We have to split the focus of our study by recognizing that it was both an end and a beginning.
Let this table remind you of some of the phrasing we saw in our survey of Second Coming prophecies.
| The End | The Beginning |
| “the end of time” (Dan 12:4) “the end time” (Dan 12:9) “the end of the age” (Matt 24:3) “the consummation of the ages” (Heb 9:26) | “the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15) “the Son of Man coming in His kingdom (Matt 16:28) “I will come to you” (John 14:18) |
People who believe the Second Coming hasn’t happened yet also believe it is a beginning and an end, but since such people think both are in the future, the two get lumped together in their minds – and a lot gets lost in the process. We who believe the Bible’s timetable for the Second Coming, on the other hand, have to sort out the beginning from the end right now so that we can leave behind us that which the Lord has ended and focus on pursuing what He has begun.
And when it comes to the end and the beginning, one was as important as the other – as expressed below.
Ephesians 1:19 …These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might
Ephesians 1:20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
Ephesians 1:21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
The magnitude of the age that was ending was only exceeded by the magnitude of the age that was dawning. Yet both were accomplished in a single century – that is, the 1st century AD. Really, it was accomplished in a single generation – from roughly 30 AD, when Jesus began His public ministry, to sometime between 70 AD and the end of that century.
During that span of time, the nation of Israel would be destroyed – something that didn’t seem likely when Jesus began preaching. On the contrary, many in Israel had high hopes of throwing out the Romans and reestablishing a kingdom worthy of King David’s memory. But those hopes went up in ashes when the Romans burned Jerusalem’s temple to the ground in 70 AD. Meanwhile, the church came into being when Jesus was raised from the dead and fully served its purpose in that century. That is, the one true church bridged the contrast between the end of one age and the beginning of the other. (More on this in “Implication: His Church Is Done.”) This bridge period leads us naturally to our next contrast.
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