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 48)
The Scope of the Second Coming
Chapter 3 – Themes of the Second Coming
Judgment (concluded)
The New Testament picks up right where the Old Testament left off. (Only in the New Testament, practically all the judgments that are being prophesied are pointing toward the Second Coming.) When John the Baptist is announcing that the kingdom of God is at hand, he, too, makes mention of the coexistence of curse and blessing that will be inherent in the judgments of that kingdom. And, of course, he uses the metaphor of fire to identify the aspect of wrath and water to identify the aspect of deliverance. Speaking of Jesus, he says…
Matthew 3:11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Matthew 3:12 “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Neither does Jesus Himself shy away from depicting the judgments of the coming kingdom as fiery.
Mark 9:47 “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell,
Mark 9:48 where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.
Mark 9:49 “For everyone will be salted with fire.
Mark 9:50 “Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Notice that Jesus is using the English word “hell.” The underlying word being translated is “geenna,” which the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word “Gehenna,” which was a valley outside the southwest city wall of Jerusalem. Recall that Hades (the Greek word for Sheol) is a very different thing. Hades (Sheol) is below and has to do with the afterlife; by contrast, Gehenna is outside and refers to this life. In the book of Revelation, after being emptied, Hades (Sheol) is thrown into the infamous lake of fire. This aspect of the Second Coming means that death no longer has meaning in the context of the afterlife; its only effects are temporal – that is, death is only a spiritual death on earth. Here is some of how Revelation paints the picture.
Revelation 20:14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:8 “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Into the middle of all this fire, the city of God comes down…like an oasis in a desert.
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.
Revelation 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…
Revelation 22:1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,
Revelation 22:2 in the middle of its street...
I know this is not easy to follow. I’ll break down the details of how to live in such an environment in “Implication: His Kingdom Has Come.”
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