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 55)
The Plan Behind the Second Coming
Chapter 4 – The Predetermined Plan
The Plan
Just as there has been one man of God in all of history who has been so unique, so great, and so consequential that it is reasonable and appropriate to call him “The Man,” there has been one plan of God in all of history that has been so unique, so great, and so consequential that it is reasonable and appropriate to call it “The Plan.” And it just so happens that “The Plan” was about “The Man.” (Hereafter, I’ll just say the plan without adding the quotation marks.)
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ was the conclusion of the plan. “The last days” of which the prophets and the apostles spoke were not just the last days of ancient Israel, they were the last days of the plan. The references, contrasts, and themes of the Second Coming – in other words, its scope – was the scope of the plan.
Everything in the Bible was an outworking of the plan…which was fully conceived before a word of Genesis was ever written, even before God’s words in Genesis were originally spoken by Him. The reason nothing has been added to the Bible since the New Testament was written is that everything promised in it has been accomplished. The plan has been fully executed. The plan succeeded! But we have to recognize this reality by faith.
It only took God six days to create the heavens and the earth. And it only took Adam and Eve a few minutes to plunge it into darkness. But it took 4,000 years for this plan to be executed – for the light to be turned back on, to be restored to full power. This light is now eternal. It cannot be turned off.
The plan never called for the Second Coming to be the end of the world. On the contrary, the plan called for the Second Coming to be the end of the beginning of the world. For this reason, our post-biblical ancestors rightly divided time into BC and AD. Time “Before Christ” was like pregnancy; the turn to “Anno Domini” was like birth.
The plan was all about Christ – aka Messiah or the Anointed. Messiah is a Hebrew word. Christ is a Greek word. Anointed is an English word. All three have their common root in the history of ancient Israel, when the priest Samuel poured oil on the head of Saul indicating he was chosen to be the first king of the nation. From that act, “the anointed” came to mean someone officially installed into authority as Israel’s king by a ritual anointing with oil. The more developed meaning is, of course, God’s chosen one – the mediator between God and men.
Until this chosen mediator came, the world was in darkness – yes, like life in the womb. Ever since He came, His bright light has been shining for all who will exert enough energy to raise their eyelids. The plan revealed Him at the end, and even then in stages: in his first coming as a man, in His second as God. It is in His role as God that Jesus is the eternal light.
If it took four thousand years for the beginning of the world to end, and we’ve had only two thousand years pass since then, how much longer do we have to go? A whole lot!
There were three major elements to God’s plan: revelation, restoration, and recordation. We can call them the three R’s. Let’s examine them one by one.
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