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 56)
The Plan Behind the Second Coming
Chapter 4 – The Predetermined Plan
The Plan’s Three R’s: 1) Revelation
Revelation is a theme that runs through God’s plan from beginning to end. We know this from the Bible – which is itself a book of revelation. In fact, when you examine the Bible as a whole, it’s reminiscent of this proverb:
Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
That is, the Bible reveals truth…progressively…from its first page to its last. The light of truth which shines forth from its pages grows brighter and brighter as the pages turn. The progression is not as steady as the sun’s, but clearly the New Testament casts more light than the Old Testament. And the prophecies of the Second Coming are the brightest of all. But just as it would be hard on our physical eyes to wake up to a noon-day sun instead of a sunrise, so it would be overwhelming to our consciousness to be confronted with maximum truth instead of working up to it gradually.
Consider Adam and Eve. They were obviously created as full-grown adults, but barely had time to get to know God before they sinned. Notice their reaction to His presence after they sinned.
Genesis 3:8 …the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Can you blame them? Could they have imagined that God would have to live a multi-decade human life, concluded by excruciating humiliation and torture, in order to make right what they had done wrong? They barely knew the name of the One who made them!
Adam and Eve, as well as their descendants, would have to be painstakingly taught about how righteous God was…and about how forgiving He was. And that’s just two of His character traits! Consider also that it’s been two thousand years since the last Bible book was written and we’re still struggling to comprehend the greatness of all His traits. No wonder He’s had to take time and pains with our education.
Early on, God revealed truth through the tower of Babel, Noah’s flood, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He revealed more through the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And then there was Moses and the founding of Israel, and all the history that flowed from them. When the time of Jesus finally came, there was even more to reveal.
Mark 4:22 “For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.
Before God created the heavens and earth, He knew that, sooner or later, the free will He would grant the human race would be abused and that sin would thereby contaminate everything. He therefore formulated Christ as His antidote to the contamination of sin even before He created anything. That antidote remained hidden until New Testament times, when it was partially revealed in the gospels, and then fully revealed in the finality of the Second Coming. Thus, the most important thing God’s plan was revealing…was God Himself.
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