Randy Green's Blog - Posts Tagged "second-coming"
Stargazers
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven" [1 Thessalonians 4:16].
"But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" [Luke 21:28].
Man's only option for redemption is the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is a Person, not a set of beliefs or fervent church attendance. Accordingly Luke 21:28 refers to God's people looking up ("lift up your heads") because the Lord Jesus is returning ("your redemption is drawing near").
In each case the Lord is descending from heaven. So the two passages refer to the same event. Right? Not so fast! Such a conclusion is a non sequitur. It assumes that the Lord Jesus can only descend from heaven one time. In fact He already did so at His first coming, when He took upon human flesh. We celebrate that time as His birthday, the holiday "Christmas".
Fact of the matter is, the Lord Jesus will descend from heaven twice more. The first time He comes, He will come down to the clouds and call the Christians to meet Him there in the clouds. He will not come to the earth at that time. This is known as the "Rapture" in theology textbooks. If you read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, you will obtain a fuller account of this marvelous event. I cannot wait for it to transpire! Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
Then there is the time after that when the Lord will return to the earth with His angels and heavenly people. This is known as the "Second Coming". The first coming or advent occurred circa 3 B.C. We celebrate this as Christmas. The Lord's "Second Coming" will be after the Great Tribulation. At that time He will cast the antichrist and the false religious leader into the Lake of Fire (Rev.19:20), and lock up the devil for 1000 years (aka the "Millennium"; cf., Rev.20:1-3). If you read Luke 21:25-28 you will obtain further information on this event.
To recapitulate, at the "Rapture" the Lord Jesus descends from heaven to the clouds and calls the Christians to meet Him there. He takes us home to heaven with Him to celebrate the "Marriage Supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:7-9). At His "Second Coming" the Lord Jesus descends from heaven with His angels and saints, coming all the way to the earth to destroy evil and set up the Millennial Kingdom on the earth (Rev.19:11-19). For 1000 years He will rule the earth from His throne in Jerusalem, keeping all sin in check worldwide.
For further Bible teaching be sure to check out my five volume set, "Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes". For more info please visit these sites to purchase my books:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
"But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" [Luke 21:28].
Man's only option for redemption is the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is a Person, not a set of beliefs or fervent church attendance. Accordingly Luke 21:28 refers to God's people looking up ("lift up your heads") because the Lord Jesus is returning ("your redemption is drawing near").
In each case the Lord is descending from heaven. So the two passages refer to the same event. Right? Not so fast! Such a conclusion is a non sequitur. It assumes that the Lord Jesus can only descend from heaven one time. In fact He already did so at His first coming, when He took upon human flesh. We celebrate that time as His birthday, the holiday "Christmas".
Fact of the matter is, the Lord Jesus will descend from heaven twice more. The first time He comes, He will come down to the clouds and call the Christians to meet Him there in the clouds. He will not come to the earth at that time. This is known as the "Rapture" in theology textbooks. If you read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, you will obtain a fuller account of this marvelous event. I cannot wait for it to transpire! Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
Then there is the time after that when the Lord will return to the earth with His angels and heavenly people. This is known as the "Second Coming". The first coming or advent occurred circa 3 B.C. We celebrate this as Christmas. The Lord's "Second Coming" will be after the Great Tribulation. At that time He will cast the antichrist and the false religious leader into the Lake of Fire (Rev.19:20), and lock up the devil for 1000 years (aka the "Millennium"; cf., Rev.20:1-3). If you read Luke 21:25-28 you will obtain further information on this event.
To recapitulate, at the "Rapture" the Lord Jesus descends from heaven to the clouds and calls the Christians to meet Him there. He takes us home to heaven with Him to celebrate the "Marriage Supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:7-9). At His "Second Coming" the Lord Jesus descends from heaven with His angels and saints, coming all the way to the earth to destroy evil and set up the Millennial Kingdom on the earth (Rev.19:11-19). For 1000 years He will rule the earth from His throne in Jerusalem, keeping all sin in check worldwide.
For further Bible teaching be sure to check out my five volume set, "Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes". For more info please visit these sites to purchase my books:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
A Clarion Call – Part 1
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
Have you seen the evening news of late? Even worse, have you noticed the reality of the world we live in today? And I’m not just referring to the third world nations or, for that matter, to any foreign land. I mean the reality we face when we walk out of the house each day and go to work, to church, to school, to the market, anywhere.
The quoted text which kicked off our study begins with a mention of “the last days”. What is that? Well, we are living in “the last days”, dear friends. Ever since Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church, the last days has been and continues to be. They will end when Jesus comes again to rule the earth at the termination of the Great Tribulation.
The Bible makes many references to “the last days”, or “the end times”, or “the last hour”, etc. For our purposes today it suffices for us to understand that now is the last days. It is generally recognized that, the closer we get to Jesus’ Second Coming, the more striking will be the signs of the last days or the end times.
Considering the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3, we mustn’t grow lax in watching and waiting for Jesus’ return at any moment. In theology textbooks this concept goes by the title “imminence”. Nothing needs to happen first, before Jesus can return. He can appear at any moment. His appearance is “imminent”.
You will notice there are a lot of sets of three periods (…) in the quote from 2 Timothy 3 above. This means that I left off some words where the sets of periods occur. The quotation is already excessive, so I eliminated some of the words to keep it from being even longer. I highly recommend that you read all of verses 1-7 straight from the Bible. You’ll see that I’m not trying to make it say something it really doesn’t say, and you’ll also be blessed to enjoy all the words.
Here’s the thing. In the course of my daily activities, I repeatedly encounter the reality of existence today, even as each of you do. The more we read our Bibles and pray, the more we become transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). This means that we stop thinking like the world thinks and instead think with the mind of Christ.
Hold that thought. We’ll return to it tomorrow. Jesus is waiting for us now. Let’s enjoy His company.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Have you seen the evening news of late? Even worse, have you noticed the reality of the world we live in today? And I’m not just referring to the third world nations or, for that matter, to any foreign land. I mean the reality we face when we walk out of the house each day and go to work, to church, to school, to the market, anywhere.
The quoted text which kicked off our study begins with a mention of “the last days”. What is that? Well, we are living in “the last days”, dear friends. Ever since Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church, the last days has been and continues to be. They will end when Jesus comes again to rule the earth at the termination of the Great Tribulation.
The Bible makes many references to “the last days”, or “the end times”, or “the last hour”, etc. For our purposes today it suffices for us to understand that now is the last days. It is generally recognized that, the closer we get to Jesus’ Second Coming, the more striking will be the signs of the last days or the end times.
Considering the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3, we mustn’t grow lax in watching and waiting for Jesus’ return at any moment. In theology textbooks this concept goes by the title “imminence”. Nothing needs to happen first, before Jesus can return. He can appear at any moment. His appearance is “imminent”.
You will notice there are a lot of sets of three periods (…) in the quote from 2 Timothy 3 above. This means that I left off some words where the sets of periods occur. The quotation is already excessive, so I eliminated some of the words to keep it from being even longer. I highly recommend that you read all of verses 1-7 straight from the Bible. You’ll see that I’m not trying to make it say something it really doesn’t say, and you’ll also be blessed to enjoy all the words.
Here’s the thing. In the course of my daily activities, I repeatedly encounter the reality of existence today, even as each of you do. The more we read our Bibles and pray, the more we become transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). This means that we stop thinking like the world thinks and instead think with the mind of Christ.
Hold that thought. We’ll return to it tomorrow. Jesus is waiting for us now. Let’s enjoy His company.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
A Clarion Call – Part 2
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
Time alone with Jesus, as He speaks to us in His Word and we speak to Him in prayer, is the lifeblood of the new life. We Christians cannot survive spiritually apart from personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
The Bible is the Word of God, the words of Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit inside the Christian leads us in reading the Bible, so that we understand what God is telling us. With the natural mind alone we will understand the Bible only in terms of our own experiences and learning. We will miss a good deal of teaching because the Bible is Spirit and it is truth. It is not the natural man and the flesh.
As we spend time alone with Jesus every day, reading His Word and talking to Him in prayer, we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His worldview becomes ours. Our understanding of reality is viewed through the eyes of eternity, as seen from the very throne of God Himself. We are transformed by the renewing of the mind, you see.
I had the pleasure, the blessing, the marvelous grace of God, to be born again in 1978, thirty-four years ago now. When I was born again, fellow saints volunteered their advice. It went like this: “Read this book. It’ll help you.” “Listen to this tape. It rocks!” “Go see this evangelist. He’ll open your eyes big time!” etc. etc. ad nauseum.
I was brought up churched and walked away from all that “religious stuff”. It took the Lord ten years into my adult life to get me to where I could actually turn to Him again. I’m to blame, not my parents or the neighbors or the church or the dog. But when I did turn to Him, the last thing I wanted was to choose a denomination or other group to join sides with in the fight for who’s right.
So I politely declined those well-meaning saints with their advice. I simply told them the truth. I didn’t want to read man’s words. Everybody insists he has the truth about the Bible. But the truth about the Bible comes from only one source, viz., the Bible!
This is why I now teach Rule #2 for Bible study: “The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice.” So I explained that I didn’t want to read man’s books at all, until after I read the Bible all the way through first to see what it actually had to say.
And that is where we will stop today. A time alone with Jesus is in order now. See you tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Time alone with Jesus, as He speaks to us in His Word and we speak to Him in prayer, is the lifeblood of the new life. We Christians cannot survive spiritually apart from personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
The Bible is the Word of God, the words of Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit inside the Christian leads us in reading the Bible, so that we understand what God is telling us. With the natural mind alone we will understand the Bible only in terms of our own experiences and learning. We will miss a good deal of teaching because the Bible is Spirit and it is truth. It is not the natural man and the flesh.
As we spend time alone with Jesus every day, reading His Word and talking to Him in prayer, we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His worldview becomes ours. Our understanding of reality is viewed through the eyes of eternity, as seen from the very throne of God Himself. We are transformed by the renewing of the mind, you see.
I had the pleasure, the blessing, the marvelous grace of God, to be born again in 1978, thirty-four years ago now. When I was born again, fellow saints volunteered their advice. It went like this: “Read this book. It’ll help you.” “Listen to this tape. It rocks!” “Go see this evangelist. He’ll open your eyes big time!” etc. etc. ad nauseum.
I was brought up churched and walked away from all that “religious stuff”. It took the Lord ten years into my adult life to get me to where I could actually turn to Him again. I’m to blame, not my parents or the neighbors or the church or the dog. But when I did turn to Him, the last thing I wanted was to choose a denomination or other group to join sides with in the fight for who’s right.
So I politely declined those well-meaning saints with their advice. I simply told them the truth. I didn’t want to read man’s words. Everybody insists he has the truth about the Bible. But the truth about the Bible comes from only one source, viz., the Bible!
This is why I now teach Rule #2 for Bible study: “The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice.” So I explained that I didn’t want to read man’s books at all, until after I read the Bible all the way through first to see what it actually had to say.
And that is where we will stop today. A time alone with Jesus is in order now. See you tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
A Clarion Call – Part 3
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
When I was born again I chose not to read books about the Bible, but to read only the Bible. Accordingly I read the entire Bible in my first year of rebirth. It was the King James Version because I grew up on it and knew that version was accepted by everyone as a good translation. After that I read the Bible through every year at least once, and most years at least twice. For half of those years I read the Bible through three and four times a year.
So I’ve read the entire Bible over one hundred times now. This doesn’t include reading portions of the Bible as quoted in commentaries and other books. Nor does it take into account reading the Greek New Testament six or seven times and the Hebrew Old Testament considerably. Neither does it include Bible reading where I spend time with Jesus in prayer, and meditate on portions of the good Word of God while sitting at His feet.
I don’t state this to gain clout, or as a status symbol. I don’t win any brownie points for reading the Bible! I read the Bible because it is spiritual food. The new life we receive when we are born again needs to be fed, just as our natural bodies need natural food daily, even thrice daily, to stay healthy and grow.
So I note my Bible reading to tell you that I have stopped thinking in terms of the evening news, or in terms of movies and TV shows. I don’t see the world the way most folks I encounter see the world.
This is readily apparent to me in most of the conversations and comments I share with others. Most of mankind is under the mind control of the evil one. Man has lost the reality of the Bible and gone to feeding in the scorched earth pastures of the world and its prince, the devil.
Daily I am beleaguered by worldly behaviors and thinking, yea, even by Christians, self-professed Bible-believing Christians. These kind folks do things and say things contrary to the express teachings of the Bible, and they haven’t a clue they are being anti-biblical because they are conformed to the world (Romans 12:2).
When a Christian doesn’t feed daily on the spiritual food of the Bible, eating all the food God places on the table from Genesis through Revelation, then he is malnourished, anemic, spiritually enervated. The world and its thinking dominate him and make it even harder for him to read the Bible or schedule time to be alone with Jesus.
This has a snowball effect, rolling down the mountain at increasing speeds and growing bigger with each revolution, until all that exists is the snowball. The snowball is the old way of life, the sin nature which focuses on self and enjoying its own pleasures.
Snowballs are fun when we have a handful of snow in our mits. But a humongous uncontrollable mass of snow plummeting down the mountain slope? Now that is an entirely different matter! We will continue our study tomorrow. Greet Jesus and allow Him to refresh you today.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
When I was born again I chose not to read books about the Bible, but to read only the Bible. Accordingly I read the entire Bible in my first year of rebirth. It was the King James Version because I grew up on it and knew that version was accepted by everyone as a good translation. After that I read the Bible through every year at least once, and most years at least twice. For half of those years I read the Bible through three and four times a year.
So I’ve read the entire Bible over one hundred times now. This doesn’t include reading portions of the Bible as quoted in commentaries and other books. Nor does it take into account reading the Greek New Testament six or seven times and the Hebrew Old Testament considerably. Neither does it include Bible reading where I spend time with Jesus in prayer, and meditate on portions of the good Word of God while sitting at His feet.
I don’t state this to gain clout, or as a status symbol. I don’t win any brownie points for reading the Bible! I read the Bible because it is spiritual food. The new life we receive when we are born again needs to be fed, just as our natural bodies need natural food daily, even thrice daily, to stay healthy and grow.
So I note my Bible reading to tell you that I have stopped thinking in terms of the evening news, or in terms of movies and TV shows. I don’t see the world the way most folks I encounter see the world.
This is readily apparent to me in most of the conversations and comments I share with others. Most of mankind is under the mind control of the evil one. Man has lost the reality of the Bible and gone to feeding in the scorched earth pastures of the world and its prince, the devil.
Daily I am beleaguered by worldly behaviors and thinking, yea, even by Christians, self-professed Bible-believing Christians. These kind folks do things and say things contrary to the express teachings of the Bible, and they haven’t a clue they are being anti-biblical because they are conformed to the world (Romans 12:2).
When a Christian doesn’t feed daily on the spiritual food of the Bible, eating all the food God places on the table from Genesis through Revelation, then he is malnourished, anemic, spiritually enervated. The world and its thinking dominate him and make it even harder for him to read the Bible or schedule time to be alone with Jesus.
This has a snowball effect, rolling down the mountain at increasing speeds and growing bigger with each revolution, until all that exists is the snowball. The snowball is the old way of life, the sin nature which focuses on self and enjoying its own pleasures.
Snowballs are fun when we have a handful of snow in our mits. But a humongous uncontrollable mass of snow plummeting down the mountain slope? Now that is an entirely different matter! We will continue our study tomorrow. Greet Jesus and allow Him to refresh you today.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
A Clarion Call – Part 4
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
Snowballs plummeting down a mountain slope? You are wondering what all this has to do with 2 Timothy 3, aren’t you? Well, my daily living brings me into contact with a world full of folks who are living according to the patterns and behaviors expressed in the first seven verses of 2 Timothy 3. We are indeed in the last days, and the reality smacks me in the face daily.
Alas, but the folks who display this to me—and I don’t mean the non-Christians because they are expected to act this way—but the Christians who display the behaviors and attitudes enumerated by Paul, they haven’t a clue that they are replicas of the devil’s kids, and often down to the most minute detail! They might had a born again experience several decades ago, but they still live in a spiritual nursery, lying in a spiritual crib, and crying to be fed and have their diapers changed.
Babies in the crib, you realize, don’t know they are babies in a crib. They don’t know the difference. They are only behaving naturally. In rebirth we become newborns in a crib. We need spiritually mature mom’s and dad’s to rear us to spiritual adulthood, else we remain spiritual babes in a crib for decades until the Lord brings us home. And what a wasted life that is!
Here’s the problem we face today—and let me be quite frank about this, as a prophet speaking the truth in love. What happens when the Christian community is parented by babies in a crib? What happens when “capricious children will rule over them” (Isaiah 3:4) and “women rule over them” (Isaiah 3:12)?
Isaiah’s words pronounced God’s judgment on a sinning nation. Israel’s sin was that she deserted the Lord her God by ignoring His Word and doing what seemed right in her own eyes. So the Lord left her to her own devices. Since the Lord established male leadership, the first thing to transpire when God’s Word is rejected is for women and children to be the rulers.
Voilà! the good ol’ USA of today! And the behaviors and attitudes Paul enumerated in 2 Timothy 3 are the norm in our society too. For example, once upon a time in a far away land—not! I was just funning you a bit. Not long ago in our society it was normal to consider our actions in terms of society and the neighbors.
If I wanted to blast the stereo, I knew it was wrong to do so in the middle of the night or with it so loud that it disturbed the neighbors. The same applied if I wanted to have dogs. If the dogs barked they needed to stay inside, or else I needed to train them not to bark. If I wanted to build a patio out the back door or repair an automobile engine in the driveway, I knew better than to do so at 2:00 AM.
Let’s pause here and betake ourselves to the prayer closet for a fine time alone with Jesus. See you in our next study.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Snowballs plummeting down a mountain slope? You are wondering what all this has to do with 2 Timothy 3, aren’t you? Well, my daily living brings me into contact with a world full of folks who are living according to the patterns and behaviors expressed in the first seven verses of 2 Timothy 3. We are indeed in the last days, and the reality smacks me in the face daily.
Alas, but the folks who display this to me—and I don’t mean the non-Christians because they are expected to act this way—but the Christians who display the behaviors and attitudes enumerated by Paul, they haven’t a clue that they are replicas of the devil’s kids, and often down to the most minute detail! They might had a born again experience several decades ago, but they still live in a spiritual nursery, lying in a spiritual crib, and crying to be fed and have their diapers changed.
Babies in the crib, you realize, don’t know they are babies in a crib. They don’t know the difference. They are only behaving naturally. In rebirth we become newborns in a crib. We need spiritually mature mom’s and dad’s to rear us to spiritual adulthood, else we remain spiritual babes in a crib for decades until the Lord brings us home. And what a wasted life that is!
Here’s the problem we face today—and let me be quite frank about this, as a prophet speaking the truth in love. What happens when the Christian community is parented by babies in a crib? What happens when “capricious children will rule over them” (Isaiah 3:4) and “women rule over them” (Isaiah 3:12)?
Isaiah’s words pronounced God’s judgment on a sinning nation. Israel’s sin was that she deserted the Lord her God by ignoring His Word and doing what seemed right in her own eyes. So the Lord left her to her own devices. Since the Lord established male leadership, the first thing to transpire when God’s Word is rejected is for women and children to be the rulers.
Voilà! the good ol’ USA of today! And the behaviors and attitudes Paul enumerated in 2 Timothy 3 are the norm in our society too. For example, once upon a time in a far away land—not! I was just funning you a bit. Not long ago in our society it was normal to consider our actions in terms of society and the neighbors.
If I wanted to blast the stereo, I knew it was wrong to do so in the middle of the night or with it so loud that it disturbed the neighbors. The same applied if I wanted to have dogs. If the dogs barked they needed to stay inside, or else I needed to train them not to bark. If I wanted to build a patio out the back door or repair an automobile engine in the driveway, I knew better than to do so at 2:00 AM.
Let’s pause here and betake ourselves to the prayer closet for a fine time alone with Jesus. See you in our next study.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
A Clarion Call – Part 5
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
Not long ago society knew responsibilities. We knew not to disturb the neighbors just because we wanted to do something. We put society and others first and fit in. We knew right and wrong because the Bible taught us right and wrong. But no longer.
I’m being serious, dear friends. Nowadays most people don’t recognize right and wrong, and this includes the authorities! If anyone complains about disturbances of the peace, they are complainers. The criminal becomes the victim and the victim the criminal.
This is the season of the witch! It proves we’ve lost all semblance of Bible reality in our society, and the Christians fall right into the same pattern of behaviors too. Paul refers to this behavior by the phrase “lovers of self”. Biblical love gives. Worldly “love” takes.
Not long ago our society thought in terms of others, and this is known as “responsibilities”. The concept of responsibilities leads us to give. Today’s society thinks in terms of “I-me-mine”, and this expresses itself as “rights”. The concept of rights leads us to take.
Paul’s list is extensive and more than we can expound upon in this venue. It would be a good spiritual exercise for each of us to read each behavior and attitude, then weigh its application in today’s society. Let us draw from our conclusions examples of how we are conformed to the world. Finally let us determine to be in prayer about this, conducting spiritual warfare with vim and vigor to overcome these worldly behaviors and mindset in our lives.
If we will have any success in reviving our society—and if we don’t we’ll degenerate into an utter socialist train wreck in a generation or two—but to succeed we must grow into mature men and women of God. We need Biblical spiritual leadership, not doctrinal carnal leadership. Man’s words brought us to our present unspiritual condition. We must flee from man’s words and embrace the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.
Not convinced? Read another of Paul’s worldly behaviors: “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. Our kids today think they are entitled to an easy, comfy life. Society owes it to them, and the parents had better produce. And we parents have swallowed this antichrist sentiment hook, line, and sinker! We go on guilt trips if our sweet, little child can’t keep up with the Joneses. Oh, the poor dear. Pooh pooh… I’ll bet he is scarred for life, never again to be heard from in cultured society.
Methinks the Lord would prefer we raise the little tyke to know Him, to teach him to feed on the Bible daily and talk to Him in prayer. The worldly things are secondary, a remote and distant secondary at that. But we put worldly success up front. We’ve done this for so long that we don’t know any different. We’ve reached the point where the Bible just isn’t relevant, so why waste time reading it?
A sad note on which to finish the song. Praise the Lord! It’s not the finish. The fat lady hasn’t finished singing yet. We’ll look for a ray of hope in our next study. Here comes Jesus now. Won’t you let Him in?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Not long ago society knew responsibilities. We knew not to disturb the neighbors just because we wanted to do something. We put society and others first and fit in. We knew right and wrong because the Bible taught us right and wrong. But no longer.
I’m being serious, dear friends. Nowadays most people don’t recognize right and wrong, and this includes the authorities! If anyone complains about disturbances of the peace, they are complainers. The criminal becomes the victim and the victim the criminal.
This is the season of the witch! It proves we’ve lost all semblance of Bible reality in our society, and the Christians fall right into the same pattern of behaviors too. Paul refers to this behavior by the phrase “lovers of self”. Biblical love gives. Worldly “love” takes.
Not long ago our society thought in terms of others, and this is known as “responsibilities”. The concept of responsibilities leads us to give. Today’s society thinks in terms of “I-me-mine”, and this expresses itself as “rights”. The concept of rights leads us to take.
Paul’s list is extensive and more than we can expound upon in this venue. It would be a good spiritual exercise for each of us to read each behavior and attitude, then weigh its application in today’s society. Let us draw from our conclusions examples of how we are conformed to the world. Finally let us determine to be in prayer about this, conducting spiritual warfare with vim and vigor to overcome these worldly behaviors and mindset in our lives.
If we will have any success in reviving our society—and if we don’t we’ll degenerate into an utter socialist train wreck in a generation or two—but to succeed we must grow into mature men and women of God. We need Biblical spiritual leadership, not doctrinal carnal leadership. Man’s words brought us to our present unspiritual condition. We must flee from man’s words and embrace the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.
Not convinced? Read another of Paul’s worldly behaviors: “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. Our kids today think they are entitled to an easy, comfy life. Society owes it to them, and the parents had better produce. And we parents have swallowed this antichrist sentiment hook, line, and sinker! We go on guilt trips if our sweet, little child can’t keep up with the Joneses. Oh, the poor dear. Pooh pooh… I’ll bet he is scarred for life, never again to be heard from in cultured society.
Methinks the Lord would prefer we raise the little tyke to know Him, to teach him to feed on the Bible daily and talk to Him in prayer. The worldly things are secondary, a remote and distant secondary at that. But we put worldly success up front. We’ve done this for so long that we don’t know any different. We’ve reached the point where the Bible just isn’t relevant, so why waste time reading it?
A sad note on which to finish the song. Praise the Lord! It’s not the finish. The fat lady hasn’t finished singing yet. We’ll look for a ray of hope in our next study. Here comes Jesus now. Won’t you let Him in?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
A Clarion Call – Part 6
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
As a society and even as Christians we’ve relegated the Bible to the back burner at best. Hence we have women and children leading us, setting the standards by which we are to live if we don’t want to be considered a failure. We love pleasure when we should love God. And, yes, pleasure and God are pretty much at odds, when it comes to the reality of daily living.
Ergo, we go into the Christian community and come face to face with folks who are “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power”. They get this way because they are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”.
The truth is to be culled from the Bible. When the Christian community shuns daily Bible reading—and I mean Bible reading, not parts-of-the-Bible reading—how are they to come to a knowledge of the truth? Oh, they can learn all right, learn man’s words and doctrines and soapbox issues. But the truth is not attained anywhere but from the Bible.
Without the truth they build humongous cathedrals, sit in the pews twice and thrice weekly, sing in the choir, teach Sunday School, be nice to their workmates, and help little old ladies cross the street—but this is no more than “holding to a form of godliness”. Real “godliness” is not a form. It is a heart condition which grows outward fruit, viz., good works. Forms of godliness only show supposed fruit without having the heart condition.
So with Christians shunning the Bible and embracing man’s words and works in its place, the heart condition is eliminated and the form alone remains. Voilà! church services today, with their programs and activities and manmade contrivances.
I wish this wasn’t the reality, dear friends. I really do. I have to live in the worldly mess right along with all of you. Alas, but it is spiritual reality today. We have become an antichrist society, and God’s witness via the Christians has been conformed to the world. No light, no salt, no Christ is given out to the world. Manmade ideas of right and wrong and good and bad have replaced them.
And small wonder. The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice. But the Bible has been lost in the temple, and no one even knows it’s missing! A clarion call to arms goes out to would-be spiritual leaders. The trumpet soundeth:
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn [Isaiah 8:20].
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
As a society and even as Christians we’ve relegated the Bible to the back burner at best. Hence we have women and children leading us, setting the standards by which we are to live if we don’t want to be considered a failure. We love pleasure when we should love God. And, yes, pleasure and God are pretty much at odds, when it comes to the reality of daily living.
Ergo, we go into the Christian community and come face to face with folks who are “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power”. They get this way because they are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”.
The truth is to be culled from the Bible. When the Christian community shuns daily Bible reading—and I mean Bible reading, not parts-of-the-Bible reading—how are they to come to a knowledge of the truth? Oh, they can learn all right, learn man’s words and doctrines and soapbox issues. But the truth is not attained anywhere but from the Bible.
Without the truth they build humongous cathedrals, sit in the pews twice and thrice weekly, sing in the choir, teach Sunday School, be nice to their workmates, and help little old ladies cross the street—but this is no more than “holding to a form of godliness”. Real “godliness” is not a form. It is a heart condition which grows outward fruit, viz., good works. Forms of godliness only show supposed fruit without having the heart condition.
So with Christians shunning the Bible and embracing man’s words and works in its place, the heart condition is eliminated and the form alone remains. Voilà! church services today, with their programs and activities and manmade contrivances.
I wish this wasn’t the reality, dear friends. I really do. I have to live in the worldly mess right along with all of you. Alas, but it is spiritual reality today. We have become an antichrist society, and God’s witness via the Christians has been conformed to the world. No light, no salt, no Christ is given out to the world. Manmade ideas of right and wrong and good and bad have replaced them.
And small wonder. The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice. But the Bible has been lost in the temple, and no one even knows it’s missing! A clarion call to arms goes out to would-be spiritual leaders. The trumpet soundeth:
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn [Isaiah 8:20].
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Stargazers
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven [1 Thessalonians 4:16].
But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near [Luke 21:28].
Man's only option for redemption is the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is a Person, not a set of beliefs or fervent church attendance. Accordingly Luke 21:28 refers to God's people looking up ("lift up your heads") because the Lord Jesus is returning ("your redemption is drawing near").
In each case the Lord is descending from heaven. So the two passages refer to the same event. Right? Not so fast! Such a conclusion is a non sequitur. It assumes that the Lord Jesus can only descend from heaven one time. In fact He already did so at His first coming, when He took upon human flesh. We celebrate that time as His birthday, the holiday Christmas.
Fact of the matter is, the Lord Jesus will descend from heaven twice more. The first time He comes, He will come down to the clouds and call the Christians to meet Him there in the clouds. He will not come to the earth at that time. This is known as the Rapture in theology textbooks. If you read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, you will obtain a fuller account of this marvelous event. I cannot wait for it to transpire! Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
Then there is the time after that when the Lord will return to the earth with His angels and heavenly people. This is known as the Second Coming. The first coming or advent occurred circa 3 B.C. We celebrate this as Christmas. The Lord's Second Coming will be after the Great Tribulation. At that time He will cast the antichrist and the false religious leader into the Lake of Fire (Rev.19:20), and lock up the devil for 1000 years (aka the Millennium; cf., Rev.20:1-3). If you read Luke 21:25-28 you will obtain further information on this event.
To recapitulate, at the Rapture the Lord Jesus descends from heaven to the clouds and calls the Christians to meet Him there. He takes us home to heaven with Him to celebrate the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7-9). At His Second Coming the Lord Jesus descends from heaven with His angels and saints, coming all the way to the earth to destroy evil and set up the Millennial Kingdom on the earth (Rev.19:11-19). For 1000 years He will rule the earth from His throne in Jerusalem, keeping all sin in check worldwide.
For further Bible teaching be sure to check out my five volume set, Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. For more info please visit these sites to purchase my books:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near [Luke 21:28].
Man's only option for redemption is the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is a Person, not a set of beliefs or fervent church attendance. Accordingly Luke 21:28 refers to God's people looking up ("lift up your heads") because the Lord Jesus is returning ("your redemption is drawing near").
In each case the Lord is descending from heaven. So the two passages refer to the same event. Right? Not so fast! Such a conclusion is a non sequitur. It assumes that the Lord Jesus can only descend from heaven one time. In fact He already did so at His first coming, when He took upon human flesh. We celebrate that time as His birthday, the holiday Christmas.
Fact of the matter is, the Lord Jesus will descend from heaven twice more. The first time He comes, He will come down to the clouds and call the Christians to meet Him there in the clouds. He will not come to the earth at that time. This is known as the Rapture in theology textbooks. If you read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, you will obtain a fuller account of this marvelous event. I cannot wait for it to transpire! Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
Then there is the time after that when the Lord will return to the earth with His angels and heavenly people. This is known as the Second Coming. The first coming or advent occurred circa 3 B.C. We celebrate this as Christmas. The Lord's Second Coming will be after the Great Tribulation. At that time He will cast the antichrist and the false religious leader into the Lake of Fire (Rev.19:20), and lock up the devil for 1000 years (aka the Millennium; cf., Rev.20:1-3). If you read Luke 21:25-28 you will obtain further information on this event.
To recapitulate, at the Rapture the Lord Jesus descends from heaven to the clouds and calls the Christians to meet Him there. He takes us home to heaven with Him to celebrate the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7-9). At His Second Coming the Lord Jesus descends from heaven with His angels and saints, coming all the way to the earth to destroy evil and set up the Millennial Kingdom on the earth (Rev.19:11-19). For 1000 years He will rule the earth from His throne in Jerusalem, keeping all sin in check worldwide.
For further Bible teaching be sure to check out my five volume set, Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. For more info please visit these sites to purchase my books:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
A Clarion Call – Part 1
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
Have you seen the evening news of late? Even worse, have you noticed the reality of the world we live in today? And I’m not just referring to the third world nations or, for that matter, to any foreign land. I mean the reality we face when we walk out of the house each day and go to work, to church, to school, to the market, anywhere.
The quoted text which kicked off our study begins with a mention of “the last days”. What is that? Well, we are living in “the last days”, dear friends. Ever since Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church, the last days have been and continue to be. They will end when Jesus comes again to rule the earth at the termination of the Great Tribulation.
The Bible makes many references to “the last days”, or “the end times”, or “the last hour”, etc. For our purposes today it suffices for us to understand that the last days are now. It is generally recognized that, the closer we get to Jesus’ Second Coming, the more striking will be the signs of the last days or the end times.
Considering the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3, we mustn’t grow lax in watching and waiting for Jesus’ return at any moment. In theology textbooks this concept goes by the title “imminence”. Nothing needs to happen first, before Jesus can return. He can appear at any moment. His appearance is “imminent”.
You will notice there are a lot of sets of three periods (…) in the quote from 2 Timothy 3 above. This means that I left off some words where the sets of periods occur. The quotation is already excessive, so I eliminated some of the words to keep it from being even longer. I highly recommend that you read all of verses 1-7 straight from the Bible. You’ll see that I’m not trying to make it say something it really doesn’t say, and you’ll also be blessed to enjoy all the words.
Here’s the thing. In the course of my daily activities, I repeatedly encounter the reality of existence today, even as each of you do. The more we read our Bibles and pray, the more we become transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). This means that we stop thinking like the world thinks and instead think with the mind of Christ.
Hold that thought. We’ll return to it tomorrow. Jesus is waiting for us now. Let’s enjoy His company.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Have you seen the evening news of late? Even worse, have you noticed the reality of the world we live in today? And I’m not just referring to the third world nations or, for that matter, to any foreign land. I mean the reality we face when we walk out of the house each day and go to work, to church, to school, to the market, anywhere.
The quoted text which kicked off our study begins with a mention of “the last days”. What is that? Well, we are living in “the last days”, dear friends. Ever since Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church, the last days have been and continue to be. They will end when Jesus comes again to rule the earth at the termination of the Great Tribulation.
The Bible makes many references to “the last days”, or “the end times”, or “the last hour”, etc. For our purposes today it suffices for us to understand that the last days are now. It is generally recognized that, the closer we get to Jesus’ Second Coming, the more striking will be the signs of the last days or the end times.
Considering the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3, we mustn’t grow lax in watching and waiting for Jesus’ return at any moment. In theology textbooks this concept goes by the title “imminence”. Nothing needs to happen first, before Jesus can return. He can appear at any moment. His appearance is “imminent”.
You will notice there are a lot of sets of three periods (…) in the quote from 2 Timothy 3 above. This means that I left off some words where the sets of periods occur. The quotation is already excessive, so I eliminated some of the words to keep it from being even longer. I highly recommend that you read all of verses 1-7 straight from the Bible. You’ll see that I’m not trying to make it say something it really doesn’t say, and you’ll also be blessed to enjoy all the words.
Here’s the thing. In the course of my daily activities, I repeatedly encounter the reality of existence today, even as each of you do. The more we read our Bibles and pray, the more we become transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). This means that we stop thinking like the world thinks and instead think with the mind of Christ.
Hold that thought. We’ll return to it tomorrow. Jesus is waiting for us now. Let’s enjoy His company.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
A Clarion Call – Part 2
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
Time alone with Jesus, as He speaks to us in His Word and we speak to Him in prayer, is the lifeblood of the new life. We Christians cannot survive spiritually apart from personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
The Bible is the Word of God, the words of Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit inside the Christian leads us in reading the Bible, so that we understand what God is telling us. With the natural mind alone we will understand the Bible only in terms of our own experiences and learning. We will miss a good deal of teaching because the Bible is Spirit and it is truth. It is not the natural man and the flesh.
As we spend time alone with Jesus every day, reading His Word and talking to Him in prayer, we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His worldview becomes ours. Our understanding of reality is viewed through the eyes of eternity, as seen from the very throne of God Himself. We are transformed by the renewing of the mind, you see.
I had the pleasure, the blessing, the marvelous grace of God, to be born again in 1978, thirty-four years ago now. When I was born again, fellow saints volunteered their advice. It went like this: “Read this book. It’ll help you.” “Listen to this tape. It rocks!” “Go see this evangelist. He’ll open your eyes big time!” etc. etc. ad nauseum.
I was brought up churched and walked away from all that “religious stuff”. It took the Lord ten years into my adult life to get me to where I could actually turn to Him again. I’m to blame, not my parents or the neighbors or the church or the dog. But when I did turn to Him, the last thing I wanted was to choose a denomination or other group to join sides with in the fight for who’s right.
So I politely declined those well-meaning saints with their advice. I simply told them the truth. I didn’t want to read man’s words. Everybody insists he has the truth about the Bible. But the truth about the Bible comes from only one source, viz., the Bible!
This is why I now teach Rule #2 for Bible study: “The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice.” So I explained that I didn’t want to read man’s books at all, until after I read the Bible all the way through first to see what it actually had to say.
And that is where we will stop today. A time alone with Jesus is in order now. See you tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Time alone with Jesus, as He speaks to us in His Word and we speak to Him in prayer, is the lifeblood of the new life. We Christians cannot survive spiritually apart from personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
The Bible is the Word of God, the words of Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit inside the Christian leads us in reading the Bible, so that we understand what God is telling us. With the natural mind alone we will understand the Bible only in terms of our own experiences and learning. We will miss a good deal of teaching because the Bible is Spirit and it is truth. It is not the natural man and the flesh.
As we spend time alone with Jesus every day, reading His Word and talking to Him in prayer, we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His worldview becomes ours. Our understanding of reality is viewed through the eyes of eternity, as seen from the very throne of God Himself. We are transformed by the renewing of the mind, you see.
I had the pleasure, the blessing, the marvelous grace of God, to be born again in 1978, thirty-four years ago now. When I was born again, fellow saints volunteered their advice. It went like this: “Read this book. It’ll help you.” “Listen to this tape. It rocks!” “Go see this evangelist. He’ll open your eyes big time!” etc. etc. ad nauseum.
I was brought up churched and walked away from all that “religious stuff”. It took the Lord ten years into my adult life to get me to where I could actually turn to Him again. I’m to blame, not my parents or the neighbors or the church or the dog. But when I did turn to Him, the last thing I wanted was to choose a denomination or other group to join sides with in the fight for who’s right.
So I politely declined those well-meaning saints with their advice. I simply told them the truth. I didn’t want to read man’s words. Everybody insists he has the truth about the Bible. But the truth about the Bible comes from only one source, viz., the Bible!
This is why I now teach Rule #2 for Bible study: “The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice.” So I explained that I didn’t want to read man’s books at all, until after I read the Bible all the way through first to see what it actually had to say.
And that is where we will stop today. A time alone with Jesus is in order now. See you tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
