Category: Second Coming of Christ

Give Me Another Day to Think About It

Monday, March 20, 2023

“The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity” (Psalm 94:11 KJV).

Dear friends, are we so silly as to want another day to think about more folly?

Once, a police officer patrolling his neighborhood noticed a prostitute hobbling on crutches and wearing a conspicuous cast on her leg. He stopped his car and began talking with her. She explained how one of her “clients” had recently shot her in the foot and disabled her. In fact, she refused to name the perpetrator so the police could arrest him, fearing he would have her “coworkers” retaliate. At this point, the officer asked her if she wanted to leave her line of work and find a more respectable job. She hesitated and then replied, “Give me another day to think about it.” What ultimately happened to that poor woman is unknown.

As sinners, we engage in self-destructive behavior because it is fun. That woman working the streets was having a “good time,” and she was making a lot of money in the process, but her profession was indecent, hazardous, and even life-threatening. She wanted to wallow in sin just a little longer—knowing full well she was not acting in her best interests. There is pleasure in sin for a season, Hebrews 11:25 tells us. Read today’s Scripture in context (all of Psalm 94). The wicked are persecuting Israel’s believing remnant during Daniel’s 70th Week. With the Antichrist in office, crime abounds and no one is there to deliver the righteous. The saints suffer while the evildoers prosper; the evildoers believe they can continue in their sin and not reap the bitter consequences (see their empty thoughts in today’s Scripture).

The Psalmist asks God to “shew thyself” and take vengeance (verse 1). Here is one of the many “imprecatory psalms” of Scripture, the believers praying for the LORD to punish sinners and rescue saints. Psalm 94 summarizes the Second Coming of Christ, when He deals with such sinners in wrath (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9). If we are sinners without Jesus Christ today, may we come to Him by faith in His finished crosswork as sufficient payment for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3,4), while we still have opportunity. May we not say, “give me another day to think about it!”

Fill Up That Which is Behind? #6

Sunday, February 12, 2023

“Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” (Colossians 1:24 KJV).

Did Jesus Christ suffer enough to pay for our sins? Then how can Paul “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ?”

Once Satan realized a dispensational change arose with the Apostle Paul’s salvation and commissioning, he quit persecuting Israel’s believing remnant and started targeting God’s apostle of the Gentiles (see Romans 11:13). Concerning this the Dispensation of the Grace of God, the Church the Body of Christ is the Lord’s current agency of believers. So as to hinder, obstruct, and interfere with God’s purpose and plan for the Body of Christ, Satan worked in and through sinful men to do whatever he could to harass and harm Paul (today’s Scripture).

After the first two sons of men were born, a spiritual conflict existed between them. The narrative is recorded briefly in Genesis 4:1-8, but the underlying satanic motivation for the combat is made manifest centuries later in 1 John 3:11-13: “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one [Satan], and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.”

Unbelieving Cain followed Satan’s evil world system’s religion to the point of murdering his believing brother Abel—and it was that same religion of the evil world system that resulted in the execution of many of God’s people through the ages, all the way up to Jesus’ own murder at Calvary and beyond (see Matthew 23:29-37, Luke 11:45-51, and Acts 7:51-53). That evil world system was in Paul’s day during Acts, it is here with us at this present moment, and it will be in effect until Christ’s Second Coming in justice and righteousness.

Abel himself is no longer here, Christ Himself is no longer here, Paul himself is no longer here, so sinful men do to us what they cannot do to injure them….

Extol

Friday, February 3, 2023

“I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me” (Psalm 30:1 KJV).

Our King James Bible features “extol” six times, and today’s Scripture is the first occurrence. Can you deduce what the term means?

“I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me” (Psalm 30:1). “I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue” (Psalm 66:17). These psalms both look to Jesus Christ’s Millennial Kingdom, yet future from us. “Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him” (Psalm 68:4). This is Christ’s glorious Second Coming, yet future from us. “I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever” (Psalm 145:1). Here again is Christ’s Millennial Kingdom.

“Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high” (Isaiah 52:13). In the context (reaching to the end of chapter 53), we find Christ’s two comings, with this verse being Father God seeing “the sufferings of Christ” (First Coming) and “the glory that should follow” (Second Coming and Millennial Kingdom). See 1 Peter 1:10,11. “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase” (Daniel 4:37). These words anticipate Jesus Christ’s Millennial Kingdom, when the Gentiles or nations are converted to the one true God (see Isaiah 60:1-3, Zechariah 8:20-23, and Matthew 28:18-20).

Our English term “extol” is derived from Latin, with the prefix “ex–” defined as “out of” or “from” and “tollere” as in “to lift, raise up.” The underlying Hebrew words (“nasa,” “salal,” “rum,” and “romam”) convey just that sense—“carry,” “bear,” “lift,” “raise,” “exalt.” Therefore, to “extol” the LORD means to “lift Him out.” In other words, we are to magnify or elevate Him above anything and everyone else, lifting Him to the uppermost, most prominent, or supreme position. “He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.”

Joseph and Jesus #12

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

“These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report” (Genesis 37:2 KJV).

Let us search the Scriptures to see how Joseph is a type of the antitype Jesus….

We Berean Bible students have seen how Joseph and Jesus are alike in excess of 20 specific traits and circumstances. This is certainly not coincidental. To those who want to see, hear, and believe, it is as clear as can be. Joseph served as a template, foreshadow, preview, pattern, or outline: by nature, that is a type in the Bible. Centuries later, the antitype (Jesus Christ) shared those same qualities and underwent those very situations. By studying the one, we better appreciate the other, rejoicing how the LORD God was omniscient, knowing well in advance what would occur all along. Joseph’s whole life—even seemingly insignificant attributes and situations—prophesied what another beloved Son would be like and what He would experience.

“Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1:10,11). Like the other Old Testament prophets, Moses (who wrote about Joseph in Genesis) possessed limited knowledge. He had no idea the Holy Spirit was using him to present Messiah’s two comings with such vivid details—one arrival to suffer and die, and a return to conquer and reign. Stephen, speaking in Acts 7:9-16, had more light than Moses, for by that time the Lord Jesus Christ had already come once and the saints in early Acts were anticipating His reappearance. With a completed Bible canon, we have even greater insight than Moses and Stephen combined. May we be thankful!

Joseph is just one of several types of Jesus Christ: other examples include Joseph’s brother Benjamin, plus Adam, Abel, Noah, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, David, and Solomon. While beyond the scope of this study, they too are equally fascinating.

Joseph and Jesus #11

Monday, January 30, 2023

“These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report” (Genesis 37:2 KJV).

Let us search the Scriptures to see how Joseph is a type of the antitype Jesus….

Read Acts 7:9-16. “But God was with him” (verse 9). Though Joseph’s brethren did not know him and refused him the first time, “at the second time” they recognized and accepted him. Likewise, though Israel did not identify and receive Christ in faith at His First Coming (John 1:10-12), the opposite will be true at His Second Coming (Zechariah 12:10; Matthew 23:39).

When Joseph reunited with his brethren 20 years later, he told them: “For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance” (Genesis 45:7,8). “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Genesis 50:20). While Joseph’s brethren were free moral agents, having willingly chosen to harm him, the LORD turned that sad situation into a benefit after all: without Joseph in Egypt, they would have all starved (Jacob’s family in Canaan, and the Egyptians with Joseph down south)!

Similarly, Father God used the Lord Jesus’ rejection—in which sinful Jews and Gentiles participated (see Acts 2:22-24; Acts 3:13-15; Acts 4:10-12,25-28; Acts 5:29-31; Acts 7:52)—to bring about His finished crosswork on Calvary. Christ’s shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection would ultimately take care of our sin problem and Israel’s sin problem! Father God can now form a people for Himself in the Earth (redeemed Israel) and another people for Himself in the Heaven (us, the Church the Body of Christ): “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:20).

Let us conclude this devotionals arc….

Joseph and Jesus #9

Saturday, January 28, 2023

“These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report” (Genesis 37:2 KJV).

Let us search the Scriptures to see how Joseph is a type of the antitype Jesus….

Observe Genesis 45:21,24-28: “And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way…. So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob’s heart fainted, for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived: And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.” In chapter 46, all of Jacob’s household joins Joseph in Egypt.

As Joseph gathered Israel that was scattered, so Jesus at His Second Coming will physically reunite them by bringing them into the Promised Land: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:30,31). See also Deuteronomy 30:1-5, Jeremiah 31:10-14, Jeremiah 32:37-41, Ezekiel 11:16-20, Ezekiel 20:33-42, Ezekiel 28:24-26, and Ezekiel 34:11-16. These passages anticipate New Covenant restoration, unity, and blessings in Christ’s Millennial Kingdom.

Yet, there are still more likenesses between Joseph and Jesus….

The Misunderstood Messiah #5

Friday, December 30, 2022

“Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God” (John 8:41 KJV).

Did you ever notice the magnitude of the insult put forth toward Jesus Christ in today’s Scripture?

Once Christ replied with sound doctrine (verses 42-47), Israel’s religious leaders simply resorted to name-calling again (verse 48): “Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” A Samaritan was half-Jew/half-Gentile, and “the Jews [had] no dealings with the Samaritans” (John 4:9). Notice Jesus was insulted twice more—they called Him a “Samaritan” and “devil possessed.” Throughout the rest of John chapter 8, Israel’s religious leaders continue arguing with Jesus and nearly stone Him to death (verse 59)!

Why did Jesus not simply “zap” these religionists and instantly throw them into hellfire? They belittled and blasphemed Him several times in this one account, and then attempted to murder Him, but rather than Jesus killing them with His spoken word (which would have been justified), He only conversed with them. Why?

Remember, when the Apostles James and John saw how the Samaritans refused to accommodate Jesus, they asked Him if He wanted them to call down fire from heaven and consume those sinners, He replied, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:55,56). This First Coming of Christ was His “meek and lowly” coming: He did not come to judge man’s sins, but to die for them!

Even today, God is still not pouring out His wrath on wicked mankind (2 Corinthians 5:19), creatures who still snicker at Jesus Christ, deceive others in His name, persecute His saints, ignore His Word, and “rub His nose” in their sins. Lost mankind is wasting God’s grace and mercy that He is offering so freely. When His grace is finally exhausted, the undiluted wrath that has accumulated will finally be poured out (His Second Coming). May we trust Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour now so we have our sins forgiven now, lest we face that angry, righteous God in judgment (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)!

For more information, you may also see our archived Bible Q&A: “Did God ‘rape’ Mary?”

The Prince of Peace, Born in the Middle East

Friday, December 23, 2022

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6 KJV).

Ironically, God’s wisdom ordained the birthplace of the Prince of Peace to be the contentious Middle East….

Almost from the very beginning of time, the Middle East has been a battleground, the chief war zone of good and evil. Originally the peaceful home of Adam and Eve, today it is the most contentious region on the globe. Because of Adam’s sin, what was a paradise is now known as the area where man joined Satan in his rebellion against God. Adam and Eve utterly failed to reign over the earth for God’s glory (Genesis 1:26-28). Instead, they united with the opposition, and were banished from God’s presence and the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23,24).

“Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Romans 5:12). Verse 14 says that Adam “is the figure of him that was to come.” God would send another Man, Jesus Christ, and He would accomplish what Adam failed to do: glorify God on the earth by dispossessing it from Satan, and reigning in righteousness. This is the “government” spoken of in today’s Scripture.

“For if by one man’s [Adam’s] offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (verse 17). Adam plunged the human race into sin and made it God’s enemy; Jesus Christ offers mankind eternal life, forgiveness of sins and a reconciled relationship with God! This was God’s goal in sending Jesus Christ.

As our world desperately continues to seek peace, let us remember there will be no peace on earth until the Prince of Peace returns to His nation, Israel, and rids our planet of Satan and his policy of evil (the root of the Middle Eastern turmoil). At Christ’s Second Coming, there will be peace on earth (Luke 2:14), and especially in the Middle East.

God’s Battle #10

Thursday, October 27, 2022

“And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15 KJV).

Indeed, “for the battle is not yours, but God’s!”

Christendom’s plenteous and hopeless confusion amongst innumerable so-called “Bible groups” can easily cause us to assume the Holy Scriptures are totally irrelevant, a Book of fairytales and superstitions, a complete waste of time. (After all, countless souls have already been disenchanted in “church” to the point of resenting, forsaking, and opposing any and every notion of “Jesus,” “God,” “Christianity,” “Bible,” and the like.)

Dear friends, we must take our eyes off our fellow man—and instead look at literal, historical, rightly-divided verses—if we hope to ever see and rejoice in any Bible truth. It is not God’s fault if He has given willfully ignorant souls over to the darkness they preferred (Romans 1:18-32; 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12). Remember, we must be sincere seekers of the truth, or we will wind up with the same spiritual blindness and displeasure unspeakable! When we think about the Bible laid out on a timeline—“time past,” “but now,” and “the ages to come” (see Ephesians 2:7,11-13)—we can appreciate how the past and the future are mirror images of each other. Whoever wrote the Book of Genesis knew what the Book of Revelation would say.

As we consider the decades of fruitless summits, treaties, and speeches regarding peace in the Middle East (or any other part of our Earth), let us remember sinful man will solve absolutely nothing. We live in “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4; cf. Matthew 4:8-10; Luke 4:5-8), and it will remain that way until the Lord Jesus Christ comes back literally, physically, and visibly to fight and guarantee righteousness in the Earth. “Let them [Israel’s enemies] be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish: That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth [Millennial Reign of Christ!]” (Psalm 83:17,18). Only then will it be proclaimed, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). It is His battle!

God’s Battle #9

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

“And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15 KJV).

Indeed, “for the battle is not yours, but God’s!”

Remember, Zechariah 14:1-4 is Christ’s future return in power and great glory. Keep reading: “[12] And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. [13] And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour. [14] And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance.” (See Christ’s earthly kingdom founded in verse 9.)

Again, verses 13 and 14 remind us of the war of today’s Scripture. Whether history or prophecy, Israel’s enemies destroy each other, leaving their material riches behind for the Jewish people to enjoy (re-read 2 Chronicles 20:23,25). Furthermore, how interesting it is that the Gentile armies who sought to besiege Jerusalem during Jehoshaphat’s lifetime match those Gentile nations united with the Antichrist against Jerusalem and Israel in the ages to come. Compare Psalm 83:1-8 with 2 Chronicles 20:1,22,23—noting especially the Moabites and Ammonites.

In both past and future, Gentiles want the Promised Land that God gave Israel forever (see 2 Chronicles 20:7,10,11), and are determined to annihilate the Jewish people to achieve that end (Psalm 83:4,5). Read Psalm 83:9-18, believing Israel praying for Christ’s Second Coming to deliver them as He did with Deborah, Gideon, David, Jehoshaphat, and so on. The prosperity, fear, and peace of Jehoshaphat’s reign that followed the war of today’s Scripture (see verses 25-30) foreshadow Christ’s Millennial Kingdom (Isaiah 61:6; Zechariah 9:10; Zechariah 14:11).

Let us summarize and conclude this devotionals arc….