I was talking to a friend recently about the second coming of the Lord Jesus. His soon return has often had a prominent place in revival throughout church history. During times of revival God restores our lost vision allowing us to clearly see again that which is of supreme importance. What are the things that God esteems and makes paramount to His people?
- The cross of Christ
- The blood of Jesus
- The second coming of Jesus
When the Spirit of God is poured out He always points to the cross, the blood and the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ!
The blood of Jesus and the cross of Christ tend to become faded doctrines when the church is in declension. They may be claimed as tenets of belief but not truly experienced in their power. In revival God restores the true glory and power of the cross of Christ to His people.
When it comes to the second coming of the Lord Jesus it is not simply a matter of cooling in belief that occurs when the church is in decline, but strangely enough, the church can begin to resemble the unbelieving world in displaying an attitude of contempt and mockery when it comes to end times prophecy, the rapture, and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As my friend pointed out to me, many have gotten burned out by the multitude of failed prophecies involving His return. An example that she gave me of this burnout was a prediction given by Edgar Whisenant. He came out with a pamphlet called “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be In 1988!”. He pronounced the rapture of the church to be imminent concluding that it would be in the fall of 1988 during the Feast of Trumpets. I remember when the pamphlet came out. I had a friend who got totally caught up in it. He was completely convinced that Jesus was going to return in Sept of 1988! Many people made major life changes based upon the prophecy. I hopped over to Amazon to read some reviews of the pamphlet today. Although the following review is long I decided to include most of it in this excerpt because it very vividly describes what many people went through.
“I too was one of the idiots who bought into this hysteria in 1988. I was a naive 21 year old who put way too much faith into anything my church pastor taught. When he brought Edgar Whisenant to our church for a series of talks about the 88 reasons, I believed every word of it because my pastor believed it. As a matter of fact, belief in this book compelled my then girlfriend and I to marry much earlier than we originally had intended. We were taught that what is bound together on earth will be bound together in heaven and so we HAD to get married so we would be together after the rapture occurred. When the designated range of dates passed, I remember there being a lot of confusion and anger in the church and we ended up leaving. After several years of religious exploration dosed with much more skepticism than before, I ended up rejecting Christianity all together. I’m not saying this book caused me to become an atheist, but it was a major catalyst for me to start thinking for myself about religious issues. In light of that and its novelty value now, I give it 5 stars. Oh, and we just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary!”
When I look back on the train wreck of failed “Rapture” and “Second Coming” prophecy the common thread seems to be date setting. Nowhere in the Word of God are we ever told to set a date for the rapture of the church or the return of Jesus
Concerning His return Jesus is clear:
“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory… But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” -Mark 13:24-27
After His resurrection and just before His ascension to the Father His disciples all wanted to know when He would be restoring the kingdom to Israel. I like the way He puts this because Jesus seems to be saying that it’s none of their business to know when!
“He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” -Acts 1:7
There are some things that we have no right to know! Jesus himself said that not even the angels know the day and hour and that even He himself doesn’t know. If that’s the case why would we ever think that we should know?
It shouldn’t be surprising that people who set dates for His return will be humiliated and proven wrong. We have absolutely no business setting dates!
Understanding then where so many have fallen into the ditch concerning end times prophecy we still need to understand that the return of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a prophecy conceived by the mind of man, it is, in fact, a prophecy of God!
Scoffers will come
Scoffing is a characteristic of the unbelieving world. It reveals a heart of unbelief. We are told not to sit in the seat of the scoffer.
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.” -Psalm 1:1
What’s interesting to me is that it’s not just preaching the second coming of the Lord Jesus that brings the scoffers out of the woodwork, the mention of “revival” is often met with scoffing too.
“Haven’t we heard this all before??? We’ve been hearing about revival for years and it never happens. I’ll believe it when I see it!”
The famous last words of a scoffer- “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
The point I want to make is, God wants you to believe it before you see it!
Every revival in history has been preceded by people who scoff at those who believe a revival is coming!
When has it ever been okay for the people of God to join the world of unbelievers in their mocking and scoffing concerning the things of God?
“Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” -2 Peter 3:3-4
Is the Child of God supposed to join in the unbelief of the world? Are we supposed to be mimicking their scoffing and unbelief?
The unbelieving world has heard all about it and since it hasn’t happened yet they scoff. As a believer in Jesus am I supposed to imitate that kind of behavior?
There’s something contained within this passage that we should take careful note of. Scoffers are called out as “following their own sinful desires”. The condition of scoffing shows that there is something wrong with our hearts. Scoffing is the evidence that there is something deeper going on that is wrong with us. When sin hardens our heart it produces unbelief which is expressed through our lips!
Could it be that your failure to believe upon the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you’re joining with a world of unbelieving scoffers, is revealing that there’s a hidden condition of your heart that needs to be repented of?
Scoffing about things that are clearly revealed in the Word of God should never be the attitude of a Christian. There is nothing so plainly spoken of in scripture as the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before we leave the subject I would like to point out one other very important thing. It’s my conviction that many of us have a “perspective problem”. We look at the world as if we’re the center of it. We think of things from a human perspective rather than having the mind of Christ.
Seeing the Second Coming as God sees it
“Behold, I am coming soon, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to what he has done.” -Revelation 22:12
Jesus says He’s coming back soon. Do you believe that?
If not, maybe the problem is that you’ve been looking at this from your perspective and not His!
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” -2 Peter 3:8
Let’s do the math.
If a thousand years is like a day to the Lord how long has Jesus been gone for?
About 2 days!!
From His perspective Jesus has only been gone for about 2 days! Maybe the problem is that you don’t have God’s perspective?
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness…” -2 Peter 3:9
In other words, our understanding of slowness is entirely dependent upon getting the proper perspective! For Him it’s just been a couple days since Jesus left.
It goes on to say any slowness we may perceive from our perspective of time is simply God being patient for our sake- He’s giving people time to repent. But understand this, as far as God is concerned, from His perspective, the coming of Jesus is at hand. It’s not far off. He hasn’t been gone very long at all!
“For yet a very, very little while,
and the one who is coming will come and will not delay.” -Hebrews 10:37
I like the double emphasis here on “a very very little while”. In other words, His return is going to be very, very soon!
The brevity of life from God’s perspective
As long as we’re putting things into perspective let’s take our own life and see it the way God sees it.
We worry about whether we’ll live to be 40 or if we’ll make it to 80 years. I want you to see something…
If a thousand years is like a day to the Lord that means even if you live a full life of eighty years, if you do the math, from God’s perspective your time here amounts to 115.2 minutes!
If you live to be 80 your time on earth is about 2 hours from God’s perspective!
If this is God’s perspective it’s not hard to understand why the bible says that our life is like a mist that appears for a little while and is gone!
“What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” -James 4:14
The whole human race has a perspective problem. The brevity of life here on earth can never be properly understood unless we compare it to the perspective God has of eternity.
When we become a child of God we’re expected to alter our perspective so that we come into alignment with His point of view.
From God’s perspective Jesus has only been gone about two days and even if you live for eighty years it’s like you’ve only been here for about two hours! Either way you’re going to meet God sooner than you realize! Either He’s coming back or you’re going to Him. And from His perspective, it’s all way quicker than you think!
There’s a phrase that’s repeated over and over again in the Gospel of John:
“In order that the scripture might be fulfilled…”
One biblical prophecy after another was fulfilled during the time that Jesus walked this earth. Everywhere He went there was an unfolding and fulfilling of prophecy!
God will move Heaven and Earth “in order that the scripture might be fulfilled”. There will not be a single thing left undone that God has spoken to us about. When Jesus said that He is coming soon He meant it. We just need to get His perspective and understand that His ways are not our ways, and that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and that His timing is not our timing.