christiana
Puritan Board Senior
Question is, what would you do differently if you knew for certain He would return sometime today vs a thousand years from now?
How long do we have left?
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Austin
Puritan Board Freshman
I'm amil, and my solid conviction is that the Lord will return w/in my son's lifetime. (He's almost 6.) I would in no way be surprised to see it in mine. The arc of history is leading us to a point analogous to that of the fall of Rome. Civilization as we know it is set to collapse. If the Lord doesn't return in this cycle, I expect we will have to wait till another system arises and falls.
RE: the Jewish conversion some (including myself & Luther) see in Romans, I find it interesting that more Jews have converted to Christ since 1945 than in the entire period before. Sad as it is to say, Communism has been a huge boon to conversion, as has been the great disillusionment of the Jews as a result of the Holocaust. This has left many Jews eager to know more about alternative views of the OT than those held by the traditional rabbis. From Tel Aviv to New York to Warsaw, Judaism has been dying.
As for the rest of the madness of the world, and especially the unprecedented changes arising from the communication/technological revolution, the world & culture are moving faster than they have since the beginning. This is leading both to an explosion of the ability of the Church to proclaim the Gospel, as well as to increasing the sway of the culture of Sodom in the world and to the disgusting depths of the abominations practiced by the world. If this isn't the rising of the beasts from the sea & the earth, then I don't know what it is. The 2 Witnesses are everywhere present, as are the Beasts, and the Harlot is astride her abominable mount. Christ, the Rider on the white horse, goes forth conquering & to conquer, and the plagues are scattered over the nations.
If this isn't the image of what is to come, I don't know what is.
All of this has me daily thinking of this: YouTube - R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I....
"Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!"
RE: the Jewish conversion some (including myself & Luther) see in Romans, I find it interesting that more Jews have converted to Christ since 1945 than in the entire period before. Sad as it is to say, Communism has been a huge boon to conversion, as has been the great disillusionment of the Jews as a result of the Holocaust. This has left many Jews eager to know more about alternative views of the OT than those held by the traditional rabbis. From Tel Aviv to New York to Warsaw, Judaism has been dying.
As for the rest of the madness of the world, and especially the unprecedented changes arising from the communication/technological revolution, the world & culture are moving faster than they have since the beginning. This is leading both to an explosion of the ability of the Church to proclaim the Gospel, as well as to increasing the sway of the culture of Sodom in the world and to the disgusting depths of the abominations practiced by the world. If this isn't the rising of the beasts from the sea & the earth, then I don't know what it is. The 2 Witnesses are everywhere present, as are the Beasts, and the Harlot is astride her abominable mount. Christ, the Rider on the white horse, goes forth conquering & to conquer, and the plagues are scattered over the nations.
If this isn't the image of what is to come, I don't know what is.
All of this has me daily thinking of this: YouTube - R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I....
"Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!"
Spinningplates2
Puritan Board Freshman
Was going to answer but am afraid I'll be mocked by the super spiritual who will remind me that answering this brothers question is silly and not productive.
bookslover
Puritan Board Doctor
He'll return at exactly the right time - just like the first time He came. We don't know when, and we can't know when, so let's not worry about it. He knows what He is doing.
So, let's not get all Harold Camping-like...! (I'm looking forward to him humiliating himself, yet again, next year.)
So, let's not get all Harold Camping-like...! (I'm looking forward to him humiliating himself, yet again, next year.)
Andrew Gordon
Puritan Board Freshman
I've always thought that it would be in my lifetime, but then again every other believer since Christ's ascension most likely has as well...
Pilgrim Standard
Puritan Board Sophomore
I see the answer as rather up in the air so to speak. But this I do know! Christ is Thoroughly Victorious!
Thank you for the Reminders such as "not until the last elect sheep has been brought into the fold..2Peter 3:9" and
Remembering that the Bridegroom Does in fact Return at midnight and no later "But at midnight there was a cry, 'Here is the bridegroom!" these do bring joy to the Believers heart!
I would love to have a more certain indication that it would be soon but I do not see it clearly.
As an aside it does seem that one reason that a more historic (puritan hope type) post-mil approach is not taken may be because our generation is a stranger to revival?
Thank you for the Reminders such as "not until the last elect sheep has been brought into the fold..2Peter 3:9" and
Remembering that the Bridegroom Does in fact Return at midnight and no later "But at midnight there was a cry, 'Here is the bridegroom!" these do bring joy to the Believers heart!
I would love to have a more certain indication that it would be soon but I do not see it clearly.
As an aside it does seem that one reason that a more historic (puritan hope type) post-mil approach is not taken may be because our generation is a stranger to revival?
Peairtach
Puritan Board Doctor
it's certainly the case that the early disciples who saw Christ's Ascension weren't meant to believe that His Second Advent might be imminent, as so many insist that all Christians must believe now. Some even insist - often through a poor understanding of English - that they believe that His Second Advent is imminent, when what they actually mean is that they believe that it might be imminent.
Nothing could be more ridiculous than that they had just seen Jesus leave this Earth, and yet they were expected to believe that His Second Advent might be imminent.
The Apostle Paul disabuses some early Christians that had got this erroneous notion and had also gone further in their erroneousness.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him.That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;(II Thess 2:1-3)
Looking for and hasting after Christ's Second Advent is a moral state of the believer, and involves being born again and not being in a state of backsliding:
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.(I Thess 5:4-8)
It does not involve being on tenterhooks with the erroneous notion - not that Christ's coming is imminent, if we know that it's imminent then we are saying that we know it is going to happen shortly - but that the end of the World might be imminent.
There are many indications in Scripture that the Second Advent - as the Parousia at the Eschaton - is not imminent, and that that is not incompatible with saying that we don't know when the Second Advent and Eschaton are going to happen.
Nothing could be more ridiculous than that they had just seen Jesus leave this Earth, and yet they were expected to believe that His Second Advent might be imminent.
The Apostle Paul disabuses some early Christians that had got this erroneous notion and had also gone further in their erroneousness.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him.That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;(II Thess 2:1-3)
Looking for and hasting after Christ's Second Advent is a moral state of the believer, and involves being born again and not being in a state of backsliding:
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.(I Thess 5:4-8)
It does not involve being on tenterhooks with the erroneous notion - not that Christ's coming is imminent, if we know that it's imminent then we are saying that we know it is going to happen shortly - but that the end of the World might be imminent.
There are many indications in Scripture that the Second Advent - as the Parousia at the Eschaton - is not imminent, and that that is not incompatible with saying that we don't know when the Second Advent and Eschaton are going to happen.
C. M. Sheffield
Puritan Board Graduate
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