Monday: Anticipating the Time
Daily Lesson for Monday 13th of May 2024
Although the Protestant Reformers believed in the literal, visible, audible, and glorious return of Christ, gradually the understanding of this biblical truth changed. Popular nineteenth-century preachers taught that Christ would come to establish His kingdom on earth and usher in 1,000 years of peace. This led to spiritual lethargy and an apathetic commitment to spiritual values.
Image © Steve Creitz at Goodsalt.com
Similarly, Christ’s disciples misunderstood the nature of the Messiah’s coming. They thought that He would come as a conquering general who would break the yoke of Roman bondage, not One who would deliver them from the condemnation and shackles of sin. Thus, they failed to understand the manner of His coming.
Read Acts 1:9-11; Revelation 1:7; and Matthew 24:27,30-31. What do these verses teach us about the manner of our Lord’s return?
When Christ came the first time as a babe in Bethlehem’s manger, very few people discerned His coming. But when He comes the second time, “every eye” will see Him come. Every ear will hear the trumpet blast of His return. Every human being on earth will behold His glory. We need not be deceived. The Scriptures have made the events surrounding His return abundantly clear.
“One of the most solemn and yet most glorious truths revealed in the Bible is that of Christ’s second coming to complete the great work of redemption. To God’s pilgrim people, so long left to sojourn in ‘the region and shadow of death,’ a precious, joy-inspiring hope is given in the promise of His appearing, who is ‘the resurrection and the life,’ to ‘bring home again His banished.’ The doctrine of the second advent is the very keynote of the Sacred Scriptures. From the day when the first pair turned their sorrowing steps from Eden, the children of faith have waited the coming of the Promised One to break the destroyer’s power and bring them again to the lost Paradise.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 299.
An early Adventist leader, Luther Warren, used to tell young people, “The only way to be ready for the coming of Christ is to get ready and stay ready.” The message of Christ’s soon return is an urgent appeal to each one of us to examine our hearts and evaluate our spiritual lives. It is a call to godly living. There can be no neutrality in the blazing light of the glory of Christ’s return.
Read 1 Thessalonians 5:2-5 and Hebrews 9:28. What encouragement do these verses give us regarding the manner of Christ’s coming?
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Recently an interviewer was asking some tough questions. Such as, when will Christ come? And what about the predictions, of endtimes?
And what about United States in Bible prophecy.
The interviewee answered with the Bible only. Basicly the Bible prophecy ended in 1844. In 1844 as a early established country we were still in the time frame of Bible prophecy.
Only our Father in heaven knows the time of Christ return. Ther predictions of endtimes don't give us a time of Christ return. We are however given us of the time. message is no matter how close be ready.
We are however given signs of our times. The message is, no matter how close, be ready.
Most readers of this blog are Seventh-day Adventists and I presume that most of us know why "Adventist" is included in our name. And I am sure we at least a passing knowledge of Church history and how we came to understand that the Second Advent is real and imminent. We can do the arithmetic and draw at least a rudimentary prophetic timeline. The problem is that while we are convinced and may be able to convince some other Christians that we are right, the chances are very slim in convincing the secular mind that we have a message for these times. We are faced with apathy and a mindset that sees Christianity as no longer relevant. These folk make up a large part of "all the world" where the Gospel is to be preached.
Rather than congratulating ourselves on having such a good spiritual pedigree, we must address the issue of communication in a world that speaks an entirely different language.
Time for an illustration: There are some pretty powerful ideas in Maths. I think of the enormous utility of the trigonometric functions in helping us to describe so much of the world around us. Swinging pendulums, circular motion, alternating current, global positioning systems, music harmony, astronomical telescope resolution; the list goes on and on. But, when you are a year 10 student you learn trigonometry in terms of right-angled triangles that you draw on a piece of paper and measure the sides and angles, Once you get an understanding of the things that you can see, measure and touch, you can move on to the unseen and apply the ideas to other areas.
The Second Coming of Jesus is to the secular mind an impossible event and speculative at best. They use words like "pie in the sky" and "utopian" or even "cargo-cultism" to describe those who believe. The challenge for us is to provide "touchable" Christianity as the starting point for the secular mind to believe.
Jesus talked about the Second Coming, but he spent his years of ministry providing the sort of "touchable" Christianity that provided the basis for hope.
Maurice, I would be really interested to get some feedback from our readers regarding their social environment. We currently live in one of America's "Bible belts." So our social environment is quite different from what you often reference. Although many people do not attend church, their parents or grand-parents were likely church-goers, and the current generation is still shaped by a Christian value system.
Now, what we see going on in the large cities, through the news, is very different. And the violence and anarchy that shows up there seems to me a result of totally abandoning Christian values.
However, because of the fore-going, I don't have much experience dealing with atheists or agnostics in person, other than in my immediate family. (But that is another story - a reaction against hearing one thing by professed Christians and seeing something very different in action.) Nevertheless, it seems to me that if we are open and honest about our beliefs, we cannot go wrong. Of course, that pre-supposes that we share our convictions, rather than trying to convince or "preach at" people.
For those who haven't given it a lot of thought - whether Christian or secular - it seems to me that a good opener would be to ask if they see a solution to the current problems in the state/country/world. Tying it to a specific issue could be helpful. (Avoiding politics is mandatory! If we believe there's a political solution, we probably have nothing to say to our friends and neighbors.) To many people, it is becoming clear that things in this world cannot continue on the current trajectory much longer.
I see a "spiritual revival" of sorts in leading "influencers" in the media, and I recall that the Bible predicts an unprecedented outpouring of the Holy Spirit and that a "false revival" will come before the real thing. (Satan can probably read the signs of the Second Coming better than we do!) So I wonder whether we are seeing the beginning of the "false revival" with the real thing coming right on its heels. Whatever, the case, let's not waste the opportunity of walking through the doors that are now opening through revived spiritual interest. We need to learn to be bold for Christ! He has promised wisdom if we but ask. (James 1:5)
What do we have to lose?
Amen.
We live in the south east of England, and have lived in Germany, Northern Ireland and Scotland, and a "touchable Christianity is what people need because we may be the only Bible, people will ever read, and God is in the business of saving His people, He will not let a living "touchable" Christianity go unnoticed. I like the maths illustration.
The Bible does not leave the student in darkness. Since it is the Book of Life, Wisdom, and Eternity (because it discloses Jesus), it has to show what's ahead of us. We see what is happening, and very close to us here in the South of Brazil, there is a tragedy that announces the closeness of Christ's return. The planet is unbalanced because of the unsustainable methods of man's survival. But this is just the beginning of the pain because we must go through the "Peace and safety" stage (1 Tessalonicenses 5:2–5)! When this happens, the necessary overall destruction will occur by Jesus' literal return! Then, our peace will last forever.
Hebrews 9:28 is clear: God's end time people "Eagerly Await" Jesus Second Coming. They do not "Jump up and down" to make make Him come sooner. And that verse is also clear that He comes as a Conquering King and Saviour to His End Time People and not as a "Cross Bearing Ultimate Sacrifice" for them anymore!
Yes, Pete and now is the time to heed Romans 10:14. Essentially we are all preachers if we own our mouth for Christ. Thank-you for all your insights we do apriciate you, sincerely.
And I will add that I appreciate JC's insight too.
I love John 14:16-19 there it is clear that "The Holy Spirit" even now dwells with us and will be in us and because of it and because Jesus is "Alive and well next to His Father interceding for us," we will also live because He (Jesus) is very much alive too!
In answer to the question at the end of the lesson:
We are not any longer ignorant of the Truth of Christ’s Return! As we engage in life's affair's, our focus ought to be on our conduct. Do we express the caring, nurturing disposition of someone who loves his fellow man, or do we go about busily attending to life’s affairs without considering them in context of Christ's Return?
Everything we do, think, or say leaves a spiritual impression in people’s life. We cannot afford to be careless with Christ’s testimony of 'Righteousness', being careless about how we respond to the ‘oil’ in our lamps. Keeping the precious oil of the Holy Spirit in our heart and mind at all times to refresh them, makes sure that we will be ready at our Lord's return.
What could be more important than to live one’s life with utmost care and reflection regarding this Truth – “You are all sons [and daughters] of light and sons [and daughters] of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.” 1 Thess.5:5
How ready are you for His coming? It's our duty not only to wait for His coming but also to hasten it.
God bless us all.
Help me pray for my daughter as she goes back to school tomorrow.its a new environment and she hasn't coped up with the new people.
Elsie - I pray that your love and our heavenly Father's watchful care will bring about that your daughter becomes comfortable in the new school's environment. It is so very important to have supportive friends come alongside the children who try to find their place in a group of strangers.