The Near And Sudden Appearing of Jesus Christ. Part two. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, and a few others.

This is a continuation of part one, a previous post based upon Pastor Jack's sermon notes from his message Signs Of The Coming Anti-Christ - Part 3 - 8:00 AM, 4/30/2023

If you understand what Pastor Jack asks when he says, “On what Authority do we base this “Blessed Hope”? 

Then you probably do as I do and frequently remind yourself of all He has done to give me this blessed hope and salvation. I do not do this because I doubt God’s word, but having had enough verbal mud slung at me, I sometimes get tired and stagger. I ask myself, is this life I have chosen to live true. While my challenges and questions may seem simplistic, they are still genuine, as I, and others like me, rehearse things like Jesus’ words where He told the disciples what He would do and then did it.

In the previous post, I ended by quoting Pastor Jack as he pointed out, through the scriptures, how men, like the Apostle John, Paul, and Christ Himself, declared why their word carried the authority and confidence to sustain our hope. 

Assuming that you have bold confidence in your salvation, the next question is,

What are we supposed to be doing in the meantime?

“and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
(Hebrews 10:24-25 NASB)

Keywords in verses 24 and 25 are: stimulate, assemble, and encourage.

Although the phrase “as you see the day” is not characterized as “the Day of Christ,” it still means the same thing. Other ways this is addressed in scripture are  “The Day of Christ Jesus,” “The Day of Jesus Christ,” and “The Day of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(I searched for the specific phrase “The Day of Christ,” which only shows up 3x; they are all in the letter Paul wrote to the church in Philippi – Philippians.) Other New Testament passages allude to The Day of Christ, but this sentence structure is unique to the Apostles John & Paul and Jesus Christ Himself.

What is this day that is drawing near?

It depends on what side of the fence you are on.

 If you are a follower of Christ, then you should be looking for Him to return in the clouds for those who are His own, and you will meet Him there. 

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 KJV)

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,” (Titus 2:11-13 NKJV)

If you have not given your life to Jesus Christ, that puts you on the wrong side of the fence. You, then, fall under the category of those who do not know Him and, therefore, be subject to His wrath.

To add to your confusion, “The Day of the Lord” also has a sinister side, as it refers to the seven years of God's wrath that will come immediately after the church is removed from the earth. Whether you felt like you did not deserve wrath or not will be irrelevant on that day because you obviously did not have a relationship with Him.

2 Peter 3:10-12 NKJV  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.  (11)  Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,  (12)  looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

An example in which God saved the righteous and destroyed those who did not believe.

Jude 1:5-7 NKJV  But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.  (6)  And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;  (7)  as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

What can we understand about the DAY of Jesus Christ? 

For those who do not believe, this day or time will not come with an announcement; it will come as a thief in the night. Since you were not looking for Christ to come for His church, you certainly will not see or expect this. 

It is a time of wrath.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,”
(Romans 1:18 NKJV)

“... At His wrath the earth will tremble, And the nations will not be able to endure His indignation.” (Jeremiah 10:10 NKJV)

“But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay each one according to his deeds.”
(Romans 2:5-6 BSB)

Should you need to read all the details about this time of wrath, I suggest reading Revelation chapters 6 through 19. In chapter 19, Jesus comes on a white horse, followed by the saints of heaven. This crowd is those who went up in the catching away of the church, and He has a sword coming out of His mouth. This sword is the Word of God.

Another aspect of “This Day of Jesus Christ” is a moment in time when – either by death or rapture – our redemption is made complete.

Why would I make a distinction?

Because the dead in Christ will rise first.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 BSB)

Think about the fact that the dead “in Christ” begins to rise, and then those of us who have been waiting for Him to call us home. 

Do you think He merely leaves us in our current conditions (both the physically dead and those who are dead in their sins)?

Having pondered this repeatedly, I cannot see us, those of us alive, being able to take these bodies that carry the damaged genome that motivates us to sin into the presence of Jesus.
Because they are dead, they will have already shed the housing we call a body and its damaged genome. So this is NOT an issue for them. 

You do know that we followers of Christ must stand before the Bema seat, right? Of course, it's NOT something you need to worry about, as it is a time of rewards, but what if it is also the place where we get to shed this (in my case) fat, damaged body?

Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, seems to be discussing this very thing.

“For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”  (1 Corinthians 3:11-15 NASB)

To make a dramatic point, I tell the guys that if they idolize their Gucci underwear, perhaps now would be a good time to buy something like Fruit-of-the-Loom, and then maybe you won't be standing there naked before the Lord. But what a perfect time to rid ourselves of this sin-damaged body. I am with you; just thinking about losing this body gives me mental anguish. It and I have been close for a long time, and there have been moments when I thought I looked good. But those days are long gone.

I want to show you something from the Revelation. In a sense, it applies to the followers of Christ as we ascend to meet Jesus in the air. In Revelation 21 (remember that the Revelation is a revelation of Jesus Christ), we see Jesus talking about the nations during the 1000-year reign of Christ and the city of God, the New Jerusalem.

“But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.”
(Revelation 21:27 NKJV)

If we did not, in some way, shed this body with its built-in damage, then how would we get in?

We would not, and this adds to the idea that this body must die, and the best place is that Bema seat.

It is also a time when God avenges Himself.

Jeremiah 46:10 NKJV  “For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, A day of vengeance, That He may avenge Himself on His adversaries. The sword shall devour; It shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood; For the Lord GOD of hosts has a sacrifice In the north country by the River Euphrates.”

“The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and full of wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on His foes and reserves wrath for His enemies.” (Nahum 1:2 BSB)

The seven years will come to an end when Jesus physically returns to the earth; this, of course, is after He slaughters all those who chose to fight with Him. The Jews have been looking for the Messiah to physically return to the earth. Well, this is when He does just that. Although scripture tells me that many of them will mourn as they realize that this is one they previously rejected, they will repent and turn to Him.

What I am pointing to comes from Revelation 19. 

Revelation 19:11-16 Weymouth  "Then I saw a door open in Heaven, and a white horse appeared. Its rider was named "Faithful and True" --being One who in righteousness acts as Judge, and makes war.  (12)  His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many kingly crowns; and He has a name written upon Him which no one but He Himself knows.  (13)  The outer garment in which He is clad has been dipped in blood and His name is THE WORD OF GOD.  (14)  The armies in Heaven followed Him--mounted on white horses and clothed in fine linen, white and spotless.  (15)  From His mouth there comes a sharp sword with which He will smite the nations; and He will Himself be their Shepherd, ruling them with a scepter of iron; and it is His work to tread the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Ruler of all.  (16)  And on His outer garment and on His thigh He has a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS."

Only moments later, we see the birds being called to the great supper of God. Note who has been laid to rest.

"Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice, he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.”
(Revelation 19:17-18 ESV)

This great supper consists of The flesh of:

- kings,

- captains,

- mighty men,

- horses and their riders,

Up to this point, they have all been people who have chosen to fight against the Lord. However, the following line creates a small problem, as it could include those who merely hate - "and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, small and great."

If I only read Revelation 19:15, I would see what appears to be God smiting the nations and, therefore, killing off anyone who is not a “Christian.” I say it this way because I was surprised to find that there are people who believe that theory. This is ridiculous because an aspect of this paragraph tells us that He then goes on to rule the nations with a scepter of iron. Well, what is it, total destruction, or are there survivors from the nations that enter the millennial reign?

Survivors.

Only moments later, we see the birds being called to the great supper of God. Note who has been laid to rest.

"Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice, he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.”
(Revelation 19:17-18 ESV)

This great supper consists of The flesh of:

- kings,

- captains,

- mighty men,

- horses and their riders,

Up to this point, they have all been people who have chosen to fight against the Lord.

The following line creates a small problem, as it could include those who merely hate - and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, small and great. However, it shows us that among those fighting against God, there is a wide variety, not merely elites and the poor.

In these days, prior to Jesus' return for His church, we have two opportunities that we should be taking advantage of.

One, take the opportunity whenever possible, and preach the gospel. This is exactly what I am doing and fits well into the game plan God seemed to have for my life.

The second is to live as pure, holy, blameless, and faultless as possible.

Philippians 1:3-6 “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until The Day of Jesus Christ;”

1 John 3:2-3 “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

Philippians 2:14-15 “Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in The Day of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 1:6-8 “Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the Day of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Stay focused, time is short, and Jesus is coming back soon. Today would be a great day for Christ to return for His church.

One last thing.

Why the church cannot be on earth during the 7 years, and therefore, excluded from God's wrath.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, In Great Contrast is The Day of The Lord. Beginning with the Rapture of the Church, (The Day of Christ) only then can The Day of The Lord begin - a time of God’s wrath and judgment to be poured out upon a hostile, rebellious, Christ-rejecting world. The Day of The Lord is a period of time that follows after the Rapture and is carried out through the entire 7 years of the Tribulation Period and continues on out until the end of the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ on earth.”

(1 Thessalonians 5:9 is NOT the only verse that convinces me that the church is NOT here during the seven years, the time of God's wrath. Genesis 19, where we find the narrative about Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah, is one of those instances where the angel said, “for I cannot do anything until you arrive there." The implications for Lot were safety, away from God's wrath. In Exodus 9-11, we see the plagues upon Pharaoh and Egypt. All the plagues impacted everywhere in Egypt except in Goshen, where the people of Israel lived. The final plague kept those who were covered by the blood safe from death – as they put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. This would have worked for anyone who followed those specific instructions or came under the shelter of a house with the blood.

Since we only need two witnesses, I will stop with this one.

John 5:24 NASB "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.)