Month: September 2024

Tacky takeoff evades a takeover

eejoseph, , , ,

Since the angel at Messiah’s departure affirmed the promise of his parousia every generation of believers has felt that Christ’s return would solve all earthly problems, but they could not have expected Yeshua to return unless the signs of his coming came to pass. With this in mind we have to admit that saying “Jesus is coming soon” is a tacky takeover of the believer’s takeoff

Before the parousia

  • When you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately. (Luke 21:9, NASB)
  • Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, (Luke 21:10, NASB)
  • and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. (Luke 21:11a, NASB)
  • and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. (Luke 21:1b, , NASB)
  • WIDESPREAD ARRESTS.  But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. (Luke 21:12, NASB)
  • “But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, (Luke 21:16, NASB)
  • and you will be hated by all because of My name. (Luke 21:17, NASB)
  • “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. (Luke 21:20, NASB)
  • because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. (Luke 21:22, NASB)
  • “Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; (Luke 21:23, NASB)
  • and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. (Luke 21:24, NASB)
  • “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars,  (Luke 21:25a, NASB)
  • and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, (Luke 21:25b)
  • “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, (Luke 21:25, NASB)
  • men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. (Luke 21:26, NASB)

With this impressive host of local and distant future precursors the 21st century may factually be listed as the first time when people could say “Jesus is coming soon”.

Soon is better understood as quickly

If your father died saying Jesus is coming again you can say the same with equal confidence with not even a hint of panic, pressure or scare tactics.  If people are finding faith in the Son of God as a result of scary situations in the world, or due to the imminent judgment then the parousia is not going to be a pleasant experience.   If on the other hand our immediate ancestors died saying Jesus is coming soon we must separate ourselves from that madness, but when we see that the signs in the sky and dismay on the earth are occurring we are declaring that this generation will see the Lord’s appearance.  The rapidity of the Lord’s parousia had better not be a blind spot in our grasp of the divine agenda. The first meaning of tachu, ταχύ , is quickly, with speed.  “Soon” that straddles a generation is a tacky attempt to hijack the very thing that God reserves to himself; the timing of events.

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;” (Acts 1:7, NASB)

But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. (Mark 13:32, NASB)

Parousia and judgment

One of the very popular methods of the evangelists in the 21st century is to adjust people’s condition as being sinful, primarily in violation of the law of God, while in fact, those liable for the judgment are those who have no accepted the gift of faith so they can believe in the Son of god. The absence of faith is what represents the primary need for people to be saved, as John reports.  “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:18, NASB).  Most people who are preaching the parousia are not in possession of the appropriate handles for a rich harvest of new believers, but then again, they may not be looking for believers.

In outstanding contrast

eejoseph, , ,

Bible study comes in various forms and they are supposed to all end with glorious edification, but leave it to me to affirm that they also end with catastrophic confusion, regret,  and at least a good feeling. 

A scholarly Bible study 🎯

A Bible study attended by scholars is bound to be a furious rollercoaster ride with no apologies.  The theologians’ Bible study will have that Columbo effect; always “one more thing”.  This means that conclusions are likely to be multilayered, appear unnecessarily complex, and will be off the beaten path.  While the proverbial forest waits for discovery the scholars are paying attention to every little tree.  One last thing; the study is not guaranteed to end with the dart to bullseye.

A speculative inspection Bible study

A group of friends enter a wooded area, and the sound of birdsong immediately fills their ears. The blind one points over to the left, saying “House Finch”, and one lady raises her binoculars and says “There he is”, and everyone in the group turns to see a splash of red. The person who had never seen a House Finch had learned what sounds one makes. Bird watching, or more precisely, birding, can be satisfying without eyes. Bible study without eyes, or ears or lips intersecting with the Sacred Text is just not happening.

Photo by Chris F on Pexels.com

Reading repeatedly

Reading the Bible is a priority we should never overlook, as some do, opting to elevate commentaries and unhinged visions.  We should be especially wary of narratives of  Yeshua’s life coming from people who have no respect for the integrity of the four Gospels and who have no idea that plain sayings in the Bible cannot be better explained by anything beside the Bible, even when one reads over and over again.

People in New Testament times were sure of what they were reading or hearing quoted from the Bible.  The  Bible was in their language!  Explanations serve to bring the Messiah into the picture, not to clarify what the authors intended their readers.  The only way to thoroughly understand the Bible is to read it, but please do not keep making  the mistake of imposing English, French, or Spanish grammar on its sentences. When they repeated the reading it was for the purpose of emphasizing something that stood out, and in Hebrew and greek, every word stands out.

The authority of Scripture is locked up in the Scripture in languages that are foreign to most.    The impressions that come when the reader seeks understanding should never be mistaken for interpretation, because interpretation is going to be confirmed by what is written.  A person can foam at the mouth, fall down in a trance, become stuff as a plank and say God showed them x, y, and z but the proof that such manifestations are unreliable is extent in the embarrassing doctrines and practices that distinguish many faith groups of the twenty-first century.  The discovery of genuine Messianic doctrine will continue to elude us as long as people  try to pass each other off as teachers.

as also [Paul]  in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16, NASB)

The doctrine of Christ will always stand in stark contrast to the distortions of law and Levitical processes, because Christ and Moses (and the prophets) are not gospel partners.  The contrast could not be clearer.