Last Updated on : November 23, 2014 | |||
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The Return of Christ to
The Earth
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ARE you a believer in the Bible? If so, you are bound to believe that Christ, who visibly left the earth 1,900 years ago, will come back again, and appear personally among men, to accomplish the great work that God has given him to do. 1. Because the Bible records that angels declared to the Apostles that he would come in the way he went away.
If Christ is to come "in like manner as the apostles saw him go", he will come personally, visibly, and literally, for it was in a literal, personal, visible manner that the disciples saw him ascend. 2. Because it testifies that Jesus himself repeatedly stated when upon earth that though he would have to depart, he would come again.
In a parable in which Jesus pictured himself as "a certain nobleman", Jesus said:
The actual nature of Christ's going away shows us the actual nature of his coming back. It cannot mean the spread of his doctrine, for he asks, "When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith in the earth?" And it cannot mean the coming of death to his people, for Paul speaks of those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord (1 Thess. 4:15), and says of such that they will not sleep (1 Cor. 15:5 1). 3. Because it reports to us that the Apostles in their speeches proclaimed the fact of his return.
If the Apostles preached the coming of Christ, ought not that coming to be part of the preaching of the present day? This age owes any truth it may have about Christ to the teaching of the Apostles in the first century. 4. Because in their letters, the Apostles refer to it as an event to be expected and practically calculated upon.
5. Because the prophets foretell his coming in power and great glory.
Do not explain away these statements. Some say they have a figurative meaning. Such an idea is forbidden by the literal nature of Christ's first appearing, which was also the subject of prophecy before it happened. Turn up all the prophecies that foretell Christ's first appearing; study the facts of his first appearing in the light of these predictions, and you will see it is impossible consistently to give any other than a literal interpretation to the prophecies of his second appearing. And consider how very important it is that you should have Scriptural views on the subject, in view of the fact testified above, that the individual benefits of his coming are for "them that look for him", and for "them that love his appearing".
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