kingdomready.org

Yes, you read that correctly - it says “Life is short.  Get a divorce” and then provides the phone number for a law office.  Divorce is common in our culture.  I remember having a conversation this week with a woman whose father has been married 5 times - including twice with the same woman.  In situations like that it seems like people now consider marriage like they once thought of dating.  Come and go as you please and break up when things get tough or something better comes along.

The rapture is the idea that the next event on God’s prophetic clock is for Jesus to come to the clouds of earth and snatch away the saints and take them back to heaven with him for a definite period of time.  The source of this doctrine is found in the following Scripture:

1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. ¹⁵ For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then 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 shall always be with the Lord.

“And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.” (Daniel 9:27)

The apostle John wrote Revelation in approximately 95 A.D., according to most scholars. Thus he wrote this message revealed to him by Jesus Christ about 65 years after having heard Jesus himself speak urgently about his powerful, glorious return. The writing of the Revelation was a full 25 years after the destruction of Herod’s temple in 70 A.D. John wrote this last book of the Bible maybe 10, 20, or 30 years after Luke, Matthew, and Mark had written faithful records of Jesus’ words and deeds. John was undoubtedly knowledgeable of the meaning of Jesus’ call to live a godly life rooted in genuine repentance in light of the coming kingdom of God. He was not ignorant of the concept of “imminence”, nor was he unaware of the context of Jesus’ declarations about his return.

This post is in response to the comment made by Wolfgang on Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. 

Hi Sean,
good points about Jesus’ emphasis on calling to repentance in order to be part of the kingdom of God…How was it “at hand” for those whom he addressed?  I am sure we both do not think that Jesus (a) would have possibly been wrong or (b) would have been saying something to people when it wasn’t true for them but folks living thousands of years later, yes?
God bless you
Wolfgang

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Rev 12:1-2

Whenever we end up talking about Revelation, someone always brings up this woman in Chapter 12. They’re always curious about if this is a reference to Mary?, or to the Church? or to Israel? or Zion? I’m not going to talk about the eschatalogical points of the context, I just want to focus on this woman for a second.

Jesus taught his disciples about the last times, of false prophets (Matthew 24:11), of the abomination of desolation foretold in Daniel (Matthew 24:15), and of a proliferation of both false Christs and false prophets (Matthew 24:24-25). Paul adds more information in II Thessalonians 2 regarding the man of lawlessness who John calls the Antichrist (I John 2:18, 22; 4:3 and II John 7)

Paul begins II Thessalonians 2 by encouraging the believers not to be troubled by the report that the day of the Christ had already come. Two things must happen before the day of Christ:  1) the apostasy or falling away 2) the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction (II Thessalonians 2:1-3). The man of lawlessness is an eschatological person. He will not appear until just before the Lord returns. Many men in history have seemed qualified but none are the one because Jesus destroys him with his coming (Verse 8 ).