DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- JESUS IS COMING!

DAD'S RAMBLINGS – JESUS IS COMING!

"Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him..." (II Thessalonians 2:1)

There was confusion in the church at Thessalonica regarding the return of the Lord Jesus to this earth. There was the promise that Jesus would return. Remember that when Jesus ascended into heaven, His followers watched as He rose into the sky. Then there appeared two angels who proclaimed that "this same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11).

The early church lived in anticipation that Jesus would soon return. Apparently there were those who taught that Jesus had returned and there were some who had missed it. The Apostle Paul comforts and encourages the believers at Thessalonica by giving a time-line by which they could judge the coming of the Lord.

First he said that there would be a great falling away, before the man of sin, the antichrist, would be revealed. The Greek word translated "falling away" is the word "apostasia" from which we get the word "apostasy." In another place, Paul wrote that in the last days, there will be a great falling away from the faith (I Timothy 4:1).

Then, Paul said that the antichrist was being restrained, but when that restraint was removed, there will be nothing to keep him from doing his work – of setting himself up in the temple of God and declaring that he himself is God and doing signs and wonders, deceiving many people. But in the end, the Lord will return and consume him with the fire of His mouth and destroy him with the brightness of his coming (vss. 6-9).

Whatever happens, we know that Jesus is coming, and He has told us to be ready and look for His return. It has been 2,000 years and He has not returned yet, but 2,000 years is a blink of an eye in God's timetable. We can be sure that Jesus will return in the fullness of God's time. In the meantime, let us be faithful as we look for His return. As the Apostle Peter wrote, "Therefore, since all things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God" (II Peter 3:11-12a). Jesus is coming again. The day is closer now than when the promise was first made. Let us be ready.

Love, Dad