Heaven and Earth Passed Away

We looked last week at the time statements in the Bible as to the coming of the Lord. We saw that he said he would come -- while some that were standing there were still living; in that generation; soon; quickly; at hand; he said his coming was near. Everywhere that the Bible talks about the Lord's coming it gives us a time statement. The NT saints fully expected the Lord to return in their lifetime. 

How could we possibly miss this? Yet the majority of believers today, some two thousand years later are still saying that the Lord will return soon. Can the same event be imminent at two different periods of time separated by two thousand years? Someone said to me that they felt that the Lord said he was coming soon because he wanted every generation to be watching for Him. 

Think about that. What that means is that when he told the first century believers that he was coming back soon, he really didn't mean it, he was giving them false information to keep them looking for Him. Can you live with that? If that was the case what else did he tell them that wasn't true? Do we have a God who intentionally deceives men? Isn't it much easier to simply believe what Jesus said and believe that he came back in the first century?

What is at stake here is the inspiration of Scripture. If Jesus was mistaken or if he lied to us then what good is the rest of the Bible? There are those opponents who say that if you believe that Jesus came back in the first century then you don't need to read your Bible any more. I don't understand that argument, but if Jesus didn't come back in the first century, when he said that he would then you might as well throw your Bible out because if it isn't inspired, it isn't any good. I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and therefore without errors.

Comments

  1. Anonymous8:43 AM

    Good point, though sometimes it's hard to arrive to definite conclusions

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Self-Convicted Moralists

Image
    The Consequences of Judging Others   Jesus is clear that his followers should not engage in condemning judgment toward others. And throughout his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about how he clearly sees our inner motivations—the hidden realities that shape our lives—in a way that no else can. He takes into account our grief, our disappointment, our desire to be noticed, our worry about the future, and our sincere desire to please God.  So when we look down on another person, we act as though we can see their inner realities just as clearly. We end up playing God. And we know from the beginning of the whole story, back in Gen. 1-3, that playing God never works well. Remember how humans bring corruption and death upon themselves precisely because they try to determine right and wrong apart from God, according to what is good or bad in their own eyes. In Genesis, and in Jesus’ teaching, we can hear God saying, “As finite beings, you do not have what it takes to ma...
Read more

predestination foreknowledge effectual calling: is according to God’s purpose

Image
  God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill, He treasures up his bright designs And works his sovereign will. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust him for his grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face. William Cowper  Now surely, one of the most comforting things about any faith in the absolute sovereignty of the grace of God ought to be the assurance we derive from that faith that God is still on the throne even in our most dismal defeats and that the clouds we so much dread are waiting to pour only showers of blessing on our head. Arthur C. Custance, The Sovereignty of Grace (Curt Daniel, The History and Theology of Calvinism (Darlington, Co Durham: EP Books, 2019), 717.) Surely apart from You the way cannot be perfected, nor can...
Read more

Peter’s confession

Image
    Now when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he began asking his disciples, saying, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” 17 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it! Mt 16:13–18 LEB Caesarea Philippi was located in the northern part of the Old Testament region of Bashan, the “place of the serpent,” at the foot of Mount Hermon. The linguistic note is intriguing since Bashan/Bathan both also mean “serpent,” so that the region of Bashan was “the place of the serpent As we...
Read more

I pray for them: I pray not for the world; destruction at work in the world outside

Image
   I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. John 17:9 KJV The world seems here to signify all mankind, for whom Christ in this place doth not pray; though some interpret it of reprobates, others of unbelievers. Christ afterward prayed for the world, Jn.17:20; that is, for such who, though they at present were unbelievers, yet should be brought to believe by the apostles’ ministry.  But to teach us to distinguish in our prayer, our Saviour here distinguishes, and prayeth for some things for his chosen ones, which he doth not pray for on the behalf of others: these he described to be such as his Father (whose they were) had given him, either by an eternal donation, or by working faith in them. Jn.17:19 (Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible, vol. 3 (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1853), 368.) John probably remembered these words of our Lord when he wrote his epistle some years later. To all believe...
Read more