By: Gladys Raquel Hernández
“I am coming soon! And when I come, I will reward everyone for what they have done”. (Revelation 22:12)
What does it mean that the Lord is about to return or that Jesus is coming back soon?. Will the Lord be referring to a chronological period of time, which sounds reasonable for our quite limited human understanding?
It is important to analyze the following concepts:
The last order Jesus gave to His disciples before He were raised to the sky in His glorified body, was that they should be spread throughout the countries bearing the Good News about the Kingdom of Heaven.
“Go and preach the good news to everyone in the world”. (Mark 16:15)
Furthermore, the Great Commission states:
“Jesus came to them and said: I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world”. (Matthew 28:18-20)
Jesus also promises the following:
“I will send you the one my Father has promised, but you must stay in the city until you are given power from heaven”. (Luke 24:49)
Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit, who would remain definitively on earth until Jesus´s second return, in order to fetch His church: the Lamb´s bride. (Revelation 19:7)
We should consider the following biblical verses when Jesus appears in front of His disciples after having been raised from the dead:
“After Jesus had greeted them again, he said: I am sending you, just as the Father has sent me. Then He breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit”. (John 20:21-22)
Likewise, Jesus promises:
“Then I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and always be with you. The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don´t see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you. I won´t leave you like orphans. I will come back to you”. (John 14:16-18)
After Jesus were raised from the dead and taken up to heaven where His Father is, the Apostle Paul also refers to His second return to the earth, which is very important for the church.
“With a loud command and with the shout of the chief angel and a blast of God´s trumpet, the Lord will return from heaven. Then those who had faith in Christ before they died will be raised to life. Next, all of us who are still alive will be taken up into the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the sky. From that time on we will all be with the Lord forever”. (1º Thessalonians 4:16-17)
These events have been foretold two thousand years ago. Therefore, What do we understand when it is said that the Lord is about to return?
The Sacred Scriptures state that neither Jesus nor the angels know the day or hour of Jesus´s return, as only the Father knows. (Matthew 24:36 – Mark 13:32)
One of the signals registered in the Bible about the Lord´s return is:
“When the good news about the kingdom has been preached all over the world and told to all nations, the end will come”. (Matthew 24:14)
At present, God´s people are working all round the world in order to spread the good news to the people who have never had an encounter with Jesus, specially in those countries wherein the Sacred Scriptures´diffusion is forbidden. Likewise, God warns us to continue evangelizing people these days as Jesus Christ´s disciples did two thousand years ago, by making us feel interest in His kingdom of love, peace and joy.
Why hasn´t Jesus returned to fetch His church as He promised, in spite of the great effort in evangelization carried out up to now?
The answer to this question is that we are more than six thousand million people living in the planet and everybody should have at least one encounter with Jesus Christ, the Savior, during his life, and most people haven´t had any opportunity yet due to different reasons. In general, God´s Work is developed slowly, due to the negligence, carelessness, laziness, disobedience, incredulity, disbelief and even lack of organization on our part to spread the good news effectively. The Lord yearns to reach a great number of people worldwide who have accepted Jesus as their savior and have repented of their sins, in order to get the eternal salvation of their souls.
Pursuant to God´s criteria, He still feels mercy for us and wants to go on giving us redemption opportunities in order to reach a greater number of people He will consider suitable to constitute His great chosen people, before His coming anger is manifested against the wicked people and the rebels who will not be raised to heaven in order to encounter the Lord and who will suffer the Great Tribulation.
We can appreciate the following biblical verses that express the concepts hereinabove mentioned:
“From heaven God shows how angry he is with the wicked and evil things that sinful people do to crush the truth”. (Romans 1:18)
“But you are stubborn and refuse to turn to God. So you are making things even worse for yourselves on that day when he will show how angry he is and will judge the world with fairness”. (Romans 2:5)
“They also tell how you are waiting for his Son Jesus to come from heaven. God raised him from death, and on the day of judgment Jesus will save us from God´s anger”. (1º Thessalonians 1:10)
“This will be the worst time of suffering since the beginning of the world, and nothing this terrible will ever happen again”. (Matthew 24:21)
Other biblical verses that mention God´s anger are in Revelation 16:1 – Romans 5:9 - Luke 3:7 and Matthew 3:7
God is good and merciful, but according to the biblical prophecies, He will spread His anger over the wicked people and the rebels who have not accepted Jesus, during the time of the Great Tribulation and He will save His church from His anger (dead in Christ raised to life and alive people transformed who have accepted Jesus), who will live with Him forever.
According to God´s time, the period is already fulfilled to send Jesus to fetch His redeemed church. It was fulfilled on June 7th, 1967 when Jerusalem, which had been in possession of the Hachemite Kingdom of Jordan, was recovered by Israel. (Luke 21:24)
We can appreciate the following biblical verses:
“So be on your guard! You don´t know when your Lord will come. (Matthew 24:42)
“Always be ready! You don´t know when the Son of Man will come”. (Matthew 24:44)
Despite the fact that God has drawn our attention and has warned us about all these events to happen, His Word has been distorted throughout the centuries with the introduction of the many diverse religions and sects which have confused the human race and have diverted people from Jesus Christ´s doctrine (His correct teaching). We can only understand the spiritual world and Jesus´s wise doctrine, when the Holy Spirit is revealed to our lives, because God gives us understanding and wisdom to that effect.
We should consider these biblical verses:
“Don´t keep changing what you were taught about Christ, or else God will no longer be with you. But if you hold firmly to what you were taught, both the Father and the Son will be with you”. (2º John 1:9)
“If you teach these things to other followers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. You will show that you have grown up on the teachings about our faith and on the good instructions you have obeyed”. (1º Timothy 4:6)
“Titus, you must teach only what is correct”. (Titus 2:1)
At present, God is looking for servants (men and women) engaged in their responsibilities, in order to spread the good news all round the world effectively because His purpose is to fulfill His Work in our lives and He will do so as it is already foretold in the Bible. God yearns to touch you with His Holy Spirit and that you allow Him to mould you so that He can guide you and direct your life according to His purposes.
“They replied, Have faith in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved! This is also true for everyone who lives in your home”. (Acts 16:31)
I would like to finish this article with a biblical verse that is a noble and marvelous God´s promise that springs from His tender heart. It is the promise that encloses all the promises. It is the plan that God Father, God Son and God Holy Spirit sealed at any time of the eternity, when you and I did not even exist, when the world did not even exist. The Three of Them in One (the Holy Trinity) thought about you and me and loved us so much that they decided to create us to be like Them (Genesis 1:26). Furthermore, they wanted us to rule all over the world!!! (Genesis 1:28). How much love to us! But all of us disobeyed. In spite of it, our heavenly Father amazed us with the good news of getting the redemption of our souls through the sacrifice of our faithful savior: Jesus.
“You died, which means that your life is hidden with Christ, who sits beside God. Christ gives meaning to your life, and when he appears, you will also appear with him in glory”. (Colossians 3:3-4)
We should receive this marvelous promise on the part of our Creator and good God who will always love us !!! (Jeremiah 31:3)
AMEN!!!
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