WORSHIP AT HOME 8 - Christs Second Coming

What will happen in the end times?

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Two ordinances have been committed to the local church-Baptism and Communion. The purpose of the church is to lead others to Christ, mature them in the faith, and equip them for personal ministry.

We believe there is but one living and true God who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. We further believe that God is one in essence while existing in three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The first person of the Trinity orders and directs all things according to His own purpose, pleasure, and grace. The Father is sovereign in creation, providence, and redemption. He has decreed all things that come to pass for His own glory. He graciously involves Himself in the affairs of men, hears and answers prayer, and saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ.

The second person of the Trinity is both the eternal Son of God and virgin-born Son of man. Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, surrendered nothing of His deity during His earthly life. We believe in His bodily resurrection, His physical ascension and His visible return to earth to establish His earthly kingdom. Man sinned by voluntary act of personal disobedience to the will of God; as a result, all men are spiritually dead and subject to the certainty of physical death. The fall of man was a non-repeatable historical fact; the effects of which are transmitted to all men, each of whom is born with a sinful nature and sins habitually in thought, word, and deed.

We believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins as the only sufficient, substitutionary sacrifice. Midtribulationists believe that the Rapture will take place at the halfway point of the seven-year tribulation, i. It coincides with the "abomination of desolation"—a desecration of the temple where the Antichrist puts an end to the Jewish sacrifices, sets up his own image in the temple, and demands that he be worshiped as God.

This event begins the second, most intense part of the tribulation. Some interpreters find support for the "midtrib" position by comparing a passage in Paul's epistles with the book of Revelation. Paul says, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" 1 Cor Revelation divides the great tribulation into three sets of increasingly catastrophic judgments: If the "last trumpet" of Paul is equated with the last trumpet of Revelation, the Rapture would be in the middle of the Tribulation. Not all interpreters agree with this literal interpretation of the chronology of Revelation, however.

Posttribulationists hold that Christ will not return until the end of the tribulation. Christians, rather than being raptured at the beginning of the tribulation, or halfway through, will live through it and suffer for their faith during the ascendancy of the Antichrist. Proponents of this position believe that the presence of believers during the tribulation is necessary for a final evangelistic effort during a time when external conditions will combine with the Gospel message to bring great numbers of converts into the Church in time for the beginning of the Millennium. Postmillennialism is an interpretation of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation which sees Christ 's second coming as occurring after the " Millennium ", a Golden Age in which Christian ethics prosper.

Postmillennialism holds that Jesus Christ establishes his kingdom on earth through his preaching and redemptive work in the first century and that he equips his church with the gospel, empowers her by the Spirit, and charges her with the Great Commission Matt Postmillennialism expects that eventually the vast majority of people living will be saved.

Increasing gospel success will gradually produce a time in history prior to Christ's return in which faith, righteousness, peace, and prosperity will prevail in the affairs of men and of nations. After an extensive era of such conditions Jesus Christ will return visibly, bodily, and gloriously, to end history with the general resurrection and the final judgment after which the eternal order follows. Postmillenialism was a dominant theological belief among American Protestants who promoted reform movements in the 19th and 20th century such as abolitionism [40] and the Social Gospel.

It has been criticized by 20th century religious conservatives as an attempt to immanentize the eschaton. Amillennialism, in Christian eschatology, involves the rejection of the belief that Jesus will have a literal, thousand-year-long, physical reign on the earth. This rejection contrasts with premillennial and some postmillennial interpretations of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation. The amillennial view regards the "thousand years" mentioned in Revelation 20 as a symbolic number, not as a literal description; amillennialists hold that the millennium has already begun and is identical with the current church age.

Amillennialism holds that while Christ's reign during the millennium is spiritual in nature, at the end of the church age, Christ will return in final judgment and establish a permanent reign in the new heaven and new earth. Many proponents dislike the name "amillennialism" because it emphasizes their differences with premillennialism rather than their beliefs about the millennium.

Some proponents also prefer alternate terms such as nunc-millennialism that is, now-millennialism or realized millennialism , although these other names have achieved only limited acceptance and usage. There were different schools of thought on the afterlife in Judea during the first century AD. The Sadducees , who recognized only the Torah first five books of the Old Testament as authoritative, did not believe in an afterlife or any resurrection of the dead.

The Pharisees , who not only accepted the Torah, but additional scriptures as well , believed in the resurrection of the dead , and it is known to have been a major point of contention between the two groups see Acts The Pharisees based their belief on passages such as Daniel Some traditions notably the Seventh-day Adventists teach that the soul sleeps after death, and will not awake again until the resurrection of the dead , while others believe the spirit goes to an intermediate place where it will live consciously until the resurrection of the dead.

By "soul", Seventh-day Adventists theologians mean the physical person monism , and that no component of human nature survives death; therefore, each human will be "recreated" at resurrection. Some denominations a notable exception are Seventh-day Adventists affirm the statement from the Catechism of the Catholic Church above , with the exception of the parenthetical phrase, "through a purification or immediately".

This alludes to the Catholic belief in a spiritual state, known as Purgatory, in which those souls who are not condemned to Hell, but are also not completely pure as required for entry into Heaven, go through a final process of purification before their full acceptance into Heaven. Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism do not believe in Purgatory as such, though the Orthodox Church is willing to allow for a period of continued sanctification the process of being made pure, or holy after death.

Most Protestants reject the doctrine of Purgatory on the basis that first, Christ has already made full atonement for our sins on the cross, thereby removing all obstacles which prevent us from coming directly into the presence of God after death; and second, it is not found in the Protestant Bible. There are many passages in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, which speak of a time of terrible tribulation such as has never been known, a time of natural and man-made disasters on an awesome scale.

Jesus said that at the time of his coming, "There will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever will be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened.

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Furthermore, the Messiah 's return and the tribulation that accompanies it will come at a time when people are not expecting it:. Paul echoes this theme, saying, "For when they say, 'Peace and safety! The abomination of desolation or desolating sacrilege is a term found in the Hebrew Bible , in the book of Daniel. In the Matthew account, Jesus is presented as quoting Daniel explicitly. This verse in the Olivet Discourse also occurs in the Gospel of Luke. Many biblical scholars [44] conclude that Matthew Preterist Christian commentators believe that Jesus quoted this prophecy in Mark Other scholars conclude that the Abomination of Desolation refers to the Crucifixion, [48] an attempt by the emperor Hadrian to erect a statue to Jupiter in the Jewish temple, [49] or an attempt by Caligula to have a statue depicting him as Zeus built in the temple.

Many interpreters calculate the length of the tribulation at seven years. The key to this understanding is the "seventy weeks prophecy" in the book of Daniel. The Prophecy of Seventy Septets or literally 'seventy times seven' appears in the angel Gabriel 's reply to Daniel, beginning with verse 22 and ending with verse 27 in the ninth chapter of the Book of Daniel , [51] a work included in both the Jewish Tanakh and the Christian Bible ; as well as the Septuagint.

The prophet has a vision of the angel Gabriel, who tells him, "Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city i. The first sixty-nine weeks are interpreted as covering the period until Christ's first coming, but the last week is thought to represent the years of the tribulation which will come at the end of this age, directly preceding the millennial age of peace:.

This is an obscure prophecy, but in combination with other passages, it has been interpreted to mean that the "prince who is to come" will make a seven-year covenant with Israel that will allow the rebuilding of the temple and the reinstitution of sacrifices, but "in the middle of the week", he will break the agreement and set up an idol of himself in the temple and force people to worship it—the "abomination of desolation".

The rapture is an Christian eschatological term used by certain Christians, particularly within branches of North American evangelicalism , referring to an end time event when all Christian believers — living and dead — will rise into Heaven and join Christ. Though it has been used differently in the past, the term is now often used by certain believers to distinguish this particular event from the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to Earth mentioned in Second Thessalonians , Gospel of Matthew , First Corinthians , and Revelation , usually viewing it as preceding the Second Coming and followed by a thousand year millennial kingdom.

The term "rapture" is especially useful in discussing or disputing the exact timing or the scope of the event, particularly when asserting the "pre-tribulation" view that the rapture will occur before, not during, the Second Coming, with or without an extended Tribulation period. There are differing views among Christians regarding the timing of Christ's return, such as whether it will occur in one event or two, and the meaning of the aerial gathering described in 1 Thessalonians 4.

Many Christians do not subscribe to rapture-oriented theological views. Though the term "rapture" is derived from the text of the Latin Vulgate of 1 Thess. Pre-tribulation rapture theology originated in the eighteenth century, with the Puritan preachers Increase and Cotton Mather , and was popularized extensively in the s by John Nelson Darby [64] [65] and the Plymouth Brethren , [66] and further in the United States by the wide circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible in the early 20th century.

In Matthew 24 Jesus states:. These false Christs will perform great signs and are no ordinary people "For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

After Jesus meets his followers "in the air", the marriage of the Lamb takes place: And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. His "wife" appears to represent the people of God, for she is dressed in the "righteous acts of the saints". As the marriage takes place, there is a great celebration in heaven which involves a "great multitude. The word resurrection comes from the Latin resurrectus, which is the past participle of resurgere, meaning to rise again.

Although the doctrine of the resurrection comes to the forefront in the New Testament, it predates the Christian era. There is an apparent reference to the resurrection in the book of Job, where Job says, "I know that my redeemer lives, and that he will stand at the latter day upon the earth. Together with my dead body, they will arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust, for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the dead".

This belief was still common among the Jews in New Testament times, as exemplified by the passage which relates the raising of Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus told Lazarus' sister, Martha, that Lazarus would rise again, she replied, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

An interpretation of the New Testament is the understanding that there will be two resurrections. Over such, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him a thousand years. The Gospel authors wrote that our resurrection bodies will be different from those we have now. Jesus said, "In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church the body after resurrection is changed into a spiritual, imperishable body:. So, in him, "all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear," but Christ "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body," into a "spiritual body" [] [77]. In some ancient traditions, it was held that the person would be resurrected at the same spot they died and were buried at just as in the case of Jesus' resurrection.

For example, in the early medieval biography of St Columba written by Adomnan of Iona , Columba at one point prophecies to a penitent at the monastery on Iona that his resurrection would be in Ireland and not in Iona, and this penitent later died at a monastery in Ireland and was buried there [78]. Although Martin Luther personally believed and taught resurrection of the dead in combination with soul sleep , this is not a mainstream teaching of Lutheranism and most Lutherans traditionally believe in resurrection of the body in combination with the immortal soul.

Several churches, such as the Anabaptists and Socinians of the Reformation, then Seventh-day Adventist Church , Christadelphians , Jehovah's Witnesses , and theologians of different traditions reject the idea of the immortality of a non-physical soul as a vestige of Neoplatonism , and other pagan traditions. In this school of thought, the dead remain dead and do not immediately progress to a Heaven , Hell , or Purgatory until a physical resurrection of some or all of the dead occurs at the end of time.

Some groups, Christadelphians in particular, consider that it is not a universal resurrection , and that at this time of resurrection that the Last Judgment will take place. Megiddo is mentioned twelve times in the Old Testament , ten times in reference to the ancient city of Megiddo , and twice with reference to "the plain of Megiddo", most probably simply meaning "the plain next to the city".

The one New Testament reference to the city of Armageddon found in Revelation Because of the seemingly highly symbolic and even cryptic language of this one New Testament passage, some Christian scholars conclude that Mount Armageddon must be an idealized location. Rushdoony says, "There are no mountains of Megiddo, only the Plains of Megiddo. This is a deliberate destruction of the vision of any literal reference to the place. Thus, "Armageddon" would mean "Mountain of Assembly," which Jordan says is "a reference to the assembly at Mount Sinai, and to its replacement, Mount Zion.

The traditional viewpoint interprets this Bible prophecy to be symbolic of the progression of the world toward the "great day of God, the Almighty" in which the great looming mountain of God's just and holy wrath is poured out against unrepentant sinners, led by Satan, in a literal end-of-the-world final confrontation. Armageddon is the symbolic name given to this event based on scripture references regarding divine obliteration of God's enemies.

The hermeneutical method supports this position by referencing Judges 4 and 5 where God miraculously destroys the enemy of His elect, Israel, at Megiddo, also called the Valley of Josaphat.

Christian scholar William Hendriksen says:. For this cause, Har Magedon is the symbol of every battle in which, when the need is greatest and believers are oppressed, the Lord suddenly reveals His power in the interest of His distressed people and defeats the enemy. When Sennacherib's , are slain by the Angel of Jehovah, that is a shadow of the final Har-Magedon. When God grants a little handful of Maccabees a glorious victory over an enemy which far outnumbers it, that is a type of Har-Magedon.

Then the world, under the leadership of Satan, anti-Christian government, and anti-Christian religion — the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet — is gathered against the Church for the final battle, and the need is greatest; when God's children, oppressed on every side, cry for help; then suddenly, Christ will appear on the clouds of glory to deliver his people; that is Har-Magedon. Millennialism from millennium , Latin for "a thousand years" , or chiliasm from the Greek equivalent , is the belief that a Golden Age or Paradise will occur on Earth prior to the final judgment and future eternal state of the " World to Come ".

Christian millennialism developed out of a Christian interpretation of Jewish apocalypticism. Christian millennialist thinking is primarily based upon the Book of Revelation, specifically He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended.

After that, he must be let out for a little while. The Book of Revelation then describes a series of judges who are seated on thrones, as well as his vision of the souls of those who were beheaded for their testimony in favor of Jesus and their rejection of the mark of the beast. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection.

Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years. Thus, Revelation characterizes a millennium where Christ and the Father will rule over a theocracy of the righteous.

While there are an abundance of biblical references to such a kingdom of God throughout the Old and New Testaments, this is the only reference in the Bible to such a period lasting one thousand years. The literal belief in a thousand-year reign of Christ is a later development in Christianity, as it does not seem to have been present in first century texts. According to the Bible, the Millennial age of peace all but closes the history of planet Earth. However, the story is not yet finished: There is continuing discussion over the identity of Gog and Magog.

In the context of the passage, they seem to equate to something like "east and west". There is a passage in Ezekiel, however, where God says to the prophet, "Set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him. Ezekiel says of him: Despite this huge show of force, the battle will be short-lived, for Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation all say that this last desperate attempt to destroy the people and the city of God will end in disaster: I will rain down on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him: Following the defeat of Gog, the last judgment begins: Following Satan's consignment to the lake of fire, his followers come up for judgment.

This is the "second resurrection", and all those who were not a part of the first resurrection at the coming of Christ now rise up for judgment:. I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.

And they were judged, each one according to his works. And Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. John had earlier written, "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.

Over such the second death has no power. Due to the description of the seat upon which the Lord sits, this final judgment is often referred to as the Great White Throne Judgment.

The breaking of the seven seals

A decisive factor in the Last Judgement will be the question, if the corporal works of mercy were practiced or not during lifetime. They rate as important acts of charity. Therefore, and according to the biblical sources Mt 5: But, in accordance with his promise , we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home 2 Peter 3: The basic difference with the promises of the Old Testament is that in Revelation they also have an ontological value Rev There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away" and no longer just gnosiological Isaiah The focus turns to one city in particular, the New Jerusalem.

Once again, we see the imagery of the marriage: Nor is there a need for the sun to give its light, "for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its light". There will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there will be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. The city itself has a large wall with twelve gates in it which are never shut, and which have the names of the twelve tribes of Israel written on them.

Each of the gates is made of a single pearl, and there is an angel standing in each one.

Christian eschatology

The wall also has twelve foundations which are adorned with precious stones, and upon the foundations are written the names of the twelve apostles. The gates and foundations are often interpreted [ who? The city and its streets are pure gold, but not like the gold we know, for this gold is described as being like clear glass. The city is square in shape, and is twelve thousand furlongs long and wide fifteen hundred miles. If these are comparable to earthly measurements, the city will cover an area about half the size of the contiguous United States.

The height is the same as the length and breadth, and although this has led most people to conclude that it is shaped like a cube, it could also be a pyramid. The city has a river which proceeds "out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. The last time we saw the tree of life was in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis says that the earth was cursed because of Adam's sin, [Gen 3: The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology Baker, says:. The rich symbolism reaches beyond our finest imaginings, not only to the beatific vision but to a renewed, joyous, industrious, orderly, holy, loving, eternal, and abundant existence.

With Songs of Praise

Perhaps the most moving element in the description is what is missing: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Christian eschatology Eschatological views Contrasting beliefs. Olivet Discourse Sheep and Goats. Second Coming Islamic eschatology. Kalki Kali Yuga Shiva. Death Resurrection Last Judgement. Messianism Book of Daniel Kabbalah. Gog and Magog Messianic Age. Prophecy of Seventy Weeks. This section possibly contains original research.

Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. April Learn how and when to remove this template message. Tree of life biblical. Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol.

WHAT WE BELIEVE

Christian Literature Publishing Co. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. The writings of Ignatius and Justin Martyr can be found in Vol. Eerdmans; Brill, — , A Study in Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy. Banner of Truth Trust. Studies in World Christianity. In Gunton, Colin E. The Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine. Luis de Alcazar of Seville, Spain, devised what became known as the 'preterist' system of prophetic interpretation.

This theory proposed that the Revelation deals with events in the Pagan Roman Empire, that antichrist refers to Nero and that the prophecies were therefore fulfilled long before the time of the medieval church. Alcazar's preterist system has never made any impact on the conservative, or evangelical wing of the Protestant movement, although in the last one hundred years it has become popular among Protestant rationalists and liberals. A far more successful attack was taken by Francisco Ribera - of Salamanca, Spain. He was the founder of the 'futurist' system of prophetic interpretation.

Instead of placing antichrist way in the past as did Alcazar, Ribera argues that antichrist would appear way in the future. About Ribera published a five hundred page commentary on the Apocalypse, denying the Protestant application of antichrist to the church of Rome.

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