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| A belief that Christ may return at any time, sometimes referred to as His imminent return, has become so widespread in Christianity that it is even considered the norm in some Christian church denominations. (This imminence view ignores some important parts of Holy Scripture or twists them to fit imminence-ideology) |
tells us in Psalm 110:1 that, at the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, God said to Him –
| "Sit at My right hand, UNTIL I make Your enemies Your footstool." |
| That has not yet happened! So how then will it happen?... |
| "Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of Your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of Your youth will be Yours." (verse 3) |
keeps His word!
Hebrews 10:13.
redemptive works of Jesus resulted in the gift of the Holy Spirit given to all God's people
(just as He had been given to Christ's humanity at His baptism) –
| 1. | His atoning death before God | • by which we are redeemed (sins forgiven) | 2 Corinthisns 5:21. | ||
| 2. | His resurrection from the dead | • by which we are born again (new life given) | Ephesians 2:5. | ||
| 3. | His exaltation to the right hand of the Throne | • by which we have a new standing/status before God | Ephesians 2:6. |
| The 4 Jerusalem Works of Jesus |
"This Gospel..."
in order to complete among all nations this same gospel ministry which had begun in Jesus,
as Jesus Himself said –
| "...this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, & THEN the End will come" |
some have made out that this 'end' does not refer to Christ's return for His people, and have pretended that 'this gospel' is also not the gospel ministry commissioned to His church, as though it is some other 'gospel' preached by Israel during a seven-year tribulation period after Christ has evacuated His church from this world.
(If Christ's Church needs to be 'rescued from Antichrist' then every Christian martyr needs an apology from those hwo teach this nonsense!)
but to make it even clearer, the Bible says that the supernatural gifts of Christian leadership ministry given at Pentecost for the completion to thw whole world of Christ's gospel mission were given UNTIL the job is done –
| "...He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, UNTIL we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ..." |
– for this spiritual maturity is absolutely necessary if the church is to complete its Christ-given mission!
of this, as being the necessary precondition to Christ's return, is made plain concerning the precondition for the spiritual restoration of Israel to God, which we know is only fulfilled when our actually Lord appears* –
| "Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, UNTIL the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." |
(Zechariah 14:4).
