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Christ The Coming Warrior-King -
Part 2 |
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He Comes!
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Throughout the history of
this world there have been
many happenings which were
frightening and conflicts
where casualties were beyond
actual numbering. Some of
us can remember the Vietnam
war where thousands of young
men and women died, or the
Sunday morning when Mount
St. Helens erupted. That
was a catastrophic event.
However, nothing in earth’s
history can compare with the
events concerning the signs
which indicate the coming of
the Lord to the earth. |
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a) |
Prior to the Lord coming,
the signs will be alarming,
but even they are not as
fearsome as when the Lord
visually comes. When He
comes it will be utterly
terrifying (Rev. 1:7;
6:15-17), unmistakable
(Matt. 24:29-30), and
universal (Rev. 1:7). This
paper will consider how the
Lord is coming and the
severity of His judgments. |
How The Lord Is Coming
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The contrasts: |
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a) |
The coming of the Lord to
the earth has two
contrasting results. To
Israel He will come as
Judge, Deliverer, Restorer
and Redeemer. It will be a
time of recognition, the
personal
efficacy
secured by His sacrifice (Isa.
53:4b, 5, 6), cleansing
(Zech. 13:1), and full
restoration, both to the
Lord and the two houses of
Israel and Judah (Ezek.
37:4, 15, 22, 27). For the
rebellious world His coming
will be a time of balanced
justice and fierce anger
without mercy. I say
“balanced” because the word
“punished” (2 Thess. 1:9)
indicates the execution of
punishment that fits the
crime. It will be (at that
time) no more than those
particular ones deserve, and
no less. Much the same as
Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen.
13:13;19:1, 24-29). Some
might ask, “Is it fair for
all to be slain?” The
answer from Revelation
19:19-21 is the Lord is
dealing with those who will
be the united military and
political arm of the beast
and false prophet loyalists. |
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i) |
All those in the armies of
the beast will be those who
have received his mark,
worshipped the beast and
worshipped Satan (Rev. 13:4,
8; 19:20). All others will
be judged at the judgment of
the nations (Matt.
25:31-46) |
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ii) |
The judgment of the nations
does not mean they will be
judged as a nation, but as
the passage shows, they will
be judged as individuals in
those nations. |
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b) |
There are two major
judgments when the Lord
comes to reign: |
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i) |
Judgment concerning Israel
(Ezek. 20:37-38; Zech.
13:8-9) |
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ii) |
Judgment of the nations
(Matt. 25:31-46) |
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iii) |
There are two more
judgments: |
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1. |
The judgment of the fallen
angels (demons), I am not
sure when that will take
place (Jude 1:6) |
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2. |
But
the Great White Throne is
after the removal of the
earth (Rev. 20:11-15) |
The Rebelliousness Of Humanity
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Just
as the Lord determined that
the children of Israel would
not be able to begin to take
possession of the promised
inheritance until the
iniquity of the Amorites had
reached its highest peak in
wickedness (Gen. 15:16), so
it will be with the
characteristic of the
peoples of the world when
the Lord comes to reign.
Not only will humanity be as
they were in the days of
Noah and Lot, but with the
Restrainer taken away. then
the full flood of wickedness
can gush out like waters of
a dam. Man will become more
debased and blasphemous in
the passage of time so that
even though man recognized
the judgments are from God,
he will not repent. Much
the same as Pharaoh, his
counsellors told him, “This
is the finger of God”
(Ex.
8:19), but Pharaoh remained
defiant, and even when his
gods had been disgraced and
his own son had died, he was
still defiant in that he
went to get the children of
Israel back. In that time,
just before the Lord comes,
humanity will have: |
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a) |
Reached their utmost hatred
and determination to wipe
Israel off the map. |
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b) |
Reached the zenith of
defiance against God
politically, mocking the
place God has determined for
Christ, displacing God, His
rights over humanity, and
denying Him of the worship
which is His
due. |
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c) |
Reached the zenith of man’s
defiance against God
religiously in man claiming
to be God. |
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d) |
In Revelation there is
revealed to us the end of
the world’s religions, its
commerce, its leadership and
its militaries (Rev.
19:18-19). |
It must not be assumed that the
conflicts between Christ and man
will be over in a few minutes. In
Daniel it is evident there is a
period of 35 days after the
tribulation in which the battle of
the Lord’s at
Armageddon
will take place. Furthermore, the
powers of the South will come up
seemingly into Israel and then
people from the North will come
against them and push them back into
Egypt. The
aggressor
from the North will hear tidings
from the North and will return to
fight against the Lord, and of
course will be utterly destroyed.
The world that rejected the covenant
God ratified by the Blood of the
Lord at Calvary will make a covenant
with death and Hell (Isa. 28:15,
18).
The Severity Of His Judgments
When Lord comes to rule for one
thousand years (Rev. 20:2-5), it
will begin with the removal of the
man of sin (the Beast) and the False
prophet. These two
individuals
are the
cumulation
of evil, being Satan’s zenith of
attempting by deceptively falsifying
and nullifying God’s exaltation of
Christ on earth. The false prophet
will be Satan’s apex of deceptively,
falsifying the Holy Spirit. The
Beast will be the
“Commander in Chief of the earth’s
militaries” (Rev. 19:19), the
False Prophet will be the “Supreme
Commander” of earth’s religion.
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At the minute the Lake of
Fire is empty, the first
ones to be cast into it are
these two men. At a moment
of time they will be removed
from this earth so swiftly
that their transference from
earth and time into the Lake
of Fire and eternity will be
over in a moment of time
(Rev. 19:20). |
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a) |
Why will the Lord be (in our
fleshly thoughts) so severe
in His judgments? |
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i) |
When the Lord was here, when
praying He said, “I have
glorified thee on the earth:
I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do”
(Jn. 17:4). While this
primarily had to do with His
declaring the Father’s Name,
“And I have declared unto
them thy name, and will
declare it” (Jn. 17:26), the
last three words signified
the continuance of declaring
the Father’s name. This
means the manifestation of
the character of God in the
total opposition of all that
mocked God, of all that is
from Satan, and of all the
damage and distortion done
by sin. Christ lived for
the glory of God, in so
doing He was constantly and
consistently manifesting the
character of God.
Consequently, when the Lord
comes to the earth to reign,
there must be the
eradication of all that
offends. There must be
righteous judgment on those
who mocked God’s salvation,
His person,
prerogatives
and purposes. The honour of
God is at stake. |
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b) |
The severity of His
judgments. |
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i) |
Every
passage
that speak of the Lord’s
return to earth is dreadful
beyond comprehension. In my
mind the words of Isaiah
34:5 are utterly
terrifying. The words that
are used to describe the
judgments are; “the people
of my curse” (Isa. 34:5); “indignation”,
“fury” (Isa. 34:2); “he hath
utterly
destroyed them, He hath
delivered them to the
slaughter” (Isa. 34:2).
There are two Hebrew words
to
describe
the anger of God, “Angry”
which means the outbursting
of anger, and “wrath or
heat” indicates abiding
animosity.
To “utterly destroy”
indicates a place of
segregation. In this
context it means the
individual
is removed from all possible
reconciliation with God. |
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c) |
The timing of the Lord’s
coming. |
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i) |
There are a number of
passages in the Scriptures
which convey the timing of
the coming of the Lord. It
is true as our Lord said,
“But of that day and
hour knoweth no man, no, not
the angels of heaven, but my
Father only” (Matt. 24:36).
However, Matthew also
records the words of the
Lord, “Immediately after the
tribulation of those days”
(Matt. 24:29); “and then
shall appear” (Matt. 24:30);
“and then shall all
the tribes of earth mourn”
(Matt. 24:30). Note the
time markers |
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d) |
The
most basic observation is
that
Revelation is not
written chronologically, but
thematically. To get a
basic understanding of the
seal judgments an individual
must follow the structure of
the
Lord
in Matthew 24 which means
that the 5th seal comes
AFTER Matthew 24:8. The
abomination of Desolation is
clearly the setting up of
the image of the Beast (Rev.
13:14-15), and the man of
sin sitting in the temple of
God “showing himself that he
is God” (2 Thess. 2:4). It
is not that these are
atheists but they do believe
in God, but not the God of
Heaven, but of their own
devising and this man is the
terminus of supplanting the
God of Heaven by the
personification
of the atheistic philosophy
of
hedonistic
teaching. This is the
cumulation of New Age
teaching and
Mormonism
that man can be God and is
that which Adam promised
Eve. In such an environment
there will be no such a
thing as freedom of speech,
but rather an advanced form
of communism where there
will be total and
irrevocable
submission to the government
of the Beast. |
The Description of The Lord’s Coming
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In describing the coming of
the Lord it is not in
parabolic or illustrative
language. It is in the
unmistakable clarity of
expressions: |
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a) |
Matt. 24:26-30. The
immediate context is those
who are false Christ and
anitichrists deceiving many
so that they are saying,
“Messiah is come and is in
the dessert etc”. The Lord
then tells of His coming and
by use of lightening. It is
evident there will be no
mistaking it, like
lightening flashing from the
East to the West. It will
be so intense that even
those who pierced Him (Rev.
1:7) will see Him. I can
see no reason to limit that
to Israel at that time. |
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b) |
He shall come “in the clouds
of Heaven” (Matt. 24:30;
Jude 1:14-15; Rev. 1:7). My
understanding is it is not
the fluffy white things of
earth, but rather the “ten
thousands of His saints”
(Jude 1:14); “mighty angels”
(2 Thess. 1:7); “Holy Ones”
(Jude 1:14); like an
approaching army filling the
skies and moving
unrelentingly to this
earth. This will be more
terrifying than the stars
falling and the powers of
the heaven shaken (Matt.
24:29). |
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c) |
2 Thess. 1:7-9 depicts that
event more fearfully, “The
Lord Jesus shall be revealed
from Heaven with his mighty
angels, in flaming fire”.
There has been dreadful
forest fires on earth
consuming everything in its
path, but
humanity
has never seen anything like
this. The forest fires of
earth are fires which can be
extinguished, the sun is a
ball of fire, but all such
utterly fade into
insignificance when the Lord
as “flaming fire” descends
to earth. It is not “descends
fire” but in “Flaming fire”
that is a flashing,
humanity
uncontrollable. It is not
just the Lord who appears as
a flaming fire, for the
better truth is better
understood
in connection with Hebrews
1:7 where his angels are
spoken
of as “flaming fire”.
Thus, the
scene
is the heavens opened,
and out of Heaven comes the
man who was rejected on
earth, then with thousands
of angelic hosts as a
flaming fire
descending.
There is no escape. The
expression “flaming fire”
reminds one of Exodus 3:2
when Moses was at the
burning bush, and of His
eyes in Revelation 1:14;
2:18. |
For those who are saved, perhaps we
need to face the fact that there
could well be people we work with,
live with, who will see this event,
and that is exceedingly tragic.
However, more dreadful is that this
is not Hell or the Lake of Fire
which has yet to happen. |
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