The Father and the Son Make Their Abode With the Believer
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:3)
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (John 14:18)
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)
"I will come again." "I will come to you." "We will come unto him."
Is this the coming of the Lord to the world?
The passages that declare the coming of the Lord from Heaven, such as Matthew, Chapter 24, I Corinthians, Chapter 15, and the books of I and II Thessalonians, reveal that the Lord Jesus will appear in worldwide glory and destroy Antichrist by the brightness of His glorious appearing.
The fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John speaks of another coming, the coming of the Lord to the individual believer who keeps the words of Christ. This personal appearing is taught in the Scriptures in addition to the worldwide coming in which every eye shall see Him.
We have not found in the Scriptures the disappearing of the saints in a so-called "rapture" of the Body of Christ prior to the revealing of the man of sin. Such a premature disappearing and ascension would prevent that which Christ is creating in His Church.
The coming of which John speaks is the coming of the Father and the Son to make Their abode with the believer in fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 16:16).
Christ returned to Heaven in order to prepare a place for us in the Father’s house, that is, in Himself. The Church, the Body of Christ, is destined to be an eternally inseparable part of Him.
Now Christ has come again to us, through the Holy Spirit, in order to conduct personally our preparation as an eternal part of Himself.
Christ is here now in order to receive us to Himself. He stands at the door of our personality and knocks. If we hear His voice and open the door of our heart to Him, He comes into our personality and dines with us on the Life of God, and we dine with Him.
The Scriptures teach the personal coming of the Lord to each faithful disciple in a manner not observable by the world—or even by the lukewarm churches.
Contents
Preparation for the coming to us of the Father and the Son.
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2)
There is an "inner man of the heart," a "new creation," in each true saint. The new creation indeed is a new person who has been born of God through Christ. The new man, the unique compound of the believer and the Lord, is the Kingdom of God. It is in the new man that the Father and Christ will abide eternally.
It is all-important to the Christian that proper attention be given to the development of the new creation. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, it is the new creation who has been born of God who inherits the Kingdom of God and is the Kingdom of God.
Christ had to go to the cross in order for us to become the abiding place of God. Christ opened His heart to us so that we may enter Himself and find green pastures and quiet waters.
Christ’s body was broken and His blood shed. He made an atonement for us by His death on the cross. Now He feeds the new man of our heart with His body and blood so that His Divine Substance and Nature, which form the dwelling place of the Lord God of Heaven, may be in us.
If we desire to be part of the Father’s house we must eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ. We must be living by Him as He lives by the Father. Our whole inner nature must be re-created as a suitable abode for God and Christ. The Ark of the Covenant always comes to rest in a prepared place.
Christ is making intercession for us as we experience daily the death of the old man and the strengthening of the new man of our heart. The cloud of witnesses surrounds us, the saints in light urging us forward to the perfection in which they will share.
Many obstacles appear before us as we seek the fullness of the inheritance. We overcome every one of them by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and by loving not our life to the death.
Divine grace coming to us from Heaven is preparing us so that the Father and the Son may find rest in us. The Holy Spirit is strengthening our inner man.
Testings and afflictions are sent our way. We pray in our affliction. We put on the whole armor of God. We hold up the shield of faith. We learn to stand in the evil day.
We put on the mind of Christ. We meditate each day in the Scriptures, becoming wise therein. The Word of God renews our mind resulting in the transformation of our personality. We beat our body down, refusing to indulge its lusts and appetites. We present our body to God a living sacrifice.
The various ministries and gifts of the Holy Spirit given to other members of the Body of Christ, and to us, play their role in shaping and forming the Temple of God in us. God helps with dreams, visions, and other kinds of special guidance that strengthen and direct us on certain occasions.
God freely has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness for our preparation, just as Esther was given "things for purification" so that she would be a fit wife for the King of Persia (Esther 2:9).
God has been prepared. Christ has been prepared. We are being prepared.
Christ was wounded. We are being wounded. Wound is pressed against wound and bound in place. Then the Life from the eternal Vine flows into the branches, and buds, blossoms, and fruit appear. This is the Kingdom of God—God in Christ in us in Christ in God. God is All in all in the Kingdom.
The Way, the Truth, and the Life.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal dwelling place of the God of Heaven. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. Yet, Christ returned to the Father. Here is a mystery.
In the Kingdom of God, Christ is in us and the Father in Him. Yet, we will go to Christ and the Father one day. The mystery of the Gospel is Christ in us, the hope of glory to come.
We understand, then, that there is both an internal and also an external aspect of the Kingdom of God. It is essential to our spiritual maturing that we maintain both aspects in proper balance.
When the Word of God comes to maturity in our personality we will possess a transformed inner nature, and also strong bonds to the Father in Heaven through Christ. Both aspects are necessary.
Going to Heaven when we die produces neither maturity of character nor union with God through Christ. It is as Christ is formed in us, not as we go to Heaven, that internal and external relationships to the Godhead are established.
In Christ is eternal Life, and that Life is the Light of men. How often the Christian churches have misunderstood this most fundamental of Kingdom truths! The Light of God does not come to us through words addressed to our mind. Mental comprehension is not the source of the Light of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is not in word but in the Life of Christ.
It is Christ Himself who is our Light, and it is His Life that is our Light. It is the Life of Christ formed in us and dwelling in us that enables us to abide in God and God in us.
Christ does not show us the way, tell us the truth, and then breathe life into us. This is not how the Kingdom of God comes.
Rather, Christ Himself Is the Way. Christ Himself Is the Truth. Christ Himself Is the Life. Christ Himself Is Yahweh, the I Am. He Is, "I am whatever I choose to be—all you ever will need or desire."
There is an eternal gulf between Christ speaking to us and showing us the way, and Christ Himself becoming all we need or desire.
"I am the Resurrection and the Life." "Before Abraham was, I am."
In the first concept, that of Christ showing us the way and telling us the truth concerning God, Christ remains external to our being. Man is an incredibly self-centered, self-willed creature. In his lust to exalt himself he will attempt to learn the way and the truth from Christ in order to use the Divine knowledge and skill to build monuments to his own glory. This is the motive behind the Tower of Babel, the "three tabernacles" of Peter, and church movements and denominations.
In the second concept, that of Christ becoming the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we come into union with Christ. We are not gaining anything from Christ or using Him to accomplish our own ends. Rather, He is the one who gains. He gains the unhindered use of our spirit, soul, and body in order to accomplish His own ends. Christ’s ends are the Father’s ends because the Father uses the Spirit, Soul, and body of Christ in order to accomplish God’s ends.
No one is to attempt to use God as a means to an end. God always is the End of every worthy quest. Self-seeking, self-motivated religious man would attempt to use God for his own ends. This religious spirit always has and always will murder the prophets of God. It is the False Prophet.
The False Prophet is the imitation of Christ. It is a religious spirit and proceeds from the soul of man. The "faith" and "prosperity" doctrines are modern expressions of the False Prophet.
The question of who is serving whom is an important one in the Kingdom of God. The true saint is a slave, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the Servant of God.
Today we are willing to be a friend of Christ but not a slave of Christ. We have Scripture to "prove" our position. Our hearts are dreadfully wrong.
It is impossible for any human being to become a living stone in the eternal Temple of God until he specifically and resolutely determines that he is seeking union with Christ, and not the power and things of Christ for his own purposes and advantage.
This is a difficult, a crucifying decision for an ambitious Christian to make. After the correct decision has been verbalized it requires Job-like tribulations before the truth of it has entered the inner parts of our personality.
This is what is so terribly dangerous about the current emphasis on "speaking the word of faith." This teaching and practice tends to emphasize how man benefits rather than how Christ benefits. As a result it rejects all hindrances, tribulations, and afflictions as being "of the devil," not realizing or accepting the fact that much or most of what the Christian suffers in this life is the necessary chastening of the Lord.
The suffering of the saint, by slaying his self-will, prepares him to rule with Christ. Apart from such suffering no human being ever will rule as a coheir with Christ.
As for speaking the word of faith, Christ could have commanded the stone to become bread. He refrained from doing so. Why? Because man cannot live by bread alone but must be hearing from God in every situation; and God was not leading Christ to create bread.
Tribulation works patience, and patience is one of the massive pillars of the Temple of God. Impatience is the image of Satan. Self-seeking religious man, being filled with the spirit of Satan, rejects all forms of self-denial, all that appears to be negative and injurious to his pursuit of liberty and happiness.
The "faith message," as it often is preached, is of the False Prophet. It is presented today as the Gospel of Christ. Those who are destined for destruction will hear it, believe it, and never understand the error of it until the Day of the Lord.
The true saint rejects the idea of attempting to use faith for his own benefit and instead is seeking to become the eternal dwelling place of the Father and the Son through the Spirit.
We cannot be adequately prepared to dwell in God, and God in us, merely by being instructed with words. Rather, Christ Himself must be formed in our personality; and then He must come in Person through the Holy Spirit, bringing His Father with Him.
Christ in us is the Way. His body and blood in us are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It is His body and blood that will draw us to the "carcass" that will appear at the end of the age, distinguishing between us and the person who is working with us in the field or grinding with us at the mill.
Christ stands at the door of our heart, and knocks. Sometimes He knocks so powerfully that our environment rocks under the blows. When He gains our attention, He speaks. It is a quiet voice.
If we are too busy with our idols we cannot hear His voice. Blessed is the individual who has ears to hear what the Spirit is speaking to the churches.
As soon as we hear the voice of Christ we have a decision to make. For some believers it can be a very difficult decision.
The Day of the Lord is drawing near. As a result, multitudes of the Lord’s people are being forced into the valley of decision.
What is the decision we must make when we hear that Voice?
The decision is: Will I use Christ to show me the way and tell me the truth, and then maintain my own way before Him? Or will I give up my own life and enter the eternal flowing of His Life?
When we first hear of becoming one with Christ we are told that if we will abide in Him He will answer our prayers. Isn’t that immature and self-centered? Imagine. The Lord God of Heaven proposes marriage to us, and all we can think of is that I will get my prayers answered.
How childish and self-centered we are!
Later we begin to understand that God is asking us to surrender our idols to Him. It is at this point that we are brought to the core of the decision: Will I seek to save my life? Or will I agree to lose my life for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s?
The gifted minister is asked if he is willing to become a nobody. The strong in body is asked if he is willing to minister while he is afflicted. The beautiful woman is asked if she will serve God in disfigurement. The young man is asked if he will turn away from the desire of his heart.
Abraham is asked if he will offer his son as a burnt offering.
Peter is asked if he loves Jesus more than he does fish.
How much do we love Christ? Enough to give Him cheerfully and gladly all that He asks for? If not, we have an idol. We can bring no idol into the Temple of God.
No individual ever will be forced to become a part of the Temple of God, the Wife of the Lamb. Christ’s love toward us is intense, single-minded, self-sacrificing. We are invited to return that kind of love to Him. If we do not, He will not accept us in this supreme relationship. We will come short of His highest purpose concerning us.
Christ’s name is Jealous . He is asking for our love.
Christ never will open the door of our heart and enter us. We must open the door. We can open the door of our life and rejoice as He becomes our Salvation; or we can keep Him outside and attempt to learn from His words and to work for Him in our own way, hoping that we will be rewarded for what we accomplish in His name.
If we choose to open the door, Christ enters us. He dines with us, and we with Him, on His own body and blood—the blood of the new covenant. We partake with Him of the abundant Life of the Father. We take His yoke on us and learn of Him. He brings us into the knowledge of the Father; and the knowledge of the Father is eternal life.
Christ becomes the Way to the Father by transforming us from within, by giving us to eat of His body and to drink of His blood.
When first we become a Christian we strive to do what the Scriptures command. This we are required to do.
As we keep the Word, something begins to take place in us. Christ, the Day Star, begins to arise in us. The power to abide in God, the desire and ability to please God, increase in us.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy (the Scriptures); whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: (II Peter 1:19)
The new covenant is not the writings of the Apostles, as inspired and supremely valuable as those writings are. The new covenant is the creation and dwelling of Christ in us. This is our hope of glory. But in order to enter the new covenant we must keep the commandments of the Apostles as the Holy Spirit enables us.
Christ Himself Is the Truth from God. Truth is not a statement of theology nor is it a collection of facts. The Truth is a Person. The Scriptures themselves point us to the Truth; they bear witness of the Truth.
The priests and Pharisees believed that they possessed truth in the Law and the Prophets. They trusted in them for eternal life.
Christ confronted them. "Search the Scriptures," He said, "because you hope to obtain eternal life from them. But the Scriptures point to Me, they bear witness of Me. Why will you not come to Me and receive life?"
There is no eternal life in the Scriptures. The purpose of the Scriptures is to bring us to eternal Life, who is Christ.
How many today are confused on this point? They believe that Christ, because He is the Word of God, is synonymous with the Scriptures. Christ is not synonymous with the Scriptures. It is possible to know the Scriptures and yet be empty of eternal life; in fact, to murder eternal life everywhere He appears.
The Pharisees loved the Scriptures. They doted on the Scriptures. Not that they understood the Scriptures because no person can understand the Scriptures until Christ breaks the bread of life to him. If the Scriptures equaled Christ, the Pharisees would have loved and doted on Christ. They demonstrated that it is possible to love the Scriptures and at the same time to hate Christ, who is the Word of God.
The nations of the world are stumbling through the valley of the shadow of death. They are stumbling because there is no light in them. The only true light is the Life of Christ. He is the Truth from God. He alone lights every man who is born into the world.
In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. No system of education can be effective until it is based on the Lord Jesus Christ. Truth does not exist apart from Christ.
Christ Himself is the Way to the Father. Christ Himself is the Truth concerning the Father. Christ Himself is the Life from the Father. Christ is able to give life to us, but it is far better when He Himself becomes the Life in us. This is abundant life. This is the fountain of life that never runs dry. This is the spiritual fulfillment of the Levitical feast of Tabernacles.
Sin always results in death. The individual who is committing sin is the servant of sin, the slave of sin, and is abiding in death. He is walking in darkness, blinded by the God of the world—the devil.
Righteousness and holiness result in eternal life.
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. (Romans 6:22)
The Truth that Is Christ sets us free from the devil and his works. The Truth sets us free in the inner man. Then Divine Life flows into us and the end is eternal life. Eternal life is the energy, the joy, the peace, the creative power that come from the only true God and Christ whom He has sent.
He who is sinning is abiding in death. Christ is the Gift of God to us, the Gift of eternal life.
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (John 14:10)
Christ is Zion—the "hill" in which the God of Heaven abides forever. Christ is not the Father, He is the Temple of the Father. The holy words that Christ spoke, which are recorded in the four Gospel accounts, came from the mouth of the Father, the God of Heaven.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.
The mighty works that Christ did were not performed by Him, according to His statements. They were performed by God who dwells in Christ in His Divine Fullness.
Christ, the living Word of the Father, was broken on the cross. Since then He has been sown in the hearts of those who have received Him and who have desired fervently to live by His Life.
Christ is the House of the Father and we are the many rooms of that House.
The Body of Christ.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians 4:13)
Two Divinely-appointed tasks are to be carried out throughout the Church age:
The testimony is to be born to every human being concerning the atoning death and triumphant resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Body of Christ is to be brought to unity and maturity.
The purpose of the first task is to inform the peoples of the earth concerning the coming of the Kingdom of God and the Day of Wrath so they can repent, receive Christ the Lord, and be saved to life in the Kingdom.
The purpose of the second task is to create the Temple of God in order that the God of Heaven may dwell in a satisfactory manner among His creatures.
In the fourth chapter of the Book of Ephesians Paul teaches that the Holy Spirit has given various gifts and ministries to the members of the Body of Christ so the Body may be brought to the unity of the faith, to the knowledge of the Son of God, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. This is the Divine standard. Nothing less will suffice.
What will take place when the Body of Christ has attained this perfection of unity and maturity?
When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. (Psalms 102:16)
The Lord Jesus promised us He would come "quickly." Why, then, has He delayed His coming for such a long period of time (as we measure time)?
The Lord Jesus will not return until His Body has been prepared. He will not appear until His Body has been brought to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
The purpose of the Lord’s coming is that the fullness of His Glory may be revealed with the end in view of removing sin and rebellion from the earth. The saints who have died will return with the Lord. Then we who are physically alive at the coming of the Lord will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. From that point onward we will be with Him and will be revealed together with Him as sons of God.
This is the Presence, the coming of Christ of which the Scriptures speak. The Lord’s Presence will be as lightning shining from horizon to horizon because the Glory of the Presence of the Lord will be in each saint.
To our knowledge, the Scriptures never once—not once—mention a disappearing of the Christians (taught in the pre-tribulation rapture error). Do you know of a single verse that speaks of a disappearing of the saints? We do not know of any.
In several passages we are taught that we will return with Him and be glorified together with Him. This is the true scriptural hope. All else is false, not being based on the Scriptures.
When the Lord prepares His Body, His Church, His Temple, He will appear in His Glory. When the nations of the earth behold the glorified Body of Christ, now in perfect union in Christ in the Father, filled with the glory that God has given His only-begotten Son, they will realize that God loves His elect as He loves Christ. Seeing this unprecedented glory the nations will believe that God has sent Christ to be the Savior of the world.
All of us desire that the nations of the earth accept Christ and be saved from the wrath of God. They indeed shall be saved, just as soon as the Church becomes one in Christ in God.
The Christians are not waiting for the heathen to do God’s will, the heathen are waiting for the Christians to do God’s will.
Revival, spiritual warfare, and the feast of Tabernacles.
There are at least five comings of the Lord taught in the Scriptures:
The life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.
The coming of Christ in the revival power of the former and latter rain (Hosea 6:3).
His coming to purify His Church, the royal priesthood (Malachi 3:1-3).
The coming of the Lord to the obedient saint in fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Tabernacles (John 14:23).
The worldwide revelation of Christ, His coming, His Presence, as presented in Matthew, Chapter 24; I Corinthians, Chapter 15; First and Second Thessalonians; Revelation 1:7; and similar passages.
The Old Testament speaks several times of the Lord coming with His army to destroy sin from the earth (Joel 2:11; Habakkuk, Chapter Three; and so forth). According to our understanding, the coming of the Lord with His army will take place at the worldwide revelation of Christ and His saints.
To our knowledge, no other coming or Presence of Christ is presented in the Old Testament Scriptures. There is no prophecy, type, or express statement that clearly supports a "rapture" of believers prior to the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven.
Perhaps the two most important comings are the coming of the Lord to the obedient saint in fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Tabernacles, and the worldwide revelation of Christ. If it is true that these two major comings of Christ will take place in the last days, the first to establish the inner kingdom and the second to establish the outer kingdom (the Lord Himself being revealed to the world at the second coming), what is the relationship between these two comings? When will they take place with respect to each other?
According to our understanding, the spiritual fulfillment of Tabernacles, which is celebrated after Pentecost (Deuteronomy 16:16), has commenced already.
First must come salvation, then the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and after that the "blowing of the trumpet" of spiritual warfare. The trumpet of God is sounding in the spirit realm today warning us not to camp at Pentecost but to resume our march toward the land of promise.
There is a deep stirring of the Spirit today. Are you hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches? Are you hungry for more of God?
After Trumpets comes the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement. This also is upon us in the present hour.
The Day of Atonement is the period when we Christians are reconciled to God, when we are married to the Lamb. This is why there now is such a emphasis on union with God through Christ, as distinguished from the customary attempt to "get things from God," to persuade God to do what we desire.
During the Day of Atonement, the Day of Reconciliation, the Day of union, God deals with us concerning the sin in our life and our self-seeking.
We overcome sinful practices when we confess our sins and repent of them, allowing the Holy Spirit to put to death the deeds of our body.
It is God Himself who enables us to conquer our self-seeking and self-love by requiring of us that we abide patiently throughout numerous testings and frustrations. We are required to do what is disagreeable to us. We are denied what we fervently desire.
Some Christians quit at this point and will not walk any further with God.
Every member of Christ’s army, His "mighty men," must be called, chosen, and then proven to be faithful beyond question.
If we would become a part of the eternal Temple of God, a room in God’s house, we must respond to the trumpet that is summoning us to spiritual battle. Also, we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit in putting to death the lusts of our flesh.
After that, we are to take up our cross and follow Christ wherever He leads us.
If we will obey Christ patiently in the path of discipleship in which he leads us, there is glory beyond measure awaiting us.
The Prophets of the Old Testament appear to indicate that just before Christ appears in the Day of the Lord, and building up to and climaxing in that day, the Lord God will enter His Temple.
In the days of Noah, the fountains of the deep were broken up before the windows of the heavens were opened. The water came from beneath before it came from above.
The Old Testament Prophets speak of a great light coming upon the Church, upon the Israel of God, at the time that the greatest darkness of all has covered the earth (Isaiah 60:1,2).
It is our understanding that this light will come upon the Church just before Christ appears in the heavens and that the Antichrist will be helpless before it. The nations of the earth will come streaming to God’s light in the saints, and then Christ will descend from above, destroying Antichrist and his armies.
The Day of the Lord will result in salvation and blessing for the obedient of the earth, and destruction for the sinful and rebellious. The Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings for those who fear the Lord, but the wicked will be crushed under foot. Glory for the upright, but fearfulness will surprise the hypocrites.
Then will God’s creation break forth into singing and the righteous nations will enter the Kingdom prepared for them from the creation of the world. Antichrist and the spirit of religious delusion will be hurled alive into the Lake of Fire, while Satan is chained by a single angel and dropped into the bottomless pit.
Joel, the Prophet of Pentecost, depicted the circumstances attending the return of Christ to the earth.
The Lord also shall roar out of Zion (the Body of Christ; the Temple of God), and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. (Joel 3:16)
Notice the statement of the Lord Jesus concerning "that day." When the prophets spoke of "that day," "in that day," they meant the Day of the Lord.
At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20)
The greatest revival set forth in the Scriptures, the revival that we believe will result from God and Christ entering the unified and mature Body of Christ in fulfillment of the Levitical feast of Tabernacles, is described in the sixtieth chapter of the Book of Isaiah:
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. (Isaiah 60:1)
Notice how Isaiah, Chapter 60 corresponds to John 17:22:
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
"The glory of the Lord is risen on thee." "The glory that Thou gavest Me I have given them."
Without doubt, Isaiah 60:1 and John 17:22 are referring to the same event.
When will this marvelous outpouring of the Spirit of God take place?
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. (Isaiah 60:2)
At the time of worldwide darkness, the period when the man of sin rules the world and all hope seems gone, Christ suddenly will enter His Temple, His Body, His Church.
The same period of time is described in Joel. We mentioned (above) the passage that declares the Lord will "roar out of Zion, and his voice from Jerusalem." Notice when this roaring will take place:
The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. (Joel 3:15)
At what point in history will the sun and the moon be darkened?
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven (the heaven), and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: (Matthew 24:29)
We see, therefore, that at the close of the great tribulation and just before the sign of the Son of man appears in the heaven, the Lord will roar out of Zion and His voice from Jerusalem.
This is why we believe that the fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, which is an end-time coming of the Lord (John 14:23), will take place as a herald announcing the Presence and power of Jesus who shortly will descend from Heaven and destroy the man of sin and the world system the man of sin has developed.
And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (II Thessalonians 1:7-9)
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: (II Thessalonians 2:8)
In that hour the Glory of the Lord will be visible on His people. His Glory will be as lightning coming "out of the east" and shining "even unto the west."
All the ends of the earth will behold the Glory of the Lord before Jesus descends from Heaven, as we understand the sequence of events.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 40:5)
The preceding verse is in the context of the voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord.
Who will behold the Glory of the Lord?
"All flesh shall see it together."
What will be the result of the nations beholding God’s Glory?
The nations will believe in Christ and be saved.
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:23)
"That the world may know." The fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, which is the entrance of God and Christ into the Body of Christ, has as its purpose that the world may know that God has sent Christ.
This will be the greatest revival of all history. The knowledge of the Glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
When God celebrates the feast of Tabernacles in His Church, all the nations of the earth are obligated to come and profit from the Presence of God in Christ in His elect.
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16)
The nations of saved peoples of the earth have no choice. They must appear before God who will be dwelling in Christ in the saints, so that God may receive their worship and instruct them concerning His holy and righteous Person and ways.
Zechariah 14:16-19 reveals to us God’s purpose in calling His elect out from the remainder of the peoples of the earth: it is that the saints, God’s holy ones, may reveal in themselves the holy and righteous Nature of God. This is the fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, and the nations of saved peoples of the earth are commanded to come and partake of the Glory of God now being revealed in the saints.
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; (I Peter 2:9)
When the Lord perfects His Church, the nations will behold the Glory of the Lord.
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. (Isaiah 61:11)
Notice in Isaiah, Chapter 60 that the attention of the peoples of the earth is not focused on the Lord Jesus. Their attention is directed toward the Glory of the Lord abiding on the saints.
"His glory shall be seen upon thee." "The Gentiles (nations) shall come to thy light." "The forces of the Gentiles shall come to thee."
This reminds us of a New Testament passage:
When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. (II Thessalonians 1:10)
When the Lord Jesus descends from the heavens and stands on the Mount of Olives, in the same manner in which He departed, every eye will be fastened on Him.
And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, . . . . (Acts 1:10)
Here the attention of people is not on Christ in the saints but on the Lord Jesus Himself.
Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. (Revelation 1:7)
However, in Isaiah, Chapter 60 and in John 17:21-23 the emphasis is on the fact that God is in Christ who is in the saints, They all will be one manifestation of Divine Glory.
In Acts 1:10 and Revelation 1:7 the attention of people is toward Christ Himself.
The above facts are the basis for our belief that there are two aspects of the end-time coming of Christ:
The coming of the Father and the Son to dwell eternally in the faithful saints.
The descent of the Lord Jesus Himself with His saints and holy angels, coming down from Heaven to the earth in order to sit on the Throne of David in Jerusalem and from there rule the nations of the earth.
We can find passages in both the Old Testament and the New Testament to support each of these two aspects of the coming of the Lord.
The events of the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah will transpire during the season of gross darkness, the "midnight" that will blanket the earth at the time of the Lord’s return. This is the hour of which Jesus spoke when no man can work. Then the "light" mentioned in the Book of Isaiah will serve as a herald of Christ’s Presence, terrorizing the hypocrites of the churches and panicking the peoples of the nations.
The "shout" of Christ, that Paul mentions in the fourth chapter of I Thessalonians, well may be the "roar" of which Joel prophesied (Joel 3:16).
The peoples of the earth will respond joyfully to the rising of the Glory of God on His people:
And the Gentiles (nations) shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. (Isaiah 60:3)
Antichrist and his armies will attempt to overcome the Glory of Christ in the saints. Then will Christ "roar out of Zion." Also, He will appear in the heavens, calling forth the bodies of His saints, His soldiers, from their graves and clothing them with eternal, incorruptible resurrection life. Christ’s army will be caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the air.
. . . Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together. (Luke 17:37)
Christ and His saints will attack the wicked of the earth, destroying them totally. Now the revival glory can continue to flow to every nation without hindrance until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.