 May's featured article
'The Coming of the Lord'
Introduction
Some churches and Christian fellowships give great prominence to teaching on the 'Second Coming' of Jesus Christ. You can hardly get through a meeting without at least a reference to this great event, and frequently whole messages or sermons are preached on the subject. Other fellowships hardly mention the 'second coming' and many of their members are almost entirely ignorant of what the Bible has to say about it.
For some people then this writing will be an introduction to the subject, while for others it may be a re-examination of what they believe. We will examine various Bible passages on which the teaching of the 'second coming' is based, and see if they mean what at first sight they may appear to. I have put the phrase 'second coming' in quotation marks as, surprisingly for many people, it occurs nowhere in the New Testament.
It helps to compare today's situation with the way it was in New Testament times. The Pharisees of those days were expecting the Messiah to come. Not only were they expecting him, but they also had clear ideas about his coming. In spite of this they failed to recognise Jesus as the Messiah when he came. They could state confidently through their knowledge of the scriptures that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. The fact that Jesus appeared to come from somewhere else - Nazareth - was one of the reasons why they rejected him.
The disciples of Jesus heard the scriptures (what we call the Old Testament) read every week at the synagogue, and they probably knew them better than most people do today. However they had nowhere near the level of scriptural knowledge that the Pharisees had. In spite of this Peter recognised Jesus as the Messiah and the Pharisees failed to do so. This was not because Peter had studied all the scriptures more diligently and more carefully than the Pharisees. It was because he was drawn to Jesus himself, and he received a revelation from God. He said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God'. Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven' (Matthew 16: 16, 17).
So today, as then, we know nothing properly unless we know it from God. The scriptures confirm what we have learnt from him inwardly in our hearts.
How Prophecies are Fulfilled
God reveals to his servants the prophets what is to come. That much is plain from the pages of the old testament. But prophecies were not always fulfilled in the way their recipients expected. God's ways are higher than our ways, and this is particularly true in the fulfilment of prophecy. Let us look then at how some ancient prophecies were fulfilled.
From the book of Genesis on there are prophecies of the coming Messiah. God told Eve that her offspring would bruise the serpent's head. Eve was greatly consoled and encouraged with this word from God, but she had no idea how it would happen. Probably she imagined some physical conflict. Perhaps she envisaged dead snakes lying around on the ground. With hindsight we can look back on events enormously greater and more significant than anything she could have imagined. Her far off descendant defeated all the powers of darkness, not by force of physical arms, but by offering himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
God told Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore, and that through his offspring all nations on earth would be blessed. Millions of people today claim Abraham as their physical ancestor, and probably this is what Abraham understood the promise to mean. Four thousand years on we know that God's eye rested primarily on the multitudes of spiritual descendants that would be followers of Abraham's faith. The true fulfilment of the prophecy was better and higher than Abraham could have seen at the time.
God told Moses to tell the people that he would raise up a prophet like him from among their brothers. Jesus was like Moses in ways that a spiritual mind would understand. In other ways he was very different and many people would have totally failed to recognise the similarity. Moses delivered his people from the yoke of slavery in Egypt. Jesus did not deliver his people from their hated Roman overlords. Instead he delivered them from a far worse tyranny. He broke the yoke of sin and Satan from their backs.
God told David that he would establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I imagine David was wonderfully happy to think of his descendants for hundreds and thousands of years sitting on his throne in Jerusalem. The fulfilment was very different, but much better than he had imagined. His throne was occupied for several hundred years by his descendants, but not for ever. A tragic day came when after a long siege the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem. They put out king Zedekiah's eyes and led him captive to Babylon. They set fire to the royal palace and every important building in the city. What had happened to the prophecy God gave to David? The physical throne of David became desolate, but the spiritual throne of David will be occupied for all eternity. Jesus will reign, and his saints will reign with him, till he has put all enemies beneath his feet. The earthly Jerusalem has been trodden down by the gentiles for centuries and its throne left vacant, but the heavenly Jerusalem has Jesus on its throne. The fulfilment of the prophecy was better than David could have ever dreamt.
We can learn from these past fulfilments of prophecy. Before events take place we may know that wonderful things are coming, and we must prepare ourselves as best we can to play our part in God's purposes. Only with hindsight if ever will we fully understand God's plans, and, like the faithful of old, we will find they are far greater and more wonderful than we have ever imagined.
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