When Might Christ Come?

 

[1]

 

Ephesians 1: 10 (GNT)

¹⁰ This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.

 

The phrase, “When the time is right,” or “in the dispensation of the fullness of the times,” (KJV) has caused me to wonder. But I have no answers. Right now, we can divide time roughly into 2,000-year periods: I am working under the assumption that creation was roughly 6,000 years ago.

Creation to Flood                                roughly 2,000 years

Flood to Christ                                    roughly 2,000 years

Christ to the Present.                           roughly 2,000 years

This fits nicely into Adventist understanding. But it is neither suggested by the Bible, nor does it support it. Christ was born “when the fullness of time was come.” (Galatians 4:4 KJV)

Another way to think of it is to have Christ’s first coming at the middle of earthly time:

      Creation to Christ’s 1^st advent                        roughly 4,000 years

      Christ’s 1^st advent to the 2^nd Advent               roughly 4,000 years

In this case Christ’s second coming would not be for another 2,000 years. This definitely does not fit into Adventist understanding. It would allow humans to develop magnificent inventions. This would allow them to enslave the entire human race to a point we cannot imagine! This point might be the entire destruction of civilization; the survivors would be thrust back into the stone age. Who knows?

Can a loving God tolerate human cruelty to each other for another two millennia? This gives human history a balanced symmetry. But I see no evidence that God values this type of symmetry in time.

Christ was born when the time was right: consult Daniel 8:14, Daniel 9: 24-27. Early Adventists used the Daniel 8:14 to calculate when they though Christ would come. They got the date right but the wrong event for that date. Since that 1844 date, there appears to be no more “right time,” that we can predict ahead of time. Christ was absolutely insistent that “no man knows the day or hour.” Consequently, we need to be constantly watchful.

We look forward to sharing in the bringing of “all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.”

 

Labels: #CALIFORNIA, #IE, #INLANDEMPIRE, #CHRISTRETURN, #BIBLE, #CRFEATION, #HEAVEN, #DANIEL, #MILLENIA, #ENSLAVE, #CIVILIZATION, #DESTROCIVILIZATION, #STONEAGE

 

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[1] https://hopeenlightenment.com/2018/01/24/creator-of-heaven-and-earth/

The Gethsemane Battle

 

[1]

1 John 4:9

Good News Translation

⁹ And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

 

After many years, last night I again read the chapter in The Desire of Ages entitled “Gethsemane”. In eloquent and deeply emotional prose, Ellen White describes how Christ wrestled with God. He knew that He had come to earth for exactly one purpose—to save the world and its inhabitants from sin. I have seen many definitions of sin: some glorify it, some condemn it, some try to lay out boundaries for it. But in the end, sin is only one thing—rebellion against God. Sin declares puny man’s attempt to deny his Creator and become independent from the only Source of Life.

In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ’s divine nature headed steadfastly forward to the only possible act of redemption for rebellious man. Christ’s human nature, however, sensed the presence of every sin in the world. It felt the eternal separation from God, the terror and despair of inevitable annihilation, the horror of the wrath of God. It buckled and crumbled under this huge weight. His human nature pled with God to find another way of salvation. “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me!” a cry wrenched from His very heart. Then in total submission to the divine within Him, He gave way to divinity: “Never the less, not My will but Thine be done!” Three times he sought reprieve but then acquiesced to His great love for sinners.

To His human view, (that was all that He could see at this point in the struggle), all mankind had turned their backs on Him. Even His chosen disciples had fallen asleep when He asked them to pray for Him. His chosen race, His favored people were bent on His destruction. Why? He had taught them, healed them, encouraged them, blessed their children, even fed them and raised their dead. He had expressed His love to them in every action. Was this why they turned away?

Of course not! When sin comes in touch with purity, divinity, perfection, it has but one response—rebellion. This rebellion was the only thing Christ sensed. Fortunately for us, His vast, unending love drove Him on to yield to the divine will and rescue His creatures in spite of their absolute rejection of Him.

When it became completely obvious that Christ was going through literal hell for us, the mightiest angel in Heaven materialized at His side, driving away all the demons that were clustered around Him and crushing out His very life. The angel strengthened Him for this, the greatest battle of the universe.

Thank You, Jesus, for fighting the battle for me, the battle that I had no hope of winning without You. I love You.

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[1] https://www.deseret.com/2019/6/12/20675446/taylor-halverson-why-did-jesus-suffer-in-an-olive-garden-called-gethsemane#olive-trees-in-the-gethsemane-garden-at-the-foot-of-the-mount-of-olives-in-jerusalem

 

Just Where Is Heaven?

[i]

Ephesians 3:17-19

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹⁷ and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love,¹⁹ and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Some have pointed out that Heaven is a spot on the other side of the Great Orion Nebula. Furthermore God’s administrative center must be hidden behind this magnificent nebula.

On the other hand we view that God is the creator or prime generator of not only our Solar System but of the entire vast universe we detect beyond it. Whether your concept of this creation stretches back in time to a monumental week some 6,000 years ago--or to an inconceivably huge big bang some fourteen billion years ago--or some point of the past in between, you probably have breathed the query, “What was God doing in the eternity before this universe?”

St. Augustine quoted someone who quipped in response to this question, “He was preparing hell for those who pry into mysteries.”[ii] From the context of this remark Augustine clearly regarded this answer as an ill-posed jest.

But seriously, since God is “the same yesterday, today, and forever;”[iii] He was undoubtedly creating other universes. Where might he place these other universes? Well, certainly not within our universe; they must indeed be “beyond” or “outside” our universe, which was not here before He created it.

It is not impossible that Paul was hinting at a possibly vaguely understood concept when he expressed a four-dimensional measuring “length and width, height and depth” of God’s love. This concept just might be vital for our understanding of the presence of God. If there is another spatial dimension besides the three in our universe, then God would not have to be in a heaven over 1344 light years away. He might be just a scant millimeter away in this fourth spatial dimension and yet be beyond our sensory perception of Him.

Writers of the newly reincarnated science fiction Star Trek series hint at a similar notion of a space “warp”. How can space be warped unless it is in a dimension outside of the space itself?

Thank You, Lord, for being ever close to our side at all time!

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[i] http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Portal-Vortex-Time-Travel-Wormhole-Warp-Space-2514312

[ii] Book XI, Chapter 12 of the Confessions of St Augustine

[iii] Hebrews 13:8 (HCSB)