THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF CHRIST'S SECOND COMING

THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF CHRIST'S SECOND COMING

 

• INTRODUCTION

Central Theme of Bible is the Coming of God's Messiah.

Gen. 3:15 First Promise "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." 

Rev. 22:20 Last Promise "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

 

• Entire Bible can be divided in relation to this Theme.

Old Testament; He is coming. 

Four Gospels: He has come. 

Epistles and Revelation: He is coming again.

 

• The Revelation of Messiah's Coming is not mechanical, but dynamic and progressive: 

A revelation in which the different elements are related, not in any external manner, but as the parts of a growing plant are related.

Mark 4:26-28 "And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knows not how. For the earth brings forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear."

Doctrine of our Lord's Coming into the world unfolds like a growing plant, which at every stage of the revelation contains the germ of the yet unrevealed.

 

 In Old Testament the promise of a coming.

 In Gospels this coming unfolds into two comings.

 In Gospels the first coming unfolds into a series of events.

  -Virgin birth

 - Life and ministry

 - Atoning death.

 - Resurrection.

 In Epistles the Second Coming unfolds into two main phases. (Rapture and Revelation)

 In the Book of Revelation each of the two phases unfolds into a series of events.

 

  Cf. Chart Above