GRACE BIBLE CHURCH Robert R. McLaughlin Bible Ministries The Tree of Life is a weekly teaching summary. The Tree of Life for week ending 08/31/03. The Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ Revelation 12:10 The devil and all fallen angels were sentenced to the lake of fire at the end of the prehistoric angelic conflict, before man was created. However, the devil appealed his sentence, and God created man to resolve the angelic conflict, and that is why we are here. Fallen angels have joined Satan in his challenge of the Creator, therefore, they must share the fate of Satan, Mat 25:41. Members of the human race who reject the saving work of Christ on the Cross have joined Satan and the fallen angels in challenging the Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, all unbelievers will go to the lake of fire. The proclamation of victory given by the angelic herald in heaven is found in Rev 12:10. After the expulsion of Satan and the fallen angels from heaven, we read, And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. The Greek verb translated heard is akouo, which means to hear or to listen, indicating that the one who is listening is teachable. The aorist tense of this verb regards the action of the verb as being completed, which means that in order to learn, you must have a time to listen. You can not talk and learn at the same time; it requires concentration. Your willingness to hear reveals your love for God. No person can truly love the Lord apart from hearing the word of God akouo the consistent intake of Bible doctrine. All believers are commanded to love God in Mar 12:30, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. If a believer really loves God, it will be manifested by his desire to hear God s words, Joh 8:47, He who is [keeps on being] of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God. The word hears is akouei, meaning to hear in an audience, to listen, to concentrate, to understand, to learn, and to give a hearing. Our Lord said in Joh 14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commands. The Greek verb translated keep is tereo, which means to guard something that belongs to you. It also means to watch over carefully, to keep, to hold, to preserve and to pay attention to, and therefore to retain. We should never take the communication of doctrine for granted. It is doctrine abiding in Christians, not works, that reveals to the Father how much we love Him. If you guard or keep God s Word in you, God s love will be in you, Joh 15:10, If you keep My commands, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father s commands, and abide in His love. Your capacity to love depends on your intake of doctrine. If you personally love God, then you will also love doctrine more than 1
wealth, Psa 119:72,127, 62:10. Loving God also means hating worldliness and human viewpoint. Satan is not trying to tempt people with sin but rather with evil, Psa 119:113, I hate those who are double-minded, but I love Thy doctrine. Doctrine allows us to love Him whom we have not seen, 1Pe 1:8, Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. This speaks of soul love. It is possible to love someone you cannot see. Keeping with doctrine is the only way to love with God s love, 1Jo 2:5, But whoever keeps [tereo] His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. This means to reach a point of maturity; it also means to come to the place where God s love can be released. Loving God is also revealed with impersonal love toward one another, 1Jo 4:7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The Greek verb translated knows is ginosko, and the present tense means that the more we love, the more we are progressively getting to know Him. Loving God and His people can only come through knowledge of doctrine. Loving God requires occupation with Christ, walking in doctrine, and serving with all our heart and soul, Deu 10:12, And now, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to respect the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love for God is the believer s capacity to love God and to respond to God s love based on Bible doctrine in his soul. Apart from the daily function of perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine, it is impossible to love God. Since God is invisible, we must see and love Him through doctrine in the soul. We can only see God and love Him through His Word. You cannot love God unless you know God, and you cannot know God unless you have metabolized enough pertinent doctrine, 1Pe 1:8, Eph 3:18-19, Heb 6:10, 2Ti 1:13-14, Col 3:1-2. Rev 12:10 And I heard [akouo] a loud voice in heaven, saying, Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. Here we see the importance of the divine order of akouo, hearing the word of God, and then tereo, guarding the word of God in our heart, which leads to ginosko, knowing God, resulting in personal love for God. Our personal love for God results in impersonal unconditional love for all mankind and the execution the spiritual life. This is the reason why God wants our heart, Pro 4:23, Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, Now the salvation The word salvation is the nominative singular subject form of the Greek noun soteria, which sometimes refers to salvation in the sense of redemption, but here it simply means deliverance. The deliverance here is the Second Advent, which is a time of deliverance for winner believers of the Tribulation, most whom survive the Tribulation period, while 2
some of them die as martyrs to demonstrate the power of doctrine. This has brought us to the doctrine of the Second Advent. The Doctrine of the Second Advent Point 1: Definition. The term advent means the coming or arrival of something extremely important. There are two advents of Jesus Christ depicted in the Word of God. The First Advent begins with the virgin birth and concludes with the resurrection, ascension, and session. The first prophecy of the First Advent was given in Gen 3:15, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. The Jewish prophecy of the First Advent is found in Isa 7:14, 9:6. Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. Isa 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The historical fulfillment of the First Advent is found in such passages as Mat 1:19-25, And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins. Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means, God with us. And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus. The result of the First Advent is seen in Joh 1:14, Rom 1:3, 1Ti 3:16, Heb 2:14, Phi 2:5-11. Joh 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Rom 1:3 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, 1Ti 3:16 And by common confession great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh. 3
Phi 2:5-11 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. During the First Advent, Jesus Christ in Hypostatic Union accomplished the strategic victory of the angelic conflict and the salvation of the human race. This strategic victory bestows His battlefield royalty. He must have a royal family to accompany His royal title the Church. The Second Advent is designed to reveal Him as both battlefield royalty and Jewish royalty. He returns to earth in resurrection body and Hypostatic Union. Point 2: The Distinction Between the Rapture and the Second Advent. At the Rapture of the Church, Christ does not return to the earth as in the Second Advent; we meet Him in the air. The Rapture is a private event, Act 1:11, They also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven. The Second Advent is public, Rev 1:7, Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so. Amen. The Rapture will occur in the air, 1Th 4:16-17, For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. The Second Advent will occur on earth, Zec 14:4, And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. The Rapture is a judgment of believer s works, 2Co 5:10. The Second Advent is a Baptism of Fire, Mat 25:31-46. At the Rapture, the Church goes to heaven, Joh 14:3. At the Second Advent the Church returns with Christ, 1Th 3:13, so that He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. At the Rapture, the Holy Spirit is removed, 2Th 2:6. At the Second Advent there is the removal of Satan, Rev 20:1-3. At the Rapture, there is an immediate change in the believer s body, Phi 3:21. At the Second Advent the earth is changed, Zec 14:9, Rom 8:19-22. 4
At the Rapture, Christ appears as the Groom. At the Second Advent, Christ appears as the Messiah. The Rapture is the end of the Church-age. The Second Advent is the end of the Jewish age. At the Rapture, Israel is under the fifth cycle of discipline. The Second Advent is the termination of the fifth cycle of discipline. At the Rapture, believers are taken from the earth, 1Th 4:13-18. At the Second Advent, unbelievers are taken from the earth, Mat 24:37-43. (Mat 24 has always been a passage misunderstood by many as referring to the Rapture, but it does not.) The Rapture is a time of comfort, 1Th 4:18. The Second Advent is a time of terror, Rev 6:15-17. Point 3: Analogies to the Second Advent. 1. The analogy of nature lightning, Mat 24:27, For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. 2. The Second Advent will be seen by all, Rev 1:7, Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him. 3. The Second Advent comes with great speed, Rev 22:7,12. 4. The Second Advent disturbs and frightens the unenlightened, Rev 6:15-17. 5. The Second Advent warns of a coming storm, the storm of coming judgment: a. Annihilation of the invading armies. b. Judgment of Satan and the fallen angels. c. Judgment of the beast and false prophet. d. The Baptism of Fire, removing all unbelievers from the earth. e. Administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to certain nations. 6. The historical analogy, Mat 24:37-41. In Mat 24:37, it will like the days of Noah, which points to people living under the wrong priorities (although it may also refer to the presence of super-creatures on the earth once again). Mat 24:37-38 For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark. Marrying, eating, and drinking (normal pleasures in life) were more important than Bible doctrine. They do not know that a major judgment is on the horizon, Mat 24:39, They did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. In the Tribulation, as in the time of Noah, people cannot tell what is about to happen because they have no Bible doctrine in their souls. Therefore, in verses 40-41, the believer is left and the unbeliever is taken in the baptism of fire, Mat 24:40-41, Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. In Noah s day, unbelievers were removed by water; this time it will be by fire. As always, grace precedes judgment, and there is great evangelism given in the Tribulation before the disaster hits. 5
For a more detailed study, order tapes IA11-307 to IA11-309. 6