A closer look at Christ’s Second Coming

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Introduction:
When we talk about the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must realize that there are (in succession) an INvisible and a visible Coming.
The INvisible Second Coming is the (hidden) coming for the Bride(church); this is the so-called "wise-virgin" part of the true believers.
The VISIBLE Second Coming is the coming on the clouds, when every eye shall see Him in His full glory as King and Lord, also the eyes of those that pierced (or rejected) Him.

The VISIBLE Second Coming
In my opinion the following Bible texts all relate to the VISIBLE Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And, from the context of the following Bible texts we can learn that the visible Second Coming will take place AFTER the Great Tribulation and BEFORE the beginning of Christ's Millennium of Peace.
The resurrection of all true believers who passed away (or died) in Christ in the course of the ages until the end of the Great Tribulation (see Revelation 20:4), will also take place AFTER the Great Tribulation, but BEFORE Christ's Millennium of Peace. Nowhere in the Bible do we read that there is a resurrection of the righteous BEFORE as well as AFTER the Great Tribulation.
Also one and the same event is meant by the trumpet mentioned in several texts below; viz. the trumpet of Revelation 11:15. Here again one reads that Christ's Kingdom (i.e. the Millennium of Peace) starts AFTER the sound of this trumpet (and the great voices in heaven – see also 1 Thessalonians 4:16).

1 Thessalonians 4 verse 15-17:
"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them (the resurrected righteous [i.e. the believers]) in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (namely 1,000 years with the returned Lord ON EARTH)

Matthew 24 verse 29-31:
"Immediately AFTER the tribulation (the Great Tribulation, see verse 21) of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man (thus this is the visible Second Coming) coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."

1 Corinthians 15 verse 51-52:
"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep (NOT all ‘pass away’ or ‘sleep in the Lord’), but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible (AFTER the Great Tribulation), and we (that are left alive from [and thus AFTER] the Great Tribulation, because God saved them – see Revelation 12:6, 14) shall be changed."

Revelation 1 verse 7:
"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 10 verse 7:
“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound (with the seventh, and thus last, trump), the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.”

Daniel 7 verse 13-14:
"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom (thus His dominion starts with His [visible] Second Coming on the clouds when the 3½ years of the Great Tribulation wherein the Antichrist reigns is past!), that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

Revelation 11 verse 15:

"And the seventh angel sounded (with the seventh, and thus last, trump); and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever."

Where and with whom shall He reign?

Revelation 5 verse 10:
"And (the Lamb) hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth."

Revelation 20 verse 4-6:
"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God (i.e. the martyrs that died for the sake of Christ down through the ages), and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands (these can only be the true believers which have to suffer a martyr's death in the Great Tribulation, because BEFORE the Great Tribulation the matter of this beast [i.e. the Antichrist] that must be worshiped, and the mark of the beast, are not raised); and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the FIRST resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years (on the earth)."

Thus 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 clearly refers to the VISIBLE Second Coming as the coming on the clouds is the VISIBLE Return. This we could clearly read in above Bible verses.

CLICK HERE if you want to read this study – that is to long for the Blog.

By E. van den Worm

The time of preparation for the marriage of the Lamb of God

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Matthew 25:1-4 "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bride-groom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps."
The parable tells us about the "kingdom of heaven", that is God's kingdom on earth, i.e. the Church. In the last days it will experience a preparation for Jesus' return as Bridegroom of His Church. Everywhere will be heard the cry "Maranatha, Jesus is coming back!"
This coming of the Lord Jesus as Bridegroom of the Churchbride is not His visible return on the clouds of heaven, for this return unto the establishment of the Millennium of Peace will only take place after the anti-christian period. This return will be invisible in and by the Holy Spirit.

God's great promises
Scripture promises us great things when the Spirit of Jesus Christ has been able to adopt us as members of the Bride of the Lamb, has been able to add us to the spiritual body of the Bride of the Lamb of God.
1. He then will make us blameless, without spot or wrinkle, and holy.
Ephesians 5:25-27 "...as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."

2. This state of holiness, into which the Spirit of Jesus Christ will bring that part of the Church chosen hereunto in the last days, will cause them to escape the grave as they then have become sinless; for people die because they are sinners.
James 1:15 "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
Romans 6:23 “Death is the wages of sin”
As this part of the Church will then have been made without sin, physical death will also escape them, and they will be changed at an appointed time, and put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). This is the glorious hope of all, who have been adopted as members of the Bride of the Lamb,
3. Besides the putting on of great divine glory and strength.
But there are wise ones and fools in the Church of the last days. The wise ones, half of the Church, take with them, besides oil in their lamps (for it is a time of spiritual darkness) also oil in their vessels, namely in their hearts. Oil is the type of the Holy Spirit. Taking oil in the vessel, in the heart, spiritually means: preparing oneself for sanctification; the foolish do not do this. They do wash their sins in the blood of the Lamb, and because of this they have become virgins; but they do not seek sanctification and continue to lead worldly lives.
In this time the opposing satanic power puts the Church into a spiritual sleep.
Matthew 25:5 "While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept."
The prophecy of Jesus Christ reads: "They all slumbered, the wise… and the foolish virgins, and fell asleep!" And if anyone should know this, Who better than Jesus Christ, the Divine Word of God Himself.
Joel, too, prophesied this spiritual sleep of the Church for the end-times, and of the Church's "locusts" because of the slumbering sin and tolerance due to the spiritual sleep (Joel 1).
Ephesians 5:14-18 "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit (of Jesus Christ)."
The Word says "Arise from the dead", wake from the sleep of sin, be delivered from the bonds of your sins by the power of Jesus Christ, and by His blood; and be filled with His redeeming Spirit, with His resurrection power.
Matthew 25:6-7 "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps."
This voice that calls out "Go out to meet Him" (Matthew 25:6) means, that we are to rise up from the sleep of death by God's grace, and that we must let His Holy Spirit prepare our hearts and lives for His invisible return as Bridegroom, that He might prepare us for the marriage, and make us blameless, without spot or wrinkle (Ephesians 5:27).

This call of the Spirit will cause a general reveille (awakening).
Matthew 25:7 "Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps."
They all prepared spiritually for the coming of the Bridegroom, but we read in this prophecy that only half, the wise part, will be adopted as members of the Bride of Lamb, because only they will reach the state of spotlessness.

We must prepare spiritually for this Coming
A child of God once had a vision of an colossal giant. He was lying on the earth and was bound with many worldly bonds of sin by the powers of darkness, and was powerless to get up.
The visionary saw, that he stretch out first one hand, then both hands, to heaven in a cry for help to God. He then received strength and slowly stood up, while the powers of darkness around him fled. He then beat off the dust and the glory of the Lord fell upon him.
He did this in obedience to God's call.
This voice of the Spirit, calling out to us, we also find in Revelation 19 verse 9:
"Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb... These are the true sayings of God."
Partaking (in the spirit) of the supper of the Marriage of the Lamb is sharing the death and resurrection of the Lamb of God, that we might take part in the marriage of the Lamb of God, being without spot or wrinkle.

This call to participation is personal and one may hear it sooner than the other.
We also see in the prophecy of the prophet Daniel in Daniel 2:31-35 and 44-45 that complete deliverance of the power of sin takes place personally and gradually, namely in the time of the ten kings of the restored Roman Empire (the ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar's statue), in the time of the ten kings of Revelation 17:12-13.
Daniel 2:31-35, 44-45 "Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom (God's Kingdom on earth), which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people (except to God's people, His divine Israel), but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain (of sin) without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure."
Here one stone is loosed, cut off, completely delivered from sin, from the mountain of sin without hands (without human help). Some think that this one stone is the Lord Jesus Christ, but this is a wrong interpretation, because Jesus Christ, in His life on earth, was never bound to the mountain of sin; moreover, this is an event of the end-time, of the time of the ten kings.
Thus, this stone has to be a sinner from the end-time, who by his faith in the finished work and in the power of Jesus Redeemer, is brought in Jesus' victory; thus overcoming satan and his power of sin, whose heart is cleansed of the chaff of the old person; whereafter he by the power of the Word shares this victory with many others: a mountain of completely delivered Christians, without spot or wrinkle: the Bride of the Lamb of God.
Revelation 12:11 "And they (the victors) overcame him (satan and power of sin) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony (whereby also others will share this victory); and they loved not their (earthly, sinful) lives unto the death (until it is completely dead, already here on earth; so that they may live without spot or wrinkle, faultless; see Ephesians 5:27, already here on earth)."

CLICK HERE if you want to read the rest of this study – that is to long for the Blog.

By E. van den Worm