Christ Not Coming Back Again (Part 4) - By Danilo T. Nacua

The Misinterpreted Passages:

Hebrews 9:27-28 (NIV)
“Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

Again we ask this question: Does the above phrases, second appearance and to those who are waiting for him, concern us today? Can we honestly say that we have the right to include ourselves in this promise just because we have read it in the Bible so? We can answer this question sincerely if we can fully understand the implications of the first appearance. In order to do that we must go back to the event wherein the first appearance occurred and find out why a second appearance was necessary.

If we take a look at Hebrews 9:26 (NIV), we will find that first appearance was imperative due to the fact that the world needed a savior to take away its sins: “Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

If Christ had to come the first time to sacrifice himself, then it must have been God’s plan all along. When did it start? It started with the promise in Isaiah 9:6 (NIV) which said that, “For to us a child is born, to us a child is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Where would this child be born? Isaiah 7:14 (NIV) gave the clue: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel.”

And who was this virgin that would gave birth to the promised child? In Matthew 1:20-23 (NIV) the promise was fulfilled, thus, “Joseph...do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife...she will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel.’ - which means, ‘God with us’.” When did this promise come to fruition? Galatians 4:4 (NIV) tells us that: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law...”

Well, almost everybody knows the full story of the life and times of Jesus Christ and his afflictions as described in Isaiah 53:3-12 (NVI). The sufferings and the actual reactions of Christ was prescribed beforehand as embodied in this prophecy. To wit: “He was despised by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering...Surely he took up our infirmities and carried out our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed...He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before the shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth...He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet is was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer...After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life, and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Galatians 3:13 (NIV) described these things as a curse, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’.” By taking upon himself the sins of the world he became a redeeming curse that save the world’s sin. And this was confirmed be Christ when he declared in Matthew 20:28 (NIV) that, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Who would perform those afflictions prophesied above? Matthew 16:21 (NIV) gave the account as, “From the time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

And where would Jesus be after he suffered all the things that must befall him? In Matthew 12:40 (NIV) Christ specified the place as, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

The above prophesies and fulfillment pointed to the first appearance of Christ where his mission was to sacrifice himself by dying for the sins of the world, but his second appearance as cited in Hebrews 9:28 does not concern anymore about saving the world’s sin by dying again but only to save those disciples who were hoping and waiting for him at that time.

As proof for this contention that his disciples were hoping for him to save them, let’s take a look as Luke 24:13-21 (TEV), an event after his resurrection: “On that same day two of Jesus’ followers were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking to each other about all the things that had happened. As they talked and discussed, Jesus himself drew near and walked along with them; they saw him but somehow they did not recognize him. Jesus said to them, ‘What are you talking about to each other, as you walk along?’ They stood still, with sad faces. One of them, named Cleofas asked him, ‘Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have been happening there these last few days?’ ‘What things?’ he asked. ‘The things that happened to Jesus of Nazareth,’ they answered. ‘This man was a prophet and was considered by God and by all the peoples to be powerful in everything he said and did. Our chief priests and rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and he was crucified. And we had hoped that he would be the one who was going to set Israel free! Besides all that, this is now the third day since it happened.
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1 Thessalonians 14:15-17 (NIV)
“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 will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

Do the phrases “we who are still alive” and “we will be with the Lord” include “you and me or us (the ‘we’)”, the present readers of the Bible? If ‘we are’ then some indications would have been provided by Paul who wrote this message to his fellow believers in Thessalonians. But sadly, Paul only addressed this directive to the early Christians and ‘we’ have nothing to do with it!

If you’ll read back 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 (NIV) you’ll come to realize that Paul referred to Christ’s original teaching regarding the topic of his return. Paul thus quoted Christ in verse fifteen and said that; “According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep...”

The Lord that Paul referred to here is Christ by virtue of John 13:13 (NIV), “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.”

Where in the Bible did Paul quote this phrase “according to the Lord’s own word” and refer to in his letter cited above that allegedly portrays the future rapture? Clearly Paul quoted this in Matthew 16:27-28 (RSV) when Christ said that: “For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming to his kingdom.”

The Son of Man here refers to Jesus Christ according to Luke 22:67-70 (NIV). Again, we don’t deny that this is a promise of his coming. But if you’ll take a look also at the prevailing circumstances of the promise you’ll also realize that the phrase “there are some standing here who will not taste death” sets the condition of his return. Would you be so naive so as to assume that until today those who are “standing here who will not taste death” are still alive, since they will also see his coming?

Did the promise of Christ return referred to by Paul 1 Thessalonians 14:15-17 which he quoted from Matthew 16:28 already come to pass? Paul himself proved this in 1 Corinthians 15:5-7(TEV), “That he appeared to Peter, and then to all twelve apostles. Then he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at once, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles.”

Therefore, Jesus Christ has already fulfilled his promised “second coming” (with regards to Matthew 16:28) during the lifetimes of the apostles and those whom he promised that some would still be alive in his second coming. His promise to give gifts to men (in verse 27) was likewise fulfilled according to Ephesians 4:8 (The Living Bible, Catholic Illustrated Edition), “However, Christ has given each of us special abilities - whatever he wants us to have out of his rich storehouse of gifts. The Psalmist tells about this, for he says that when Christ returned triumphantly to heaven after his resurrection and victory over Satan, he gave generous gifts to men.”

Self proclaimed Christians who are hoping today for Christ’s supposedly second coming are subjected to dismay every time their religious leaders tried to guess the time of his arrival. They have not understood well what the Bible wants them to understand that Christ’s second coming have passed and they have nothing to do with it because the promise was specific only to his disciples and church members at that time.

What’s confounding them more is that they forgot the basic law of cause and effect. If you can see the effect it does not matter whether you have seen the cause. A concrete example is Revelation 8.5 (NIV) where, “Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”

What effect did the taking of the censer from the altar and hurling it to the earth bring? Thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake! What other cause can bring this kind of effect?

Revelation 15:5 (NIV) tell us that, “After this I looked and in heaven the temple, that is, the tabernacle of the Testimony, was opened.” And what’s the effect when the temple opened? Revelation 11:19 (NIV), “Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hail storm.”

We can see here that an angel hurling a censer full of fire to the earth and the opening of heaven’s temple bring the effects of thunder, lightning, rumblings, and earthquake. Now, would you say that these things have not occurred yet because you have not seen an angel doing the actual throwing of a censer or the actual opening of heaven’s temple?

Since the effects have been experienced here on earth that simply means that the angel has done its job or that heaven’s temple have been opened, regardless of whether we have seen him or not. It is not for us to see the cause (unless we are privileged to witness it) but only its effects!

Likewise, the conditions set for Christ second coming was already fulfilled to the concerned disciples and we are not privileged to witness it but can only read about it.
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May 27 at 1:02pm