What the Jews Got Right

All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me (Luke 24:44).

Israel was given a special gift from God that no other nation has ever experienced. This “gift” was a blessing not always recognized or appreciated but a blessing nonetheless. Israel was granted the privilege of having men in their midst who were specially appointed by God as prophets, men who heard the voice of their Creator, and proclaimed it fearlessly.

Israel did not always get the message. In fact, more often than not, they missed the point or denied the truth. Their greatest blunder in misreading the prophecies, was, of course, their rejection of their promised Messiah.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus “came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). He wasn’t quite was the Jews were expecting. He had no interest in defeating Rome, He had no qualms in ignoring Pharisaical rules not based on Scripture, and he had the alarming habit of calling Israel’s religious leaders “hypocrites.” While all Israel looked eagerly for Messiah, the consensus among the nation’s scholars was that this Galilean peasant most definitely wasn’t the One. They were never more wrong.

It is important to recognize that the Jews did not strike out altogether in their study of the Messianic prophecies. As they studied the prophets and attempted to draw prophetic conclusions from their writings, they did actually get some things right. From our New Testament perspective, we can recognize three major prophetic truths that the Jewish prophetic scholars correctly discerned. We will first review what they did perceive correctly, and then see why this is so vitally important.

#1 – A Messiah is Coming.

By the time Jesus had come along the vast majority of the Jews were eagerly waiting for the Messiah. We read in Luke:

Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he might be the Christ… (Luke 3:15)

When John arose in Israel as a powerful preacher of righteousness, the people immediately began to wonder if he might be the Christ. “Messiah fever” spread all over Israel. In synagogues throughout tiny Israel, teachers of the sacred writings were encouraging their congregations that a Messiah was coming who would “redeem” Israel. John’s powerful, anointed ministry was enough to make the multitudes begin to think he might be that anointed one. John was quick to dispel such notions, and declared he was merely the forerunner of the Christ.

Even the despised Samaritans recognized this truth. When Jesus conversed with the Samaritan woman at the well, she told Jesus:

I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us (John 4:25).

This Samaritan lady may have been no theologian, but she was absolutely certain of two things: 1. Messiah was coming, and 2. He would tell them all they needed to know. She was right on!

Some may say, “Well, of course the Jews knew that a Messiah was to appear. Anyone could figure that out.”

Actually it is not nearly so obvious. If you were to hand an Old Testament to someone who had never heard of or read the Bible, and ask him to read it, he almost certainly would not draw that conclusion after one casual reading.

The truth is, the Messianic passages are widely scattered throughout the Scriptures, most of them are not lengthy, and could easily be interpreted in other ways. The average person would not casually read through the Old Testament and come to a definite conclusion that there is such a One as the Messiah.

The Jewish scholars, as a result of lengthy study and discussion, had accurately discerned that God would send them an “Anointed One” who would deliver Israel. Of the nature of that redemption they weren't sure; just what the Messiah would accomplish was strongly debated, but most Jewish scholars were agreed that Messiah was coming!

Some of the Scriptures they had discovered would include:

• The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear (Deuteronomy 18:15).
• For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
• Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion (Psalms 2:6).

They had read these and other verses, had decided that they meant just what they said, and had drawn a reasonable conclusion. Messiah was coming!

#2 – The Messiah would be from the tribe of Judah, and a descendant of David.

It is significant that Matthew begins his gospel with the words: The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1). Matthew, who fills his writings with references to the Old Testament prophecies, wastes no time in establishing that this Jesus he writes of had the proper Messianic credentials.

It was common knowledge in all Israel that the Messiah would be a “son of David,” from the tribe of Judah and descended from the royal Davidic line. This immediately eliminated the vast majority of Israelites. There were twelve different tribes from which the Jews had descended. An Ephraimite wouldn’t do, a Benjamite was unacceptable. Any who would claim to be Messiah would have to be from the tribe of Judah, and have David as an ancestor.

We see this in a number of places in the Scriptures. As Jesus walked, we read: two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Matthew 9:27). They called Him “Son of David” to express their confidence that He was indeed God’s promised Messiah.

Matthew records another illuminating event:

Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” (Matthew 12:22,23).

“Could this be the Son of David?” was the question the astonished onlookers asked. They were asking whether Jesus could be the Messiah. To them, “son of David” was another way of referring to the Messiah, so sure was their confidence that the Scriptures predicted this very thing.

When Jesus came rode a donkey down the Mount of Olives, the crowd joyously proclaimed, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:9). The “son of David” was the Messiah and the Messiah was the “son of David.” The Jews may have been pretty ignorant of many aspects of the Messiah’s nature and ministry, but they got this one thing right. They knew his family tree!

Where did the Jews get such a notion? The same Scriptures which told them that Messiah was coming had also declared His background. They had read the promise God made to David:

When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Samuel 7:12).

The Jewish students of the prophets had taken God at His word, and drawn the only possible conclusion: when the Messiah arrives, He will come from a family who can trace their lineage back to King David. He will not be from Dan or Gad, or Reuben, or any of the other tribes. He will be from Judah, through the line of David. They were not wrong.

#3 – The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

The Jews knew there would be a Messiah, they knew He would descend from David, and they knew a third thing. They knew the very city in which He would be born.

When the wise men came to Herod to inquire about the newly born King of the Jews, Herod sent for Israel’s finest Bible prophecy scholars. He assembled all the Hal Lindsay’s, the Tim LaHaye’s, and the Dave Reagan’s of his day. His question was simple: “Where would the Messiah be born?”

Israel’s finest Biblical minds did not have to ponder long on this. Herod had lobbed them a theological softball. Everyone knew the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Matthew records:

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel’ (Matthew 2:4-6).

These scholars hadn’t learned this truth through any kind of mystical revelation, or complex Biblical formula. They had simply read the verse, took it at face value, and believed that it would be fulfilled just as it read.

See how narrow these three simple prophecies have become. First we learn that God will send a Messiah, an Anointed One to His people Israel. Secondly we learn that this mighty Deliverer will be a descendant of David and of the tribe of Judah. And thirdly we discover that He will be born in the town of Bethlehem. (Actually there were two “Bethlehems” in Israel in those days, but Bethlehem Ephratha is spelled out in Micah’s original prophecy.)

This thinned out the field enormously. There weren’t that many descendants of David’s in those days (or before or since) who were born in Bethlehem and showed the least qualifications for consideration as potential Messiah. Had the Jews paid a little more attention to their own limited prophetic understanding, they should have given Yeshua, who possessed all these qualifications (along with the ability to raise the dead, heal the sick, and walk on water), a little more serious consideration. Their problem was more a heart problem than a theological one, which is generally the case!

So What?

The fact that the Jews of Jesus’ day did get some things right in their prophetic studies is vitally important. Vast numbers of Christians today are under the delusion that Bible prophecy is so secretive, mysterious, and highly symbolical that you really can’t expect to ever know much about it. They use this to justify their “pan-millennialism” (things will pan out in the end) and never give any serious attention to the study of the prophetic aspects of God’s word, especially concerning the Second Coming of Jesus.

I once asked a popular pastor why he never preached on the return of Jesus. He replied that it was too controversial. Nobody could agree on anything, and so there was nothing that could be preached with certainty. Thus he felt it was better to stick with things he could confidently proclaim.

In the nineteenth century, there was a political party in the United States with the unlikely name of the Know-nothings. They obviously had little knowledge of public relations; Know nothings is not exactly a name that inspires confidence. Nevertheless Christians in great numbers today might well be called the know-nothings. Their position on Bible prophecy is “We don’t know nuttin about nuttin, and we’re proud of it!” They often attempt to justify their ignorance with the idea that if those who talked so much about the Lord’s return were really spiritual, they would concentrate on prayer and evangelism, and be done with this “pie in the sky” theology.

As Jesus ascended into the heavens, the amazed disciples looked up into the air long after He had disappeared from sight. It took a visit from angels to stop their gaze. The angels told them boldly:

This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven (Acts 1:11).

They were not suggesting a possibility. This was no fairy tale. It was a simple statement of fact. Jesus Christ would return, just as He left – visibly and bodily. This is our starting point for understanding the prophetic aspects of Jesus’ return. He is coming back! There is no room for quibbling or disputing; our world has not seen the last of Jesus of Nazareth!

Start there. There is certainly a lot more to learn, but here is our starting point. Jesus will return, visibly and bodily. Just as the Jews learned some things from taking the truths of the prophets literally and at face value, we can as well.

You Do Well…

Bible prophecy is not unimportant. Peter writes:

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed… (2 Peter 1:19).

When the Jerusalem was being surrounded by the Roman army in AD 70, those who believed and revered the prophetic words of Jesus remembered that He had warned them:

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her (Luke 21:20).

These believing Jews fled Jerusalem and escaped across the Jordan to a city called Pella, and were spared the slaughter that came to their countryman who felt Jerusalem would never fall. It pays to take heed to the prophetic word!

Bible prophecy is more literal than most folks give it credit. As long as you see all prophecy as highly symbolical, then its meaning is up for grabs. It can mean whatever you choose to assign it to mean, until somebody else comes along as assigns it a different meaning.

Consider Zechariah’s prophecy about the Messiah in His first appearance:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9).

Those who love to spiritualize Scripture would have had a field day with this verse, had they lived before Jesus appeared. This Scripture obviously didn’t mean what is said. The glorious King of Israel would surely not come riding a literal donkey. This must be a metaphor. Perhaps it had to do with the Messiah’s humility, or maybe Him on top of a donkey symbolizes that the common humble people will be His biggest fans, or maybe He will be a Democrat… But of course, when Jesus showed up at Jerusalem in that dramatic passion week, He came riding a literal donkey – not a symbolical donkey, not a spirit donkey, but a real flesh and blood, smelly, grass eating, braying, long eared donkey!

Isaiah makes one of the most amazing predictions of all:

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).

Those who refuse to take prophecy literally or seriously would never have concluded that this promise meant exactly what it said. They might have argued that it spoke of the Messiah’s holiness and purity, or that Israel was the virgin referred to, or that this was merely poetic language to demonstrate that the Messiah’s mother would be a “spiritual virgin.” After all, everyone knows that virgins can’t have babies. Surely the Bible means something other than what it says.

Literal or Symbolical?

Then came Jesus. He was born, not of a symbolical virgin, or of a spiritual virgin, but a literal virgin. Once more the Bible turns out to be far more literal than many want to admit.

In Psalm 22 we have a graphic account of Jesus’ death on the cross. Few ever took this literally, yet when we read it today, it has crucifixion written all over it:

The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots (Psalm 22:16-18).

Did Jesus die on a symbolical cross or a literal cross? Were his hands symbolically pierced or literally pierced? Of course this description is all too literal, as any reader of the New Testament well knows.

When you study the prophecies of the Old Testament pertaining to Jesus’ first coming, you find that they were fulfilled to the letter! Jesus was literally betrayed by a friend, literally rode on a donkey, literally was killed between two thieves, was literally buried in a rich man’s tomb, and literally rose again on the third day. This is so evident that no student of the Bible could possibly deny it.

When it comes to the Second Coming prophecies, Christians seem to think God has taken an entirely new tact. When He gave prophecies about the First Coming, He spoke clearly and plainly; concerning Jesus’ Second Coming He now speaks in riddles and mysteries that no could possibly understand.

This is patent nonsense. The same God who was eager to have His people informed and excited about His Son’s first appearance is just as eager to have His children today informed and excited about His Second Coming. We find that the primary key to understanding prophecy is extraordinarily simple, so simple that we have missed it for centuries. The key is that we are to take God at His word, and consider that His promises of Jesus’ return mean just what they say.

Zechariah

Let us consider one of the classic Second Coming prophecies from the fourteenth chapter of the book of Zechariah. In this amazing little book, we read that:

1. The Lord will fight against the nations that attack Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:3).
2. His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4).
3. The Mount of Olives will split in two (Zechariah 14:4).
4. Living waters will flow from Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:8).
5. The Lord shall be King over all the earth (Zechariah 14:9).
6. The nations shall go up from year to year to worship the Lord at the Feast of Tabernacles (Zechariah 14:16).

Many believe that these prophecies are deep, so deep that no one could possibly understand them. Perhaps they have to do with individual salvation, and the Mount of Olives splitting in two has to do with a sinners’ heart breaking when he is convicted by God over his sins. (Some have actually suggested this!) Well, maybe when we get to heaven and are given all the meanings behind the meanings we will discover that there were indeed some hidden truths behind the plain words of Scripture. But for the present time, we can only go by the plain sense of what is written.

Personal Interpretation

I have “my own” interpretation of Zechariah 14. I’m afraid it will disappoint many of the deeper theologians. As I see it, what Zechariah is predicting is:

1. The Lord will fight against the nations that attack Jerusalem.
2. His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives.
3. The Mount of Olives will split in two.
4. Living waters will flow from Jerusalem.
5. The Lord shall be King over all the earth.
6. The nations shall go up from year to year to worship the Lord at the Feast of Tabernacles.

While I don’t get points for creativity here, I am on much safer ground in that I have not tried to make the word of God mean something that it doesn’t say or imply. Those who would have used such an interpretive approach with the first coming would have easily been in the best position to see Jesus as Israel’s Messiah. I am convinced that those who approach His second coming this way will likewise be in the best position to accurately predict the specific details of the Last Days and the nature of our Lord’s appearing.

When it comes to Bible prophecy, there are many things you can know. You will put away your doubts and your pan-millennialism by discarding the foolish notion that the Bible never means what is says. Start taking God at His word, put in the time and effort to study, and convictions will begin to form. If the Jews of the Old Testament, without the indwelling Holy Spirit, could accurately discern these three significant prophecies of Jesus’ First Coming, how much more ought we, who have been given the Spirit of Truth, be able to rightly perceive the prophetic promises of our Lord’s Second Coming.

Such an approach to Bible prophecy dispels the erroneous notion that there is nothing of which we can be sure, pertaining to our Lord’s return. By taking the Bible for its plain sense meaning, we can begin to pin down a number of important truths. Let us consider a few of those basic truths that every Christian should be able to agree upon.

Our World is in for a Terrible Time in the Last Days

If Bible prophecy means anything, it clearly reveals that the Last Days are going to be very, very rough. Jesus warns:

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be (Matthew 24:21).

Our Lord warns that our world’s most perilous time shall occur just prior to His return. When we think of the many terrible wars, government purges, famines, and miseries that have occurred throughout the last twenty centuries since those words, it is chilling indeed to consider that something far worse is yet to come. Isaiah 24 is a classic description of this tribulation period. We know Isaiah must be speaking of this time, because he finishes with the promise that the Lord will “reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before His elders, gloriously” (Isaiah 24:23). But prior to that there will be no glory but rather a time of horror such as men have never experienced before. In one of these verses, he declares:

The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, And those who dwell in it are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left (Isaiah 24:5,6).

During my college days, it seemed that everyone was concerned about the earth’s population explosion, and making dire predictions of terrible famine and death in the next 20 years due to an unsustainable world population. It has now been well over 20 years since those days (I won’t tell you just how many!) and we seem to be getting along about as well as ever. In any case, by the time the tribulation is finished overpopulation will definitely not be a concern. As Isaiah puts it, “Few men are left.” The majority of the earth’s billions will be no more. The rapture will have harvested the godly and the tribulation, the ungodly. Those who survive to enter the millennium will have plenty of elbow room.

Many people today are deceived by the illusion of an unconcerned or an unholy God. They see God’s apparent failure to take notice of sin as an indicator that He is not all that bothered by our continual defiance of His laws and mocking of His Person. They fail to recognize that attribute of Deity that the King James version describes as “longsuffering.” God’s patience and His silence in the face of rebellion should never be construed as apathy on His part. His anger mounts, and though He patiently allows man time and opportunity to multiply his rebellion, a day of reckoning is sure to come. The period of time just prior to His Son’s return is that reckoning. Though He bears long with us, that day will surely come.

Jesus Christ is Returning

One of the fundamental truths that cannot be contradicted by those who believe and reverence the Bible is that Jesus Christ is coming back. What an amazing thought! Our world has not seen the last of the miracle worker from Nazareth. When we think of Jesus in His robe and sandals, walking the dusty streets of Israel and teaching this ancient people the ways of God, it is hard to imagine Him relating to people of our day, in our age of computers, space travel, and cell phones. Yet, despite His long absence, our Lord has not lost sight of us. He stated that the kingdom of God was like a man traveling to a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. Jesus is that man!

His return will be accomplished in two phases. First He promised to come and take His people to Himself:

I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:2,3).

We call this the Rapture of the church. In this promise the emphasis is upon His coming for us, and taking us to be with Him. In 1 Thessalonians Paul speaks of this and says that “we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them (the resurrected dead in Christ) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). There is no mention here of Jesus coming to reign on the earth. The emphasis is totally upon His coming for His people, and taking them to Himself. These verses are so plain that it would take a great deal of creative twisting of Scripture to be able to deny them. Jesus is coming for us!

The second phase of Jesus’ return has to do with His actually returning to earth to rule and reign here as Lord for one thousand years. This period of Jesus’ reign on earth is known as the Millennium. While Jesus was on the earth 2000 years ago, Satan tempted Him with an offer of “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory,” if He would but bow down and worship him. Jesus turned down the offer, declaring, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve’” (Luke 4:8).

It wasn’t the time for Jesus to take possession of “the kingdoms of the world and their glory,” and this certainly wasn’t the right means to accomplish it. However the day is coming when Jesus will indeed receive that which Satan tempted Him with. It won’t be by Satan’s devices, though; it will be through the righteous decree of God Almighty. In the very Messianic Psalm 2, we find these words:

The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession (Psalm 2:7,8).

When Christ returns in His Second Coming (as opposed to the Rapture where He draws believers to Himself in the air) He will come as a Judge and a Ruler. The justice that has been so conspicuously absent from the lives and affairs of men, shall at long last make its appearance. In the Psalms we read of all nature rising up in praise to God for the appearance of the King who rules justly:

Let the sea roar, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell in it; Let the rivers clap their hands; Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, For He is coming to judge the earth. With righteousness He shall judge the world, And the peoples with equity (Psalms 98:7-9).

What an indictment upon Christians who yawn at the magnificent and glorious return of our Lord! Here we have all nature holding a praise gathering, with rivers clapping their hands and the hills expressing their joy at the return of Christ, the King. Yet how few Christians ever bother to speak or even think about this event! Not only do they disregard the most momentous event in the history of the planet; they label those who are the least bit excited about it as fanatics!

The Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ to reign on the earth are clearly indicated in Scriptures. For those who love the Bible, and believe it to be inspired by God, they cannot help embracing these amazing truths. We may not all agree as to every specific detail or the timing of the events, but we can certainly all agree on the central truth of Christ’s return. He is coming back! He said that He would and He always keeps His word.

We are Called to Watch for Him

Another undeniable truth found in the prophetic writings is that God’s people are called to eagerly look for the return of His Son. It is not enough to have a proper theological understanding of the coming of Christ. We are commanded to watch:

Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch! (Mark 13:33)

While no evangelical Christian would dare disagree with these words of Jesus, many pay them little heed. They live their lives without the slightest interest in, or concern for the “glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”

The key question is how does one watch? Surely Jesus does not expect us to physically spend most of our time staring up into the skies, does He? Shall we all quit our jobs, climb the nearest high hill, and wait for Jesus?

No credible student of prophecy would suggest such a thing. Though it is hard for the mockers to admit, evangelicals who eagerly expect the return of Jesus generally do such ordinary things as work at jobs, feed their dogs, kiss their wives, and witness to sinners. Watching for Christ’s return does not exempt one from ordinary responsibilities; it actually enhances them. C. S. Lewis’ classic statement about the power of future hope surely applies to those who love His return:

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next… It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’; aim at earth and you will get neither.

Watch!

To understand the meaning of Jesus’ command for us to watch, let us look at three other occurrences of this word in the New Testament:

• Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober (1 Thessalonians 5:6).
• Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears (Acts 20:30-31).
• Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me'' (Matthew 26:38).

In each of these three verses we find a situation of spiritual or physical danger, and an exhortation to be spiritually alert and prayerful. In the passage from 1 Thessalonians, we find that sleeping is set in contrast to watching. So here we clearly see what watching is not. Watching is not sleeping! You have to be alert to watch.

Giving Heed to the Doctrine

In terms of the return of Jesus, we watch for Him by staying keenly aware of the times we live in, and by an eager expectation that Jesus could show up at any time. To maintain this spiritual posture, we must give some attention to the Biblical doctrine of the return of Jesus. Those who never talk about His return, never think about His return, and never hear about His return are sleeping; they are not watchers.

We tend to be attracted to that to which we are exposed. Most of us have had times when a song would not go out of our minds. The tune went round and round in our consciousness, sometimes for several days. This is almost always a result of having heard the song a number of times in a short period. Usually, when we think back to the first time we heard the song, we were not particularly impressed by it. But as we heard the song again and again, it worked its way into our minds, and took control of us.

As a teenage youth I decided at one point that I would start drinking coffee. (It was such a grown-up thing to do.) In my desperate attempts to be mature, I made my first halting steps toward becoming a coffee drinker. At first I had to make a determined effort not to let my face give the game away to my friends that I actually hated the stuff. It tasted awful and I wondered why anybody would actually like this murky liquid. But in time, with the help of many glazed doughnuts, I actually began liking coffee, and today consider a hot cup of coffee a fantastic way to relax at the end of the day, while watching an Andy Griffith rerun with my wife. (I substitute low carb bars for doughnuts these days). I exposed myself to coffee until I actually started to like it.

We are drawn to those things that frequent our experience. You cannot get excited about a person, place, or thing, which you have never seen or experienced. This is certainly true of the doctrine of the return of Christ. As long as the pulpits remain silent on this paramount truth, as long as Christians can go for decades at a time and never hear a single cogent Biblical explanation of the Rapture of the Church, as long as Sunday school teachers zealously avoid Daniel and Revelation, we shall always have an unexcited, unconcerned, uneducated body of Christians who do not watch. They may pray, they may witness, they may tithe, but they do not watch.

One of the mistakes pastors often make is in assuming that, if they dare preach a sermon on the return of the Lord, it must be very deep and profound, and solve all the current eschatological dilemmas. This is nonsense. Most of the Second Coming references by the apostles were simple exhortations toward holy living and eager expectation. They were not deep but they were passionate. Here is a sampling of some of these references by the apostles:

• You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand (James 5:8).
• Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).
• …that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ… (1 Peter 1:7).

Simple messages, full of passion, are far more effective than the most complex theological treatise, minus the fire. The Scriptures give plenty of attention to this important subject, so as to give the simplest of pastors and Bible teachers more than adequate ammunition for messages relating to our Lord’s return.

Applying What We Have Learned

When all the dust of the tribulation has cleared, when the antichrist has been cast into the lake of fire and the earth is purged of its rebellion and the King has arrived with justice in His train, we shall find that every single prophetic promise of God in His holy Word has been fulfilled to the letter. Jesus tells us:

For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled (Matthew 5:18).

All shall be fulfilled! Not only the big glaring unmistakable prophecies, but the most minute of prophecies, those obscure passages unnoticed by nearly everyone shall find complete fulfillment. We shall have all of eternity to wonder at the incredible way God fulfilled all His purposes in weaving all history together for His glory in the majestic revelation of Jesus Christ.

All Scriptural truth is relevant to our “here and now” day to day lives. This is surely true of Bible prophecy. As we consider how precisely God brings His word to fulfillment, it is a great encouragement for us to believe all His promises on both a cosmic and personal level.

God keeps His promises, and this includes His threats. Paul writes of those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and declares that:

These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power… (2 Thessalonians 1:8,9)

This “promise,” awful as it is, shall be kept. In the lake of fire there shall be an “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

In the book of Revelation, John describes all those who will be excluded from the holy city of New Jerusalem:

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death (Revelation 21:8).

You see, God’s faithfulness to His word is both good news and bad news. The good news is that God always keeps His promises. The bad news is that God always keeps His promises. Whether this is good or bad news to you depends upon which set of promises applies to your situation.

People exaggerate, of course. We like to embellish our stories, to add a little spice by making things a little bigger and bolder than they actually were.

God never does this. He is the God of truth, Jesus is called “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and the Holy Spirit is known as the “Spirit of Truth.” Hell will be no better or no worse than the Scripture reveals it to be. God does not make it seem worse than it is in order to scare people into making the right choices. Every word He speaks is truth. As the wicked suffer the agonies of the lake of fire all the universe shall behold that God is true to His word.

The Glorious Promises

God’s promises are not all negative. He has made some incredible declarations concerning those who would repent of their sins and believe on His Son. To the righteous God offers a future that is beyond anything we can imagine. He even promises the redemption of the earth:

The meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace (Psalms 37:11).

What is the deep, mystical meaning of this? It means just what is says – the meek (those meek enough to see their need of the Savior) shall inherit the earth, and experience great joy in living in a world that is without war and strife. Only in the Millennium can we expect to see the fulfillment of this promise. Certainly no one is delighting himself today in the abundance of peace in our world. But when Jesus returns, He shall rule with a rod of iron, and there shall be peace. God keeps His promises.

God declares in the book of Revelation that those who are granted entrance into the holy city, New Jerusalem (those justified by faith in Jesus) will enjoy a freedom from all the miseries that were their constant companions on earth:

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away (Revelation 21:4).

Imagine a life without sadness, depression, pain, or the prospect of death! While it sounds unbelievable this is exactly what God promises to those who will trust in His Son. And He always keeps His promises.

The same God who worked so powerfully and so meticulously to bring to pass every one of the most obscure prophetic utterances of His prophets, will also labor to bring to pass those blessed promises of joy and bliss for every believer in a world and a life that will have no end. Ten zillion years from now, as God’s children are just getting used to the beginnings of eternity, we will look back to the ancient prophetic writings and declare, “Every word was true, and every promise He has kept.”

Just as surely as the 1st Coming prophecies were fulfilled to the letter, so will the 2nd Coming prophecies be fulfilled. I like the way the NIV expresses it:

I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is fulfilled (Matthew 5:18).

The terrible tribulation period, the rise and fall of the antichrist, the restoration of the Roman Empire, the Rapture of the Church, the death of most of the world’s population, the destruction of the earth’s vegetation, the world’s greatest earthquake, and the glorious Second Coming of Christ shall all be fulfilled most literally. But it’s not just the tribulation that will find literal fulfillment.

A Real Place

Many people love to make fun of a literal heaven. The idea that heaven may be an actual place with tangible streets, gates, and dimensions seems ludicrous to them. Many preachers have stopped preaching about heaven. A Time Magazine cover story made the point that hardly any modern mainline minister ever preaches about heaven any more. They observed, “Heaven is AWOL from most churches.” A United Methodist spokesman called heaven too controversial to discuss. A Washington preacher considered the matter of heaven to be a geographical issue undeserving of his attention.

Heaven is real and it is important. Jesus tells us to pray to “Our Father which art in heaven.” He called His kingdom the “kingdom of heaven.” He told us that we are to lay up our treasures in heaven, and told the Pharisees that “he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.” (Matthew 23:22). Clearly Jesus thought highly about heaven.

In Revelation John is granted a vision of heaven’s glory:

I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God… The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal… The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones… The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its light (Revelation 21:3,16-19,23).

Many who think of themselves as too spiritual to ever take the Bible literally, mock any attempt to suggest that this is indeed what heaven will be like. Walls of Jasper, buildings made of transparent gold, the exact dimensions of the width and length of the city given… they just can’t believe heaven could be this real.

But why not? We are not going to be ethereal spirits floating through the clouds, playing harps and haunting one another for eternity. We shall be resurrected and granted immortal, yet physical bodies. After His resurrection Jesus ate fish and honey to show us just how real this glorified body was (you can’t get any more human than eating!) In eternity, those who spiritualize Scripture may be amazed to find out that heaven does indeed have buildings made of gold, walls of Jasper, and is exactly fifteen hundred miles long and fifteen hundred miles wide. God keeps all His promises.

Jesus did not die on a symbolical cross or an ethereal cross; He died on a very tangible wooden cross. His resurrection was not a symbolical resurrection, or a spiritual resurrection; His body literally rose from death into life by the power of the Holy Spirit on the third day. One of the ancient heresies that the early church had to contend with was Gnosticism, which taught that Jesus was not a physical being at all. He was a spirit-being, and only had the appearance of humanity. This is why John was so insistent on this point:

By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God (1 John 4:2).

It was Jesus’ physical life and death and resurrection, that has made it possible for us to inherit a very real and very literal heaven, known as the New Jerusalem. Thousands of years before the fact, Hebrew prophets were announcing the amazing advent of the Messiah. These men proclaimed that this same Messiah would one day rule the world in righteousness, and the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And we know that it shall happen just as they predicted. For God always keeps His promises!