David Pawson - The Final Facts Series 5 - Punishment of Hell (2)

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Thoughtful Thoughts 26.8.2 by John Dunning The Return of Christ, Part 5

Prologue…

1). Jesus’ first coming brought peace…

Jesus came the first time to enable those who want to make peace with God, to do so - before He comes the second time, so that they might be saved.?

As this current series of blogs is about end times, we will focus on that.?

We have been looking at what Jesus said about His return. Now we will include what other scriptures had to say…

2). The Second Coming of Jesus will;-

a).? – save those waiting for Him.

We are looking forward to our salvation;-

Romans 13.11 (“…salvation is nearer than when we first believed”);?

Hebrews 10.28? (“Christ will bring our salvation”);?

1 Peter 1.5 (“…until the coming of our salvation.”)

In addition, Jews will have a change of heart when they see Jesus come in His ‘parousia’, (when He will be seen as He really is.) Zechariah prophecies that Jesus will deliver those Jews who are prepared to submit to Him as the Christ.

b). – destroy those turning out to fight Him…

At Armageddon 200 million fighters of Jesus’ enemies will gather to fight Him, believing that their weight of numbers will be enough to beat Him, just as He was murdered the first time. But instead, next time, His enemies will simply drop dead when Jesus utters a word against them.?

c). – herald in a new Kingdom…?

Jesus will reign in His Kingdom.

Well, that is a summary of the results of the Second Coming of Jesus. So now we will take a closer look at what will go into making that good result come about…?

3). What was the purpose behind the book of Revelation?

i). Jesus had His own book - which we call ‘Revelation’ - written up by His best friend, John, in order to encourage His disciples to keep on going on.

ii). How can we have confidence in the end result, when things keep on going from bad to worse??

Because the end result has already been written – and Jesus wins.?

iii). Revelation prepares disciples for persecution, by warning them…

Revelation gives us ‘a heads up’ about the future. Jesus is saying that it is all under His control – even when Satan tries to make it look like he has won;- (for example, having so much power that he executes all those who refuse his ‘mark’).

Jesus warns us in Matthew and Revelation that many will lose their faith when Satan introduces his biggest end times deception of the false prophets - and even false messiahs, all culminating in Satan’s own anti-Christ and false prophet - by using demonic magic powers to fool many.?

4). Understanding the purpose of Revelation…

To understand Revelation, we need to take a look to see what Jesus added to our knowledge about the disciples that will be persecuted during the time of big trouble.

(ie What was summarised in the word the “great threshing”, (which is the English form of the Latin word, “tribulation”.)

ia). Believers are on earth during the ‘great threshing’; (or tribulation or time of big trouble.)

Question: Who are the people who are being so faithful to Jesus during this tribulation period, that they die in the Lord??

Answer: Only believers are ever labeled as those who “die in the Lord”, and only believers would remain so faithful to Jesus, that they would continue to stand up for Him even to martyrdom. Jesus promises that they will be “blessed”. It is a very special encouragement being given to believers who are right in the middle of the ‘great threshing’.?

In Rev. 14:12-13, which is right in the middle of this period of “great tribulation”, Jesus said, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, from now on”.?

ib). Believers are being martyred and entering paradise during the tribulation.

In Revelation 7: 14 John is being told that the people dressed in white are believers arriving straight out of the great tribulation. Believers are still on the earth during the time of big trouble, or “tribulation”, and being persecuted and martyred. So we will not be removed by God from the earth before the great tribulation. Jesus is warning us of worldwide persecutions still to come, in order for us to know the true cost of discipleship. He wouldn’t warn us of all that happening to us during this time of the great tribulation if it weren’t true. Matt. 24 shows us where the tribulation fits in.

ic). The time of big trouble.

During the time of the big trouble, (the ‘tribulation’), believers will be identified by those REFUSING Satan’s mark, (Rev. 13:16-18). God’s terror will fall on those siding with the evil one. God’s terror will not affect those choosing to wear God’s personal marker, which God will put on His own people, (Ch.7:3). His terrors will not hurt them; (Which happened in Egypt to God’s people when blood was put above the doorposts of God’s people, to identify themselves as God’s people, and which protected them from God’s judgment on the Egyptians.) In other words, in Revelation Jesus is giving His church a “heads up” of what is to come. (God warned people that the wages of sin is death.)

‘Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!’ Rev. 6:15-16.?

id). Jesus gives fair warning to those who will follow Jesus…

From Revelation ch. 6 all through to ch. 16, Jesus warns His future followers that during the end times they too will face persecution.

Why would Jesus do that? Because Jesus is wanting His church to be ready.?

When Corrie Ten Boom realized this, she made it her life’s mission to preach warning Jesus’ disciples to be ready for the big persecution still to come. It has been really bad in some countries already – but later it will be like that, everywhere at the same time.?

Epilogue…

Jesus wanted us to know, ‘upfront’, the cost of following Him. Forget the prosperity movement – it is fake news. It is loosely based on the Old Covenant, and they cherry-pick from it to suit their theology. I once met a Gentile Christian trying to get in on the Old Testament blessings by getting himself and his son circumcised. I pointed out that? Paul warned that by doing that we would put ourselves back under the curse of the law, (Galatians 3:10-11). Many religious leaders have not worked through the meaning of being under the New Covenant - which started after Jesus said, “It is finished”.?

Next week, we look at “The reward of heaven.”

This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

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