Note: All biblical quotations are from the New International Version (NIV) Bible.
[
Replying to otseng in post #16]
Am I certain Jesus will return soon? I'm starting to be convinced of it.
Maybe we could consider the possibility that
Christ has already returned - invisibly - not seen by the literal eyes but with the eyes of reason and faith, or, if you will, with the "eyes of the heart" (Ephesians 1:18). Men of faith do not always perceive spiritual things with their literal eyes. For example: We have not seen Jesus in the flesh but we know he existed and we put faith in him. As John 20:29 puts it:
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
If we believe that we will see Jesus when he returns, the manner of his return would make us reconsider that position. Two scriptures that come to mind:
Act 1: 9-11 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
And in answer to the high priest at Mark 14: 61,62 NIV before his death: 'Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One? “I am;" said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” '
Jesus' return is by the "clouds of heaven" - but clouds inhibit literal vision not promote it. Here clouds is used in a metaphorical sense. Jesus was saying here that his return would be invisible - it can only be seen by eyes of faith and reason.
Recall the question the Apostles asked Jesus as recorded at
Matthew 24:3 NIV: "Tell us", they said, "when will this happen, and
what will be the sign of your coming (or, more correctly "presence", Greek,
pa·rou·siʹa) - and of the end (or conclusion, Greek,
syn·teʹlei·a)
of the age? ("world": KJV; "system of things": NWT)?"
In answer to the Apostles' query about the last days, Jesus stated at Matthew 24 that world conditions would deteriorate into war, food shortage, pestilence (deadly plague), and other causes of death. But note that these are the same dire conditions depicted by the ride of three horsemen closely following the first riding on a white horse in the descriptive prophecy of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at Revelation 6:2-8.
In this prophecy, the rider of the white horse, who was leading the gallop, was first given a crown indicating he was made a king (Rev 6:2).
That this rider is, no other than, Jesus himself will be very obvious if we compare this verse with Rev 19:11-16 where a rider is seen on a "white horse" and which, on his robe and thigh, was written the name "KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS."
In effect what we are saying is that Jesus has already returned on a white horse as a king before the dramatic world developments we see today - war, famine, earthquakes, pestilences (Matthew 24:3-8; Luke 21:11) brought about by the ride of the three horsemen that followed him - occur.
Such developments bear powerful testimony to the fact that
1914 - when the first sign of the last days, world war, manifested itself - indeed marked the birth of God’s heavenly Kingdom with Jesus as king and the beginning of “the last days” of this present wicked system of things. — 2 Timothy 3:1-5
These "last days" will, in due time, culminate in the war of the great day of God the Almighty at Armageddon as described in Revelation 19:17-21 - the end of all things wicked and, in turn, ushering the start of a new millennium for Christian survivors.
........................................................................................
Isaiah 65:22 For like the days of a tree will the days of my people be