Pastor John,
Regarding Chapter 9 of your new Revelation book, Beth and I are wanting to make sure that we understand.
You are now saying that the two comings of the Messiah are two separate events, the first being the sufferings of Christ, and the second, the millennial reign of Chris. Is that different from saying that they were intended to be just one event, the suffering coming first and then the millennial reign, without a large span of time between the two (that time being from Jesus’ first coming until he returns)?
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I can see a slight difference, in the area of God’s original intent.
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If I am understanding this, then I have a question. If it was intended to be one event, and that event was disrupted or delayed by disobedience, then where would that leave all of us? If we were predetermined before the foundation of the world, then we had to be born, and we had to receive the Spirit, everyone of us that are in the Lamb’s book of life, before the close of this Creation, correct?
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Yes.
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If this Creation would have possibly ended centuries ago, then, we all would have had to have been rushed through at the last minute, to make it in before the door was shut forever on us Gentiles. Or, if it was planned as two separate events, we are altogether on schedule right now, which means we were born exactly when we were supposed to be.
Or, it is something else entirely which is not available for humans to understand
I’m expecting door number three to be close by!
Thank you,
Jerry
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Hi Jerry.
God knew from the beginning what would happen, all the way to the end, and beyond. That is called His “prescience”, or “foreknowledge”. That does not mean that He forced everything to be the way it is, only that He foreknew it. Foreknowing it, He spoke of it, and His speaking of it can make it appear sometimes that He planned everything to happen just as it did, which many people think is the case
How far to go in either direction, I cannot say. I just say this: It appears that God planned from the beginning to give us Gentiles the same amount of time He gave the children of Abraham to be in covenant with Him (two thousand years). But the fact that He begged rebellious Israel to be faithful to Him so that He could bless them as He wanted to, added to the fact that He grew so angry with Israel that He forsook her and turned to the Gentiles (cp. Acts 28:23–29), makes it appear that it did not have to be this way. So, there you are.
There is no answer to the predestination/free-will debate. But to your question, it might be best just say that the two advents of the Messiah are just two parts one event divided into two because of Israel’s disobedience… or maybe it would be best to say that God always planned them as two events because God wanted to have time to bring in His Gentile saints.
Then again, behind door #3, we might find that it was both.… or neither. Praise ye the Lord!
Thanks for the happy headache.
Pastor John