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REVELATION - Behold, I am Coming Soon
Studies in the Book of Revelation
BOOK 7 - YES, I AM COMING SOON! (REVELATION 19:11 - 22-21) -- The triumph of Christ at his second coming and the emergence of the new world
PART 7.1 - INTRODUCTION: REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND!

1. The Judgments of the Lamb of God


Whoever reads in a praying manner the first eighteen chapters of the revelation of Christ to the patriarch John, who had been exiled by the Romans to the deserted Island of Patmos in the Aegean, may recognize that the educating judgments which are becoming more and more intense are a repeating call for repentance to all nations.

The apocalyptic riders reveal to men the result of their presumption without God under the influence of the victorious first rider: nothing else than war, dead, rising prices and flagrant injustice are the results of his Antichristian kingdoms, dictatorships and democracies. “There is no peace, says the LORD, for the wicked.” (Isaiah 48:22; 57:21; 59:8). And thus the second rider was given to take the peace from the earth as the predominant part of men wanted and wish to live without the only true God and without His slain Lamb.

The trumpet judgments shake the fundaments of men like a shocking earthquake so that they may recognize the grace of their creator and return gratefully to him. The prophet Amos already spoke to the house of Israel: “Seek the LORD, and you will live” (Amos 5:6). However since then and until today only a few people are following the call of the Lord in spite of his judgments. They prefer ruining themselves mutually by wars of extermination instead of submitting to the gentle Lamb of God through upright repentance.

The two witnesses in the Holy Land will have to lay the plagues of the Lord, with which in the days of old he had made Egypt befallen, on the chosen people so that they may turn from their crafty intelligence, love of money and hypocrisy resulting from their legal religion. When Antichrist will have killed the two messengers of the Lamb, a heavy earthquake has to destroy great parts of the Holy City. Nevertheless, only a few from the Jewish people and from the nations will adore the Almighty but out of fear instead of returning sincerely to His Lamb.

The judgment of the bowls of God's wrath will exceed the earlier warning judgments and make it almost unbearable to live on the earth. But even these severe punishments of the Lamb will not result in a reform of proud men, instead their unbelief will turn into public blasphemies. The son of the wicked will have men under control in such a manner so that his collectively possessed can bring about no repentance. They will not deny the existence of God but will hate him, hold him responsible for their distress and plagues, and in their rebellion against God prepare a war of extermination against the coming Christ.

However, the increasing intensity of the judgments of God over all men should us not distract from the very subject of the Book of Revelation: Jesus had himself revealed to John at Patmos so as to call his church to repent at first.

The purification, renewing, sanctification and willful repentance must begin with the responsible servants of Jesus Christ. If there is no renewing of the mind and returning to the Lamb of God among the called out of the nations, also the godless world will not repent. Therefore, the Last Judgment will begin with the “Prostitute Babylon”, i.e. with liberal, syncretistic oriented churches and with influential synagogues which will be finally eaten up by the Antichristian world.

In case that the risen Lord should want to keep some of his saints in the last struggle between heaven and hell as witnesses against Antichrist and his followers, then the prince of this world will not be able to kill them, no matter what “great power and craft” he may bring into action. It seems more and more that the world is confined by the dominion of the Evil One, but the victory of the humble Lamb of God on the cross has already been completed! The great number of his martyrs and pursued followers is not dead but is living with Him in eternity. On earth the authority of Christ seems to be broken and destroyed, as once at Golgotha, but the contrary is the case! The living Lord will come back together with his servants in order to deliver his earth from the authority of Satan.


2. The Promises Concerning the Coming of the Messiah in the Old Testament


The stirring promises of the close Coming of Christ were known to the churches in Minor Asia since the preaching of the Apostle Paul (Acts 20:17-38). In Jerusalem members of the Christian church had sold their fields and property in order to wait for the shortly forthcoming Coming of their Lord and Savior as they lived in a Christian Communism of mutual love with praise and thanksgiving. Non-Christian Jews also waited for the breaking through of the Messiah who is promised in their Scriptures and will lead them back after the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) from the heat of the exile to their country.

The Lord intended with his revelation to John to strengthen the churches in Minor Asia made up of messianic Jews and Christians form a Hellenistic background. In the beginning of the persecutions in the Roman Empire they should be comforted with the certain knowledge that not upcoming hardships or death but the victorious Coming of the risen Lord will be the most important event of the near future. The promises of the Old Covenant should help to keep them to their ardent hope and eager waiting for the promised Messiah:

The Almighty said to Abraham, “In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Apostle Paul later on proved that the “seed of Abraham” is a single person, Jesus Christ (Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:16).

Jacob witnessed when he was blessing his sons, that out of Judah shall go forth he whom the scepter belongs and the obedience of the nations is his (Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 2:3; John 4:22-26 and 39-42).

Moses confirmed his people, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers, and to him you must listen.” Deuteronomy 18:15; see also 18:18; Jeremiah 23:5; John 1:21.45; 6:14; 7:40:Acts 3:22; 7:37). The heathen soothsayer Balaam witnessed, “There shall come a Star out of Jacob .... Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion!” (Numbers 24:17b-19).

King David received from his Lord the comforting promise, “When your days be fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son.” (2 Samuel 7:12-14a; Psalm 2:7; 89:27; Luke 1:32; Hebrews 1:5).

In Psalm 2 the LORD is addressing the promised Messiah who will become flesh thousand years later in Bethlehem, “You are my Son; this day I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.” (Psalm 2:7b-9; Daniel 7:13-14; Acts 13:33; Revelation 2:27; 12:5; 19:15)

Since the days of these promises the coming Messiah is also called Son of David. The Son of David will come as king and priest, so both ministries will be combined in one person. According to Jewish imagination he is expected up to now as the triumphant and invincible sovereign.

In the Old Testament several songs are aimed at the Son of David. In one of them God speaks as follows: He shall cry unto me, You are my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. (Psalm 89, 26-29).

As to the coming of the promised Messiah, Isaiah, the distinguished prophet, received outstanding revelations: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6-7; see also 7:14; 11:1-5)

Later on, after the deportation of the majority of the Jewish people into the exile in Babylon the promises of God intensified with respect to the coming deliverer, Savior, redeemer, and victor. Then the scope of the salvation was not any longer restricted to Israel but now included the all nations. (Isaiah 42:1-7; 49:5-6; 51:4-5; and other verses). Here, in an unique manner the substitution of the servant of God in the judgment of the Almighty, in punishment and suffering was recognized as the foremost aim of his coming and as imperative prerequisite of his second coming: Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:1-12; here verses 4-5)

Isaiah recognized that the coming one is nobody else than the LORD himself; and he put in concrete terms how the world should prepare itself for the coming of the Messiah: The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it. (Isaiah 40:3-5)

The appeals to prepare for the coming of Christ are powerful and personal in the Old Testament. Whoever follows them in a praying manner will be quickened and transformed by them: Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you. And the Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isaiah 60:1-3)

The coming Christ is introducing himself already in the Book of Isaiah, addressing his people and all Gentiles directly and revealing them the secrets of his person: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; (Isaiah 61:1-2; see also verses 3-5; Luke 4:18)

The prophet Micah received a sensational prophesy, 750 years before the birth of the Messiah, namely the place of his incarnation: 'But you, Bethlehem Ephrata, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. (Micah 5:2)

The prophet Zechariah saw in his vision the triumphant entry of Christ to Jerusalem: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes to you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. (Zechariah 9:9-10)

The crucial authorization of Jesus, the Son of Man, after his ascension was revealed to the prophet Daniel: I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14; Revelation 5:1-14)

King David saw the summit in the life of the Messiah and emphasized it in the following psalm: The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool. The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people shall be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: you receive the dew of your youth. (Psalm 110:1-3)

In addition the prophet Zechariah heard especial words concerning the coming of the Messiah in the last days: Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. … And the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with him. … And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. (Zechariah14:3-9, here verses 3-4, 5b, 9)

The apostle John took in the Book of Revelation a promise crucial for the majority of the Jews concerning the coming of the Messiah from the prophet Zechariah: And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:9-10)

The key phrase of this promise to Zechariah (in italics) is testified to by John in Revelation 1:7 with the expression “So shall it be! Amen” as a promise of God, which will be fulfilled irresistibly.

On the threshold of the turning point in history John the Baptist prophesied the coming Messiah as a hard judge in the first instance: And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:10-12)

However, when Jesus Christ had been baptized in the Jordan, John the Baptist recognized the mystery of the Son of Mary, made a theological about-turn and revealed courageously what the Messiah really is: The next day John saw Jesus coming unto him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. ... And I did not know him: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom you will see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. (John 1:29-30.33-34)

Whoever compares the numerous promises in the 39 books of the Old Testament may be able to approach the Jewish thinking and recognize the characteristics and functions of the Messiah the Jews expect.

The children of Jacob wait for the “Son of David” who was authorized by the LORD their God of the covenant as Son of Man. They expect that he will rule as powerful “King of Israel” all nations with a rod of iron in Jerusalem. The promises that the Son of David will be a son of man as well as the son of God and the LORD himself have found only a small echo in Jewish faith even though these testimonies appear many times in the Old Testament. The prophesy that the Messiah will die as the most despised substitute for sinners in the judgment of wrath of the Holy One and reconcile as Lamb of God by his atoning death the depraved world with its creator has not been understood by most of the Torah-believers. The hardening of the heart of the people of Israel had not only begun with the rejection of Jesus and the Apostle Paul, but appeared already in the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:8-13). It means an overcoming of this irksome predestination, when Jesus released the blindness and deafness of the chosen people in his followers and revealed to this “Holy Remnant". But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say to you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them. (Matthew 13:16-17).

Many Jews have been waiting with ardent longing for their Messiah that he may gather them from all countries all over the world and unite them so as to become a strong people. A rabbi is told to have said, “The Messiah will enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey, if the citizens of the Holy City do not observe the laws of the Sabbath, but he will come on the clouds of the sky, if all Jews faithfully fulfill the Law of Moses.

Whoever in these days gives testimony to the sons of Jacob that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah, the Son of God and the King of the Jews, is a blasphemer in the eyes of them. Most of the Jews do not wait for the Lamb of God but for a powerful general and victor. The first arrival of the Messiah remained hidden to them. If, however, just before the true Messiah comes back another comes in his own name and reign with great power and craft, then they will listen to this one. (John 5:43; 8:42-46)

Yet the eyes and ears of the apostles were opened by the Spirit of God. They recognized the covered first as well as the imperative second coming of the Messiah, as Jesus had set an example to them and revealed it. Yet they did not realize this illogical but spiritual true revelation sooner then they had undergone a painful and radical change of their thinking.

PRAYER: Dear Father in heaven, we thank You and worship You because You did not curse us and do not destroy our corrupt world, but sent Your only Son to save and redeem us and to take away the sin of the world, to bear our punishment and redeem us from the judgment that is certainty coming. Amen.

QUESTION:

  1. Which one of the promises of the Old Testament declares the second coming of Christ?

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