2nd Coming of Christ
(week 33/08)
Olubi Johnson
This week, we will be examining the 2nd coming of Christ and its attendant orders of the resurrection.
This is to motivate us to a life of purity so we can obtain the very best resurrection available:
1 John 3:2-3 (ES): Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (3) And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Hebrews 11:35 (MKJV): Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
The second coming of Christ will be in three phases:
1. He will come in us in the manifestation of the perfection and fullness of Christ causing the gospel of the Kingdom to be preached for a witness to all nations: every tribe, tongue and kindred:
Ephesians 4:11-15 (MKJV): And truly He gave some to be apostles, and some to be prophets, and some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, (12) for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. (13) And this until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; (14) so that we no longer may be infants, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, in the dishonesty of men, in cunning craftiness, to the wiles of deceit. (15) But that you, speaking the truth in love, may in all things grow up to Him who is the Head, even Christ;
2 Thessalonians 1:10 (LITV): (10) when He comes to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all those who believe in that Day, because our testimony to you was believed.
Matthew 24:14 (ESV): And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
2. He will come for us at the ‘rapture’:
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (ESV): (51) Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (52) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
However, this resurrection will be in order: pre-, mid- and post- tribulation orders:
1 Corinthians 15:22-23 (ESV): (22) For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (23) But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
In our article next week, we will see these orders in more detail.
