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THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST AND JUDGMENT

Separating Fact from Fiction

 

Why Do We Need This Study?

Lesson 1

Victor M. Eskew

 

INTRODUCTION

 

A.    Welcome.

1.     Sign-in sheet for visitors

2.     Bathrooms

 

B.    Schedule of classes (handout)

 

C.    Our promises to you:

1.     To keep the class within one hour

2.     To teach only the truth of God’s Word on the topics of study

3.     To  answer your questions to the best of my ability

4.     To reject and refute false doctrines

5.     To do all things  in love for both God and man

 

D.    Lesson 1 (handout)

 

E.     Our first lesson is an introductory lesson.  We want to answer the question:  “Why do we need this study?”

 

I.                THIS SUBJECT IS A BIBLE TOPIC

 

A.    The Second Coming of Christ

1.     Jesus promised that He would come again.

a.      John 14:1-3

 

Let not your heart be troubled:  ye believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house are many mansions:  if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

 

b.     Jesus taught His second coming in His parables.

1)     Parable of the doorkeeper (Mark 13:33-37; Luke 12:35-38)

2)     Parable of the homeowner (Matt. 24:42-44; Luke 12:39-40)

3)     Parable to the steward (Luke 12:41-46)

4)     Parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13)

5)     Parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30, exp. v. 19)

 

After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.

 

6)     Parable of the sheep and goats (Matt. 25:31-46)

 

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.

2.     The angels announced Jesus’s return when He ascended to the right hand of God (Acts 1:10-11).

 

And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?  This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

 

3.     Many of the inspired writers of the New Testament told about the second coming.

a.      Paul (I Thess. 4:16)

 

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:  and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

 

b.     Peter (II Peter 3:10)

 

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night…

 

c.      John (Rev. 1:7)

 

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him:  and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.  Even so, Amen.

 

4.     The second coming of Jesus is referred to in many different ways.

a.      That day (Matt. 7:22; II Tim. 1:12)

b.     The day of judgment (Matt. 12:36; I John 4:17)

c.      The last day (John 6:40, 44, 54)

d.     The day of wrath (Rom. 2:5)

e.      The day of our Lord Jesus Christ (I Cor. 1:8)

f.      The day of Christ (Phil. 1:10; 2:16)

g.     The day of the Lord (I Thess. 5:2)

h.     The day (I Thess. 5:4)

i.       The day of God (II Pet. 3:12)

j.       The great day (Jude 1:6)

k.     The great day of his wrath (Rev. 6:17)

 

NOTE:  The coming of Jesus Christ is always referred to by the term “day.”  It is never addressed using the term “days.”

 

B.    Judgment is also a Biblical topic:

1.     Matthew 12:36

 

But I say unto you, That every idle work that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

 

2.     Romans 2:5

 

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

 

3.     Romans 14:10b


…for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

 

4.     II Corinthians 5:10

 

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

 

5.     Hebrews 9:27

 

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.

 

6.     II Peter 2:9

 

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of tempations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.

 

II.              THE INTEREST PEOPLE HAVE IN THE SUBJECT

 

A.    All we have to do is mention the Second Coming of Christ and people’s ears immediately prick up.

 

B.    Hundreds of books have been written on the subject.  The most well-known is the 16 volume Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.

1.     63 million copies sold

2.     7 of the titles went to the #1 slot

 

C.    From the books in the “Left Behind” series came three movies that were all block busters.

 

D.    Many people believe that Jesus Christ will return within the next 40 years.

1.     27% - definitely

2.     20% - probably

3.     28% probably not

4.     10% - definitely will not

5.     14% - don’t know

 

III.            TO CLEAR UP SOME OF THE CONFUSION ON THE SUBJECT

 

A.    There are numerous views on the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world.

1.     Historical Premillennialism

2.     Postmillennialism

3.     Dispensatational Premillennialism

4.     Amillennialism

5.     Armstrongism

6.     The Millennium of the 7th-Day Adventists

7.     Jack Van Impe’s views on eschatology

 

B.    A brief listing of some the areas of confusion:

1.     Will there be an invisible and visible return of Jesus Christ?

2.     Will the righteous dead be resurrected long before the wicked dead are resurrected?

3.     Will the righteous go through all the tribulation, part of the tribulation, or none of the tribulation?

4.     Who is the anti-christ?

5.     Has the kingdom of Jesus Christ been established, or, is it yet to come?

6.     Is the end near, or, is there no way to know?

7.     Is the church the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the kingdom?

8.     Is the thousand years of Revelation 20 literal or figurative? 

9.     Is the thousand years a fixed period of time, or, does it refer to a long period of time?

 

IV.            TO LEARN THE TRUTH

 

A.    Two verses:

1.     Proverbs 23:23

 

Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

 

2.     John 8:32

 

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

 

B.    Truth is vitally important and it should be our desire to have it.

1.     To do this, we must study and rightly divide God’s Word (II Tim. 2:15).

2.     When we find it, we must be willing to be led in the truth (Psa. 25:5).

3.     We also must be willing to speak the truth (Prov. 8:7; Eph. 4:15).

 

V.              TO BE READY FOR THE LORD’S RETURN

 

A.    When Jesus will come, no one knows (Mark 13:32)

 

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

 

B.    That day will come

1.     In such an hour as ye think not (Matt. 24:44; Luke 12:40).

2.     When ye lest expect the master of the house to come (Mark 13:34-35).

3.     As a thief in the night (I Thess. 5:2; II Pet. 3:10).

4.     As travail upon a woman with child (I Thess. 5:3).

 

C.    We must

1.     Watch Matt. 24:42; 25:13; Rev. 3:3)

2.     Be ready (Matt. 24:44; Luke 12:40)

3.     Be persons of holy conversation and godliness (II Pet. 3:11)

4.     Look for and hasten unto the coming of the day of God (II Pet. 3:12)

5.     Be diligent to be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless (II Pet. 3:14)

 

CONCLUSION

 

A.    We are about to enter into some very controversial topics.

 

B.    As we study

1.     Some truth will be very simple.

2.     Some views of men will conflict with the Word of God.  When this happens the views of man must be rejected.

3.     Some things may not be as understandable as we would like for them to be.

4.     We may not know exactly what something is, but we can know what that something is not because it contradicts other plain teachings of the Bible.