Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. (Matt:25)
"free lube and oil here"... PART 1 - Short bits of prophecy, on....
The meaning of the OIL
At the appointed time, a correct understanding of Revelation’s story will become essential for salvation!
This all comes about whenever one refuses to take God's word at face value in what He clearly says concerning these things! Remember the yeast of the pharisees (Matt.16:12)? "It takes only a [little] yeast (i.e. false teaching) to spoil the whole batch."
Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Let's seek only what the word of God clearly has to say about His second coming, and heed it....Concerning our being ready to meet Christ at His coming, having the right eschatology/teaching and keeping these words of His in our heart are so important (2 Timothy 2:17-18; John 14:23).
By being taught that the rapture will be over Before it actually takes place after the tribulation at the visible appearance of the Lord seen coming in glory and power, and that it either doesn't happen or that we missed it, is going to infect [future] Christians every bit as much as Hymenaeus and Philetus' words; eating away like a cancer, having infected those [past] Christians, even ending up overthrowing the faith of those more gullible and prone to deception.
"The Faith that causes us to participate in the Saving Grace of God comes by our "Hearing" the word of God. "Hearing" involves our comprehending and understanding Him with our Minds, our believing and receiving Him in our Hearts, and it involves obeying Him freely through our wills by abiding in the Word and having the Word abide in us also.
Therefore, A TOTAL Salvation involves MORE than our just "Hearing" the Truth of His first coming in the saving of our souls.
It involves MORE than our just "Receiving" the Revelation Knowledge of His resurrection from the dead and His ascention into heaven in the renewing of our spirit.
A TOTAL Salvation should also involve our "Keeping" His words as well - ALL of them - including our keeping/preserving the Truth of His prophetic word and second coming, whereby He promises those who watch that they will receive new and glorified bodies.
It was "Jesus Himself" who was, and is, and is coming again. "HE WAS" (past) - "HE IS" (present) - and "HE WILL COME AGAIN" (future). This is the Central part of the Gospel. We must not take and throw out the baby with the bath water!
The Bottom Line in all of this is that...
"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Rev 1:8"
"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Heb.9:28"
"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 1 Pet 1:13"
The Truth of "His second coming" is NOT to be questioned or debated any more than the Truth of His first coming or resurrection are to be questioned!!!
The God who was, and is, and is coming again, is to be taken as One Truth, and taken at "Face Value", according to God's own word, and all three:
The word of God says that by realizing who Jesus was in His first coming, who He is in His resurrection and who He will be at His return are essential truths that amount to our "TOTAL" Salvation in Him....
1. we/our souls were saved (justified) through faith in His shed/blood and death --
2. we/our spirit is being saved daily (sanctified-renewed) through His resurrection and ascention into heaven and into our hearts --
3. we/our body will receive new and glorified bodies (like His own) when He comes again (and He will glorify us in doing so). Therefore we have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be "Totally Saved" -- spirit, soul and body -- at the coming of Christ!
Him who came as our Savior and Prophet - Him rising from the dead and is presently our Intercessor and High Priest - and Him who will return as our Judge and Lord of Lord's and King of King's,
hinge and rest upon our "Hearing" with faith what God has already clearly told us in His word concerning Him - "who was, and is, and is to come, the Almighty"!
#1. His first coming as our Savior involved His sacrificial death on the cross in order to pay for our sins and free us from the debt we owed God.
#2. His resurrection and return to heaven involves Him interceding on our behalf as our High Priest before the Father and in sending forth the Spirit in our hearts.
#3. His second coming will be as Judge - King of King's and Lord of Lord's, and will involve the resurrection and glorification of the dead saints and the joining with them of the living ones.
This faith too becomes effectual in us (as is always the case), by the hearing of faith, that gives us "Hope" in Him as being: "The Resurrection and The Life", and is our FINISHED and TOTAL Salvation which will perfect us in Him (body, soul and spirit). It is here (at His second coming) where we will be "glorified" by the HOPE we have in Him in His coming....
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; (2 Tim 4:1)."
This all becomes effectual by the hearing of faith - the kind that gives us "Trust" in Him as The Way; through faith in Him, to the Father!
It is this FAITH, our INITIAL and FOUNDATIONAL Salvation which lays the foundational faith that paves the way for the rest of the Savior's work ahead. We have been "justified" (just as if we never sinned) by our faith in Him!
It is this LOVE that becomes effectual in us, by the hearing of faith as well - giving us the "Love" for Him as The Truth, and is His ONGOING and CONTINUING work of Salvation in us which includes working His life into us, a Life that leads us to wanting to become sanctified (set apart) to Him through the Truth. Here, we are being "sanctified" (made one/holy in the Truth) by our Love in Him!
"when He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day (2 Thes.1:10)."
"WHEN???" "AT HIS APPEARING AND HIS KINGDOM", of whom we are to look for! That is "WHEN"!
And so we have ALL THREE threads of the Gospel rolled into one: "who was, and is, and is to come, the Almighty....
1 Cor 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I Jn 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
and it is "these three": The Father, The Word, and The Spirit working together as One, who are involved in our Hope, Faith and Love, and these three are One!
Praise God!
I present for your consideration: A, B, C, The Total Salvation Plan We Have In Christ...
A) Concerning His "first" coming....
Now those who believe these lies are NOT saved, rejecting the Gospel of our need to be "justified" by faith in the death of our Savior! They have rejected what God has to say about His Son (HIM WHO WAS) concerning His suffering and death and replaced it with a lie saying: "him who wasn't then"!
B) Concerning His resurrection from the dead and ascention into heaven....
Those who believe this lie are NOT being saved, again by rejecting the Gospel of our need to be "sanctified" to the truth through Jesus' resurrection! They are not being saved because they too have rejected what God has to say about His Son concerning His resurrection and ascention (HE WHO IS) and replaced it with a lie that says: "him who isn't now"!
C) Concerning His "second" coming....
Of course those who believe in any of these lies will NOT be saved, having rejected the Gospel of our need to become changed and "glorified" with Him at His second coming before we are made fit to live as co-heirs with Christ in the presence of the Holy God - 1 Cor.15:42-43.
There are "cults" today who say that Jesus' death on the cross means little or nothing.
Some say that Jesus wasn't God in the flesh who died and shed His blood for us, claiming that he was only a mortal man who died and that's it! Some even say that it was a "disciple" that took his place to hang for him on the cross.
There are "cults" today who deny that "Jesus" ever rose again, claiming that he was the "christ spirit" who came into the body of some poor sucker named Jesus at his birth (cf 2 John 1:7), who then departed from his physical body before Jesus died and went back up to heaven.
Others believe that His resurrection meant little or nothing. "Prove it"! they say.
There are cults today who 'spiritualize' His second coming and say He already came in the past (several times). Some come right out and say that He isn't coming at all, and/or that it's all a myth.
What they have done is to take and replace the word of God's: HE WHO IS TO COME, with the lie that says "him who isn't coming at all"
There is only one of two kinds of teachings being taught in the church today: "Truth or Error". Error is aka as "Deception".
Now that is "Deception", pure and simple! Deception has one game plan: "To get us to fall away from the Lord"!
The "hereticks and unbelievers"; on the other hand, stand for all those who believe and confess that Jesus will either NEVER return or that He has ALREADY returned!
So, the Christian who stands firm absolutely knowing that Christ will return someday (soon), -BUT- has fallen for one of those MANY deceptions out there being taught in the church (concerning the timing, way and/or manner of Jesus' return) have allowed themselves to become deceived by it.
Some of these who have been deceived (because they foolishly and gullibly trust what men say that God says rather than hearing what God alone says, period) may even be in danger at this very moment, of falling away from the truth altogether. God knows.
Seeing as how I speak of "Deception in the church" (especially in these last days concerning Jesus' second coming) allow me to use just -one- of these deceptive beliefs in Jesus' return (Of which I was once a follower of myself) called: "The pre tribulation rapture of the church", to demonstrate exactly what I mean....
Replacement theology is one of "spiritualizing" the word to make IT Conform to man and what he wants to believe (rather than US Conforming to IT!), ever saying, this doesn't mean that but this. It replaces this with that, replaces the Jew with the church, replaces John's catching up in Rev.4 with the church's catching up, etc., etc., etc., etc.
In other words.... in order for this false teaching to exist and survive at all it MUST take and twist God's word out of its context and force it to mean something else other than what He is really saying. This is how they change the Truth of God into the Lie that we call "Deception"!
To those living in the last days, the REAL DANGER doesn't lay in denying that Jesus is going to come back. The REAL DANGER lays in believing that He is coming back allright, *BUT* that He's coming back at a time, in a way, at a place, or in a fashion that OPPOSES AND DENIES the revealed Prophetic Scriptures. THERE'S THE REAL DANGER!
Now what the pre tribulation rapture (for one) doctrine has done (in order to deceive) is to take, twist and spiritually replace His word concerning His second coming with A BRAND NEW REVELATION given through a lying spirit telling all who will gullibly listen to it that Jesus is going to come back for them BEFORE He said He was going to (i.e. "via a PRE-tribulation rapture") and also in a way and fashion other than the way He said he would (i.e. "invisibly, unseen by the world"). This makes this teaching, DOUBLY DECEIVING!
This is as "close" to any "Damnable and Heretical Doctrine" that a Christian can cling to without losing their salvation because of it! However, this is not true for those who will be here when the great tribulation begins and they find themselves totally unprepared and still here.
The primary DANGER here is to those pre tribbers today who have grown to believe in this Pre-Trib. Lie of theirs so strongly that they REFUSE to hear any sound teaching against it to the contrary, soundly ignoring the words of God! They are not teachable!
When the time comes and they find themselves "Left Behind", then for some of these (who no longer love thus hold fast to the word that saved, saves and will save them) it may well already be "Too Late"! (The 5 foolish virgins is but one story along these lines.)
In the end times some of those who have chosen all along to believe this pre-tribulation lie will have allowed themselves to be effectively robbed out of their second coming Hope of the Gospel when Jesus becomes a "no show" for them, and they find themselves thrown into great tribulation and the appearance of antichrist. Then lookout: 2 Timothy 2:17-18.
So, instead of them being raptured like they thought, instead they will be faced with iniquity running rampant, the apostacy going on in full swing, deception left and right, confusion everywhere, not knowing whom to talk to? whom to trust?, as false Christ's and prophets are popping up everywhere.
The antichrist will be rising to power, doing such amazing signs and wonders that the world (along with a goodly number of dissapointed Christians as well) will run after him as God, and take the mark showing they're his. He will be deceiving even the very elect, if possible!
Also, a goodly amount of these hardened pre tribbers (who have rejected and fought against the truth in the past in defense of their false doctrine) will lack the discernment necessary (their reward for believing the lie instead of the truth!) to know or tell the difference, leaving some or many of them to Fall Away from the Blessed Hope of the Gospel.
The bottom line is to believe, receive and hold fast His word, without change and without question, right to the very end!
A Total Salvation (past, present and future), is one that is FULL of faith in Jesus through the Hearing, Receiving and Keeping of "His words" - ALL of them, and our listening to "Him" - obeying "Him" - following "Him" - by safe-gaurding them in our care and keeping them "Intact" without change, just the way He gave them to us.
In any way Touch (i.e. "CHANGE") the Person of Jesus Christ, who was (as Savior God and Prophet), and who is (as our High Priest) and who is to come (as Judge and King) in any wrong fashion....
Changing God's word to mean something else is what the unbelievers do. What part do we have with them???
Whatever is not of faith is sin! Rom.14:23 and faith comes by hearing The Word of God! It doesn't come by hearing man's word or doctrine or teaching or eschatology, but only by Hearing the Word of God! The pre-tribulation rapture is NOT of the faith forever passed down to the Christians: Jude 1:3.
If you're a pre tribber who is still here when that "future day" I mentioned, arrives, then you stand in danger of NULLIFYING the Hope of the Gospel too as you find out (and you will) that your dreams of escaping the tribulation didn't come true! You can find that out now for yourself and get out of there, or you can wait and find it out later, when it may be too late.
No Christian can compromise the word of God in order to maintain a FALSE UNITY with his brother! Our "HOPE" in His coming is WHEN He appears, and that too is when we who remain and are alive at His coming (along with everyone else who is alive) will see Him as He is.
Only to those who hold fast the truth and endure in the faith to the end are the overcomers. There is only ONE appearance of Christ! When He appears (immediately after the great tribulation) He will appear coming in the clouds of heaven as our blessed Hope! To everyone else at that same time He will be appearing in His anger and in His wrath!
We began our letter by saying that It doesn't matter what church, doctrine, person, cult, spirit, message, word, etc. we believe in --- because any person or group that rejects and opposes the Total Gospel of "Him who was, and who is, and who is coming again - The Almighty", are all "anathema" - "accursed" - "to be marked and noted".
I say this because...
With this in mind, we end our letter using an example to show the reader exactly what "being deceived" means.
Like its pal, "Unbelief", which believes in none of the word of God and wants to overthrow all of it, "Deception" also serves one master as well.
And all of it is being done to rob us out of our Hope we have in Jesus by not adhearing to ALL of God's prophetic word; thus intending to take and turn us away from walking after God, by no longer walking in the truth of God's word just as "He" alone gave and taught it (by the Spirit), and instead adhear to "man" speaking for Satan!
And the Greatest Danger to us comes from non-other than all those other (quote) "Christians" (unquote); some of whom are really wolves dressed in sheeps clothing.
Jude 1:3 -- Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Now let's talk about the importance of knowing "WHEN" Jesus is going to return.
"Whoever is deceived (we are concerned here with Jesus' return) is anyone who has foolishly alowed themselves to be taught error over the "timing" of Jesus' return, without checking it out for themselves using only the word of God being taught by the voice of the Holy Spirit only.
Oh, many have been deceived into believing that Jesus will return allright, but NOT in the time, way and manner that He clearly said He would.
Those who we allow to break bread with us say that He will return, "BUT" not at the time, way and manner that He says He is going to.
Many of these who teach these lies are out and out liars, unbelievers and hereticks, and many are NOT our brothers or sisters in the Lord!!!
The pre trib rapture doctrine is founded primarily upon "Replacement theology"!
and one touches "Deception" - which can take the form of another spirit - another Christ - and/or another gospel, all under "the guise" of being Christian to those who are more gullible and more prone to deception. They are prone because His words aren't "Precious" and need to be "Preserved" to them, and they are too lazy to check these things out for themselves thus take people's word for it.
a) to take away "Him who was" out of the Gospel is to rob us out of our Faith!
b) to take away "Him who is" out of the Gospel is to rob us out of our Love!
c) to take away "Him who is coming again" out of the Gospel is to rob us out of our Hope!
(Galatians 1:8-9)
It's sole purpose (if it can't get us to deny Jesus outright) is to lead us all AWAY from keeping/practicing the truth; in order to deny His words, by "REPLACING SOME OF THEM" with lies and half-truths that question His authority and His word: "Yea, has God said???" (familiar?)
So, the next time you read Matthew 24, "Believe It" -- "Receive It" -- "Keep It"! Matthew 24, in Jesus' own words, spells out the order of events which precedes His second appearance on this earth... "He who is to come again!"
There are three elements of Grace contained in the Gospel of our salvation....
1 Cor 13:13 "And now abideth FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, these three; but the greatest of these is Love."
"Unwavering FAITH is the vehicle we lay hold of and aim by, Total LOVE is the fuel that propels and drives us on, and our blessed HOPE is the final destination of the target we shoot for!"
All three come into play: JESUS being, "The Instrument of our Faith - The Motivation of our Love - The Object of our Hope!"
They are all intertwined! Do away with any one, change any one, remove any one, replace any one, and you do away with ALL!
The Gospel consists of this:
"JESUS ROSE AGAIN!" (present - and we are being Sanctified by Love through Him who is The Truth.)
"JESUS IS COMING AGAIN!" (future - and we will be Glorified by Hope through Him who is The Life.)
Now...
#2. If I said that Jesus NEVER rose from the dead, OR that he rose ONLY in a 'spiritual' body
- THAT would be a False Gospel concerning Jesus' resurrection.
#3. If I said that Jesus will NEVER return, or that He already had, THAT would be a False Gospel concerning Jesus' second coming.
But what if I were to say he will return at a time OTHER THAN when he said he would (i.e. "immediately 'BEFORE' instead of After the tribulation of those days") - Would THAT be termed a False Gospel as well if it were applied to the last days?
Although the timing is wrong the belief that Jesus will return is still there! Their "Hope" in His coming is still there, it's just been moved out of its proper setting...
Rom 8:23-25 "... even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. FOR WE ARE SAVED BY HOPE: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."
This should all be perfectly clear!
"Love, faith, hope, these three." (1 Cor.13:13) Throw out any of these three by messing with the Truth and you have a false gospel. Example...
Hebrews 3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
The working word here is... "IF". But what IF someone isn't holding fast firmly to the right Hope, but a false hope instead? Think about it! There is only One "HOPE", and that is found in the visible coming of the Lord at the appointed time! Anything else is false prophecy and holding fast to it will kill any confidence and rejoicing we may have when that day doesn't come at a time when the deceivers told us that it would.
Although in getting us to look for Christ to come 'BEFORE' the tribulation is not considered by many to be a False Gospel it nevertheless is a false teaching as is taught by pre-trib., which teaching is to leave us UNPREPARED for Him (like the 5 foolish virgins were) at His coming.
Unlike their Hope of "being raptured early", all my blessed hope is in A "PERSON", And THAT is the difference between us!!!
Concerning our not being deceived...
Matt 24:
and again...
II Th 2:1-3...
the second coming...
Matt 24:29-30
We consist of body, soul and spirit! Our soul is saved by Christ's death, in our having been justified through faith! Our spirit is being saved by His resurrection, in our being sanctified to the truth! Our body will be saved by His second coming when we become glorified!
"JESUS DIED!" (past - and we have been Justified by Faith through Him who is The Way.)
#1. If I said that Jesus NEVER shed His blood, OR that he shed his blood but it was worthless - THAT would be a False Gospel concerning Jesus' death.
My "HOPE" isn't in a "Thing" (like the pre trib rapture, happening BEFORE the Great Trib.) but in A "Person" who will visibly appear at the time He says He will!!! ALL of my Hope is in One Person Only, who also happens to be the same One who says that He will return and appear exactly when He Himself (and not some "Christian Scholar") says He will: 'AFTER the tribulation'.
THAT is WHERE my arrow is flying: "AT HIS GLORIOUS APPEARING" THEN! WHEN? - "Immediately AFTER the tribulation of those days", like "He" says.
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch
that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
"Now we beseech you, brethren, BY the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, AND BY our
gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU by any means: FOR THAT DAY (of verse 1) SHALL NOT COME, except there come a falling away first, AND that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition..."
29 "Immediately AFTER the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, AND THEY SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
IN THE LAST DAYS when the tribulation begins, and 'the pre trib Jesus' becomes a 'no show', then what?
When he doesn't show up at the time they expected Him, then some of that "faith and hope" is going to be overthrown (2 Tim.2:17-18), and be made shipwreck. If enough of it becomes shipwrecked then love is going to follow it on the rocks as well.
IMO they will either end up taking the mark or ('shock') they will be forced to die like a martyr for the faith (a tribulation and death they were never prepared to face beforehand, seeing as how they once believed they were going to escape all of this) at the hands of antichrist, and in so doing preserve whatever faith remained to them."
"Jesus is our Blessed Hope!" "HOPE" is also taught along with Love and Faith (these three!). All 3 are intertwined. "Hope" is a part of the Gospel of the end times in our resurrection and our catching up at His "Appearing"!
Pre trib doctrine teaches that Jesus (our blessed hope) will return and rapture us "BEFORE" the start of the great trib. in a "SECRET" manner.
This doctrine is saying that He is coming BEFORE His actual coming."
In the last days when the tribulation begins caused by the antichrist coming to power, the "faith" of ALL pre tribbers who'll still find themselves here will be Shaken!!! Mass confusion, lawlessness, deception will be the order of the day.
But "the faith that is of God", given by Him to us through hearing His clear and unquestionable word, is the only kind of "faith" that will stand solid in that day and be able to ENDURE TO THE END of the great tribulation!!!)
Post tribbers take God's word as Gospel, therefore they have been "Prepared" by it ahead of time for what's coming on the earth by believing what "God alone says" concerning His coming!
All other things considered equal, those lacking FAITH / ASSURANCE / CONFIDENCE in His word in the last days, may be unable to shake off their belief in pre trib and go after the antichrist with it.
So, instead of their meeting up with "Christ" as they had Hoped, they meet head on with the antichrist ("Surprise"?) instead. Even with Scriptures as 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 "screaming out at them NOT to be deceived"! and "Jesus", in His olivet discourse telling them NOT to be deceived. He even told us these things beforehand!
It is for no other reason than because they have hung so much of their trust, faith and hope garments onto a pre trib rapture NAIL and have tightly shut their eyes and ears to listen to any clear teaching on how they have allowed themselves to be deceived by it beforehand.
Evidently this "NAIL" is going to keep sticking out for them until the Reality of the tribulation and the appearance of antichrist hits them square between the eyes.
Then for some it will be "too late" to believe in God's prophetic word to do anything about it. At that time some or many will be discouraged and disheartened, to say the least.
For some their "Hope" (the third thread of the Gospel) will have just run out and deserted them. Then they will find out, too late for some of them, that the real meaning of Revelation 3:10 was always to "Keep" His word and endure patiently to the end with it, until He comes.
"HEARING" His words gives one: "the kind of Faith necessary to keep on believing Him - the kind of Hope necessary to keep on trusting in the promise of His future glory at His appearing - and the kind of Love necessary that continues to keep "His" words!"
Paul said that if Christ wasn't risen, then your faith is in vain! And the Scriptures are clear that if He were NEVER to return/appear again then your Hope is in vain as well, because our Blessed Hope is all hooked in to His Glorious Appearing when we become "Glorified".
So you can see that the Gospel contains "MORE" than just aiming our initial faith BACKWARDS at the crucified Christ (for THAT establishes the necessary and "Only Foundation" for which the rest of the house is to be built upon)...
It also calls for our PRESENT faith as well to be aimed within at the resurrected Christ and Him risen in us as well. This is the "house" being built on that foundation. Nor does it stop there either....
Jesus also calls for our faith to be aimed UPWARD at Him as well, FUTURE to the same Christ who is coming again - and when He appears then the house will be completed with the completion of God's "TOTAL" plan of Salvation: "Justified (past / the foundation) - Sanctified (present / the building) - Glorified (future / the roof and all the furnishings)!"
Blessed are ALL who LOVE AND LOOK FORWARD TO His coming - especially blessed are those who love and look forward to His one and only "Singular" Appearance, appearing just exactly as ALL the Scriptures say He is going to: In Full Glory Having All Power, 'immediately After the tribulation of those days', where every eye will see Him, as He Himself has clearly told us!
Col 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Take extra special notice of the word, "Then" and it's solid connection with, "When"! We don't appear with Him before or after His appearing, but "Right Then And There": {"Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;"}.
WHO are WE told to look for? "The appearing of Jesus!"
WHEN? "At the end of the great trib. just as He said: Matt.24:29-31"
"THEN!" When He appears - THEN - at the very time of His appearing - is when we also appear with Him...in glory
The word of God doesn't say: "Then we will
(Check it out with Romans 8:19-22 and other Scriptures as well.) :)
