A Day Is Like A Thousand Years, and A Thousand Years Like One Day

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35 Though the Gate The Second Coming of Christ has thrilled and given great hope to the church since the angels told the disciples who watched the resurrected Jesus ascend, snatched heavenward (harpizo) raptured, that He would return “in just the same way [they] watched Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:6-12). The disciples had just spent a month and a half with the resurrected Christ, then watched Him ascend  into heaven.  If anyone had good cause to anticipate His return, it was them. Two millennia have now passed since Acts Chapter 1, which in the bit of understanding we have of God’s eternal reference to time, has been around two days (2 Peter 3:8). …with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day….

Today we have a more expanded promise than the early disciples, who knew nothing of a rapture until Paul revealed it in 1 Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 16
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. How are you anticipating it?

We should all be anticipating Christ’s Second Coming and the Rapture like the early church.  Immediately following their witness of Jesus’ ascension in Acts 1, they returned to Jerusalem  to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. They were born again when Jesus visited them the week of His resurrection and breathed on them imparting the Holy Spirit (John 20:22).  They were empowered with the promise of His power in Acts 2.  Beginning with Peter’s powerful Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:14) their lives were focused on the now, not then, building the church and winning souls until they went home to be with the Lord.  They are our model of Christian fellowship, knowing the Lord will bring the Rapture/Resurrection, His return, the Millennium, and new heavens and new earth – in His good time. This is the message of eschatology.

The really exciting news  about eschatology is, we know how the end of this world will turn out. Scoffers are always with us, and can be converted. There is much to consider, and we do at Eschatology Today. “God’s Long-Rope of Salvation” points out the redemptive plan of God that’s slowly bringing us back to Adam’s original state. Considering the timing of the Rapture is one of the most compelling teachings of eschatology, so pre, mid, and post teachings are considered -through literal interpretation-on the site.

John writes in Revelation 1 the reason for the prophecy is to heed the things in it. The messages to the seven churches and the events leading up to Jesus Christ’s return make up the Book of Revelation’s knowledge for those who have ears to hear (Rev 2:11).  And it should bless our daily lives in Him as we build the church and win souls until that final day, whether it’s ours, or the world’s. Revelation 1:3 says Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near. Remember, one days is as a thousand years to the Lord, so in His timeframe, Jesus’ earthly ministry took place two days ago.

2 Peter 3:3-18

3  Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,
4   and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”
5   For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water,
6   through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.
7   But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8   But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
9   The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
10  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
11  Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
12  looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!
13  But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
14  Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,
15  and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,
16  as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17  You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,
18  but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

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