He Shall Return

We have crossed into the new millennium and for many it seems to be the START of a grand new era for man. From the secular standpoint, man is breaking barriers, moving into deeper technological horizons. Nothing appears to be beyond his grasp. And from the standpoint of the church, the view seems to be the same. From one pulpit to the next, the church is singing out the praises of revival. Confidently, boasting of the ground they will take back from the enemy , while proclaiming their victory over every thing from debt to a bad hair day. The idea of Messiah's return seems to be a myth to the one group and a worn out cliche to the other.

Regardless of the scoffing, despite the complacency, the believer must stand ready for Yeshua's return.

A DANGEROUS ERROR

What should we expect concerning the return of the Lord? For years the Hebrews held to a future and literal restoration of the Davidic Kingdom. Central to their faith , was the belief that the Messiah would bring peace to the world and reign for a thousand years from Jerusalem. This belief was also held by the Messianic congregations after the Lord's departure into heaven. There would be a tribulation period, followed by the elect being gathered unto the Lord. Then He would judge the world and set up His Kingdom on the earth for a 1,000 years.

In the 4th century a dangerous error began to creep into the faith. St. Augustine was the Bishp of Hippo 354 - 450 A.D. History shows that he had a strong influence over the "church" , which was then without any of the apostles that had walked with the Lord. Augustine, who's teaching greatly assisted in developing the Roman Catholic Church, taught that anything physical was evil. He especially viewed sex as an enemy of the spirit, even between a married man and woman. His aversion for the physical union helped to form the celibacy of the priesthood. Augustine affirmed that all blessings were soley heavenly.

FURTHER DEPARTURE

As the "church" continued to compromise from the original teachings of the Messiah and His apostles, the Council of Ephesus openly condemned any belief of an earthly reign of Yeshua. To hold to the belief that the Lord would literally return and reign on the earth was deemed heresy.

From this developed an end-time perspective known as "post-millennialism". This doctrine held that the Lord would return after the millennium kingdom and thereby nullified any literal interpretation of the scriptures concerning the restored Davidic house. Many began to teach that we were already in the millennium kingdom.

SERIOUS PROBLEMS

Unfortunately, the view that we were in the millennium had serious problems. The scriptures speak of this time as a time of peace and love. Clearly man has not seen such days. So in order to clean up some of the mess, proponents of this teaching spiritualized the scriptures and claimed that we would "spiritually" reign with the Messiah and that evil would be "spiritually" bound. The peace of the millennium kingdom .. yes you got it .. was a "spiritual" peace. By adopting such a view the literal understanding of scriptures was again denied.

Some still disagreed and created a differant view. Instead of spiritualizing the written word concerning the millennial kingdom, they developed the view that the church would usher in a 1,000 year reign of peace and that through them, the world would be converted, godly governents elected and love established. Then at the end of the 1,000 years the Messiah would return for them. This teaching would have the believer accept that they could in fact do, what scripture says only the Messiah can do.

In rejection of all of these scripture bending groups came another grpup that simply did away with a millennial kingdom completely. They are called amillennialists.

HOLDING TO THE TRUTH

I think that one of the greatest insults to God is the way His people go about trying to explain His Word for Him. How arrogant of man to assume that God was not capable of saying exactly what He meant! Oh, but the scriptures are symbolic and full of allegory. WRONG! Certainly there are passages that are allegorical. The parable of the sower sowing the seed in Mark 4 is a prime example. However, carefully note that the passage is explained within the text. This is also true of Daniel's dream in the Book of Daniel. God's servant was not shown the future of animals, but rather empires. Again the text is clearly explained. The pattern is evident. Unless it is obvious from the passage, that the text is other than literal and explained within it's own boundaries, then seek no other meaning than a literal one. Or as a the man once said ... "if the plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense".

This literal approach to scriptures, unless were it is absolutely clear to be otherwise, is the best means by which to stay on track and away from deception. Study a subject completely and allow God to speak for Himself. With this in mind, take a look at the following portions of the Word.