Issued: 12/02/20 Updated: 6/15/21 Revised: 11/8/23

PLEASE NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

   In differentiating between Yahweh Son [Jesus] and Yahweh Father [the Most High God], lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the Only and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

2Peter 3:10

   While Father’s people yearn for the “day of the Lord,” Yahweh Son proxy God questioned such misguided enthusiasm:  “Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh [Father]! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light” (Amos 5:18↔Deuteronomy 32:35,39; Zechariah 14:6-7).

   Why?  First because it entails unprecedented human suffering and we should not be eager either to witness it or for it to happen.  Secondly, chances are we may not be as Jesus-ready as we think we are; and were it possible to rank our faith on a scale, it might fall short of Father’s standards: Remember we are saved by His grace and mercy, not by our personal merits (Ephesians 2:8-9).  The exuberant optimism displayed in our churches does not ‘jibe’ with the crying and weeping Jesus had to do to be heard by Father (Hebrews 5:7); nor with Paul’s uncertainty of victory despite all his exceptional and costly pastoral achievements (Philippians 3:12-14).  In point of fact to believe oneself righteous enough to merit God’s acceptance proves exactly the opposite:  “If I would justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me: if I would [declare] myself innocent, He shall prove me wicked” (Job 9:20).  It is very possible that in our Jesus un-readiness, we may be courting burning coals to rain over our heads.

   Now if these unquestionably righteous men displayed such humility, where do the rest of us stand, knowing full well that only 144,000 people will stand without blemish before Father’s heavenly throne (Revelation 14:5)?  How many of those to be rejected by Jesus on Judgment Day flaunt their ‘Christian’ bona fides while guiding us into the pit (Matthew 7:22-23)?  The road to perfection is an ongoing process, fraught with personal sacrifices and choices we may not want to make when the chips are down.  Father‘s day will come, but we should not be too eager for its dawning:  Like Amos says, we should dread it.  If demons tremble at the knowledge of God (James 2:19), we should fear Him as well [the beginning of wisdom↔Proverbs 1:7; Matthew 10:28; Romans 11:2; 1Peter 1:17] until we have done our outmost to have a shot at His reward.  It was only after Paul ‘paid his dues’ that he could claim victory:  “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2Timothy 4:7-8).  There is a time when Father Himself, and not any of our evangelical cheerleaders, makes each one of us feel when and if we are ready to claim perfection (Philippians 3:15).

THE SECOND COMING:  SIGNS AND EVENTS

   Amos’ “day of darkness and no light” will come upon us when we least expect it (Luke 12:40).  At the end of the Great Tribulation, “the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken” (Matthew 24:29).  Let us parse this out chronologically.   As to the sun, “’It will happen in that day,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ’that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day’” (Amos 8:9); and, “the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine” (Isaiah 12:10).

   Here we run into the ‘sketchy’ quality of prophecy.  We know that if one side of our planet faces the sun, the other side faces the moon.  Both prophets seem to be saying that the darkness will be global, so that the lit side will go dark and the dark side will go moonless.  Or are we dealing here with a new world configuration ¹ following the historically unprecedented earthquake that will lay bare the foundations of the world (Psalms 18:15: Isaiah 13:9-13, 24:18-20; Revelation 16:18)? 

   Second in Jesus’ chronology are the stars falling from the sky.  These “stars” are not to be confused with those of Revelation 12:4, which are symbols for Satan’s insurgent angels dragged down by/with their master upon the earth—a banishment witnessed by Jesus during his earthly ministry (Luke 10:18).  The first part of Revelation 12:4 should follow Revelation 12:9 as the outcome of the heavenly battle; and the second part of Revelation 12:4 should follow Revelation 12:13, where the narrative of Satan’s attack upon Jesus and the Church begins and ends with Revelation 12:17.  Truth be told, Revelation is not the most orderly or best edited book in the Bible.

   Nor are these falling stars grand displays of meteorite showers:  Let us give Father more credit for knowing the difference between heavenly bodies He created through Son.  Obviously, Jesus is linking the falling stars to the darkness preceding his Second Coming as a contributing factor to said darkness.  This “falling” had been prophesied centuries before:  “And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their hosts shall fall down, as the leaf falls from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree” (Isaiah 34:4); and, “The heavens shall vanish away like smoke”  (Isaiah 51:6)—an event later reaffirmed in Revelation 6:13-14:  “The stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind. The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up.”

But what of that vast cosmos that the James Webb Space Telescope so magnificently probes?  Is it a carpet-like construct that can be rolled away to unveil the Heavenly realm (Psalm 104:2; Isaiah 40:22; Hebrews 1:10-12; 2 Peter 3:10)—a backdrop to the stage where the redemptive drama is being played out?  Smoke and mirrors to turn the tables on/have the last laugh at the expense of the science that prioritizes the seen over the spiritual (2 Corinthians 4:18)?

   Still there is an indirect bonus in all of this:  Confirmation for us that there are no extraterrestrial beings/UFOs—timely information now that those issues are daily fodder in the news. Yes, we hear about alien abductions; yes, we see flying ‘some-things’; or should we say we are made to believe they are real?  False memories could be implanted; if eyes could be made not to see what is there (2Kings 6:17; Luke 24:16), why not make them see what is not?  Which is not an unreasonable supposition in a Gospel that posits a Great Deceiver given carte blanche to perform visual displays to negate/test faith, with the potential to seduce even the faithful (Deuteronomy 13:1-2; Matthew 24:24; 2Thessalonians 2:9; Revelation 13:13, 16:14).

Why can aliens not exist?  Because the cosmos we now see is slotted for removal:  Being made up of corruptible elements, it has no place in Father’s incorruptible creation; and neither would alien forms existing in it.  Presumably mortal, they could not achieve the immortality conferred by Jesus during the resurrection of the righteous (1Corinthians 15: 53-54).  Where would such aliens go?  To the Heavenly Jerusalem, the one and only destination once Creation is re-made (Isaiah 66:22; Matthew 24:35; 2Peter 3:10-13↔Psalms 97:2, 104:32; Amos 9:5; Nahum 1:5?  Where are the Scriptures telling us of their repatriation, their spiritual standing with Father?  And if tormenting human beings with their alleged abductions, how spiritually/morally bankrupt must they be?  Again the perpetual conundrum:  Be overwhelmed by sensory ‘evidence’ or cling to unsubstantiated faith.

   Now, once this all-encompassing darkness takes place, “then will appear the Sign of the Son of Man in the sky; and then will all the nations of the earth lament, when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with great power and glory” (Matthew 24:30).  The “Sign of the Son of Man” is a cinch:  A rainbow; the rainbow first seen, after centuries of rainy weather without it, to seal Son‘s covenant with Noah (Genesis 9:11-15).  Let us pay attention to detail.  The ‘God’ speaking with Noah is Yahweh Son proxy God, Father‘s mediator between Him and men.  Father has never spoken to any human being (John 5:37); as we have discussed before, this is one way Scripture discredits Trinitarianism.  In Genesis 9:13, Yahweh Son proxy God refers to the natural rainbow [shadow] as a sign confirming his pact that Flood would never again destroy mankind—and amongst angels, it is only specific to him (Revelation 10:1)

   But though binding till the end of time, Noah’s pact had no assurances of an eternal afterlife, unlike the true “everlasting covenant” between Father and His people: “I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear Me forever, for their good  [as well as their children’s].  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will surely plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul” (Jeremiah 32:39-41). This is the covenant of which the rainbow serves as a reminder (Genesis 9:12); and that its natural counterpart is not implied here is evident from the “Sign of the Son of Man” appearing in total darkness, independent of the interplay between light and suspended water causing the natural phenomenon we are familiar with.

Also note that in Genesis 9:16 Yahweh Son proxy God states he will be reminded of [Father‘s] everlasting covenant with all living flesh, clearly implying that a Deity higher than him is the Author of that other covenant.  In short, Yahweh Son proxy God is merely reaffirming his role as Spokesperson/Executor of Father’s designs.  Thus Jesus appears to have appropriated a facsimile of the rainbow surrounding God’s throne (Ezekiel 1:28; Revelation 4:3) as his certifying sign.²

   Next comes a puzzler:  How can all the nations of the world simultaneously see the returning Jesus?  Does this imply media live-coverage?  During the Great Tribulation, global catastrophes will have decimated nations, presumably brought electric grids and technologies dependent upon them to a standstill.  We know that solar events ‘fry’ such things; plus we are told that there is a “plague” involving unprecedented solar activity (Revelation 16:8-9).  In the convulsion following vanishing skies, will communications satellites still be aloft and operational?

   A bit of speculation:  An explanation which may sound preposterous suggests itself, though not out of character for Father Who thrives on “impossibilities”—i.e., cramming all air-breathing species on earth into a capacity-finite Ark; parting the Red Sea; subverting the law that matter can neither be created nor destroyed by replenishing oil out of nothing (1 Kings 17:7-16), bread and fish to feed thousands out of five barley loafs and two fish [with twelve basketfuls to spare (John 6:1-14)]; and last but not least, calling things that were not as if they were (Romans 4:17).

   Is it possible that our physical reality will be ‘reconfigured’ to achieve this goal?  We know from Isaiah 14:15-17 that the redeemed in Heaven will look down upon Satan during his imprisonment on a dead earth [more about this later]. The wording of Revelation 20:9 implies a flat surface where Armageddon will be waged; and Isaiah 19:23, Daniel 2:35, and Revelation 21:1 suggest this ‘flat’ reconfiguration.  If—and this is very big, counterintuitive ‘if’—our planet is the orb we perceive it to be, how can Jesus and his angels be seen by everyone from every corner of the globe?  Even now northern constellations cannot be seen from southern latitudes, nor the sun, humongous as it is, be seen from the sunless side of our planet. From whatever cardinal point Jesus returns, how can he be seen from the remaining three simultaneously?  We will have to wait as the event unfolds for a definitive answer.

THE FIRST RESURRECTION

   Next comes the First Resurrection:  Every dead, righteous person from Abel [Adam and Eve are moot points]to the time of Jesus’ return, upon hearing Jesus’ voice and the sound of a trumpet, will rise from his/her grave transformed into immortal flesh—as will the righteous then living.   Then they are gathered by angels and taken up to meet Jesus in the clouds.

The groundwork for this had been laid by focusing attention on Jacob’s bones (Genesis 47:30, 50:25; Exodus 13:19; Joshua 24:32);³ then on the life-giving power of Elisha’s bones to revive a dead man thrown upon that prophet’s grave (1Kings 13:21)↔Ezekiel 37:1-14), all leading to Paul’s synthesis in 1Thessalonians 4:15-17 and 1Corinthians 15:50-54:   “We who are alive [at the time of] the coming of the Lord shall not precede them who are asleep [the righteous dead].  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God [see Isaiah 27:12-13], and the dead in Christ shall rise first…In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we [the righteous then alive] shall be changed.  For since flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, this corruptible [flesh] must put on incorruption, and this mortal [body] must put on immortality …Then we who are alive shall be caught up together with [the resurrected] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air [proof that there is no prior ‘rapture’ to escape the Great Tribulation]; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”  It is then, for the first time in human history, that men will see Jesus as he truly is (Isaiah 53:2; 1John 3:2), a conviction both David (Psalm 17:5) and Job (Job 19:26-27) will find validated.

  This is Scripture’s version of a ‘rapture,’ not the sci-fi—and patently false—variant popularized in the Left Behind series.  Jesus had already intimated angelic gatherers during the harvesting of people to be saved in Luke 17:30, 34-37:  “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed….in that night [Amos’ “dark” Day of the Lord] there shall be two in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.  Two shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left…Where the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together.”  In this context “eagles” are symbols for angels as divine messengers/helpers (Revelation 4:7, 8:13,12:4).⁴

   Another point:  Paul’s reference to those who are “asleep” vis-à-vis those who will be alive at the time of Jesus’ coming.  Paul pointedly states that the living at that time will not precede the resurrected righteous in entering Heaven.  As there is no favoritism where Father is concerned (Deuteronomy 10:17; Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11), no one, not even Jesus, comes into his/her reward before anyone else.  All who died for the same cause receive their rewards collectively; thus at Jesus’ return, all will be gathered and will enter Heaven jointly.  Later we will see the same strategy applied when entering the Heavenly Jerusalem.  The new earth with new heavens is, of course, the true Promised Land (2Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1).

   This tells us, despite the comforting bromides, that the righteous dead are not spirits looking down from Heaven upon living relatives.  At death, souls go back to Father in an unconscious state [asleep], not as aware entities capable of intervening in human affairs (Genesis 35:18, 29, 47:30; Psalm 6:5; Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, 12:7: Luke 8:52).  The souls of those who have been martyred for Christ are asleep under the Heavenly altar, where they have been told to rest a while longer until the full number of further martyrs is reached (Revelation 6:9-11).⁵  We are not told the exact location of all other souls, whether righteous or unrighteous—including those of animals (Ecclesiastes 3:21).

   A third point:  In sleep as in death, there is no awareness of the passing of time.  If our sleep is untroubled, we wake up next morning as if we had just closed our eyes.  This perspective was intimated by Jesus on the cross, when he told the ‘good’ criminal that he would be with Jesus on that same day in Paradise (Luke 23:43).  Though Jesus himself resurrected early Sunday morning [not that same day of Friday afternoon], the ‘good’ criminal could only see ‘Paradise’ after the First Resurrection—still to come centuries following his actual death. This leads us to conclude that between their moment of death and the Second Resurrection, all evildoers who seem to have escaped Father’s justice will also experience the same time disconnect:  Between their deaths and their reawakening, time elapsed will be like the twinkling of an eye.

THE SECOND RESURRECTION

A second resurrection—that of the unrighteous (Daniel 12:2; John 5:29; Acts 24:15) must also take place; but when it does is somewhat unclear. Revelation 20:6 reads, “Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of Father and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years.” Verse 20:5 tells us that after the Millennium, the dead unrighteous will be reawakened to be incinerated along with Satan and his angelic minions at Armageddon (Revelation 20:7-10,14). Since this is the second death (Revelation 20:14), is the resurrection following the Millennium the prophesied second resurrection?

 This brings us to the Last Judgment, the Millennium and Armageddon, which we will discuss in our final installment.

¹ Do not overlook the world’s “flat configuration” implicit in these verses: “The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city!  For in one hour your judgment has come’…The merchants…who became rich by her will stand at a distance…weeping and wailing…Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning” (Revelation 18:9-10,15,17-18).

² Alternatively, the Seventh Day of the Commandment [Friday sunset to Saturday sunset] is Father’s specific sign between Him and His people (Exodus 31:13; Ezekiel 20:12).  Sunday, on the other hand, is the first day of the week, a Roman pagan holiday worshipping the sun-deity, Sol Invictus [‘the unconquerable sun’], whose cult was born on 25 December 274 AD, which then became his ‘birthday.’  When Roman Catholicism became the empire’s religion, the ‘Jewish’ Sabbath was replaced by the more popular Sunday (on AD 336? or 364?) on grounds of being—or so ‘church fathers’ argued—“more authoritative and more highly regarded and first in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath.”  And pushing the envelope of abominations further, December 25 became Jesus’ birthday [unspecified in Scripture] because he now had been transmogrified from opposing the worship of false gods into one himself:  Christos Helios [‘the true Apollo’], Christ the True Sun, Christ the Eternal Sun.  Since the instigator of these ‘upgrades’ must be Satan, Christians are now celebrating Satan’s birthday on December 25 [Jesus being the excuse for the ruse] and worshipping him on Sundays.

³ Which begs the wisdom of cremation after death.  If the resurrection is the hoped for outcome in Judeo-Christianity, what message are we sending Father by burning our bodies either to save on burial expenses or to scatter ashes on preferred spots?

⁴ Some translations inconceivably substitute ‘vultures’ for ‘eagles,’ as if Jesus, instead of talking about selecting people chosen for salvation, was referring to the collection of rotten corpses.  Where confusion prevails, look to the usual culprits: Scholars.  In translating the New Testament from Greek sources, some texts use the word “aggelos,” which means “messenger,” and others the word “aetos,” which means “eagle.” Where ‘vultures’ figure in all of this is anybody’s guess.  Since angels are high fliers, it makes sense to lean toward ‘eagle,’ which also conveys some of the majesty characteristic of that magnificent bird.  Vultures also fly high but are for the most part repulsive-looking and by their choice diet associated with death and corruption—hardly evocative of divine beings.

⁵ Contrast with Leviticus 8:15, 17:6, 17:11.  Obviously, the martyred in Christ play the same role as sacrificial animals under the Levitical system:  Purifying the altar of incense = sanctifying saints’ prayers to God (Exodus 29:18; Leviticus 4:31, 17:6; Numbers 15:3, 15-16; 2 Corinthians 15-16; Revelation 8:4).  Further note that Moses and Aaron are the OT’s ‘purifiers’:  The former a symbol for Jesus as Lawgiver and Judge of his people; and the latter for Jesus’ High Priest role according to the order of Melchizedek.