Category: Return of Jesus – Book
Thrown into the Lake of Fire
This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.
While followers of Jesus enjoy everlasting life in glorified bodies on a restored earth, the ultimate destiny of the wicked is the same habitation created for Satan and demons: gehenna.
It’s a place in English we call “hell,” and a place Jesus and the New Testament writers describe in various ways, among them: outer darkness (Matt. 8:12), the second death (Rev. 2:11; 20:14; 21:8), and the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8).
While the Hebrew term sheol and the Greek hades generally depict the temporary abode of the dead, gehennaand its associated terms describe the place of everlasting future punishment for those whose names are not written in the book of life (Rev. 20:15).
The term gehenna is derived from the Valley of Hinnom. Located southwest of Jerusalem, this steep, rocky valley is the scene of human sacrifices to pagan deities (2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6). Jeremiah declares it the “Valley of Slaughter” (Jer. 7:31-34 ESV). To the Jewish mind, the images of fire and destruction become appropriate representations of the fate of idol worshipers.
Continue reading
Glory in Restoration
This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.
The glorified body of Jesus easily navigates a world still under the curse of sin. After his emergence from the tomb, Jesus eats, travels, speaks with befuddled eyewitnesses of his resurrection, passes through closed doors, transports himself instantly from one location to another, and finally launches from the Mount of Olives into heaven.
Our resurrected bodies will have many of these same capabilities. Yet the redemptive work of God isn’t finished at our resurrection. The world in which we now live was not always cursed, nor will it always be cursed. A day is coming when our sovereign Lord makes all things new (Rev. 21:5).
We’ll explore the new heavens and earth in future columns. For now, let’s survey three New Testament passages that address the restoration of our bodies.
Continue reading
Glory in Resurrection
This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
The glory we experience now as Christ lives in us, and the glory we experience in death as our souls and spirits ascend into heaven, are partial works of glorification. But full glorification for followers of Jesus takes place when he calls our bodies from the grave and gives us incorruptible bodies like the body he bore when he rose from the dead.
Physical resurrection is the pinnacle of personal glorification, for in it we shrug off the last vestiges of sin, which have clung to our mortal bodies. In glorification, the effects of the Fall are fully and finally reversed.
At the return of Christ, all who have died in the Lord are resurrected. Their souls and spirits, which are in heaven with Jesus, are reunited with their bodies, resulting in complete personal glorification; the body, soul, and spirit are fully conformed to the image of Christ and thus free of any effects of the Fall.
Christians alive on the earth at the return of Christ are instantly transformed as they are given glorified bodies; their souls and spirits are perfected at the same time.
Continue reading
Our Once and Future Glory
This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
The Bible speaks of at least four phases of glory for Christians: glory now, glory in death, glory in resurrection, and glory in the restoration of the cosmos. We explore the first two in this column, and the final two in future columns.
Glory now
It’s our Christian duty to glorify God. As we honor the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for their divine attributes and redemptive work, we replicate God’s glory in our thoughts, words, and deeds.
This requires more than mere reflection. Consider how the moon, which generates no light, reflects the brilliance of the sun. In a similar way, all of God’s creation declares his glory, including his eternal power and divine nature (Ps. 19:1; Rom. 1:20).
But followers of Jesus have something more: the Shekinah glory residing in our human spirits; thus, we radiate God’s eternal light from within. This should lead us to shine in such a way that others see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven (Matt. 5:16).
Continue reading
The Glorification of the Saints
This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
Memphis Belle is one of the most celebrated aircraft of World War II. Named after the girlfriend of chief pilot Robert Morgan, the lumbering B-17F Flying Fortress carried the first U.S. crew to complete twenty-five combat missions over Europe before returning to America.
Based in England, Belle coursed through flak-filled skies over France and Germany in 1942-43. The 10-man crew battled Nazi fighter planes and delivered its payload before returning to base through the same menacing skies. The crew’s survival through more than two dozen missions was rare indeed. The Army Air Forces lost 30,000 airmen in battles against Nazi Germany. During the heaviest fighting, U.S. bomber-crew airmen had a one-in-four chance of survival.
For a time after the war, however, Memphis Belle sat outdoors, neglected, until an ambitious restoration project began, requiring more than 100 workers and thousands of hours to scrape paint, bend metal, and fabricate parts. In 2018, on the 75th anniversary of Belle’s historic 25th mission, the fully restored legend was reintroduced to the public at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
Continue reading
OnceDelivered.net 