CHRIST OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

CHRIST OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

                “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” Col. 3:4

                We tend to let things in the Bible slip by our notice, especially if they don’t fit our doctrinal beliefs. For instance, what does this text mean by saying that when Christ appears, we also shall appear with Him? Was this just a remote slip of the tongue on Paul’s part? Does he really mean that we shall be here and Christ shall be there (In the sky) and that we shall be caught up to appear with Him? Or does it mean that when Jesus appears in the sky, we will appear with Him in glory?

                And if we do appear with Him in glory that means we must have gone to be with Him at some point prior to the second coming.

                Likewise, for most of my young life I believed that we did not go to heaven when we die, that our life, spirit, soul and body were simply snuffed out and that all including our spirit went into the grave. But then there are those unsettling little verses here and there that seem to say otherwise. For instance 1 Thess. 4:14 says:

                “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will BRING WITH HIM those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”

                Did Paul slip up again? Well then, let us consider what He said in 1 Thess. 3: 13.

                “…so that He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus WITH ALL HIS SAINTS.”

                How then does Jesus come WITH His saints if His saints are yet waiting for Him to come to earth?            

                Jude seems to join Paul in these “Freudian slips” when he quotes Enoch as saying: “Behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment on all, to convict the ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him..” Jude 14b, 15.

                Well, we could just write it off as Paul’s confusing way of saying things and Jude may have slipped up too but then John had a similar problem. We see this in Revelation 19 verses 8 and 14.

                In verse 8 he describes the Bride (verse 7) of Christ saying: And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” And then in verse 14 we see this same Bride clothed in white linen, appearing with Jesus on white horses.

                “And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean were following Him on white horses.”

                Again at the beginning of chapter 19 we see a marvelous scene in heaven just prior to the second coming of Christ with His saints. Chapter 19 starts out by saying: “After these things I heard as it were a loud voice of a great multitude IN HEAVEN saying, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to God.” In verse 4 the 24 elders are there and the four living creatures all worshipping God and then we have the huge crowd of the redeemed in heaven saying, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”

                Then she is given fine linen and then she appears with Christ on white horses in what we know to be the second coming.

                But Zechariah saw it this way too in Zech. 14:5b where he says: “Then the Lord my God will come and all the holy ones with Him. And not to take this verse out of context, it speaks in verse 1, 2 saying that He will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to the battle (verse2)… and the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations (Verse 3) Then verse 4 tells us that His feet will stand on the mount of Olives and the mountain will be split into a very large valley. Here then, in verse 5 He says that the Jews, the unbelieving Jews will flee by this valley of the mountains and in Chapter  12 verse 10 in connection with this time, it says that they will look upon Jesus whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son… (vs. 10)

                And now we also know why Jesus appears with His saints wearing a robe dipped in blood, Rev 19: 13. HE has just fought the battle of Armageddon and now He is appearing with His saints on white horses, and from His mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron.”

                Wait a minute; I thought that He had just destroyed the armies of Armageddon. I thought the earth was totally destroyed and there is nothing left alive when Jesus comes at His second coming, so how is it that He will now rule the nations with a rod of Iron?

                Zech. 12:9 says: “And it will come about in that day that I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”

                In God’s judgments it sounds like the earth and its people are destroyed many times over, but we have to understand that God is doing a bit of housel cleaning. He is destroying the nations that have come against Jerusalem, but then it says in Zechariah 14:16, 17:

                “Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.”

                This ties in with a very familiar text in Isa 66:20-24. In verse 20 it talks about the gathering of Yeshua’s brethren (Israelites) from the nations to Jerusalem.

                Verse 21 says that He will take of them priests for Levites.

                Verse 22 says just as the new heavens and the new earth that He will make will last forever, so will Israel’s seed and name remain.          

                Verse 23 says that from New Moon to New Moon and Sabbath to Sabbath shall all flesh come to worship before Him.

                Then verse 24 says that they shall look at the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Him for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched.

                So, this is speaking of a time period after the second coming, but before the New Heavens and the New earth are created. It is the millennial reign of Christ when He rules the nations with a rod of Iron from Jerusalem. Isaiah talks about it. Zechariah talks about it especially in Zech. 14. In fact it is that period of time that the disciples were asking about when after His death they were wondering if at this was the time that Christ was going to set up His earthly kingdom and Jesus told them that it was not for them to know times and seasons which the Father has set.

                Now back to our opening text. In order to understand these things we must ask ourselves what it means when it says: “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” Col. 3:4

                I did this little review because a friend suggested to me that Messianic Christians are being set up to fall for the rule of the antichrist because we believe in the earthly millennial reign of Christ. No, that is not the way it is because as Christians we are expecting to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, to enjoy the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven and then to appear with Him in glory when He comes back to this war torn earth to fight for unbelieving Israel at the battle of Armageddon.

                We will appear with Him immediately after the battle as He sets foot on the Mt. of Olives to take up His millennial reign from Jerusalem and we will reign with Him for 1000 years just as Revelation 20: 4 says and it will be during that same time period that Satan will be bound for 1000 years and it is during that same period of 1000 years that we will go up from new moon to new moon and Sabbath to Sabbath to worship the King at Jerusalem..

                During the millennium there will be a sun and moon, but in eternity as Revelation 21: 23 says: “And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it for the glory of God has illumined it and its lamp is the Lamb.” During the millennial reign of Christ there will be a temple as described in Ezekiel 40 and onward, but in eternity, there will be no temple as stated in Rev. 21:22.

                Ezekiel 39 speaks about a time just after the battle of Armageddon when a clean- up takes place and then in chapter 40 to the end He describes the millennial temple that will be in Jerusalem when its healing waters will flow out to heal the nations.

                At the end of this 1000 year period, then Satan will be released to temp all of those who have not agreed with or loved the rule of Christ. He will convince them that they can take the city of the saints and they will go forth like a great multitude to destroy Christ and His saints, but fire will come down from God out of heaven and destroy them all.

                It is then, at the end of the 1000 years that Christ will create new heavens and a new earth and His eternal city the New Jerusalem will come down from God out of heaven.

                We need to understand that Satan and His globalist elite are going to try and fake Christ’s millennial reign by creating a third temple in Jerusalem. It will fool the unbelieving Jews at first, but when they see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the Holy Place Just as Jesus describes it in Mt. 24:15, they (Torah believing Jews) will recognize that something major is wrong and they will flee from Jerusalem where God will protect them so that when Jesus returns, they will look upon Him whom they have pierced and mourn for Him and they will be reconciled to Him at that time just as were Joseph and His brothers. Indeed, what they meant for evil, God meant for good for by His death Yeshua brought salvation to the whole world.

                There are many Christians who dare not ask questions about the things they see in the Bible. They are set in their ways and in their traditions and they don’t even want to know if they are right or wrong. But if our goal in life is to know Jesus and to know His Word, then shouldn’t we make those two things our priority? Jesus warned them saying “In vain do they worship Me teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.” So in time our eyes become blind to everything that doesn’t fit our beliefs and that is why there are so many denominations. Everyone that has a new idea splinters off from the group and starts a new organization.

                In truth we should treat the entire Bible as our textbook and pray for the Holy Spirit to give us understanding, rather than studying our particular church’s catechism and therefore make it the end of all discoveries.

                I know that at times I go where angels fear to tread. I deal with subjects that may be controversial to some. I am never dogmatic and neither am I insisting that anyone see it my way. I just know that Daniel’s prophecies were sealed up until the time of the end. Not only that, but many other prophecies and truths have lain hidden in God’s Word awaiting the time when because of events and  technologies force us to understand that Bible prophecy is much more literal that people used to think.

                Another event that has changed everything is the return of Israel to their land. We are then forced to understand that the church did not replace the Jews, that at some point the times of the Gentiles will reach its fullness and God will once again turn to deal with His chosen people Israel in what is known as the time of Jacob’s trouble.

                Messianic believers will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air along with all other faithful Christians. But meanwhile we have a dual mission of bringing as many Jews to Christ as possible as well as making the church aware of its Jewish roots. It is a call back to the foundations on which the church was built before it got hijacked by pagan Christianity.

                Today we see a great falling away from the faith of our founding fathers and apostles as large portions of the church abandon the full Gospel to fall back to Rome. In both global and ecumenical movements I see portions of the church preparing to side with the antichrist in his global religion and those people are in grave danger.

                The very fact that the saints are seen as returning with Christ at His second coming indicates that we must be caught up to meet the Lord in the air at some point prior to that.

                2 Thess. 2:3, 4 indicates that we will be here to see the great falling away and the revealing of the man of sin, but there are also many texts that say we will not be here for the wrath of God. Therefore I see Revelation 14:14-20 is a very good time for the resurrection and catching away of the Bride. It is the sickle harvest where the first group is caught up to God while the second group is thrown into the great winepress of the wrath of God. Verse 16 says that the first reaping is done by He who sits on the cloud and this is very consistent with every description of the Lord’s coming.

                In Jewish tradition the Jewish wedding is a 7 day affair and begins when the Bridegroom comes in the midnight hour to take His Bride to His Father’s house. There are five who are ready with their lamps filled with oil and five who are not ready. The door is shut and they are counselled to go and buy oil form those who sell. In other words they have to go through the time of Jacob’s Trouble with the Jews.

                All I know is that when He comes, I want to be filled with His Holy Spirit and sealed by His Holy Spirit I want to be in an intimate relationship with Christ even as a Bride adorned for her Husband. However the details of His coming work out in the end, it is His righteousness that qualifies us. We are temples of His Holy Spirit. I want to be in such a relationship with Jesus Christ than when He returns it will be said of me:

                “When Christ who is our life is revealed then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”