Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas just lately shared how Christians can put together for the top occasions, its misconceptions, and the subsequent occasion on the timeline of biblical prophetic prophets.
“We've been within the final days for two,000 years and I believe you may make the case that we're within the final days of the final days earlier than the rapture of the Church,” he mentioned. “A very powerful factor is to not guess when Jesus will come once more, however to comprehend that he’ll come once more, and that may be sure that we’re prepared.”
As a substitute of predictions, Jeffress centered extra on a number of methods Christians can put together for the top occasions, equivalent to sporting the “proper non secular clothes,” referring to Christ's righteousness.
“There are two completely different clothes that we are able to placed on to satisfy the Lord,” he mentioned. “We will use the garment of our personal righteousness, our personal good works, and the Bible says that in God's sight it’s nothing however filthy rags, or we are able to select to dress ourselves within the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that’s to turn out to be a Christian.”
“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, in order that in Him we would turn out to be the righteousness of God,” he added, citing 2 Corinthians 5. Jeffries argued that this righteousness is the essence of the Christian religion as a result of believers are made innocent earlier than God via Christ, not by your personal works.
“That's the very first thing we do to be sure that we’re Christians who’ve been saved, that we are going to be welcomed into God's presence,” he mentioned.
Through the interview with The Christian PublishJeffress recognized three Finish Occasions misconceptions prevalent amongst Christians as fanaticism, fatalism, and cynicism.
“Fanaticism tries to repair the date of the rapture or the second coming of Christ and tries to learn a prophetic which means in each newspaper headline,” the pastor defined. “Jesus was very clear in Matthew 24 and 25. Nobody is aware of the hour, the day the Lord will return, so we should all the time be prepared.”
As for fatalism, Jeffress mentioned it's the “most harmful place” for Christians to land due to the assumption that “Jesus is coming again each time he comes again and I don't need to do anything in my life.”
“As a lot because the Bible talks about prophecy, the Bible by no means separates Bible prophecy from on a regular basis life,” he mentioned. “In 2 Peter 3 the apostle mentioned, 'Since all these items are to be burned up on this manner from the top of the world, what sort of individuals ought to we be? In holy conduct and godliness.'”
The third view, cynicism, is the view that “Folks have been saying for 1000’s of years, 'Jesus is coming again and he hasn't come again but,'” Jeffress mentioned.
“Peter mentioned scoffers would include that message, and a couple of Peter 3 says, 'They are going to come and say, the place is the promise of this coming?' We should notice that the theme of Scripture is constant: Jesus is coming once more and we should be prepared,” he mentioned.
Jeffress additionally famous that the rapture of the Church is one other prophetic occasion within the biblical timeline as highlighted in 1 Thessalonians 4 when Christians “shall be caught up collectively… to satisfy the Lord within the air.”
He distinguished the occasion from the second coming of Christ, which is able to happen 7 years later, as detailed in Revelation 19.
“The fascinating factor concerning the rapture is that there aren’t any prophecies that need to be fulfilled for the rapture to occur. It might occur earlier than we end this dialog, which is once more why we should be ready,” he mentioned.
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Milton Quintanilla is a contract author and content material creator. He’s a contributor to Christian Headlines and host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast dedicated to sound doctrine and biblical fact. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
