We hear it so often that we have come to expect it. We Christians don't have to worry about the Tribulation because we won't be here! Hallelujah! But is that really what the Bible says?
It's a debated topic you know. The return of Christ is not a doctrine like the atonement where we all agree that Jesus paid the righteous wrath of God, becoming our propitiation. We agree that we are sinners in need of a savior. We know that sin is fatal, with only one cure, the blood of Christ. We believe that the Bible is God's word. We hold it as infallible and true. We believe that Jesus was the Messiah, or God /Man. He was God incarnate (in flesh).
Conservative Christians hold these doctrinal positions without much debate.
When it comes to Christ's return, however, the debate rages. Rages in certain circles that is. For the most part, your escatological beliefs, or beliefs about the end times, will fall in line with those of your pastor. He's the one bringing the Bible messages, he was trained to do that, that is what he gets paid for. So, like good congregants we follow his Theology and for the most part, we should. Though the Bible encourages us to be like the Bereans, who searched the scriptures to make sure what Paul was preaching was in line with those same scriptures.
Why is Jesus' return so debated? What is so hard to understand and how can we know what to believe?
These are good questions and deserve good answers. In a blog post, however, it would be impossible to go into much detail. Also, since the topic has been debates for centuries by much smarter men than me, suffice it to say that we must study well to take a good position on the topic.
Here I just want to lay down the debated lines of thinking so that you can do more research and come to a good understanding and conclusion. As far as one can come to a conclusion on subject.
To make a hard subject easy, here are three divisions, though there are several variations of the three, and especially of the first option. Which I would guess is where you are, the first option. So, here goes:
Pre-Tribulation Rapture
Mid-Tribulation Rapture
Post-Tribulation Rapture
Postmillennialism
Amillennialism
What, you've never heard of option 2 or 3? That's what I thought. I too hadn't heard much about either. It wasn't until I did a study of Revelation for my adult Sunday school class that I ran into the proverbial brick wall of Revelation 20.
I started seeing comments early in my study like these, "Many commentators believe that..." or "Liberal scholars think...." or "Most conservative scholars understand this passage to mean..."
Granted, Revelation is the most complex book of the Bible, bar none. And chapter 20 doesn't clear things up much either. The Revelation, written by the Apostle John, while in exile, is vision and symbol overload by all means. There are dragons and beasts, angels and horses, carnage of universal proportions. Catastrophic happenings beyond our capacity to grasp.
So, next time we will delve into the three major lines of thinking and see what we come up with. Stay tuned.
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