Monday, January 23, 2012

'In that lovely land of unclouded day'

Jordan says, “The Lord Jesus Christ was great in the staging of what He would do. He used everything involved in His teachings to drive home the point. He began His ministry by what we call the Sermon on the Mount. He goes and sits on the mount and His disciples come. Mountains in Scripture are pictures of kingdoms and He sits there and gives the ‘constitution of his kingdom,’ as it’s been called.

“At the end of His ministry, two days before He dies, He takes His disciples again out on the Mount of Olives, a very important mountain in the Bible because in Acts 1, when Jesus Christ ascends up into heaven, He ascends up from this very mountain. The reason that’s significant is the angels look at His apostles and say, ‘Why stand ye here gazing into heaven. This same Jesus that you see go away, in like manner is going to come back.’

“Zechariah 14 says when He comes back His feet are going to first stand on the Mount of Olives. The very last place His feet touched the earth is the very first place His feet are going to retouch the earth. In Scripture, the Mount of Olives is inseparably united with the issue of His return and His coming—His Second Advent.

“So when Christ is going to gather His disciples together and talk to them about that future day of His return, and the events they’re going to go through before that, He takes them to that place. So the whole flavor of what’s going on here is looking forward to that day of His return and their question is, ‘When will this stuff be?’

*****

Jesus Christ promises in Matthew 24, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
[36] But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”

Jordan says, “Trying to predict the timing of the end of the world isn’t anybody’s job. I preached a message on the day that preacher in California last year said the world was going to end that was entitled, ‘Why Jesus Can’t Come Today.’

“If God revealed to you the day and the hour Jesus is going to come, then the wrong god revealed it to you!”

*****

The end of “this present evil world,” as Paul calls it, is going to give way to a NEW world order. It won’t be one of man’s creating but it will be a God-ordained new arrangement politically, governmentally, economically, ecologically and socially.

Jordan says, “In every category of life, there will be a new world order. That’s what the Bible talks about when it means the end of the world. It’s the end of man’s rule; Satan’s rule.

“Rev. 11:15 says, 'And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.'

“You look at all the conflicts in the world today and you come to that verse and you say, ‘You know, there is an answer!’

“Now the great climactic event that moves us from the kingdoms of this world to becoming the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, is Armageddon, which is a Bible event.

“It’s actually not as pervasive in Scripture as it is in discussions about it. There’s only one passage that uses the term and talks about it by name although there are many passages that describe events associated with it.

“The great climactic battle at the end of the 70th week of Daniel when Jesus Christ comes back in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, when the Son of Man shall come in His glory with all the angels with Him to sit upon the thrones of His glory, takes place around this event called Armageddon.

“Rev. 16:13 says, ‘And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.’

"Just put that picture in your mind. You got the dragon burping out three frogs. Frogs in the Bible are unclean. You remember God plagued Israel with frogs? So these are all connected with things in prophecy.

“You’ve got the unholy trinity in that verse. The dragon is Satan (the power behind the throne), the beast is the Antichrist (the political leader the world submits to) and the false prophet is the religious leader (who points people to the political leader). Oftentimes people say the pope is the Antichrist but he couldn’t be because the Antichrist is not a religious leader.

“Rev. 16:14 goes on, ‘For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.’ When you see something you think is a miracle, or you want God to work a miracle in your life, don’t forget that verse, will you?

“II Thessalonians 2, in talking about the Antichrist and his coming, says, ‘Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
[10] And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.’ ”

No comments:

Post a Comment