Friday, January 9, 2015

The second coming -- Why should we believe it?



(#43, ?)
Read 1 Thess. 5:1-11.
ƒ    Because the Bible says He is coming.  Out of 294 chapters in the NT it is mentioned in 260 chapters.

ƒ    Because the second coming makes the Christian life and activity worth while.
    1.  A pure life, 1 John 3:3.
    2.  A crown of life, 1 Peter 5:4.
    3.  Redemption of the body, Phil. 3:21.

ƒ    Bec. of many signs of the end of the age & of Christ's coming.
w   Perilous times, 2 Tim. 3:1.  Cooper in American Magazine...
In practically any city the criminal knows where to go to find aid, protection, escape or immunity.  A vast information bureau provides him with a list of names, addresses and telephone numbers of doctors who will dress his wounds, lawyers who will help him evade the law, tailors who will make him clothing, bankers who will dispose of his 'hot money', crooked police and officials who will look the other way, even beauty doctors who will disguise him.
w   As in the days of Noah, Mt. 24:37.
Drunk drivers since the repeal have increased 479% in LA, 360% in Cincinnati, 300% in Philadelphia, 122% in New Orleans.
Alarmed by the rapid increase in divorce, England is preparing to revise it's court procedure in such cases with the object of checking the number of arranged divorces.
w   Increase in transportation & knowledge (Dn 12:4; Na 2:3-4).
From 721BC - 1820 the mode of travel didn't change. In the last 100 years the change has been rapid: bicycle to auto-train to airplane-rocket.
There have been 225 major inventions in the last 25+ yrs such as radio.  Saturday we heard a broadcast of Beethoven from Bonn in Ger., sounding like it was in the same room.  Astronomers who once saw 300,000 stars today see over 30,000,000.
w   Tremendous program of peace (1 Th. 5:3).  There have never been so many peace pacts and treaties in such a short time in the history of the world.  And yet there have never been so many preparations for war as now.
w   Waning church attendance & apostasy (2 Th 2:3; Hb 10:25).

Come quickly Lord Jesus!  Amen!

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