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PRIMER ON PROPHECY BY R.E. HARLOW
I am gratefully for permission to use this as a Bible Lesson from
the author and publisher
below.
EVERYDAY PUBLICATIONS INC.
421 Nugget Avenue, Unit 2
Scarborough, ON,
Canada MIS 4L8
Condensed from original book with same title. Copyright c 1972 by
R.E. Harlow
LESSON
1
PRIMER ON PROPHECY
THE LORD JESUS PROMISED TO RETURN
The Lord Jesus had friends. Many people hated
Him, but some loved Him. Those who
hated Him tried many times to kill Him and at last they succeeded.
His friends stayed
with Him almost to the end.
On the last night before He died the Lord Jesus
talked to His friends and told them
what was going to happen. This proved that they were His friends
and not just His
servants, John 15.15. A master always tells his servants what they
are going to do, but he
does not have to tell them what he is going to do. The Lord Jesus
told His followers what
His Father wanted Him to do.
The Lord told His friends many things that would
happen later. One wonderful thing is
in John 14.3, I will come again. He was going away to prepare a
place for them and He
promised to come again. He wanted them to be with Him. Where is
the Lord Jesus today?
He is in heaven and He wants us to be in heaven with Him. We cannot
find the way to
heaven or to get there by ourselves, so He promised to come back
again. This is the first
great truth we must learn: the Lord Jesus promised to come back
again.
WHY CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN
1. Why did the Lord Jesus promise to come back
again? One reason is because He
loves us and wants us to be with Him.
2. Here is another reason why God wants Christ
to return to this world. God's Son
came the first time and did perfectly all that His Father wanted
Him to do. God said He
was well pleased with His Son, Matthew 3.17; 17.5. Men did not
accept
the Lord Jesus
and God allowed them to beat Him and spit on Him and kill Him. Then
God raised Him
from death and put Him on His own throne in heaven, Acts 5.30,31;
Hebrews 8.1. Today
all who are in heaven give honour to Christ, but it is necessary
that people on earth
should do the same. God will never be satisfied until all men know
that He has chosen
and accepted Christ,
3. Another thing, God chose the nation
of Israel and promised them that He would
send a King who will rule for ever. There many promises like that
in the Old Testament.
We will study them in chapter 8, but here we see that Christ must
come back because
God promised that He will rule as King in this world, Jeremiah
23.5,6.
Christ will rule
when He comes again.
God promised Adam and Eve that their Seed or
Descent would get the victory over
Satan, even though Satan had led them to commit sin, Genesis 3.15.
He promised
Abraham that all nations would be blessed through his Descendant,
Genesis 22 Galatians
3.16. God was looking forward to the coming of Christ when He
promised
that David's
Son or Descendant will rule forever, 2 Samuel 7.16. Christ came
once, but He did not
rule over men. He will come again and fulfill God's promises in
the Old Testament,
Psalm 2.6, 7.
SOME PEOPLE DO NOT BELIEVE THAT CHRIST WILL COME
AGAIN
These people try to explain the verses
we have read in different ways:
1. Some people say that the Holy
Spirit is God and He came into the world after
Christ died. They think that the Lord Jesus meant that the Holy
Spirit would come when
He said, I will come again.
It is true that the Holy Spirit
is God and He came in world but He is not a man, He
was not nailed to the cross Holy Spirit Himself said many times
in the New Testament
Christ will come again. So the Lord Jesus could not have been
speaking
about the Holy
Spirit when He said, I will come,
2. Some say Christ comes into
the heart of every man who' believes in Him. They
think this is what it means when Christ is coming.
This is partly true; Christ
comes into our hearts when we receive Him as our Saviour,
John 1.12, but this does not fulfill all God's promises. Christ
rules in our hearts, but He
certainly is not ruling in the world today.
3. The Lord Jesus said, "I
will come again and take you unto myself," John 14.3.
Some say the meaning of this is that He takes the believer to heaven
when he dies.
This verse could mean that
but we know from other verses that the Lord is really
coming back into this world.
It is important to learn
that no verse in the Bible cannot be taken by itself. We must
try to understand all the verses which speak about the same subject.
CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN SOON
So we see that Christ Himself must come back
to fulfill God's promises and His own
promises. After Jesus arose from death He talked with His disciples
and taught them
many things. They saw Him, heard Him speak, ate with Him, touched
His body. One day
He was speaking to them on the Mount of Olives and as they watched
Him He was taken
up into a cloud. Two angels came and told them that Jesus was taken
up into heaven, and
He will come back in the same way that they saw Him go into heaven,
Acts 1.11. This
Jesus will come in the same way.
The Lord Jesus not only promised to come back
to earth, but He promised to come
quickly or soon, Revelation 22.7, 12,20. It is now about 1,900 years
since He made that
promise. Some people get tired of waiting and fall into worldly
sin, like the servant in
Luke 12.45. Others say there must be some mistake and they try to
explain the Lord's
promises by saying He meant something else.
God knew long ago that men would laugh at Christ'
s promise to return. The Holy
Spirit told Peter that this would happen in the last days, 2 Peter
3.3,4. Many people today
make fun of Christians who believe that Christ is coming back. This
proves that we are in
the last days and the Lord will come soon.
WE SHOULD REMEMBER THREE THINGS:
1. The Lord Jesus wants us to be with Him more
than we want to go to heaven. There
must be a good reason for His delay.
2. When Christ comes the day of God's grace will
be over. God would like all men to
turn from their sins and be saved, 2 Peter 3.9.
3. It seems like a long time to us, but a
thousand
years is like one day only for God, 2
Peter 3.8. When the right time comes the Lord will return and when
He returns He will
come soon or quickly.
THE HOLY SPIRIT SHOWS US THINGS TO COME
Before the Lord Jesus went away He also promised to send the Holy Spirit, John 16.7.
If I go - I will send the Comforter, John 16.7
If I go - I will come again John 14.3
The Holy Spirit came to teach us all things
and
to show us things to come, John 14.26;
16.13. The teaching of the Holy Spirit is in the Bible and He has
told us many things
which are still in the future. In this book we will look at some
of the great chapters of
Bible which tell us about coming events:
1 Thessalonians 4: tells how Christ will come for His Church
Daniel 2 tells about four great kingdoms.
Daniel 7 and 8 tell more about the kingdoms, especially fourth one
in the last days.
Matthew 24 tells what will happen before the Lord comes.
Revelation 2 and 3 tell about the Church at the present time.
Revelation 19-21 tell us about many things which will happen after
Christ comes.
2 Thessalonians 2 shows us the Man of Sin.
Revelation 13 tells about the beast and the False Prophet.
Revelation 6-16 tell us about the Great Tribulation.
Revelation 17 and 18 show us Babylon, the great prostitute.
We will study these chapters a little at a
time
and many verses as well. Let us ask God
to help us to understand His wonderful plans as He has revealed
them in the Bible.
When the Lord ,Jesus went back to heaven the
Holy Spirit came down from heaven.
What is the most important work of the Spirit? His greatest work
is to give glory to the
Lord Jesus. He told us many things about the future, and, best of
all, that Christ will
come in glory. You will learn what will happen next in God's
plan, but the most
important thing is to know and love Christ more.
A PRIMER ON PROPHECY Test 1
Choose the correct answer for each question and write the letter
a or b or c or an X in
front for your answer
1. Whom did Christ tell what He was going to do.
a. His enemies.
b. His friends.
c. All the Jews.
2. Why does God want Christ to return to this world?
a. To give men another chance.
b. To prove that God wants all men to honour Him.
c. To die for the sins of all men.
3. The Lord Jesus promised to come back and this means
a. He comes into our hearts when we believe in Him.
b. He would send the Holy Spirit to live in the Church.
c. He Himself will come again just as He went away.
d. He comes when a believer dies and takes him home to Heaven.
4 The Lord promised to come quickly. This means
a. Soon after He made the promise.
b. He was mistaken and after 1900 years He still has not
come.
c. Suddenly
5. What is the name of the next great event for the Church;
a. The Rapture.
b. The Tribulation.
c. The Millennium
6 Where will believers meet the Lord when He comes?
a. At Jerusalem.
b. At the Judgment Seat of Christ.
c. On the clouds.
7. How long will they be with Him?
a. Until He comes to earth as King.
b. Until the Great White Throne.
c. Forever.
8. When Christ comes which will happen first?
a. The living believers will be changed.
b. Dead believers will rise from death.
c. We shall meet the Lord.
9. Which believers will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ?
a. Those who have served Him well.
b. All believers of this age.
c. Those who have fallen into sin.
10. Who will receive rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ?
a All who believe in Christ.
b. Only missionaries and evangelists and
Bible teachers.
c. Those who have earned them.
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