C. Elden McNabb

The Sign of Jesus’ Soon Coming

Nahum 2:1-4

THE LORD HATH SPOKEN Who Can But Prophesy

Amos 3:8

“There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets and maketh known what shall be in the latter days” (Dan. 2:28). Recently He has revealed one of His most important secrets, the approximate time of His coming. What a privilege to be here at such a time as when Jesus himself shall soon appear. The sixth millennium, from Adam, has come and gone, and by the end of September, 2013, two years of the seventh millennium will have gone by also. Jesus told His Apostles, “All the prophets and the law prophesied until John” (Matt. 11:13). “And Jesus, (after His resurrection) beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). A little later, Jesus said unto them, “These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets and in the Psalms, concerning me” (Luke 24:44). And from that time, God has had men on the job, fulfilling that vast, written Word of GOD, which we so gladly share. We are looking forward to some wonderful things to occur when Jesus appears. For example, in His statement in Genesis 6:3, the Lord gave us the first clue to the time of Jesus’ arrival. When GOD was about ready to send the flood, and destroy almost every living creature on Earth, He said, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” The time of that flood was set, and it came, according to the prophecy, an hundred and twenty years later. And God said, “I am the Lord, I change not” (Mal. 3:6).

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GOD gave us the shadow of the true with Noah, and He has now given us the Whole Truth concerning our time, saying, “As the days of Noe were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt. 24:37). The flood was real, but it was also a prophecy of things to come, near the end of the sixth millennium. Whereby we know that the Lord has also given us the knowledge of how to escape His wrath that is soon to be manifested. Therefore, we would do well to heed the words of Isaiah’s prophecy, “Remember the former things of old: for I am GOD, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it” (Isaiah 46:9-11). We would do well to watch for this man which will be executing the council of God. FROM GOD’S PROMISE TO MANKIND, and subsequent building of the nation of Israel, God began to prepare a people to share in His plan and prophecy of building a worldwide nation with a ruling faction of 144,000 Jews (Rev. 7:1-9). Peter brought that group of people to perfection about thirty years before A.D. 70, and finished the work of God among the righteous people of Judah (Acts 5:1-16). From then until now, the Lord has been sending laborers among the Gentiles to gather with them 144,000 Gentiles (Matt. 24:29-31; Rev. 14:1-5), and bring the two factions together, to govern the whole world with Him in this seventh millennium. GOD created that government in two

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major increments in the four thousand years from GOD’s choice of Abraham, to the end of the sixth millennium A.D. When Jesus’ crucifixion was near, He sent his Apostles on a mission, “And commanded them, saying, Go not in the way of the Gentiles, and to any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:5-6). Jesus knew that His time was short, but there was an important work which had to be done, before the Gentiles should be aroused, and converted. So He commanded His disciples to preach to the children of Israel only. The time of His crucifixion came, and “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst, and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). Then Peter arose in Christ’s stead, putting the final touches on the perfection of the Jewish Church, in fulfillment of Daniel 9:24-27. SEVEN YEARS LATER, when Peter had brought the Church of God to perfection, Jesus appeared again (Acts chapters 5 and 6). That time it was to anoint a Jewish Zealot, named Saul of Tarsus to be “The Apostle of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13). Some time later, as Saul-Paul and Barnabas were preaching, the Jewish leaders rose up against them and their Gospel, and expelled them, but they shook the dust off their feet against them, as a sign that Jesus had truly finished God’s will as pertained to the transferal of the gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles. And it has been and will be, until the fulfillment of Romans 11:25-33. Paul said, “I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

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for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. ll:25-29). AS JESUS HUNG ON THE CROSS, He spoke those vital, miraculous words which made Mary John’s Mother, therefore making John Jesus’ brother. And Jesus, knowing that His resurrection gave him the power to mandate who will be His successor, and the only existing man who was eligible was John the Apostle who Jesus had made to be his brother. As Jesus hung on the cross, He said to his mother, “Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple, behold thy mother.” Therefore, it is a son of John’s ministry who will be the heir to the throne. The die was cast, and everything which was necessary for the redemption of mankind, and the establishing of the Kingdom of God. Then all things shall be put under Jesus feet. “In Christ shall all be made alive. . . Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to GOD, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:22-28). And when all things shall be put under Jesus, GOD the Father will take the kingdom and present it to the, spiritually called, progeny of Jesus’ brother John. Every part of the Bible is of great importance. In this particular prophecy, GOD is telling us that there is no source of information which can possibly compare with this prophecy. He is using events and declarations in the Old Testament to reveal what He is doing, and going to do, and how He will do it. In this case, He is sending a man to do this work for Him, and describing him as a ravenous bird, and that He is not an Israeli. Then GOD strongly assured us of

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the truth of His words, saying, “Yea, I have spoken it, I will also do it” (Isa. 46:11). GOD allotted Himself 6,000 years, this side of the creation, to deal with mankind and prepare, from among them, a people for His name. We passed that 6,000 year mark about two years ago, but we have not yet seen Him whom we seek. However, Jesus shall come, and it is now high time to begin to watch diligently for His coming, “for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh” (Matt. 24:44; 25:13; Luke 12:40; Luke 18:8). He that shall come will come, and He will not tarry (Heb. 10:37). About 1,656 years after Adam’s sin, our planet was filled with rebellion and corruption and violence. It had become obvious that, no matter how much carnal man is allowed to do as he pleases, he only becomes more wicked and vile. Wherefore, GOD sent a flood, and destroyed everything on Earth, except for Noah, his family, and an adequate number of each species of animals, at least two each, of all the animals and fowls on the Earth. When the water had adequately abated, GOD began again to replenish the Earth with animals, birds, and people. At the end of that first 2,000 years, about 345 years after the flood, the Lord launched His plan to choose a man from the new populace of the world. He chose a man whom He named Abraham, and promised him that his descendants would inherit His kingdom. That promise still stands, more than four thousand years later, and its fulfillment is certain. In Abraham, GOD found a man who believed in Him, and accepted whatever GOD told him. The goal of GOD’s plan was to prepare a group of 144,000 Jews to sit with Jesus in His throne room, as one half of the ruling faction of the world government during the seventh millennium from Adam (Rev. 7:1-8).

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AT THE CRUCIFIXION, as Jesus hung on the cross, He said “It is finished” (John 19:30). In that 2,000 years, Jesus had accomplished all He needed, to cause the rest of GOD’s plan to succeed. But what was finished? When Jesus was finishing His work of making redemption available, He sent forth His twelve Apostles, saying, “Go not in the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not” (Matt. 10:2-8). And it was only about forty years then, until 70 A.D. when God violently shut the door on Judaism and left it in oblivion until 1948. Still, today, God is lacking a group of Jews to fulfill a prophecy of a group of Jews to fulfill the last election of Jews for the Kingdom. Paul told us, that is the way it would be until “The fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” We are not quite there yet, but “When the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them.” We anxiously await that event (Romans 11:25-27). EARLY ON, God had prepared a way to keep His plan secret, so that Satan would not ever be able to prevent the success of His plan. And from the beginning of that second two thousand years before the coming of Jesus, God began to build and establish the nation of Israel, with Abraham, and his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob, knowing they would fulfill His will. He took 2,000 years creating that nation with two distinct classes of people. As it is written, “When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was His sanctuary, (the Religious factor), and Israel His dominion, (the Secular factor)” (Psalm 114:1-2). It took a lot of time and effort, but when they crucified the Son of God, it was finished. No matter what else took place, the Kingdom of God was

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guaranteed to come forth, and during this seventh millennium, take total control of the planet Earth. Remember that everything in the Old Testament is “A shadow of things to come” in the New Testament era (Col. 2:17), but “not the very image of the things” (Heb. 10:1). What we are seeing now, and shall see, for about a thousand years, is the reality which the shadow has foretold. It began with the training, trying, redemption, and perfection of that 144,000 Jews, of Rev. 7:1-8. Jesus made it a point to keep the Gentiles out of the process until the Jewish faction had reached perfection. For some years now, we Gentiles have been laboring toward the perfection of the Gentile counter part, particularly the 144,000 elect of Rev. 14:1-5, and the reaping will doubtless come soon. So Christ’s ruling faction, in God’s mind, has had two parts from its beginning. The first part was religious rulers under Moses’ influence, for approximately five hundred years. They were called Priests and Judges, until Saul, the first King of Israel was crowned, just about 1,000 years B.C. (Acts 13:18-23). But those Priests and Kings were mere shadows of the Truth. As it is written, “The law and the prophets were until John the Baptist: since that time the Kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it” (Luke 16:16). When Peter had brought the Jewish Church to Perfection, Jesus appeared to Saul of Tarsus and ordained him “The Apostle of the Gentiles,” and began the two-thousand-year epoch of the Gospel to the Gentiles. Thereby, He certified that what He had been doing was “finished.” We have now entered the time of the conclusion of the redemption of a Gentile segment of the world’s population. Jesus shall now meld the Jewish faction together with the

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Gentile faction, and form the Kingdom of God on Earth, with its 288,000 rulers. The seventh thousand years is already upon us, and the Dominion of the Kingdom is now, altogether, in the hand of our King, our God. He will soon be making us who have served Him well, “kings and priests unto God and His Father” (Rev. 1:6). And He, with His Elect, shall conquer the world. “Then cometh the end when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to GOD, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. . . And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that GOD be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:24-28). AFTER JESUS HAD CHOSEN HIS TWELVE APOSTLES, He called them together for a conference, and sent them forth, “and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt. 10:5-7). So twelve of the twenty four Elders of the Kingdom of God had been ordained (Rev. Ch. 5). Right up to His resurrection and ascension, Jesus was still forbidding the Gentiles access to any of the blessings then provided. It is evident that the term “to the Jew first, and also to the Gentiles” was still in use. The next two thousand years proved that God had been forming the structure of this new nation. He is creating it in such a way, that when He has fully put it together, it will all fit together perfectly, but there will be distinct differences between the two kinds of people who shall make up the ruling factions of His kingdom.

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Jesus died at the end of the sixty-ninth week of Daniel’s vision of the “Seventy Weeks.” After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to five of his twelve Apostles, and commissioned Peter to take the responsibility of the care of the Church, and to bring it to perfection. And he did so during that last seven years of the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy in chapter nine, gently prompting Peter three times, saying, “Feed my lambs,” “Feed my sheep,” “Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-17).” When Peter had brought the Church to perfection, two members of the Church, Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, both foolishly lied about an offering they had laid on the altar, corrupting it, and they both fell dead at Peter’s feet, one three hours after the other, thus showing each ones personal culpability (Acts 5:1-14). What a vivid sign of the perfection of the Church, and how meaningful the message. Soon after that event, Jesus made a personal visit to Saul of Tarsus, on the road to Damascus (Acts 22:6-11), and anointed him “The Apostle of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13). Not too long later it became evident that the work of God among the Jews was almost over, and the outreach to the Gentiles would soon become the prominent outreach. The Jewish Church had reached perfection, and the gospel message finally began to be preached, primarily, unto the Gentiles. WE ARE NOW VERY NEAR TO WHAT THE APOSTLE PAUL CALLED “THE FULNESS OF THE GENTILES.” Soon after that mark is reached, “The deliverer shall come out of Sion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob,” for this is God’s covenant unto them. Concerning which, Paul said, “I will not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to

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Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom. 11:25-27). GOD destroyed the nation of Israel in 70 A.D., and preserved the Church, He will surely do the same to Christianity today. Jesus will gather His Elect, and also destroy much of Gentile Christianity when the time comes (Matt:24:30-31). When Paul and Barnabas were sent forth, by the Holy Ghost, from one city to another, they soon reached Antioch in Pisidia, and preached in their synagogue. The Jews became filled with envy, and spake against them, contradicting and blaspheming. “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord hath commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the Earth.” Thus, the official declaration of the 2,000 year time of the Gospel to the Gentiles was made, and the efforts of their ministry became focussed, primarily to reach the Gentiles. To which Paul later explained, “I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:” for this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins” (Rom. 11:25-27). Those two thousand years have passed, and Israel will soon see the truth once again. BY 325 A.D., and for about 1200 years, the secular and religious powers of the Dark Ages were fiercely suppressing the message of redemption in Christ, and the very truth of redemption had “Fallen in the Street” in the

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fulfillment of Isa. 59:14. But, in about 1512, Martin Luther found redemption in Christ Jesus, as he was studying Romans 1:16-17. He was “Born Again,” and the long lost Truth of “Justification By Faith” began to spread around the world once more. Then, in about 1733, John Wesley experienced Sanctification, the “Second Work of Grace,” as he studied Romans 1:16-17. Later, in 1768, a Methodist chapel was opened in New York, and in 1784, John Wesley officially established the True Doctrine of the Sanctification of the Spirit, in the U.S.A., and Righteousness and True Holiness began to spread accross the Western Hemisphere (Eph. 4:24). Then, in 1896, God poured out a great, Holy Ghost revival, in the hills of North Carolina, U.S.A. It was a unique event, in that it was the first major work of God to make its first appearance in the Western Hemisphere, this side of the Dark Ages. The message came, and the Joy of the Lord, and the outpouring of God’s power came with it, just as it had when the Holy Ghost was poured out fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, our Lord and King. As the Lord had said, the message, which had begun in the Eastern Hemisphere, spread from the East to the West, and has now been published and practiced in all the world, in varying magnitudes (Matt. 24:27). “An end is come, the end is come, it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come” (Ezek. 7:6). After Jesus appears, He will soon fulfill Matthew 24:30-31. “They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His Elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to another.”

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PART TWOTHE CLUE TO THE TIME OF JESUS’ COMING

Many times in my life, I have thoughtfully read Genesis 6:3 without understanding the point, although it seemed as if it should have been simple enough. The Lord said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” But, to this day, in the history of the world, only Moses has been noted as having the testimony of a one hundred and twenty year life span. However, in early 2013, I read Genesis 6:3 once again, and my mind went quickly to its New Testament counterpart, and the meaning of it became obvious to me at once. Luke said “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man” (Luke 17:26-30). Therefore, we see that the statement in Genesis is a prophecy of Jesus’ coming, and a hundred and twenty years has something to do with it. John quoted Jesus, in Revelation 22:6-16, saying, “He said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets ‘sent His angel’ to show unto His servants things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I Jesus have sent mine angel (messenger) to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” To comprehend the full intent of this statement, we must understand Heb. 1:7, 2:5. “Of the angels He saith, ‘Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire.’ For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.” Apparently, at that time, Jesus will have chosen His messenger, and begun to

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send Him to testify these things to His Elect Saints. Therefore we need to be alert and watching for the arrival of our Lord’s messenger, for, “In such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh” (Matt. 24:44). I certainly do not wish to miss that event. God grant us the ‘tools’: the wisdom and knowledge to receive our Lord, when His servant shouts His announcement, saying “Grace, grace unto it”: Jesus, the Headstone of Zechariah 4:7. Twice in Zechariah, Jesus has told us that what we will actually see and hear is an entity which Jesus calls His “angel,” and that angel is a messenger who will be explaining everything to us, for Jesus. It will be similar to when John the Baptist was preparing twelve righteous men to be Jesus’ twelve Jewish Apostles, but now it is for the preparation of His twelve Gentile Apostles. FOR A SUBJECT OF SUCH IMPORTANCE as the second coming of the Son of God, one witness is really not enough (Matt. 18:15-16). So, the Lord has given us other witnesses, such as Nahum 2:1-4. Nahum said, “He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.” What a call to consecration! Therefore, we must strive for greater spirituality, and become strong, effective Christians: “able ministers of the New Testament” (2 Cor. 3:6). It is written, “The Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out and marred their vine branches.” Here the Lord is referring to the destruction of Israel in A.D. 70. And further about the coming fulfillment of God’s plan to “Elect” a relatively small group of Jews as His final act of bringing together all of his numbered saints as the ruling faction of His Kingdom (Rom. 11:25-29; Rev. 7:1-8).

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Concerning the sign, Nahum said, “The shield of His mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broadways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.” How well Nahum has described modern automobiles as marking the time of Jesus’ return: showing His coming in a time of great technical development in the 19th and 20th centuries A.D. Thus God, in His wisdom, has chosen the automobile with which to manifest the secret of the timing of Jesus’ coming. So, who is this “that dasheth in pieces,” in chapter 2, verse 1? It is one very important lead for our understanding of the events of the coming of Jesus. A critical part of the answer is to be found in Rev. 2:25-27. “That which ye have already, hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of My Father.” When that man appears, it will be our signal to hold fast to the word of God, and stand stedfast against all iniquity. It is this servant of Jesus who shall lead us to victory in the last great battle against the enemies of our Lord. In Zechariah, he is called Zerubbabel, and it is said, “He shall bring forth the headstone thereof (Jesus) with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.” Yes, it is he who shall declare the arrival of Jesus our King, and bring Him to the forefront, shouting “Grace, grace,” unto Him. WHEN GOD TALKS ABOUT AUTOMOBILES, and a certain time frame together, He must be speaking of the time from their beginning, to a specific final point in time. Therefore, we must accept the stated time, of one hundred

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and twenty years, because the sign points us to the timing of the event of His coming. That epical event began in 1893, and by September 20th, their first automobile had been constructed and successfully tested on the public streets of Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A. By 1896, Charles and Frank Duryea had also created the first successful automobile manufacturing and sales company, in America. And they were the first company to incorporate an American business for the purpose of building automobiles for sale to the public. Charles Duryea founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in 1896, the first company to manufacture and sell gasoline powered vehicles. By 1896, the company had sold thirteen cars of the model Duryea, an expensive limousine, which remained in production into the 1920’s. And they marked the beginning of the one hundred and twenty year sign of Jesus’ second coming. We have established the beginning of the sign, so when is the end of the one hundred and twenty years? It is quite obvious really. The beginning of the sign was given in 1893; therefore, it must end in 2013, give or take a little. We are definitely in the Lord’s time frame of the final days of that prophecy of the time of Jesus’ coming. As I write, we have just three and a half months until that time has slipped away. Once when the disciples saw Jesus alone, on the Mount of Olives, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Him privately, saying, “Tell us when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming and, of the end of the world” (Matt 24:3; Mark 13:4). Wherefore, Jesus gave them a long list of the troubles to come, and other events which would confront Christians for the next two thousand years.

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Two great World Wars swiftly followed the beginning of that 1893 sign, with Germany’s 1914 entry into the long fought wars in Europe, and the first “World War” officially began. From that time, there has constantly been wars of all kinds around the world. On January 1, 1942, as World War II was raging, 26 nations signed the Declaration by the United Nations. And by June 26, 1945, the charter was signed, and the establishment of the United Nations had officially begun. By 1950, the United Nations was at war with North Korea, and to this day North Korea is still fighting that war. American fighting, mostly in the name of the U.N., has never stopped since 1950, fulfilling Matthew 24:6-8, “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and the kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places.” “He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved, and this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matt. 24:14-15). (This occurred in the past forty to fifty years or so.) “As the lightning cometh out of the East, and shineth unto the West; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt. 24:27-28). (This happened in the transition of the Gospel from the Eastern Hemisphere to the Western Hemisphere, after Martin Luther found the Born-again experience.) “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all of the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His

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angels [messengers] with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24:30-31, 37). And, “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” Even so come Lord Jesus.

PART THREEWHEN JESUS COMES

Much anticipation has been expressed in books, and in pulpits, concerning what Jesus will, or will not do, when He steps off His throne in Heaven and comes to Earth again “In like manner” as He went away. And so it should be. Mark told us that when Jesus went away, it was on this wise: “After the Lord had spoken unto them, [His twelve Apostles and others], He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of GOD” (Mark 16:19). As Jesus ascended, one of the two men in white, who stood by, told them, “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:2). Therefore, when Jesus comes back, He will descend from heaven, visibly, unto an elect group of His followers. To this fact we have the testimony of all twelve of Jesus’ Apostles: they were all there. Luke testified how that “Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after that He, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen: To whom also He shewed himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: and, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the

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promise of the Father (the outpouring of the Holy Ghost), which, saith he , ye have heard of me” (Acts 1:1-4). “And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as we have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:9-11). When Jerusalem was later destroyed, the Jewish Apostles obeyed another of Jesus’ commandments, together with the women of the Elect of God, and fled into the wilderness, escaping that martyrdom (Luke 21:20-21, Matt. 24:15-22). “Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall The sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all of the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24:29-31). “John (wrote) to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven spirits which are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the Earth. Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His father; to Him be glory

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and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen” (Rev. 1:4-8). When Jesus comes, those who have been faithful to him will receive the reward of their promise as kings and priests unto Jesus and His Father. He will come with clouds, just as He went away, “and every eye shall see Him” (Rev 1:7). Then John made a shocking note about how Jesus’ coming will affect all of us, especially the Christians who “Have purified (their) souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently” (1 Peter 1:22). The admonition is clear, we must purify ourselves in the sight of God, and love our neighbor as we love ourselves, or our judge will be very hard on us. A lot of things are going to happen, bad and good, but we must walk in stride with Jesus enough to endure the bad part. Jesus told us, “There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:25-28). Jesus will come, first to resurrect the saints of the Jewish church of the first century A.D., and will take one hundred and forty-four thousand of them to be His “Bride the Lamb’s Wife.” That will take about a year, according to Deuteronomy 24:5, and Revelation 7:1-8. Then, our Lord will receive the Gentile elect, of Matthew 24:30-31, and of

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Revelation 14:1-5. “They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” One hundred and forty-four thousand Gentiles.

When the Jewish, and the Gentile factions are finally brought together, the prophecy of Jacob’s two wives in Genesis 27:34-40 will have been fulfilled, and Jesus will begin to set up His new country, his new kingdom, with 288,000, elect saints, half of them the Jews you have read about in the Bible, and the other half of them Gentiles which you will be reading about, as Jesus makes them known. That is what the Old Testament is about. As Isaiah said, “Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10). Jews and Gentiles are quite different one from another, and the work they will be doing for the Lord will be quite different also. In Acts 15:7-20, the Apostles and Elders mandated that the Jewish Christians would be required to keep the Law of Moses, but the Gentiles were given a mandate of four requirements. They must “Do these necessary things; that (they) abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.” That alone will make quite a difference between the Jews and the Gentiles in their ministry in the Kingdom of GOD, when Jesus gets to that phase in building His kingdom. As Jesus proceeds to establish the government of His new nation, these 288,000 personnel will begin to learn how

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to follow Jesus and work in coordination, one sector of the kingdom of GOD with the other, becoming a team of qualified leaders of the new Kingdom of GOD on Earth, under the command of Jesus Christ. Jesus made the process clear, saying, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers soap” (Mal. 3:1-4). “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,

concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thess. 4:13-16). Did not the Psalmist Asaph say, “The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the Earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined, our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him, He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the Earth, that He may judge His people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah” (Psalm 50:1-6).

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