The Bible was written to one of groups of people… Jew, Gentile, or Church of God…… The Church of God being the incorporated body of believers who are born again, which in essence was founded on the day of Pentecost and fully realized some years later. In Gods sight those that are born again are no longer a Jew or Gentile, they now belong to the Church of God….Christ being the head, and we all being members in particular (
1Co 12:27)
This “dispensation” (Gr = (
oikonomia) better translated →
administration of Grace, (
Eph 3:2) which we live in, is a different time period under different house rule or administration, similar to the US Presidency administrations….. No one would deny right now that we in the US are under different administration… they may be wishing we were, but we are under a new administration with different rulership. Trump is not Biden…. different rules apply in different administrations. We, as members of the Church of God, in the body of Christ are no longer under the law, but under Grace. That which was applicable previous to grace does not apply to us…..it is for our learning as
Rom 15:4 states ….and
1Co 10:11 speaking about Israel.
In short, what applies, and was directly written to us “the born again believers living in this grace administration” are the seven church epistles Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians….. Which begs the question, what about the Gospels?.... ➡ Although placed in the New Testament by translators, the gospels are figuratively the binding or the cohesive bond of the Bible; they stand alone, being neither in the Old nor the New.
The GOSPELS are critically important in our understanding of what our Lord and savior Jesus Christ accomplished in his walk, death, resurrection and ascension….. but, it must be noted that Jesus Christ came to minister to Israel→ the Bride….. Israel rejected him and killed their King, the Bridegroom. The Church of the Bride is at this time held in abeyance and picks up again in Revelation. In Acts 1 prior to Jesus being taken up the Apostles were showing concerns about the kingdom of Israel also
Act 1:6 &7…
because nobody but God knew what was coming next…. It was a mystery (secret) kept hidden with God…..
1Pe 1:10-12 The prophets of old could see the sufferings of Jesus and the glory that would come from Old Testament scriptures, but they could not see this age of grace that God had kept secret; it was sandwiched in-between the sufferings and the glory … no one knew …except God….and for good reason
1Co 2:7&8 Had the Devil known about this secret he would never have crucified the Lord of Glory …the devil was totally unaware of Gods plan …
the mystery. The devil would much rather have had Jesus Christ present on earth then to have millions of believers with Christ in them scattered across the world.
Why bring this up???
Because information found in the gospels regarding the return of Christ will have no or miniscule information regarding the Church of God in the grace administration. It will only reference the tribulation.
What takes place with the grace administration and Christ returning for the Church of the Body to which we belong was not revealed until Paul received it by revelation….
Eph 3:1-6,
Rom 16: 25&26
There is a BIG difference between the two (the
THE BRIDE OF CHRIST in the gospels, which is for our learning and
BODY OF CHRIST in the epistles written directly to us) they are not the same, and if not distinguished it will cause much confusion.
Christ’s return for the Church of the Body
In
Matthew 24: 3 the disciples asked Christ about the return and the end.
3. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the
end (
sunteleia moving towards the final point, (
telos) of the
world? (age)
verse 6b …. for all these things must come to pass, but the
end (
telos final point) is not yet.
The word
coming in verse 3 is the Greek word
parousia translated in the Bible as “coming” and “presence”, and always indicates the personal presence of the person spoken of
Just as Christ’s first coming spanned a period of time, so does the second
coming (
parousia)
The events of the
END (
sunteleia) include:
(1.) Christ coming
FOR His saints
(2.) Christ coming
WITH His saints (events of the book of Revelation)
(3.) The first and second resurrections, (4.) and finally the
END (telos) when death is destroyed and all things are subdued to God
The second coming of Christ has two basic phases to the
parousia which must be distinguished so as to avoid confusion.
The first part of the
parousia is the return of Christ for his church. In
II Thessalonians 2:1 it is called “our gathering together unto Him” (this portion of the
parousia is
not referred to as the resurrection, because not all will be dead when Christ returns
for the Church of the
Body)
This affects only those who are/were born again of God during this age of “the
Church of the Body” “the age of grace” the period in which we now live. No unbelievers, nor Old Testament believers, nor the Church of the
Bride will be affected by this part of the
parousia.
The events of Christ’s return for the Church of the Body are recorded in I Thessalonians 4:13-18 and I Corinthians 15:51-54. It is interesting to note that the books of
Thessalonians were the first (chronologically speaking) revelation God gave to Paul..... Having the hope of the return of Christ before them was what they needed to endure the mental pressure, verbal and physical persecution as they moved forth spreading the Word…..
1Th 4:1318 ….Verse 17 states ….Christ will not actually come to the earth He will simple gather the dead in Christ first, then those which are alive and remain to meet the Lord in the air.
I Corinthians 15:51-54 also gives added insight to the return
1Cor 15:5154
The return of Christ
with his saints (us, the Church of the body) to the earth is the second phase of the
parousia. Unlike the first phase when Christ came
for the church of the body… this time (after a period of time …7 years I believe) Christ comes
down TO the earth
WITH us (his saints). This is the Lords day….in the Greek it is called
apokalupsis the
appearing,
revelation, and the
advent.
The day of the Lord includes the period of Gods judgment …..this is something we as the church of the body
do not have to endure. The church of the Body will be spared the tribulation spoken of in Revelation; several passages in the epistles confirm this.
II Thessalonians 2:1-3
1: Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2: That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3: Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
The words
“falling away first” properly translated would be “a drawing out from among” or “a departure first” from the Greek words “
He apostasia”……..When the light of the believers depart …that leaves only darkness, evil and wickedness………….. But we will not be here.