That particular Scripture has nothing at all to do with a visible appearance of Jesus after His assention.
I have to ask you why you would use that Scripture.
I am honored to discuss with a brother from such a prestigious learning institute. I really am a "country boy". In posting # 51 you can pick any point. But I propose this numbered paragraph.
What think ye sir, and did brother Lindsey allude to this?
LOL.......I am from the great Promised Land of Upper Alabama. I am old enough to know what an "outhouse" was.
Right now it is 6:15 PM and our Prayer service starts a 7:00 so I can not respond now. I will be back in the morning and try to accommodate you.
Gen_16:7 And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
Gen_22:11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
Exo_3:2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
Num_22:23 And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.
Jdg_6:12 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.
Jdg_13:20 For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.
John 21.25And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.That particular Scripture has nothing at all to do with a visible appearance of Jesus after His assention.
I have to ask you why you would use that Scripture.
For instance, the angel of the LORD (Jesus) visited Hagar in her suffering:
Spoke to Abraham to stop him from sacrificing Isaac:
- Gen 16:7 And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
Dealt with Balaam:
- Gen 22:11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
Visited Manoah and his wife to prophecy they would have a child named Samson:
- Num 22:31 Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.
And Jesus was in the Burning Bush with Moses, and a vision to David, and spoke to Elijah, and slayed thousands of Assyrian soldiers, etc.
- Jdg 13:20 For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. 22 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.
Matt 24:48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;The problem I see with Jesus appearing to anyone after His Ascension, is because of what He said regarding His return to end the age:
"So if they tell you, ‘There He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man."
Jesus said the above so that the people would be able to tell the difference between false Messiah's and the real Messiah, who would arrive on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. Therefore, if He was to appear to others, say, during our lifetime time, it would defeat the Lord's purpose for giving us those instructions.
That's my take on it anyway.
Matt 24:48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
why not during your lifetime?
But you think the LORD come late,I'm not saying you're a bad servant.I just want to remind you.But, you know, it's all for your sake.The verse above has nothing to do with the Lord appearing to people. It has to do with a leader going back into the sinful nature represented by eating and drinking with drunkards, etc. and then the Lord coming while he's in that state.
But you think the LORD come late,I'm not saying you're a bad servant.I just want to remind you.But, you know, it's all for your sake.
Have you heard anyone say that so far?I don't understand what you are saying.
I originally responded to the OP, stating that for Jesus to be appearing to people would defeat His purpose of warning us in His word regarding false Messiah's. He said that the way you would know true Messiah from the false one's, is that He would arrive on the clouds of heaven. He also said that, "the Messiah is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it." So if you have people saying that Jesus appeared to them, then His warning would have no validity. It would be in direct opposition to what He warned us about.
For instance, the angel of the LORD (Jesus) visited Hagar in her suffering:
Spoke to Abraham to stop him from sacrificing Isaac:
- Gen 16:7 And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
Dealt with Balaam:
- Gen 22:11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
Visited Manoah and his wife to prophecy they would have a child named Samson:
- Num 22:31 Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.
And Jesus was in the Burning Bush with Moses, and a vision to David, and spoke to Elijah, and slayed thousands of Assyrian soldiers, etc.
- Jdg 13:20 For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. 22 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.
[QUOTE="Corban, post: 4457585, member: 298250"
There are, to my knowledge, 13 mentions of "wrath" in the Book of Revelation Ten say it is "God's wrath", starting with Chapter 6 and ending with Armageddon in Chapter 19. I would say that the whole 3½ years from the Abomination of Desolation to Armageddon is the "wrath of God"
...
Think on these things.
There's no real way to connect that to the pre-incarnate Jesus.
You have taken much time and trouble to give your point of view - for which I thank you. I also respect that we have differing views of things. If I have to answer every point you made, a book will be needed. So if you'll allow, I'll just comment of those that were my points you called into question. I'll also have to crop you to make the 10,000 character limit.
I laid forth 13 times that the word "wrath" is used in Revelation, and shewed that 10 of them, across the remainder of Revelation, were God's wrath. You ignore these 10 and base the Great Tribulation as Satan's wrath on ONE verse. And this, despite (i) the prediction in Romans 1:18 that it is God's wrath revealed FROM heaven because of ungodliness, not Satan's wrath revealed from earth because his time is short, (ii) the prediction that it is God who, after much longsuffering, pours out wrath on Israel and the Gentile equally (Rom.2:4-8), (iii) that it is the Beast's setting up of his effigy that precipitates the Great Tribulation in Matthew 24:15-21, and (iv) that Revelation 2:22 reveals God, not the devil, casting Gentile idol-worshipers into "Great Tribulation".
In Philippians 3 you skirted around verses 10-14. The language is plain. Paul alludes to a an "ex"-anastasis, used only once in the Bible. You did not mention the fact that ALL men will be raised whether they like it or not (1st Cor.15:22), so resurrection does not have to be "stretched for", or, "attained to". It is this once mentioned "out-resurrection" that must be striven for. So also is the rapture guaranteed for the Christian because we must ALL stand before the Bema (the traveling throne), not the "Thronos" (the Throne of glory fixed on earth). To overturn my argument you cannot skirt around the "resurrection out of the resurrection". If Paul thought, just three odd years before his martyrdom, that he hadn't made it yet, it would seem to me that you and I had better pay much attention to it - unless you have more than Paul did in his ministry.
I think we should agree that the word "hell" is a mis-translation. It appears nowhere in the Hebrew or the Greek. Translators, as talented as they were, and as blessed as they were, were emerging from 1,000 years of Roman Catholicism mythology. The Bible uses three different words, Gehenna, Hades and Tartaroo. "Hell" is a concept born in Babylon. "Gehenna", used interchangeably with "perdition", is a STATE of exquisite "lack of well-being" (Vine). "Hades" is an abyss in the heart of the earth that contains the souls of dead men waiting for resurrection. And "Tartaroo" is another section of the abyss that contains angels (who are spirits) who mated with women (2nd Pet.2:4).
I addressed Luke 21:36. You countered with Luke 21:27. But you failed to address my argument as to how a man can "stand" before the Son of man, BEFORE the Tribulation has even begun.
As to "being with the Lord at death", you will note that I did not say anything about that. I said that there is no evidence in the whole Bible that dead men go to heaven. The thief who called on Jesus was promised to be "WITH the Lord in Paradise". Ephesians 4:8-9 says that our Lord "FIRST descended", Matthew 12:40 it says that it was to "the heart of the earth", and Psalm 2 and Acts 2 says He was in Hades. Then, our Lord said to Mary near His tomb, that He had not "YET" ascended to His Father, but that He would do so presently. Added to this, In Matthew 16, our Lord Jesus said that He would build His Church, but that the main enemy of the Church was Hades. Why? Because it imprisoned the disembodied souls of the believers. Its gates needed to be OVERCOME for the RESURRECTION of BODIES because the Church is made with BODIES (1st Cor.6:15). In Acts 2, 50 days after Christ exited Hades and took His BODY, and 10 days after Christ ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit inspires Peter to say that David's tomb is still with them and him buried, and David himself was still in Hades.
The case of our Lord Jesus, the case of David, and the LACK of a single verse that plainly states that dead men go to heaven, are then SUPPLEMENTED by the fact that (i) dead men are naked, (ii) dead men are unclean, and (iii) dead men are disembodied make them ineligible to appear in heaven before a holy God. The only objection that you have brought is that we are with the Lord in death. But the Thief was with the Lord - but in Hades, and because the Lord is OMNIPRESENT, he will be with the souls of dead men by His SPIRIT - IN HADES, as Psalm 139:8 testifies.
The only men in heaven are LIVING men (e.g. Enoch, Elijah and our Lord Jesus Himself). And if you are still unsure, then explain why dead men RISE. Jesus ROSE. The "dead in Christ RISE". In fact, not a single dead man who was resurrected "descended", which you would expect it they were in heaven. 1st Corinthians 15:23 tells when the dead in Christ will RISE. It is "AT HIS COMING" - just like 1st Thessalonians 4 say - at the LAST trump.
I realize that we all suffer from the effects of Rome's 1,000 years of locking the bible away and promulgating their Babylonian religion. It took me years to thrash out these above truths. I don't expect you to change overnight. But I think you'll agree, I have some valid proofs.
The soul does indeed go to be with the Lord but it does not go without a body,
.That's incorrect. The souls leaves the body when the body dies. It will remain bodiless until a physical resurrection.