This morning, I was again rudely woken up from bed early in the morning by another noisy street preacher, calling on all to repent before Christ's second coming. He also warned that 'rapture' is real, and those who still do not believe in it would surely be taken unawares and regret their 'ignorance'. He went further to quote some Bible passages to support both the the teaching about the second coming of Jesus Christ and that of Rapture.
He is not alone in both beliefs. These beliefs have been held on to for over two thousand years, and are not likely to be abandoned soon. However, every belief ought to be verified and be verifiable. It is always a sensitive issue when beliefs are said to have been drawn from the sacred book, Bible; because many do not bother to verify what 'they were told' about the meaning of Bible passages. The typical understanding about blind faith happens with Biblical beliefs. People just 'accept' it because it is in the Bible. Most others simply carried over the explanations given from generation to generation by their parents and grand-parents.
Many are not aware, or indeed, refuse to be corrected, that many Bible passages are allegorical, and many others have been misquoted, misinterpreted over the ages.
About Christ's second coming, it would be important for every believer to interpret it along with the statements made in the Book of John, Chapter 14 verse 16, where it was clearly stated that the Lord Christ promised to pray to the Father to send another, the Comforter, who would abide with us for ever. Indeed, before then He had also stated that it was expedient that He goes, for if He does not go, the Comforter shall not come. A discerning reader would see a link between the coming of the promised Comforter and the second coming of Jesus. The Comforter is the Holy Spirit, the Holy Will of God Almighty, and as such is part of the Trinity of the One God. The Comforter and the Christ are closely linked, and work together. That was why, if you recall, the Holy Spirit also appeared during the Baptism of Jesus Christ. So, the point is that the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ has been fulfilled, and we are now in the reign and period of the activities of the Holy Spirit. It is the period of Judgment; and severity. This understanding does not take anything away from the preacher admonishing people to lead a straight and noble life, but he must do so with factual truth and not doctrinal fallacies. In any case, this loud and noisy preaching on the streets, if one looks at it closely, violates other peoples' freedom and does not put the gospel in a good light. You do not 'force it on people' to repent and change. Change happens when the individual is ready.
Then, about 'Rapture', one would have thought that the preachers of rapture would by now have seen that it is a failed or failing doctrine, but surprisingly they are pushing on it from all corners. It is a big fallacy to hope and believe that one day man, of flesh and blood, shall be taken up into the spiritual realms, or even the ethereal realms, without first releasing the physical cloak or body. It is never ever going to happen, simply because it is against the Natural order of Creation. There most first be a 'transformation' of man from the physical to the non-physical before his soul can enter the realms of the beyond. The earth is physical, and that is why we all require the physical body to exist normally in it. But the spiritual worlds are not so physical, and require that we enter into them in our soul and spiritual bodies. This should be elementary knowledge enough for everyone to appreciate.
The price of ignorance over spiritual matters is so so heavy that every serious minded person ought to concern himself or herself with the task of acquiring additional spiritual enlightenment. There should be no end to such efforts. The Bible is very helpful, but a reader of the Bible could also benefit from other sources of spiritual knowledge. I, personally, have gained tremendous expansion of my knowledge about the Will of The Creator, the spiritual Laws that uphold affairs in all Creation, and very many other issues about life and existence which are not in the Bible, when I read The Grail Message, In The Light of Truth. It is a source of knowledge which cuts across religious barriers, and leads the spirit of man into a knowing conviction about the Creation of his God.
3rd May, 2019
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