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There
are two terms used that have been passed down through the ages that we would
like to examine. The first thought is that the return of Christ is imminent i.e. it can occur at any time. The second is that we should occupy until the Lord returns. I wanted to share on this because I recently
posted an article that I wrote to encourage folks who had put their eyes on a
rapture date that had just passed. In the paper I stated that we are to occupy
until the Lord comes, and in this way we were living in a posture of faith. I
want to tweak ever so slightly what I wrote in that offering through this
writing.
I did
something that I should not have done – and that is I repeated what I have
heard all my life without a good study of Scripture. We have been told to occupy until the Lord comes, therefore I took it for granted that this was
something that Paul taught in his Epistles to the church.
I was WRONG
to take this for granted!
The term occupy till I come is found in one verse in the
entire Bible.
Luke 19:13
And he called his ten servants,
and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy
till I come.
Now, in this passage we find Jesus giving a parable to His Jewish followers.
Let’s listen in as we look at
Luke 19:1-28.
And Jesus entered and passed
through
And, behold, there was a man
named Zacchaeus, which was
the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.
And he sought to see Jesus who
he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.
And he ran before, and climbed
up into a sycomore tree to
see him: for he was to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the
place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I
must abide at thy house.
And he made haste, and came
down, and received him joyfully.
And when they saw it, they all
murmured, saying, That he was
gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.
And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold,
Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing
from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this
house, forsomuch as he also
is a son of Abraham.
For the Son of man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost.
And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was
nigh to
He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far
country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
And he called his ten servants,
and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy
till I come.
But his citizens hated him, and
sent a message after him, saying, We
will not have this man to reign over us.
And it came to pass, that when
he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants
to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how
much every man had gained by trading.
Then came the first, saying,
Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.
And he said unto him, Well,
thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou
authority over ten cities.
And the second came, saying,
Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.
And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.
And another came, saying, Lord,
behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:
For I feared thee, because thou
art an austere man: thou takest
up that thou layedst not
down, and reapest that thou
didst not sow.
And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked
servant. Thou knewest that
I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did
not sow:
Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the
bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?
And he said unto them that
stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds.
(And they said unto him, Lord,
he hath ten pounds.)
For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath
shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken
away from him.
But those mine enemies, which
would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.
And when he had thus spoken, he
went before, ascending up to
We learn by reading this passage
that Jesus is speaking to the Jews of His day a parable because they
thought that the
They are told to occupy until he
comes because the
This is a kingdom principle for
Can we benefit from “occupy till
I come” in our daily Christian walk?
I believe we can, in that we need
to be good stewards over what the Lord puts into our lives to watch over, be it
finances, spouse, or children, etc. However, we need to follow the teachings of
Paul in these areas. Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church.
Children obey your parents. Wives submit to your own husband, as unto the Lord.
And all other areas our brother Paul penned that cause us to emulate Christ by
the power of the Holy Spirit and obedience to God’s Word.
Imminent as used through the years implies that the Lord’s return is at
hand, even at the door; it may occur at any moment.
I’m not going to say a whole lot
about either of these terms except to say that each have been aped through the
years without really being questioned; therefore we came to adopt these two terms
for ourselves and have believed them to be factual. With that knowledge, when
the NT was penned, I will say that many things had to occur before the Lord’s
return was to transpire, so in that sense alone His return was not about to
happen next. His return is more imminent now than it has ever been, but in the
scope of the time where these statements were made and written in the NT
Scripture - 2000 years of grace had to transpire before the
resurrection/rapture could take place. The following Scripture will bear this
out. It is speaking of our gathering together in the resurrection/rapture unto
Christ.
II Thessalonians 2:1-3
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our
gathering together unto him,
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.
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;
Unfortunately the king James
translators did a disservice to this portion of Scripture. The term the day of
Christ should read the day of the Lord, and the falling away should be more
clear i.e. a departing from someone or something to avoid persecution. This
passage is not speaking of an apostasy i.e. falling away from faith in Christ
Jesus, but separating from someone or something.
I’m not going to get deep into this
in this offering because we have written on this subject ad nauseam.
The point is that Paul wrote this
second letter to the church in Thessalonica because they were told and believed
that the day of the Lord was already upon them. Due to the persecution they
experienced as believers they just knew God’s judgment was already on the
earth. Paul wrote to assure them that the day of the Lord had not begun. He
said that first the resurrection/rapture must occur, second
the falling away, and third - the man of sin would be revealed. Paul set the Thessalonians mind
at rest that the resurrection/rapture had to take place before the day of the
Lord could commence.
There is an appointed time for
everything. The day of our departure was decided upon before the foundations of
the world. The Second coming of Christ Jesus to
We have shared and believe that there is strong evidence that
the resurrection/rapture will occur in the spring.
We receive progressive revelation
and we share what we see at the time. The problem with this is that because the
revelation of God’s Word is progressive we report what we see as a strong
possibility, and then in time we see a bit more of the revelation. This is what
has happened with the sabbatical cycles. They are a true benchmark and we see
the truth about them as God has laid them out for us to say, yes, that happened on that 7th year and we can expect the Lord to follow in His order and
patterns.
First we were shown the concept
of the 7 candle Menorah and Jesus as the Servant candle in the middle 3.5
position. Next we were able to see the 9 candle Menorah and Jesus as the
Servant candle in the middle 4.5 position…and other examples that point to the
resurrection/rapture of the church body. We have no idea how many of you
followed these articles and/or received any blessing from them - but, we shared
them in the hope that your faith would be encouraged by the Lord’s orderly
principles.
I told a friend some time ago
that I was not
fudging from the spring rapture ever again, and yet, I got caught off guard awhile
back and got sucked into a new rapture date which was to occur a month or so ago.
Well guess what, that day has come and gone. I see at different forums that the
rapture is to take place in a day or two. That day too, will come and pass. The
reason these rapture dates are all over the chart is because most
watchers believe that the rapture is imminent, that it can occur at any moment. I’m sticking to
the spring rapture that we concluded to believe in a year or so ago. If the
Lord gives more progression to His revelation then I await that development,
and I will continue to wait until He takes me in death or in the
resurrection/rapture.
The resurrection/rapture is more
at the door today than it has ever been at hand. It is more imminent today than
any other time in history. Praise God, we are looking forward to this spring. If the Lord desires to prove
us wrong and come today – we are all for it, but His order and His principles
are just too reliable not to follow.
Do we stop watching?
We do not.
Do we occupy until He comes for us?
We obey God’s Word and we follow
the instructions found in the NT Epistles to the church until He calls us home
in death or in the resurrection/rapture.
1Timothy 6:14 That
thou keep this commandment without
spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:
2Timothy 4:8 Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also
that love his appearing.
Titus 2:13 Looking
for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
1Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be
found unto praise and honour
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
We watch, and we wait for His
appearing.
I was asked to explain further on
the term “falling away.”
Mark, I'm putting together
another paper to "better" explain the portion in my
writing that you are questioning in regards to the "falling away."
For now, I'll call upon Dr. Zodhiates to provide the Greek word understanding.
The word used there is apostasia "the apostasy" which does not exactly mean
that. The verb from which this substantive is derived is aphistemi,
made up of the preposition apo, "from," and histemi,
"to place or
stand."
In its strict sense, it means to place oneself away from or to stand away from
someone. It does not necessarily mean to remove oneself from someone or
somewhere.
This separating from someone does not necessarily imply wholehearted agreement
or disagreement, but it is separating oneself for purpose of not incurring the
dangers of that association.
This implies that there are those who associate themselves with the faith but
who in reality are not faithful. They might go to church, even be a Sunday
school teacher. a church deacon, or even the pastor -
but they are not really a born again believer in Christ Jesus. They might have
head knowledge and be associated with Christians but not really a Christian.
But, then, when persecution comes to the faithful - the one who is not invested
in the faith departs as not to be associated with the true believer in order
that they are not mistaken as a believer, thus incurring persecution
themselves.
So then, the "falling
away" is a
departing from someone or something in order to not be identified with someone
or something to avoid danger or persecution.
This is the correct understanding of the use of the term "falling away" from verse 3.
When I get my other article complete I hope to bring all the verses together in
context.
Thnx, Mark for your question. You always keep me on my toes. Where I'm not
clear, you challenge me.
I mentioned that I was not going to explain that portion because we have gone
over it thoroughly in other writings, but I can see that by piling my thoughts
one on top of the other has caused some confusion, therefore I will take more
care to explain.
My intent was to explain that we take for granted words and terms (imminent and occupy till I come) and we adopt them as fact
without having a true understanding of there meaning. But for you Mark, and
anyone else I might have left confused I will produce a more precise writing on
this portion of Scripture.
(This final offering is the remainder of my
explanation).
Let's go over this again in order
that the subject is completely understood.
2
Thessalonians 2:
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 (the day of the Lord) is
at hand.
3 Let no man deceive you by any
means: for that day (the day of the Lord) shall not come, [1] except there come a falling away first, and [2] that man of
sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
The first verse is speaking about
our
gathering together unto the Lord i.e. the catching away - where the dead in Christ will rise up
first then we which are alive will be caught up together with them to meet the
Lord Jesus in the air.
The second verse admonishes them
that they should not be shaken that the day of the Lord is present i.e. already
here.
Then the third verse speaks that the
falling away and the revealing of the man of sin must both occur before
the day of the Lord can come.
Now, after further study one must
work from verse 3 and go backward to fully understand what is taking place and
what our brother Paul is saying to these believers.
Before the Lord comes to
But, before those events
transpire the departure of those in Christ must occur.
The
Scriptural departing from this earth to meet JESUS in the air.
Clearly, the first thing to
happen is that all who are in Christ will be caught up together and depart from this
earth to meet the Lord in the air at the resurrection/rapture (the departing actually means to
be caught up by Someone other than ourselves in order to come into their presence,
to meet them. It means to depart from one place to go meet someone who is
coming toward us - i.e. responding to the action of another).
The next thing that Paul tells
the Thessalonians is that there will be a falling away before the day of the Lord
comes. And finally, that the man of sin must be revealed before the day of the Lord comes.
Something that needs to be
understood is that the man of sin is not revealed until the middle of
the 7 year tribulation; therefore we must step back and look at this from the entire 7
year perspective.
At the beginning of the 7 year
tribulation the person who confirms the
covenant is a man bringing about peace and security in the
Rather than me writing out things
that I have written in the past let me insert here what Mr. Darby has surmised
regarding this 2nd Epistle to the Thessalonians.
In the Second Epistle to the
Thessalonians, the apostle corrects some errors into which these disciples had
fallen with regard to the day of the Lord through certain false teachers; as in
part of the first epistle he had enlightened the ignorance of the believers
themselves respecting the portion of the saints at the coming of Christ to take
them to Himself-a point on which they were evidently but little instructed.
A measure of Jewish darkness was
on their minds; and they were, in some points, still subjected to the influence
of that unhappy nation, which was ever struggling to maintain a position lost
through its unbelief.
This Jewish influence enables us
to understand why the apostle spoke as he did in chapter 2:15, 16 of the first
Epistle. At that time this influence showed itself in the
tendency of the Thessalonians to lose sight of the heavenly side of the Lord's
coming, to think that He would return to the earth and that they should then be
glorified with Him-as a Jew might have believed-and that the dead saints would
therefore not be present to share this glory. I do not say that this thought had assumed a
definite form in the minds of the Thessalonians. To them the principal and
living object was the Lord Himself, and they were awaiting His return with
hearts full of joy and life; but the heavenly side of this
expectation had not its place clearly marked in their minds, and they connected
the coming too much with the manifestation, so that the earthly character
predominated, and the dead seemed to be shut out from it.
When the Second Epistle was
written, this Jewish influence had another character; and the false teachers
were more directly concerned in it.
The faithful at Thessalonica had
learnt to contemplate "the day of the Lord" as a day of judgment. The
Old Testament had spoken much of this day of the Lord, a day of darkness and
unparalleled judgment, a day of trial to men. (Compare #Isaiah 13, #Amos 5:18)
Now the Thessalonians were
undergoing dreadful persecution. Perhaps their hope of an earthly intervention
of the Lord, during their lifetime, was weakened. The apostle at least rejoiced
at the increase of their faith, and the abundant exercise of their love, while
he is silent with regard to their hope; and the joy of Christian life is not
found here as it was manifested in the First Epistle. Nevertheless they were
walking well, and the apostle gloried in them.
In the First Epistle he says he
needed not to speak of them, seeing that the world itself recounted everywhere
the principles by which they were governed. We shall see a similar difference
all through. It is no longer the same fresh energy of life in the churches of
God. But the false teachers profited by their condition to mislead them by
means of their sufferings, which weighed more heavily on their hearts from the
joy of hope being a little weakened; and at the same time the remains of the
influence of Judaising thoughts or of habits of mind formed through them,
furnished occasion to the assaults of the enemy. The instrument of the subtle malice told them that the day of the Lord, that
fearful time, was already come-the word (chap. 2: 2) is not
"at hand," but "come," "present"
See #Romans 8:38 1Co 3:22; where
it (enistemi)
is translated "present," in contrast with "things to come."
-and all that the Thessalonians
were suffering, and by which their hearts were shaken, appeared like a
testimony to prove it and to confirm the words of the false teachers. Was it
not written that it should be a day of trial and anguish?
The words of these teachers,
moreover, had the pretension of being more than human reasoning; it was a word
of the Lord, it was the Spirit who spoke, it was a letter from an inspired
channel: and so bold and wicked were they in regard to this matter, that they
did not fear to adduce the apostle's own name as their authority for declaring
that the day was come. Now the dominion of fear, which Satan can exercise over
the mind, when it is not kept of God in peace and joy, is astonishing. "In
nothing terrified by your adversaries," is the apostle's word to the
Philippians, "which is to them an
evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God."
In such a state of mind as this everything is believed; or rather everything is
feared, and nothing is believed. The heart gives itself up to this fear, and is
ready to believe anything; for it is in darkness an knows not what to believe. Thus the apostle exhorts the Thessalonians (chap. 2) not to be
soon shaken in mind so as to lose their stability in the truth, and not to be
troubled.
The apostle deals with the case
in the same manner as in the First Epistle. Before entering on the error he treats
the same subject in its true light, building upon the knowledge which the
Thessalonians already possessed. Only he sets it forth with clearness in its
application to the circumstances of the moment. By this means they were
delivered from the influence of the error, and from the disturbance of mind
which it had caused; and were rendered capable of looking at the error, as
being themselves outside it, and of judging it
according to the instruction that the apostle gave them.
They were persecuted and were in distress and suffering and the enemy took advantage of
it. The apostle puts that fact in its right place. He encourages them with the
thought that it was a kind of seal upon them of their being worthy of the
kingdom for which they were suffering. But more, the
"day of the Lord" was the coming of the Lord in judgment; but it was
not to make His own suffer that He was coming -it was to punish the wicked.
Persecution therefore could not be the day of the Lord; for in
persecution the wicked had the upper hand and did their own will and inflicted
suffering on those whom the Lord loved.
Could that be His day!
The apostle does not apply this
argument to the question, but he puts the facts in their place; so that all the
use which the enemy made of them fell of itself to the ground. The truth of the
facts was there in its simplicity, giving them their evident and natural
character. When God should take the thing
in hand, He would recompense tribulation to those who troubled His children,
and these should have rest-should be in peace. The moment of their entering
into this rest is not at all the subject here, but the contrast between their
actual condition and that which it would be if Jesus were come. It was not to
persecute and harass His own that He was coming. In His day they should be at
rest, and the wicked in distress; for He was coming to punish the latter by
driving them away for ever from the glory of His presence.
When we understand that the Thessalonians had been induced to believe
that the day of the Lord was already come, the import of this first chapter is
very plain.
Two principles are here
established.
First, the righteous judgment of God: it is righteous in His eyes, on the one hand, to reward
those who suffer for His kingdom's sake: and, on the other, to requite
those who persecute His children.
In the second place, the glorious manifestation of the Lord Jesus: His own should be in rest and happiness with Him, when His
power should be in exercise.
We see also here two reasons for
judgment-they did not know God, and they did not obey the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. All being without excuse as to the testimony that God had ever
given concerning Himself, some among them had added the rejection of the
positive revelation of His grace in the gospel of Christ to their abuse of
their natural relationship with God and their forgetfulness of His majesty.
Meanwhile the apostle presents
the positive result in blessing of the manifestation of Jesus in glory. He will
come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that have
believed in Him, and therefore in the Thessalonians: a thorough proof, at least
that they were not to view their persecuted condition
as a demonstration that the day was come. With regard to themselves, they were thus entirely
delivered from the confusion by which the enemy sought to disquiet them; and
the apostle could treat the question of this error with hearts which, as to
their own condition, were set free from it and at rest.
These considerations
characterized his prayers on their behalf. He sought from God that they might
always be worthy of this vocation, and that the Lord might be glorified in them
by the power of faith, which would shine the brighter through their
persecutions; and that afterwards they might be glorified in Him at the
manifestation of His glory according to the grace of God and of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Now that the apostle has placed
their souls on the ground of truth, he enters upon the subject of the error,
showing that which had occasioned his remarks. Of this we have already spoken.
Their gathering together unto Christ in the air was a demonstration
of the impossibility of the day of the Lord being already come.
Moreover with regard to this last
he presents two considerations: first, the day could not be
already come, since Christians were not yet gathered to
the Lord, and they were to come with Him; second, the wicked one who has then to be judged had not yet appeared, so that the judgment could not be executed.
The apostle had already
instructed the Thessalonians with regard to this wicked one, when at
Thessalonica; and in the former epistle he had taught them concerning the
rapture of the church. In order that the Lord should
come in judgment, iniquity must have reached its height, and open opposition to
God have been manifested. But the truth had another and
more precious side: the saints were to be in the same
position as Christ, to be gathered together unto Him, before He could manifest
Himself in glory to those outside. But these truths require a more connected examination.
Their gathering together unto
Christ before the manifestation was a truth known to the Thessalonians; it is
not revealed here, it is used as an argument. The Lord Jesus
was coming, but it was impossible that He should be without His church in the
glory. The King would indeed punish His rebellious subjects; but, before doing
so, He would bring to Himself those who had been faithful
to Him amid the unfaithful, in order to bring them back with Him and publicly
to honor them in the midst of the rebels. But the apostle here speaks only of the rapture
itself, and he adjures them only by that truth not to allow themselves to be shaken in mind as
though the day were come. What an assured truth must this have been to Christians, since
the apostle could appeal to it as to a known point, on which the heart could
rest! The relationship of the church to Christ, its being necessarily in the
same position with Him rendered the idea that the day was already come a mere
folly.
In the second place, the already known fact is asserted, that
the apostasy must previously take place, and then the man of sin be revealed. Solemn truth! Everything takes
its place. The forms and the name of Christianity have long been maintained;
true Christians have been disowned; but now there should be a public
renunciation of the faith-an apostasy. True Christians should have their true
place in heaven. But, besides this, there should be a person who would fully
realize in sin the character of man without God. He is the man of sin. He does his own will-it is but Adam fully
developed; and incited by the enemy, he opposes himself to God (it is open
enmity against God), and he exalts
himself above all that bears the name of God; he assumes the place of God in
His temple. So that there is apostasy, that
is, the open renunciation of Christianity in general, and an individual who
concentrates in his own person (as to the principles of iniquity) the opposition that is made against God.
This man of sin exalts himself above God, and, sitting as God in
the
The apostle had already told them
of the apostasy, and of the manifestation of the man of sin. He now says that
the Thessalonians ought to know the hindrance that existed to his progress and
his manifestation before the appointed time. He does not say that he had told
them, but they ought to know it. Knowing the character of the wicked one, the
barrier revealed itself. The main point here is that it was a barrier. The
principle of the evil was already at work: a barrier alone prevented its
development. Its character when developed would be unbridled will which exalts
and opposes itself.
Note this point. All was ready and complete in the apostle's time,
only restrained. So Christ was ready to judge. Only the patience of God waits,
in the accepted time.
Now when the assembly (the assembly, that is, as composed of the true members of
Christ) is gone, and consequently the
Holy Ghost as the Comforter is no longer dwelling here below, then the apostasy
takes place.
(Note:
the Holy Spirit will no longer dwell as the Comforter because this was His
ministry to the church until the church is removed from earth to be with the
Lord. The Holy Spirit will still be here, but not in the role of the
Comforter). De
The principle of this may be
widely at work individually, as in #1John 2, it had begun, but the open public
manifestation was to come. Jude gives the creeping in to produce corruption
John, the going out which characterizes the Antichrist.
The time to remove the hindrance
is come, the evil is unbridled, and at length (without saying how much time it
will take) the evil assumes a definite shape in him who is its head. The beast
comes up from the abyss. Satan -not God-gives him his authority; and in the
second beast all the energy of Satan is present. The man of sin is there.
There was more commentary by
Darby but I have only shown that which applies to the subject in question.
The bottom line is that Paul was
teaching the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord had not come and gave the
reasons why.
From the context, the day of the
Lord spoken of is the time of the 7 year tribulation culminating with the
Second coming of Christ when He will fight the battle we call Armageddon.
1.) The resurrection/rapture
2.) The falling away
3.) The man of sin revealed
4.) The Second coming (Christ
with us)
5.) The battle of Armageddon
The first three things must take
place before the Second coming of Christ, and then He does battle, and then He
sets up His KINGDOM on earth.
This entire mix up could have
been avoided had the King James translators known more. Some portions of
Scripture are difficult to understand, and if we don’t seek out the root
meanings in the original language we can become confused. This is exactly why
we have so many different beliefs about the rapture of the church. Is it
pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib? And of course we have many who believe that
the church has replaced
I hope this has sufficiently
answered your question Mark. But before I conclude, I do want to talk a tiny
bit more about my original intent.
The imminent return of the Lord:
I can’t say for sure but the imminent return of Christ for the church may have begun because of the
Scripture that speaks of Jesus coming suddenly at His Second coming.
Mark 13:
34 For the Son of man is as a man taking a far
journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every
man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
35 Watch ye therefore: for ye
know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at
the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
36 Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
37 And what I say unto you I
say unto all, Watch.
What
I take from this is that the ones spoken to should be ready. They should be in
a spirit of readiness for the Lord’s Second coming lest when He comes He find
them in a spirit of slumber.
The
word suddenly is exaiphnes (pronounced) ex-ah'-eef-nace and it
means unexpectedly. In other words they were told to be
working and watching until the return of the Son of man to
In conclusion:
The disciples were taught to
expect the Son of man to return and that they were to work and do business (occupy) while maintaining a posture of
readiness and looking forward to the Second coming else He would come when they
least expected Him.
The Lord’s Second coming will come suddenly on those whose posture
is quiet unconcern.
These men will be surprised.
The ones watching (a remnant) will not be surprised because
they will know the signs to be watching for.
They
will count the days.
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