Parousia
In the concluding part of our series, “Order…Order…Order”, based on the inspired sequencing of Psalms 22-24, today we come to Psalm 24: “Lift your heads, you gates. Be lifted, you ancient doors, so that the king of glory may come in. Who is this king of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty! The LORD, heroic in battle! Lift your heads, you gates. Be lifted, you ancient doors, so that the king of glory may come in. Who, then, is this king of glory? The LORD of Armies is the king of glory!” (Psalm 24:7-10)
Verses 7-10 of the 24th Psalm sum up the Glorification doctrine!!! After the Church rapture the Messiah would come, to defeat the Anti-Christ in the Armageddon War and set-up His Millennial Kingdom. At the Second Coming, He would triumphantly enter Jerusalem from the eastern gate, which is closed now (anti-semitism led to its closure some centuries back) to fulfill the Prophecy of it being “lifted soon”. Mind you, Psalm 24 begins with the declaration that everything on Earth belongs to the Lord (Vs. 1). So after temporary domination of evil over good during the horrific tribulation period (Rev. 13:7) as per His Sovereign will, the Lord would be reclaiming what is rightfully His, by entering Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate and ruling the World from that City on the Hill.
Is the Church Rapture nigh? The Lord told His disciples that just before His Coming, the Days of Noah would return (Luke 17:26). To the regular visitors of my site, even at the cost of sounding repetitive, I want to state that the sins prominent during Noah’s Days were “Violence and Corruption” (Genesis 6:11) … An everyday occurrence now-a-days…many who follow the media would concur…
To borrow an Aussie slang even Blind Freddy knows that media reports are full of violent events (not a fortnight passes by without a bomb blast/terror attack in some part of the globe). Boom-boom…Bang-Bang everywhere. Oh the media overflows with accounts of mafia killings, gang-rapes, domestic violence, terror strikes (now there are female suicide bombers also), feudal, communal killings in real and reel life (minus a smoking gun or a bloody knife the macho-image of any cine hero in a movie poster is said to be incomplete).
Is Jesus right only when it comes to His sayings such as “Those who live by the Sword, die by it” (Matt 26:52)? Why shouldn’t we take His other Prophecies regarding His II Coming seriously, just as we take earnestly his time-tested ones such as the one quoted above? No cherry-picking please…
And corruption scandals (Wikileaks or no Wikileaks)? They regularly keep exploding in the process rocking the Parliament proceedings of various counties.
“…You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” (Matt 16:3)
Meanwhile on Earth, violence and corruption scenario would deteriorate from bad to worse during the Seven year tribulation “till the gates of Jerusalem are lifted up to usher Him in even as He sets up His Kingdom therein from where His will would be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” (Rev. 20:4-6). So things would worsen before they become better.
As Christians, the moot point is this: Are we alert and are we alerting others?
Amazing is the sequencing of Psalms 22-24. Encapsulating all of the three foundational doctrines of Christianity in proper sequential order, they virtually symbolize the “whole counsel of God” (See Acts 20:27).
As we had closed the study of Psalms 22-24 by focusing on eschatological events, it would not be out of context here to pose this poser. Now what is the immediate, overarching subject of the last Book (Revelation) of the New Testament? Rapture…Ah the Blessed hope of every Christian which is alluded to in the command given to John at the sound of something resembling a “trumpet blast”…“Come-up” (Rev. 4:1)!!! Now do you know what are the last words of the last Book (II Chronicles) of the Hebrew Bible (O.T) followed by Early Church in the first Century and followed by Jews to this day? It is…oh boy…oh boy…”Go-up” (2 Chronicles 36:23 KJV)!!!
What Cyrus the Persian ruler effectively is telling the Jews is “go up to the Holy City of Jerusalem on a mountain for you do not belong here in Babylon (geographically Babylon is a plain, flat as a pancake), you belong to the Holy City of Jerusalem up on a mountain. Your God in His Holy City is calling you…Come-up”!!! Has not the World been telling the same of the Church…you do not belong here in this “Earthly Babylon”! A young girl who had recently become a Christian asked the famous Baptist Preacher Charles Spurgeon: “What friends do I need to give up now?” The Prince of Preachers replied “Hey, you do not have to give up any of your friends, they would give you up” (See I Peter 4:4)! While we feel that “we belong” only in the Church family, what ought to be our response to anyone who enquires about our faith in curiosity?
“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (I Peter 3:15)
We always need to reach out and share the love of Christ, even if the World is inherently hostile to us. The New Testament Scriptures have been heralding the fact about “Our citizenship in Heavenly Jerusalem for 2000 years now” (See Philippians 3:20-21/Col 3:2). Oh the alluring chemistry between the Old Testament and the New Testament, which the orderly God in His sovereign wisdom has placed!!! Hallelujah!!! Amen and Amen!!!
Prayer: Father, You desire us to be Eternity-sighted. Enable us to focus on “things above” at all times. In Jesus’ Name. Amen
Suresh Manoharan
(To access the entire “Order, Order, Order!” mini-series, please click here.)