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Christians - How do you ‘watch and pray’ for Christ’s Return

Etritonakin

Well-Known Member
The Pharisees thought that He would come as a King but He came as a heavenly not an earthly king do they rejected Him.So the most learned men in the scriptures at that time got it very wrong didn’t they? Why? If they understood their prophecies correctly would they have rejected Jesus? There are commentaries by expert Christian scholars like the Anchor series which sells for over a thousand $ but despite tyeir combined learning, like the Pharisees they too missed the Second Coming and still wait.
He came to be slaughtered then -but the kingdoms of the Earth will become his kingdoms -literally.
It has not happened yet.
The following is only a fraction of scriptures which describe it -and what precedes it....

Zech 14:1Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,
And your [a]spoil will be divided in your midst.
2For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem;
The city shall be taken,
The houses rifled,
And the women ravished.
Half of the city shall go into captivity,
But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

3Then the Lord will go forth
And fight against those nations,
As He fights in the day of battle.
4And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,
Which faces Jerusalem on the east.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two,
From east to west,
Making a very large valley;
Half of the mountain shall move toward the north
And half of it toward the south.

5Then you shall flee through My mountain valley,
For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal.
Yes, you shall flee
As you fled from the earthquake
In the days of Uzziah king of Judah.

Thus the Lord my God will come,
And all the saints with [c]You.

6It shall come to pass in that day
That there will be no light;
The [d]lights will diminish.
7It shall be one day
Which is known to the Lord—
Neither day nor night.
But at evening time it shall happen
That it will be light.

8And in that day it shall be
That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem,
Half of them toward [e]the eastern sea
And half of them toward [f]the western sea;
In both summer and winter it shall occur.
9And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.
In that day it shall be—
“The Lord is one,”
And His name one.

10All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. [g]Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses.

11The people shall dwell in it;
And no longer shall there be utter destruction,
But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.

12And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem:

Their flesh shall [h]dissolve while they stand on their feet,
Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets,
And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.

13It shall come to pass in that day
That a great panic from the Lord will be among them.
Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor,
And raise his hand against his neighbor’s hand;
14Judah also will fight at Jerusalem.
And the wealth of all the surrounding nations
Shall be gathered together:
Gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance.

15Such also shall be the plague
On the horse and the mule,
On the camel and the donkey,
And on all the cattle that will be in those camps.
So shall this plague be.

16And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

20In that day “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21Yes, [j]every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
I'm definitely a rational person, so I'd love to hear what you think are the one or two prophecies that are obviously divinely inspired and have been fulfilled that no rational person could deny. Because I have yet to read a prophecy that either wasn't so vague it could mean virtually anything or was no different than an accurate prediction. So please, do enlighten me.
Here is one example of a non-vague prophecy.

Micah 7:12 “In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.”

He shall come from Assyria: At that time Assyria was a large area. Baha’u’llah and His family lived in the part that was Persia, now Iran, in the city of Tihran.

and from the fortified cities: Baha’u’llah was banished from city to city: After being released from the Black Pit dungeon in Tihran in 1852, His family and companions had only a short time before being sent to the fortified city of Baghdad. While living in Baghdad, He gained such a large following that the enemies where shocked. Right away He was banished again, this time to the fortified city of Istanbul.

The Governor of the city refused many times to fulfill the orders that he received to banish Him again. Finally forced to follow orders, Baha’u’llah was banished again to the fortified city of Adrianople. He was honored and praised, and shown respect everywhere, until He was finally sent to the most horrific of all places, the fortress of Akka, where it was expected that He would succumb to the terrible conditions.

and from the fortress even to the river: It was while in Baghdad that the Tigris river became a special place, as Baha’u’llah crossed it to the Ridvan Garden. April 21, 1863 was the fulfilment of prophecy, as that was when Baha’u’llah declared to those around Him His Station as the Manifestation of God.

and from sea to sea: After His banishment in Baghdad, His exile was by way of the Black Sea. Still a prisoner He crossed the Black Sea from Sinope on His way to Constantinople. After the banishment in Adrianople, He crossed the Mediterranean Sea from Gallipolis in Turkey, embarking at Alexandria, Egypt, then on to the fortress of 'Akka, the most desolate of cities.

and from mountain to mountain: The time in Baghdad was turbulent with opposition. To protect His family and companions Baha’u’llah went to the Kurdistan mountains. There He lived in poverty, but the area was magnetized by His presence. After two years, He was persuaded to return to Baghdad.

The other mountain was in Israel, Mount Carmel, where He had docked before His final journey to Akka. Later He had a chance to return to Mount Carmel, to pitch His tent. Here He wrote the Tablet Of Carmel, surrounded by pilgrims looking for the return of Christ to descend from heaven. Mount Carmel is the headquarters of the Baha’i Faith. What we see there now is the fulfillment of the following prophecies:

Isaiah 35:1-2 “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.”

Micah 7:14 “Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel.”
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
No rational person could deny all these prophecies that have clearly been fulfilled, yet the adherents to Judaism will deny them and will keep waiting for the Messiah made in their own image according to their interpretation of scriptures, and Christians will keep waiting for the same Jesus to return in the same body, because that is how they have interpreted the NT. When vision is clouded by what people already believe and what they want, it is impossible to see what actually happened.
From Bill Sears book:
Christ... gave them His second promise by which they could be sure of His own return. He said: “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled...
The first part of it said: “They shall be led away captive into all nations.” I found that within forty years of His crucifixion, this part of His promise began its fulfilment. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Titus, in AD 70, and the Jews were scattered and exiled. The Jews tried to regain their freedom in AD 132 under Bar Kochba, but they were crushed by the armies of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. This time Jerusalem was devastated even more completely than it had been by Titus...The Jews were banished.
The next aliens to seize and hold it captive were the Muslims. They conquered Jerusalem in AD 637...
‘And the Holy City (Jerusalem) shall they tread under foot for forty and two months.’ Thus, for the first time in the Scriptures, the exact duration of the ‘times of the Gentiles’ is given. It will be for forty–two months. In the next verse of Revelation this period of time is given in yet another way. It is said that it will last for ‘1,260 days’.​
If you add 1260 years to 70AD, 132AD or 637AD it doesn't come out to 1844AD. How do you "rationalize" starting the 1260 years at 621AD and then making the years "lunar" years to make this a fulfillment of this prophecy?
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
If you add 1260 years to 70AD, 132AD or 637AD it doesn't come out to 1844AD. How do you "rationalize" starting the 1260 years at 621AD and then making the years "lunar" years to make this a fulfillment of this prophecy?
Sorry, I do not get into the calculation of numbers. You'll have to ask another Baha'i.
Of course as I am sure you know, Abdu'l-Baha also explained how it came out to 1844.

Daniel Chapter 12: 4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. 8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? 9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

The "Book" was intended to be sealed up until the time of the end, until the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days came. The 2,300 years came in 1844 and the book was unsealed. That math is explained in Some Answered Questions, 10: TRADITIONAL PROOFS EXEMPLIFIED FROM THE BOOK OF DANIEL.
 

loverofhumanity

We are all the leaves of one tree
Premium Member
He came to be slaughtered then -but the kingdoms of the Earth will become his kingdoms -literally.
It has not happened yet.
The following is only a fraction of scriptures which describe it -and what precedes it....

Zech 14:1Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,
And your [a]spoil will be divided in your midst.
2For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem;
The city shall be taken,
The houses rifled,
And the women ravished.
Half of the city shall go into captivity,
But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

3Then the Lord will go forth
And fight against those nations,
As He fights in the day of battle.
4And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,
Which faces Jerusalem on the east.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two,
From east to west,
Making a very large valley;
Half of the mountain shall move toward the north
And half of it toward the south.

5Then you shall flee through My mountain valley,
For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal.
Yes, you shall flee
As you fled from the earthquake
In the days of Uzziah king of Judah.

Thus the Lord my God will come,
And all the saints with [c]You.

6It shall come to pass in that day
That there will be no light;
The [d]lights will diminish.
7It shall be one day
Which is known to the Lord—
Neither day nor night.
But at evening time it shall happen
That it will be light.

8And in that day it shall be
That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem,
Half of them toward [e]the eastern sea
And half of them toward [f]the western sea;
In both summer and winter it shall occur.
9And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.
In that day it shall be—
“The Lord is one,”
And His name one.

10All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. [g]Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses.

11The people shall dwell in it;
And no longer shall there be utter destruction,
But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.

12And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem:

Their flesh shall [h]dissolve while they stand on their feet,
Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets,
And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.

13It shall come to pass in that day
That a great panic from the Lord will be among them.
Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor,
And raise his hand against his neighbor’s hand;
14Judah also will fight at Jerusalem.
And the wealth of all the surrounding nations
Shall be gathered together:
Gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance.

15Such also shall be the plague
On the horse and the mule,
On the camel and the donkey,
And on all the cattle that will be in those camps.
So shall this plague be.

16And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

20In that day “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21Yes, [j]every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.

And the Pharisees ‘knew’ didn’t they and understood not? . The second coming has already taken place while the current ‘Pharisees’ are still flipping the pages and using every quote they can find to try and deny it.

Jesus said ‘blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God”. He didn’t say those who quote scriptures or are even learned in scriptures will see God as the disciples were fishermen.

So all the intellectuals and theologians have missed His coming just like the ‘learned Pharisees and Sadducees’ because the qualification is a ‘pure heart ‘ not interpretation of scripture.
 

viole

Ontological Naturalist
Premium Member
I am far from being a traditional Christian. But by my understanding of the meaning of "Christ", to await Christ's return is to await the emergence of God's divine spirit of love, forgiveness, kindness, and generosity within humanity, to the point that humanity is healed and saved from itself, and can finally heal and save 'the world', in turn. Because to me, that is the message and promise of "Christ".
So, what is He waiting for?

ciao

- viole
 

Muffled

Jesus in me
I believe the rapture precedes His coming so it is more a matter of listening for the trumpet and the shout of an archangel. As for the sign of His coming I believe that has already occurred but nothing is ever totally sure with signs.
 

Muffled

Jesus in me
You neglected to mention a possible option, which is: that the Bible verses about this are mistaken, and that Jesus never said this. And besides, he said he would come soon, which he didn't do. No one said it, because it didn't happen.

I believe soon is relative. For God it is soon. For us it is several lifetimes.
 

Muffled

Jesus in me
I am far from being a traditional Christian. But by my understanding of the meaning of "Christ", to await Christ's return is to await the emergence of God's divine spirit of love, forgiveness, kindness, and generosity within humanity, to the point that humanity is healed and saved from itself, and can finally heal and save 'the world', in turn. Because to me, that is the message and promise of "Christ".

i believe that is not true.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
you Americans are so self centric. Why the Us and not, say, Bolivia?

ciao

- viole
I meant us all. The human collective. We all possess that divine spirit within us. That spirit of love, forgiveness, kindness and generosity. But we are too often too selfish and too afraid to allow it to guide our actions. Such that we become the victims and victimizers of ourselves (and each other).
 

viole

Ontological Naturalist
Premium Member
I meant us all. The human collective. We all possess that divine spirit within us. That spirit of love, forgiveness, kindness and generosity. But we are too often too selfish and too afraid to allow it to guide our actions. Such that we become the victims and victimizers of ourselves (and each other).
So, He is waiting until we would be able to do that ourselves, anyway?

ciao

- viole
 

viole

Ontological Naturalist
Premium Member
I believe the rapture precedes His coming so it is more a matter of listening for the trumpet and the shout of an archangel. As for the sign of His coming I believe that has already occurred but nothing is ever totally sure with signs.
Of course not. 2000 years of false alarms might have played a role in being a bit careful.

ciao
- viole
 

PureX

Veteran Member
So, He is waiting until we would be able to do that ourselves, anyway?

ciao

- viole
We have to be willing to change, for the change to manifest. We have to be willing to trust in those spiritual gifts, before we can implement them and save ourselves from ourselves, and each other from each other.
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
Those proofs come to us by way of Bible prophecies that have been fulfilled.

William Sears, Thief in the Night

No rational person could deny all these prophecies that have clearly been fulfilled


If you add 1260 years to 70AD, 132AD or 637AD it doesn't come out to 1844AD. How do you "rationalize" starting the 1260 years at 621AD and then making the years "lunar" years to make this a fulfillment of this prophecy?
Three dates were given when Jerusalem would get "trampled" underfoot by Gentiles. None of them add up to 1844.

Sorry, I do not get into the calculation of numbers. You'll have to ask another Baha'i.
Of course as I am sure you know, Abdu'l-Baha also explained how it came out to 1844.

Daniel Chapter 12: 4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. 8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? 9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

The "Book" was intended to be sealed up until the time of the end, until the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days came. The 2,300 years came in 1844 and the book was unsealed. That math is explained in Some Answered Questions, 10: TRADITIONAL PROOFS EXEMPLIFIED FROM THE BOOK OF DANIEL.
Daniel 12:11 “From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.​

When did the daily sacrifice get abolished and the abomination that causes desolation get set up according to the Baha'is?

Daniel 8:8
The goat became very great, but at the height of its power the large horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven.
9 Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land.
10 It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them.
11 It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the LORD; it took away the daily sacrifice from the LORD, and his sanctuary was thrown down.
12 Because of rebellion, the LORD’s people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.​

So there was first a ram, then this goat. But now, comes the 2,300 evening and morning prophecy. Shouldn't it start when the daily sacrifice and sanctuary get thrown down? Yet, Baha'is start it with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. How does that fit?

13
Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, “How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled—the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, the surrender of the sanctuary and the trampling underfoot of the LORD’s people?”
14 He said to me, “It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated.”
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
Yes Christians are looking for a second coming but according to their own expectations instead of watching. The Jews relied totally on their expectations which caused them to reject Jesus as He did not come in the manner they expected. People were told to watch because relying on ones expectations will definitely result in missing His coming. Having preconceived ideas is against Christ’s command to watch because one stops watching once one thinks one knows how He would come. That’s why they missed Him both times because of not being vigilant and watchful.
I find Jesus comes by ' surprise! ' because he will come un-announced as a thief comes.
No preconceived idea about 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3.
We are to be on the watch, be alert, for that ' final signal ' so to speak, about the saying, of " Peace and Security..."
That will prove to be the precursor to the coming great tribulation of Revelation 7:14,9 leading up to Armageddon.
First, the powers that be will turn on Christendom (so-called Christian but mostly in name only) before they turn on the rest of the religious world.
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
So, what is He waiting for? ciao - viole

Waiting for the ' final signal 'so to speak, as found at 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3.
We are in the ' last days of badness ' on Earth as described at 2 Timothy 3:1-5,13
People have a selfish distorted form of love the opposite of Christ-like love found at 1 Corinthians 13:4-6.
As God was patient in the days of Noah giving people amply opportunity so it is today.
The passing of time has allowed for us to be born and think who we would like s Sovereign over us.
Since we are at the ' final phase ' of Matthew 24:14; Acts 1:8 the waiting time is now shorter than ever.
Modern technology has now made possible rapid Bible translation into more languages than ever before in history, thus people even in remote areas of Earth can have Scripture in their own mother tongue or native languages.
 
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