The Gospel of the Second Advent
On a Sabbath day—a little over thirty years after He had taken upon Himself a human nature and was given the human name Jesus—the eternal Son of God stepped into the synagogue in His home town of Nazareth. Imagine the intense interest His presence aroused among the other worshippers that day. He had already made quite a stir with His Messianic preaching. They would have heard rumors that Jesus offered Himself as the long-awaited Messiah of Israel Who would, among other things, give them victory over the Roman Empire which then ruled over them.
A scroll of the prophets was handed to Jesus that day and, as was the custom of that time, He stood to read from it. His eyes fell upon a passage from the prophet Isaiah and He began reading: The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor.... Then, as was also the custom of that day, Jesus sat back down, indicating He was prepared to teach on the Scripture He'd just read. If the eyes of the whole room had been fixed on Him before he sat down, imagine the wide-eyed staring when He said, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
You can hear the thoughts of the religious leaders that day: There! The rumors have just been confirmed from his own lips. This carpenter's son from this little town actually claims to be our Messiah! Only because it was not yet time for Him to die a sacrificial death on behalf of Israel and the whole Gentile world were those offended Jewish leaders prevented from executing Him on the spot for blasphemy.
While much is revealed in this passage (Lk 4: 18-19), the original Scripture from which Jesus read (Isa 61: 1-2a) is even more revealing. That Old Testament passage, without a break of any kind, went on at length describing things which Jesus chose not to read. Instead He actually stopped reading right in the middle of a sentence. Why?
The answer is that Jesus knew He would accomplish only part of what was prophesied of Him at His First Advent. He knew He would be rejected by His nation and crucified, requiring a Second Coming to Earth to finish all that was predicated of Him as Messiah of Israel (Acts 1:11; 1 Co 1:7; 1 Pe 1:7, 13; 4:13; 1 Ti 6:14; 4:18; Tit 2:13). In other words, the Lord read only those things He would accomplish at His First Advent, and, by what He chose not to read, He specified what He would accomplish at His Second.
The words Jesus did read tell of His preachinggood news (the gospel) to those who are poor and needy, to those who are captive and to those who are blind. He stopped after reading the words about proclaiming the year of the LORD's favor (grace). Jesus was thereby informing His hearers that day that at His First Advent His accomplishment would be limited to bringing God's grace to individuals only.
He certainly accomplished that for all who will believe. The same Righteous Judge Who had pronounced the curse upon sinners came down from His Judgment Seat and took their place, dying in their stead, so that any individual among themwho accepts that Substitute is in the position of a fully pardoned criminal. And, better still, by virtue of that full pardon he or she is predestined to be conformed to His very image: sinless, living in immortal bodies and perfected as He is perfect (Rom 8:29). In that glorious perfection the redeemed one is to be the demonstration of God's favor (grace) throughout all eternity (Eph 2:7). There could be nothing higher than this for individuals, and all this was fully accomplished at His First Advent for whoever will receive Him as Savior.
So, given such an accomplishment for individuals, what could possibly have been left undone at His First Advent? Just look at the words He did not read. They speak of the earth and of temporal issues. They speak of judgment against those who reject Him, of the comfort and joy of all who are His, of restoring the waste places and of rebuilding ruined cities on this earth. Alluding as it does to the removal of the original curse on this natural world (Rom 8:19-23), that un-read portion of Isaiah is one of many Old Testament passages predicting the Day of the Lord and the glory of Messiah's visible, personal reign on the earth.
In these many passages we learn that, following the time of Jacob's trouble (during which those who have rejected God's grace will be judged), there comes a period on this earth when the "wolf shall dwell with the lamb," and when the "leopard shall lie down with the goat" (Isa 11:6). It is a time of global peace (Isa 2:4), when the "earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea" (Isa 11:9). This glorious Kingdom of Heaven on Earth will occur "when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ" (Eph 1:10).
This is why the Second Advent should be an integral part of today's Gospel message. Despite the wonderful accomplishments of Christ's First Advent, there remains much for Him to do. The Messiah will not have finished His redemptive work while the earth still struggles under the curse (Rom 8:19), nor while righteousness still suffers (2 Ti 3:12) instead of reigns (Rom 5:17). At His Second Advent the whole natural creation will be redeemed from the curse brought upon it by man's original sin (Rom 8:19-23).
For many reasons the Second Advent should be an event for which the Christian yearns daily, not the least of which is that as perfected individuals—when the "times have reached their fulfillment"—we will return and reign with Him (2 Ti 2:12).
And, greatest of all daily hopes, believers alive today may not have long to wait!
—Steven Ira, as a college undergraduate in English, intended to be an English teacher. He changed his mind, earned an MBA and spent his entire career as a small businessman. Having retired from active business he has returned to his first love, writing.
Throughout most of those business years he regularly studied the Bible, including the works of several well-known theologians: Lewis Sperry Chafer, John Walvoord, Dwight Pentecost, Charles Ryrie, Mark Hitchcock and others. His first three novels in the Daniel Goldman series, "Voices," "Babylonian Harlot" and "The Last Prophet," are based on Tribulation era prophecies, especially those revealed in the Biblical books of Daniel and Revelation. The vision for this series was to write stories about people caught up in the perilous times following the Rapture of the Christian Church. The stories are primarily about those people, yet they carefully follow Bible prophecies about the times themselves.
The Bible offers many specifics about the social and geopolitical circumstances in the period between the Rapture of the Church and the Second Advent of Christ. The series remains faithful to those details. Yet even in this area the Bible allows wide latitude for imagination since it describes only the essences of those circumstances.
In short, Ira's novels seek to show possible, plausible ways in which Bible prophecies of the end times might be literally fulfilled.
Find out more about Steven on his website: https://stevenira.com/ and find his books on his Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Steven-Ira/e/B01M7RGMOG.