Revelation 1:7 – We don’t often think about the second coming – but it is a crucial part of New Testament Christianity. What does it mean? With the song ‘Lo he comes with clouds descending”.
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Coffee and Revelation 2 and 3 – The Trinity and What has Jesus Done for Us?
Golly, it’s good to be back with you, coffee, and a book of the Bible! Considering the times, Revelation is the book to study…. although things get ugly later on.
Thanks for doing this! It starts my mornings in Connecticut, US the right way!
Deborah
Wonderful ! Wonderful ! Wonderful !
I was brought up amongst Exclusive Brethren of the moderate sort and our hymnbook is full of hymns looking forward to the return of the Lord Jesus. In the morning meeting, we rarely failed to mention that we partook of the supper “till he come”.
I have rarely heard the subject mentioned outside those circles but was reminded recently that the promise of a Crown is linked with the Lord’s return: …
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.
2 Timothy 4:8
It is instructive to see that early brethren whatever theit eschatological opinions at least made a great deal of the Lord’s appearing to restore creation. Edward Denny’s great hymn “Light of the Lonely Pilgrim’s heart” was in the Church Hymnary. I haven’t had the nerve or the desire to look at CH4 so don’t know if it has survived in that tradition.
I remember a wonderful hymn, by Thomas Kelly (not brethren) we used to sing at the graveside and elsewhere
8.7.8.7.4.7 Tune e.g. Cwm Rhondda
Lord, we wait for Thine appearing;
“Even so,” Thy people say;
Bright the prospect is, and cheering,
Of beholding Thee that day,
When our sorrow
Shall for ever pass away.
Base the wish, and vain th’ endeavour,
Here on earth to find our rest;
Till we see Thy face, we never
Shall or can be fully blest,
In Thy presence
Nothing shall our peace molest.
Till Thou comest keep us steady,
Ever walking in Thy ways;
At Thy call may we be ready,
On Thee, Lord, with joy to gaze;
And in glory
Sing Thine everlasting praise!
Thanks for sharing your eschatological views you valued from your past.
What areExclusive Brethren of the moderate type? We are aware of the Tight Open Brethren?
EBs are very varied in their ecclesiology. I think many if them are more open in their attitudes and certainly more liberal (in the right sense) than the tight OBs. They would all, for example, accept that the RC church is part of the ruined public testimony of the church but that like in every part of it there are wheat and tares. They require baptism but the name in which it is done carries authority not the amount of water used and I think that in their traditional form, they are more conscious of the reality of the one body in each location.
They range from those who will have nowt to do with anyone but themselves on the one hand to meetings which seek to be “an available mount of communion for every consistent believer” and who invite ministry from other Christian gatherings on the other.
Generally, they do not appoint elders etc as there is no ecumenical authority in the broken church so to do but the moderate ones would receive clergy to minister on the basis of their evidential gifts. However they might consider the spiritual gifts of the local bank manager or greengrocer to be of equal or greater rank!
They are much more to be found in eastern Scotland. There are some really interesting writings of Free Church Ministers against them in the 19th and early 20th c. Rather lurid and sensationalised accounts were painted of the EBs to staunch the haemorrhaging of their flocks (and of their income?), but my own impression is that release from clericalism was a big attraction. It is harder to paddle your own canoe but the main thing is to have Jesus as your pilot to see you safe home.
I have rambled on.
I have just returned from a short holiday where I had the chance to do a lot of reading, thinking and praying. One of the things that I have come to realise is that the all pervasive climate catastrophising is yet another attack on the bible and the Christian message. (Whenever we are told that the science is “settled” don’t believe them). But people are genuinely fearful that the world will explode. But the bible teaches that the world will end when Christ returns. We will not be destroyed by global warming. I agree with you that the churches (those that actually believe the bible) should start to preach much more on the second coming.
Thanks for this. Really blessed me today in Aldershot, UK!
Thanks for this. But I don’t think we have to go to NZ to find Middle Earth. Although in some respects (from what I hear) NZ over the last few years has become a little bit like Mordor! Just shows how, under the baneful influence of an authoritarian anti-Christian ideology even this earthly paradise has turned into something else.