Monday, November 4, 2013
Acts 1:10-11 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
THE CERTAINTY OF CHRIST'S RETURN
The fact that Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross some two thousand years ago is confirmed by four different writers from antiquity; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The fact that his crucifixion ended in death is confirmed by the efficiency of the Roman army, as well as the fact that the four soldiers detailed to his specific cross would have been executed had their charge been allowed to live.
The certainty of his subsequent resurrection, though miraculous, is equally attested. In fact, the number of witnesses who saw the resurrected Christ has led some historians to say that Christ's resurrection is more surely testified to than any other event in human history. The same four writers from antiquity who attested to his death, also confirm his resurrection.
At the time when these witnesses proclaimed to the world that they had seen the resurrected Christ, the facts would have been easily confirmed or dismissed. Go and check the tomb. Interview the women who first found it empty, interview Peter, the Emmaus disciples, the ten disciples who saw in the upper room, Thomas who touched the wounds, the five hundred disciples who saw him at the same time (1 Corinthians 15), the crowd that heard his blessing as he rose bodily into the air at the ascension.
If Jesus lived, died, rose from the dead, and rose into the sky at the ascension--just as surely we must expect he will return just as angels asserted he would.
But this second time he will not come to bear the sins of the world. This time he will come to judge the world. His followers will be gathered to his side, and the rest will depart his presence forever.
