THE LACK OF ESCHATOLOGY IN
THE PRISON EPISTLES:
PAUL DID NOT COME TO US GENTILES
WITH A LOT OF PROPHETIC
PREACHING, DID HE?
THE LACK OF ESCHATOLOGY IN
THE PRISON EPISTLES:
PAUL DID NOT COME TO US GENTILES
WITH A LOT OF PROPHETIC
PREACHING, DID HE?
JAN LILLEBY
Why?
Neither Ephesians nor Colossians has any mention of things pertaining to the Second Advent of Christ! Not a word.
Not to mention all that lunatic-material you find within the ‘Christian religion’ – Anti-Christ, the Great Tribulation, Daniel’s visions with the Rams and the Little Horn, Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of the huge statue showing the ruling kingdoms to come, the endless dispute whether Anti-Christ will come from the Moslem ‘empire’ or from Jewry…and so forth.
Reading Thessalonians, which were written during Acts timeline, we find the contrary: Paul taught the Second Advent, the coming of Anti-Christ (called the Lawless one, Son of Perdition, etc). He was teaching the Messianic Israel and proselytes in those times, and not us Gentiles as such. The Mystery found in Ephesians/Colossians had at that time not been revealed to Paul. The free Grace Gospel, the Mystery, was unknown to Paul in Acts timeline.
But ‘lo and behold!’ - as soon as we open the two Mystery epistles, all of these prophetic related issues are gone!
Jesus did not send Paul out to us Gentiles with a whole lot of ‘end time- baloney’ – Paul came on full steam ahead with the GLORY of Christ and us with Him in the heavens up above.
Paul kicked out the earthly concerns and worries, for instance as we read Col. 3:1-4, NASB,
1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Do you get what I try to point out?
Paul did NOT come out to us with ….’You ungodly hopeless dirty Gentiles…!!! Repent, for the end is at hand, and Christ shall judge the ungodly with fierce blazing fire at His return from heaven!!”
The reason I once – many years ago - started to explain and teach on eschatology, was because Christianity had already done that for centuries; and often in a very confused manner. Thus you will find a lot of articles and books here by yours truly. IMAGE: The stone hitting the feet….
But I have ceased to enter further into eschatology, Anti-Christ, Second Advent, Great Tribulation, the Millennial Kingdom, Moslem threat world-wide, etcetera.
As we find no such things from Paul’s hand post-Acts, it tells us that such matters are NOT for the Mystery body of believers, the ‘One new Man’ – Eph. 2:14, 15.
God simply WILL NOT REVEAL to us, the Mystery body, things pertaining to Christ’s Second Advent, and things in the same sphere…such as Anti-Christ, or which ‘kingdom/rulers’ Christ shall crush at His coming (Dan. 2:44 – the stone smashing the feet of the statue of kingdoms) – you know, the classic imagery from the prophetic parts of the Bible.
These things are NOT for the church, the ‘One new Man’, for we are bound for heaven, to be revealed with Christ in Glory in the Super-heavens!
If those eschatological issues were meant for the church, God would have provided full revelation of this by His Holy Spirit.
But in our time, we cannot find any other method of trying to understand prophecy than just reading and guessing. No divine revelation. Can we agree on that?
My best advice to all true believers in Jesus Christ has to remain: please, take heed of Paul’s exemplary ministry for the Mystery body, and keep all kinds of eschatology out of the church!
Paul sat a standard for us to follows: Keep out of the (to us Gentiles) confusion coming from the written prophetic word. God will not reveal Daniel’s book to us, with all its imagery on the Second Advent, nor will He do this as we try to understand Revelation and the Great Tribulation of 7 years.
The church, the ‘One new Man’ does not wait for Jesus to come from heaven. We wait for God to transfer us up to Himself, and to Christ, by His power, on the ‘Day of Redemption’ – Eph. 4:30, 31 NASB,
30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
If you are among those who have been jammed and kept captive in that delirious mindset of the ‘Second coming of Christ’ – be aware that you will not just be able to walk right out from that. No, you will have to do some personal labor, some reading-up-on-Paul’s Grace teaching. In which we cannot find any of these end time things.
We are not supposed to know everything! You know: “Who is Anti-Christ? When shall this or that occur? Is it the Moslem forces or other forces which will follow Anti-Christ?”
When Hitler came on the scene late 1930ies – Christian preachers boldly announced ‘Hitler is the Anti-Christ!’ Other voices shouted, no, it was Napoleon!
Utter nonsense, all of it.
We better take heed to Paul’s line of teaching from Ephesians and Colossians, and stay away from trying to understand those eschatological things. First God will have to reveal it to us, before we can expect to understand. But I assure you, there will come no such revelation to anyone portraying themselves as such ones that really understand Daniel or Revelation, or whatever!
WHAT SHALL WE THEN PREACH?
For one, I will suggest that you go teaching/preaching the Mystery revelation. This is what we shall keep up and tell everyone within reach. Eph. 3:8-10, NASB,
8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,
9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things;
10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
We shall bring to light what is the administration/dispensation of the Mystery!
Secondly, I will suggest that we in this errand must point out to all Christian believers, that the Law of Moses and all ordinances are abolished. This also means – as Paul spells it out in Colossians – that churches should quit ordinances entirely: NO water baptisms, NO confession of sin, no Holy Communion, NO holy feast days, NO food ordinances, NO Sabbath…no nothing!
Col. 2:13-17 is clear on that,
13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-
17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
Skip all kind of eschatology in your sermons, and attend to these matters!
And finally, the issue of corrections and Biblical exhortation, as Paul told in Eph. 5:9-11, NASB,
9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth ),
10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;
Paul wrote, EXPOSE THEM…but many Acts-28 preachers/pastors just go on and want to make friends with all, regardless of their many failing practices!
The Mystery body has to have some TEETH..and using them in correcting all serious errors. And keeping up all the ordinances I mentioned, is something that the church should be without. Tell the Baptist-pastors to stop their practice of water baptism! Tell the pastors to stop Holy Feast days, or whatever is the issue. Tell the Pentecostal/Charismatics to stop the foolish and false beliefs of miracles-signs-wonders-tongues-exorcism, as if the church has inherited this from the apostles. Practice what Paul tells us to do, and don’t get entangled into endless speculation on Anti-Christ, the Great Tribulation, Second Advent, signs and wonders, and all those things.
Our faith has no such WORKS to follow our faith. That was the way of the Acts body. The Mystery body has NO WORKS for salvation, but faith only, Eph. 2: 8, 9, NASB,
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Yes – I am aware of the fact that we, as believers in Christ, may read the entire Bible. It is indeed the Word of God. But even so, we have to pay attention to our Master Tutor, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, and let his teaching become our ideal, our norm, and not those practices found within the ‘Christian Religion’!
The Mystery body is not a horde of religious slaves knowing nothing. We have been sat in the heavens with Christ and given ALL SPIRITUAL blessings in Him.
Gracepano.com
