.... Also, the very verse I mentioned to KyRedneck (Heb. 9:26-28) resist all attempts of dividing.
........shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation. Heb 9:28
I suggest to you that 'them that wait for him, unto salvation' are referring specifically to those Hebrew Christians that were suffering persecution from their fellow Hebrew countrymen, and that the 'salvation' spoken of here is referring to 'deliverance' from this persecution, and that it is directly related to such passages as, '.. How long, O Master, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? (Rev 6:10), and to the the parable of Lu 18:1-7.
Tom (or anyone else), sincere question, is this the ONLY scripture that implies ONLY two 'comings' of Christ?
I think this is the only verse that says it so succinctly. There are other passages that imply it. Of course, we only need one clear verse. For my money, at least, I have that verse in the above.
But these verses in Hebrews did not convince me of only two comings. By the time they were pointed out to me I had already been convinced of those two comings.
Tom, I'm convinced that these two [only] comings apply to physical Israel [only], just as the prophet John the Baptist told the Jews of the 'two baptisms' of Mt 3; some of them would be baptized of the Spirit [Pentecost and thereafter], others would be baptized with fire [the wrath of A.D. 66-70]. I personally still look for the coming of Christ of 1 Cor 15:23-24, which I believe will happen when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, or there abouts. I also expect a general incoming of the Jews to Christ prior to the coming of 1 Cor 15.
Some excerpts from Alfred Edersheim, 'The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah', Book 3, Chapter 27 [emphasis mine]:
“......'Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come.'..... The expectation of the Coming of 'the Son of Man' was grounded on a prophecy of Daniel, [ Dan. vii. 13.] in which that Advent, or rather manifestation, was
associated with judgment...... the enmity which the disciples, as
the true Israel, would have to encounter from
Israel after the flesh. They would be handed over to the various Sanhedrin.....and visited with such punishments as these tribunals had power to inflict.....It is of the greatest importance to keep in view that, at whatever period of Christ's Ministry this prediction and promise were spoken, and whether only once or oftener,
they refer exclusively to a Jewish state of things.
The persecutions are exclusively Jewish.....The reference, then, is to that period of Jewish persecution and of Apostolic preaching in the cities of Israel, which is bounded by the destruction of Jerusalem. Accordingly, the 'coming of the Son of Man,' and the 'end' here spoken of, must also have the same application. It was, as we have seen, according to Dan. vii. 13, a coming in judgment. To the Jewish persecuting authorities, who had rejected the Christ, in order, as they imagined, to save their City and Temple from the Romans, [a St. John xi. 48.] and to whom Christ had testified that He would come again, this judgment on their city and state, this destruction of their polity, was 'the Coming of the Son of Man' in judgment, and the only coming which the Jews, as a state, could expect, the only one meet for them, even as,
to them who look for Him, He will appear a second time, without sin unto salvation.....To the Jews, who so rejected the first visible appearance of Christ as their King, the second appearance would be invisible but real; the sign which they had asked would be given them, but as a sign of judgment, and His Coming would be in judgment. Thus would His authority be vindicated, and He appear, not, indeed, visibly but really, as what He had claimed to be. That this was to be the manner and object of His Coming to Israel, was clearly set forth to the disciples in the Parable of the Unthankful Husbandmen. [c St. Matt. Xxi. 33-46, and the parallels.] The coming of the Lord of the vineyard would be the destruction of the wicked husbandmen. And to render misunderstanding impossible, the explanation is immediately added, that the Kingdom of God was to be taken from them, and given to those who would bring forth the fruits thereof. Assuredly, this could not, even in the view of the disciples, which may have been formed on the Jewish model, have applied to the Coming of Christ at the end of the present AEon dispensation."
Consider what this first Church of Christ suffered at the hands of their fellow countrymen:
But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were enlightened,
ye endured a great conflict of sufferings; partly, being
made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, becoming partakers with them that were so used. For ye both had compassion on them that were in bonds, and took joyfully
the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one. Cast not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise.
For yet a very little while, He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry. Heb 10:32-37
