Dear brother Glen,
Thank You. I have asked my questions and will ask in a spirit of love.
I have no desire to lock horns with a brother but have a keen desire to know the thinking of others in the church.
Having said that you responded to my question "Do you believe Christ will return bodily to the earth?"
To which you answered
Yes... I said I am Partial Preterist and definately believe in a bodily return of Jesus Christ to raise the bodily saints of God!... The scriptures teach nothing less... We will meet the Lord in the air and he will not touch foot on the earth!... Brother Glen
Brother Glen, though I have been with the Lord many years now, I have not formulated a conviction concerning the details of His Second Coming apart from the basic "bodily return". By preference, I lean towards a futurist view.
I would be very interested in your point of view (or any gifted brother/sister) of Zechariah Chapter 14 and whether you believe it has been fulfilled completely or it applies to the sack of Jerusalem by Titus (70AD) or His bodily return or is it an allegory or whatever.
So many elements of this passage seem desperately unfulfilled to this date.
In this passage in verse 4, The Lord's feet are said to touch the Mount of Olives with what appears to be a world wide cataclysm ending with the Nation of Egypt turning to the Lord and the Canaanite no more in the house of the Lord.
Please believe me that this is not a challenge but a request to help me in deciding a point of view of the details of the Second Coming which I can hold "by faith".
I'll abbreviate the passage...
KJV Zechariah 14:1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
…
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
…
18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD'S house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.
Thank you in advance
HankD
[ July 29, 2002, 09:42 AM: Message edited by: HankD ]