Good morning Jesus. Please tell the Apostle John I said thanks for not recording everything you did during the thirty three years you lived in this world. Although I would loved to have read about those other things, I’m grateful that you ordained otherwise. I’ll explain my reason at the end of this prayer but first I want to get some things off my chest.

You know how angry I become when someone distorts something I said in an attempt to discredit me. It happens to everybody, doesn’t it? Politicians are pros at doing that kind of stuff to their opponents. But, when people treat you this way, Jesus, it breaks my heart. So much so that I could cry! And you know I’m not being melodramatic.

It’s one thing that atheists treat you so despicably; Jesus, but millions of evangelical Christians in our country are doing the same thing. That’s the reason I’m praying to you in the presence of the folks who are sitting in those uncomfortable wooden pews during this worship service. I want them to hear this prayer. I’m also hoping to bring this issue to the attention of some of those duped brothers and sisters by way of posting my prayer on my web site.

Millions of Christians are unknowingly asserting that you didn’t know what you were talking about. You’re being accused of being a liar and an imposter. For instance, they claim that the words that you spoke to certain people a little more than 2000 years ago and all the promises that you made to folks back then weren’t true. If that is a fact, then the Bible isn’t inspired and that you are another one of those false prophets that are mentioned in it. The bottom line would then be that You are not the only begotten Son of the Living God; therefore I can’t trust you for anything including my salvation.

In my last message I quoted you, Jesus, numerous times in an attempt to prove otherwise. I simply compared scripture with scripture….plus nothing else. To the best of my knowledge most of the folks who heard my message believed that you did indeed know what you were talking about, and what has been referred to as The Great Commission was accomplished by your beloved apostles. Furthermore, you did return and rescue your followers who were suffering horrendously in the Great Tribulation just as you had promised them.

This morning, I hope to reinforce those points, including the fact, that, when you returned and executed judgment, you did away with the Old Covenant and replaced it with the New Covenant. Jesus, I realize it won’t be easy. The following will give the folks who are listening to this prayer an idea of what I’m up against. I’ll be quoting from the second letter of Peter and I’ll be using various translations in hopes that the scriptures will be easier to understand. The ESV Study Bible provides the following introduction.

“Peter probably wrote this letter from Rome not too long before his martyrdom, sometime during A. D. 64-67. Elements within the letter lead many scholars to conclude that Peter wrote during a time of persecution by Rome (perhaps during the persecution by Nero, who died in A. D. 68), while Peter himself was in a Roman prison awaiting imminent execution (cf.1:12-15). The dating of the letter, then, depends largely on the dating of Peter’s death.” The Apostle Peter wrote,

³ First, I want to remind you that in the last days there will come scoffers who will do every wrong they can think of and laugh at the truth. ⁴ This will be their line of argument: “So Jesus promised to come back, did he? Then where is he? He’ll never come! Why, as far back as anyone can remember, everything has remained exactly as it was since the first day of creation.” ⁵ They deliberately forget this fact: that God did destroy the world with a mighty flood long after he had made the heavens by the word of his command and had used the waters to form the earth and surround it. ^{6 7} And God has commanded that the earth and the heavens be stored away for a great bonfire at the judgment day, when all ungodly men will perish. ⁸ But don’t forget this, dear friends, that a day or a thousand years from now is like tomorrow to the Lord. ⁹ He isn’t really being slow about his promised return, even though it sometimes seems that way. But he is waiting, for the good reason that he is not willing that any should perish, and he is giving more time for sinners to repent. ¹⁰ The day of the Lord is surely coming, as unexpectedly as a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the heavenly bodies will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be burned up. ¹¹ And so since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives we should be living! ¹² You should look forward to that day and hurry it along—the day when God will set the heavens on fire, and the heavenly bodies will melt and disappear in flames. ¹³ But we are looking forward to God’s promise of new heavens and a new earth afterwards, where there will be only goodness. 2 Peter 3:3-13 (TLB)

Now, Jesus, I’m going to ask the folks in the pews to think about the people that the apostle Peter wrote his letter to.

Jesus, in 1998, Tyndale House, published a little book named, “The Book of Hope.” Referring to the passages I just cited from the Apostle Peter’s second letter they offer the following insight. I hope everyone will listen very carefully.

“Just as the apostle Peter warned us, there are many today who are asking, “Why hasn’t Christ returned yet? It’s been two thousand years. Is he really coming back?” Many people demonstrate their disbelief in Christ’s return by living as though there will be no consequences for their sin. Those who follow Christ, however, must remain faithful and trust that Christ is indeed coming back. We must also trust that God’s timing is best. Peter tells us that God is waiting in order to give people more time to repent and receive his forgiveness. In other words, God is not being tardy by delaying Christ’s return; he is being merciful. In the meantime, we must continue to obey what he has told us and look forward to that day when all will finally be made right.”

My son, Mike, quickly picked up on this kind of mistaken interpretation that is all too common today. The following is what he posted on my blog after listening to my last sermon (An Invisible Eye-Witness) concerning the Great Commission and the Second Coming of Jesus.

Mike wrote: “The word (You) does not mean us today. The word (You) means (Them) 2000 years ago. We are reading someone else’s mail when we read these letters.” “People that believe Christ is still to come only believe this because they were told by someone else. People that search the scriptures for themselves will find He has already come and is now waiting for us to join Him.”

Listen to what our friend Lorette posted. She wrote: “It’s ridiculous to believe that Jesus didn’t return like He promised. Some people think He was lying, or didn’t know what He was talking about when He said that some of those men He was speaking to wouldn’t taste death until He returned. I wonder how many 2,000 year old guys are out there waiting for Jesus to return.”

“Those people are pulling verses out of context to make the Bible say what they want it to. I wish they would carefully read the Book of Hebrews and really think about it. You CAN’T have two existing covenants, the Old and the New. It’s impossible!” Now let’s take another look at what Peter wrote.

³ First off, you need to know that in the last days, mockers are going to have a heyday. Reducing everything to the level of their puny feelings, ⁴ they’ll mock, “So what’s happened to the promise of his Coming? Our ancestors are dead and buried, and everything’s going on just as it has from the first day of creation. Nothing’s changed.” 2 Peter 3:3-4 (MSG)

In his excellent insightful work: “The Glorious Return of Jesus Christ,” Jimmy Henry asks, “If scoffers were saying this after less than a forty year delay, what are they saying today? What did Jesus say about the time and nature of his return? “He made no allowances for stretching out the fulfillment of His promise to return for hundreds of years. He did not say “maybe” or “possibly” “I will return.” He spoke in a plain, straight forward manner to ordinary people of His day. He did not use confusing words that could only be understood by trained theologians or linguists.”

Jesus, I firmly believe that folks who are following you today can trust you for their salvation; because the men who wrote the Bible were inspired to do so by you. I’m sure you remember this occasion, Jesus.

²¹ From then on Jesus began to speak plainly to his disciples about going to Jerusalem, and what would happen to him there—that he would suffer at the hands of the Jewish leaders, that he would be killed, and that three days later he would be raised to life again. Matthew 16:21 (TLB)

¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. John 14:13 (NIV)

Jesus, how can anyone prove you didn’t accomplish everything your Father planned for you to do as the following scriptures testify? We will see that they can’t!

⁵¹ As the time drew near for his return to heaven, he moved steadily onward toward Jerusalem with an iron will. Luke 9:51 (TLB)

² You put him in charge of everything human So he might give real and eternal life to all in his charge. ³ And this is the real and eternal life: That they know you, The one and only true God, And Jesus Christ, whom you sent. ⁴ I glorified you on earth By completing down to the last detail What you assigned me to do. John 17:2-4 (MSG)

¹⁸ Christ also suffered. He died once for the sins of all us guilty sinners although he himself was innocent of any sin at any time, that he might bring us safely home to God. But though his body died, his spirit lived on, 1 Peter 3:18 (TLB)

²² Moses, for instance, said long ago, ’The Lord God will raise up a Prophet among you, who will resemble me! Listen carefully to everything he tells you. ²³ Anyone who will not listen to him shall be utterly destroyed.’ Acts 3:22-23 (TLB)

“Can we trust Jesus for salvation today? The answer is “yes,” but only if he did what he promised. If He failed to finish the work given to Him by the Father, we have no grounds to believe He can save us and keep us. He promised that He would return before the generation to which He spoke passed away. As stated earlier, this is where eschatology and soteriology meet.”

In another outstanding work, “Top Ten Misconceptions About Jesus’ Second Coming and the End Times, John Noe, comments that “If Jesus did not return as and when He promised, the work of salvation is not yet complete. But the writer to the Hebrews told those, to whom he wrote, just a few short years before 70 AD,

²⁸ so also Christ died only once as an offering for the sins of many people; and he will come again, but not to deal again with our sins. This time he will come bringing salvation to all those who are eagerly and patiently waiting for him. Hebrews 9:28 (TLB)

“This is the closest one can come to a “second coming” term. But limiting His coming(s) to only two times is not the point here. If it was, then Christ’s subsequent, chronological coming and appearing to John on the isle of Patmos fulfills this verse. To the contrary, this was a specific coming for a special reason. In no way does it limit nor prohibit any of His other many comings. The terminology here follows the typology of the high priest on the Day of Atonement and his appearing “a second time” to the awaiting congregation. Here’s the fulfillment.”

“The fall of Jerusalem and the demise of the Old Covenant Temple system in 70A.D. was no localized judgment event, as some suggest, just as the cross was no localized execution event. Yet fewer people knew of Jesus crucifixion than did about the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus coming in judgment in 70 A.D. was also His appearing “a second time apart from sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:28). If not, then this “non-occurrence” creates major problems.”

“Curiously, the Bible records that Jesus had already come and appeared MANY TIMES, following both His resurrection and ascension. Then what did this phrase appearing “a second time” mean? To understand this choice of terminology, we must refer to the typology of the Jewish high priest. The high priesthood was central to Israel’s existence. It was their connection to a mediator with God. Once each year on the Day of Atonement [the annual, 6^th Jewish feast as prescribed by the Law], the high priest would perform his most sacred duty (Leviticus 16). He’d put on his finery, sacrifice a bull, put its blood in a bowl, tie a rope around his leg, enter the Holy of Holies, sprinkle the blood on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant and make atonement for himself and his house. Then he’d come out and appear before the crowd gathered in front of the Tabernacle [later the Temple], kill a goat, take its blood into the Holy of Holies, make atonement for the congregational of Israel, and reappear “a second time” for the assembled crowd. But His re-appearance alive, “a second time” was the most-awaited and joyful part of this whole ritual. It revealed that both sacrifices had been accepted by God, and Israel’s sins were forgiven for another year.”

“Jesus Christ, as our new and superior High Priest of the New Covenant (Hebrews 10:4), perfectly followed and fulfilled this typology (Hebrews 8:5; 10:1). The Bible tells us that the earthly Jewish Temple was only a copy of the heavenly one (Hebrews 9, 10, especially 9:23ff.) That’s why Jesus had to depart and go prepare the heavenly place for His saints to occupy-by going through these very same steps (John 14:14). After Jesus ascended to the Father, He entered the true Holy of Holies and offered up the Perfect Sacrifice of His spilled blood. But just as the atonement ritual of the Old Covenant was never considered completed with just the slaying of the sacrifice, neither was Jesus’ atonement work finished at the cross or even by His entering into the true Holy of Holies. Partway through is not the place to abandon this atonement typology as most do. In order for Jesus to fulfill the high priest typology, He also needed to fulfill the final, inseparable and essential act of atonement-to appear “a second time” to show that His Sacrifice had been accepted and to fulfill the role of both goats-one dead, one alive.”

“If, however, this final step has yet to occur, as all futurist postponement schemes tell us and is the common view, then,” … “there are a few rather problematic and inescapable ramifications which most traditionalists choose to ignore.”

I want to remind you, Jesus, that Noe continued firing a barrage of the words that you and your apostles spoke a long time ago, but I don’t have the time to do so today. As I mentioned in the beginning of my prayer, I’m deeply sorry that millions of evangelical Christians are unknowingly grieving you by the manner in which they are dealing with this issue.

Oh, by the way; I’m grateful the apostle John didn’t record everything you did during the 33 years you lived in this world. I would go nuts trying to refute all the stuff I’m sure they would come up with in order to continue believing the gobbledygook they have been taught by other people. You know that I’m doing my best to convert these mistaken brothers and sisters.

Lord willing, next week…