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The Coming of Christ in Blazing Fire


We continue our thoughts on what it will be like when the Lord Jesus comes in His glory in the Second Coming. After the snatching up of God's people (The Rapture—1 Thessalonians 4:13-17), the anger of God will be poured out on those who refuse to repent and receive His forgiveness. We don't like to think of an angry Lord Jesus, but that is the truth that Paul the Apostle wrote about, as well as other prophetic writers:

 

7This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).

 

When God first began dealing with me as to my eternal destiny, i.e., where I would go when I die, I had a vision of the coming of the Lord Jesus. It was of Jesus coming on a white horse in the sky with the angels and me cowering in fear on the Earth and seeking somewhere to hide. I was terrified that I would be found on the wrong side when He came to judge.

 

The prophet Zephaniah also tells us about that fiery event. The Lord will gather the nations and pour out His fierce anger:

 

“Therefore wait for me,” declares the LORD, "for the day I will stand up to testify. I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and to pour out my wrath on them—all my fierce anger. The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger” (Zephaniah 3:8, emphasis added).

 

Jesus will appear in blazing fire with His powerful angels (Isaiah 66:15), pouring out vengeance against those who do not know God. My perception of Jesus changed after coming across those words. The Lord gave me a fear of Him, which moved me to seek His salvation before judgment would find me. After becoming a Christian and thinking about the truth of the Word of God, I realized He had been working in my life for several years, but I had not listened. He was the One who had found me rather than my finding Him. It took me several years to wake up to His gracious invitation that "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44). You who are reading these words, is it a coincidence that you have come across these meditations, or is it because God has been drawing you to Himself? There are no coincidences with God.

 

His coming will coincide with the catching up of all those who have called upon Him for salvation. Jesus is clear that these two events will happen the same day, i.e., the catching up of the saints and the fire of judgment on the same day (Luke 17:26-29). The prophet Zephaniah tells us that His delight will be upon those who have called upon the Lord. The Lord will sing over His bride:

 

The LORD your God is with you; he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing" (Zephaniah 3:17).

 

When Jesus comes in the fire of His jealousy, there will be a separation between sheep and goats (God’s people and the unsaved), as mentioned in Matthew 25:31-46. He is longing for the time when His people will see His face and the City of the New Jerusalem will be as Eden with God walking with man in the cool of the evening: “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (Revelation 22:4). What a day that will be! Keith Thomas

 

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