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1.1 Ways of Lord's Return

1.1.1 Lord Comes as He Left

📖 "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11)

🚨 The Lord will come on the cloud because the Bible says He will return in the same way He left.

提出反问、质疑

  • The angels never said that Jesus would return on a cloud. They said the Lord would come in “like manner.” But “like manner” does not automatically mean coming only on a cloud. If the angels truly wanted people to wait and stare at the sky for the Lord to come on a cloud, then why did they say: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” If staring at the sky was the right thing to do, they should have said, “Keep looking at the clouds. You are doing well.” But they did not say that. Clearly, the angels were not telling people to keep staring at the sky.
  • Are we really going to decide how the Lord comes based on just one sentence from the angels? The Bible clearly says: 📖 “But of that day and that hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” (Matthew 24:36) Even the angels do not know the day or the hour. So how can we depend on just one sentence from them to decide exactly how the Lord will come? We cannot base everything on this one prophecy. If we truly want to welcome the Lord, we must look at what God Himself has said.
✨ Jesus said that He would arrive as He had departed, but do you know the true meaning of His words? Can it be that He told this group of you? All you know is that He will arrive as He departed, riding on a cloud, but do you know exactly how God Himself does His work? If you were truly able to see, then how are the words that Jesus spoke to be explained? He said: When the Son of man comes in the last days, He Himself will not know, the angels will not know, the messengers in heaven will not know, and all humanity will not know. Only the Father will know, that is, only the Spirit shall know. Even the Son of man Himself does not know, yet you are able to see and know? If you were capable of knowing and seeing with your own eyes, would these words not have been spoken in vain? And what did Jesus say at the time? “But of that day and hour knows no man, not the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. … Therefore be you also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes.” When that day comes, the Son of man Himself will not know it. The Son of man refers to the incarnate flesh of God, a normal and ordinary person. Even the Son of man Himself does not know, so how could you know? Jesus said that He would arrive as He had departed. When He arrives, even He Himself does not know, so can He inform you in advance? Are you able to see His arrival? Is that not a joke?

1.1.2 Lord Comes On Cloud

📖 "Immediately after the tribulation (catastrophes) of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (Matthew 24:29–30)

🚨 The Lord spoke this prophecy Himself. There’s nothing wrong with waiting for Him to come on the clouds.

提出反问、质疑

  • The Lord definitely said this. But here, He is describing the scene of His coming on the clouds. It doesn’t mean He wants us to welcome Him on the clouds. Did the Lord Jesus ever say, “I want you all to welcome Me on the clouds”? [ No. ] It is important that we understand God’s intention behind His words.
  • If we read this passage carefully, what will happen to those who wait to see the Lord coming on a cloud? It says, “…and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn.” This shows that those who wait to see Him coming on a cloud will face condemnation and punishment. They are not the ones who are saved. This is Lord Jesus' warning about what not to do — not advice.

交通正确的认识

  • We can see that people who wait for the Lord to come on a cloud will not be saved. Then how should we welcome Him?
  • In fact, the Lord Jesus also prophesied in the Bible that He would return as the Son of Man, coming secretly and quietly. This is how the Lord wants us to welcome Him.
📖 "For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:27)

📖 "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:37)

📖 "For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in His day. But first must He suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation." (Luke 17:24–25)
  • These prophecies all mention “the coming of the Son of Man.” The term Son of Man refers to someone born of a human being. In other words, God becomes flesh as an ordinary, normal person and comes quietly among mankind to speak and to work. This is completely different from appearing openly on a cloud, which would be public and obvious.

  • The Lord wants people to welcome Him before the tribulation, not after. The outcome of welcoming the Lord before the tribulation in the flesh and after the tribulation on the cloud is completely different.

  • Let’s talk about why it is important to welcome the Lord in the flesh before the tribulation.

📖 "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." (John 16:12–13)

📖 "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20)

📖 "To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne." (Revelation 3:21)

  • We can see that before the tribulation, the Lord will express the truth and carry out the work of judgment to purify and save a group of people, making them into overcomers. Overcomers are those whom the Lord makes perfect before the tribulation—people who overcome their sinful nature. These are the ones who are finally qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven. This is God’s end-time salvation for believers.

  • If we wait until after the tribulation to welcome the Lord coming on the clouds, there will no longer be any chance for salvation. By then, God’s work will already be finished.

✨ "Many people may not care what I say, but I still want to tell every so-called saint who follows Jesus that, when you see Jesus descend from the heaven upon a white cloud with your own eyes, this will be the time of the public appearance of the Sun of righteousness. Perhaps that will be a time of great excitement for you. However, you should know that the time when you witness Jesus descend from the heaven will also be the time when you go down to hell to be punished, the time when the end of God's management plan has been proclaimed, and when God rewards the good and punishes the evil. For the judgment of God will have ended before man sees signs, when there is only the expression of truth. Those who accept the truth and do not seek signs, and thus have been purified, shall have been brought before the throne of God and entered the Creator's embrace. Only those who persist in the belief that 'The Jesus who does not ride upon a white cloud is a false christ' shall be subjected to everlasting punishment, for they only believe in the Jesus who performs signs, but do not acknowledge the Jesus who expresses severe judgment and releases the life and the true way. And so it can only be that Jesus deals with them when He openly returns upon a white cloud."
  • People who insist on waiting for the Lord to come on a cloud will face disasters. They will have missed their chance to accept judgment, be purified, and be saved. They will lose the opportunity to accept the truths expressed by the Spirit of truth.
  • We can see the disasters have already begun, and God’s work of salvation is coming to an end. Soon mankind will face destruction. We do not have much time left. Welcoming the Lord’s return is the most urgent matter in our lives. It will determine whether a believer enters the kingdom of heaven or is cast into the lake of fire.

1.1.3 Where does the Bible say the Lord comes in the flesh before the tribulation?

🚨 I want to see the exact scripture where the Bible says the Lord comes in the flesh before the tribulation before I can believe it.

提出反问、质疑

  • Where does the Bible say the Lord wouldn’t come in the flesh before the tribulation?
  • Did God ever say that every prophecy in the Bible must be interpreted literally?
📖 “All these things spoke Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spoke he not unto them.” (Matthew 13:34)
  • We can see the Lord often spoke in parables. People needed to understand the spiritual meaning behind His words. Prophecies are the same. They have hidden meanings and are not always meant to be understood literally.
    • For example, when the Lord came the first time, the Old Testament never directly said, “God will become a man named Jesus, be born in Bethlehem, and be crucified.” But the people who understood the spiritual meaning of the prophecies recognized Him and accepted Him.

交通正确的认识

  • First, we need to understand that the Bible was compiled about 2,000 years ago. Did people speak the same way we do today? [ No. ] Today we use words like human or person. But back then, people often used the term “Son of Man.” So when the Bible says “Son of Man,” it means a human being, a person. If the Lord Jesus had said, “I will come as a human” or “I will return as a person,” people at that time would not have understood Him.
📖 "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, ..." (Matthew 24:37-38)
  • People eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage is clearly not a time of tribulation or after the tribulation. It describes a time when life is still normal, before the great disasters. This is when the Lord returns as the Son of Man in the flesh.

1.1.4 The Lord Will Come as Spirit

🚨 I think when the Bible says God comes secretly and quietly, it means the Lord comes as the Spirit.

提出反问、质疑

  • But the Lord cannot come as Spirit. God’s Spirit is already everywhere. The Lord Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20) If God’s Spirit is always with us, then how could the Spirit come again?

交通正确的认识

📖 "For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:27)

📖 "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:37)

📖 "For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in His day. But first must He suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation." (Luke 17:24–25)
  • Notice something very important: these verses all mention “the Son of Man.” What does Son of Man mean? It means someone born of man. It means a person with normal humanity. So this is talking about God coming in the flesh as an ordinary person, living among people, speaking and working. This is not talking about the Lord coming as Spirit.

1.1.5 This is New

🚨 I do not believe this because it is new. I have never heard anyone say that the Lord will come in the flesh a second time.

提出反问、质疑

  • It is not new. What we learned today was already prophesied by the Lord Jesus Himself and is clearly written in the Bible. It has been there for 2,000 years. The Lord Himself told us that He would come as the Son of Man, like a thief, quietly and secretly, and that we must hear His voice in order to recognize Him.

交通正确的认识

  • It feels new only because we’ve never heard it explained before. But we can’t reject it simply because it sounds new to our ears. We should ask:
    • 👉 Is it the truth?
    • 👉 Does it come from God?
  • If we reject something just because we’ve never heard it before — how could we ever grow in our understanding of God?
    • When we first believed in the Lord, many truths were new to us. Repentance was new. Baptism was new. Loving our enemies was new. Carrying the cross was new. If we had rejected them just because we had never heard them before, would we have come this far? Of course not.
  • No one understands everything. That’s why we attend Bible study. It is to gain new knowledge and insight into God’s words. If someone closes the door the moment they hear something they’ve never heard before, how can they ever understand more of God’s words? How can they hear His voice? Isn’t this picking and choosing what you want to accept? We must accept all of God’s words, not just the parts we already know and believe.
  • New to us does not mean something new about God. So the key is not whether it sounds new to our ears. The key is whether it is God’s truth.

1.1.6 My Pastor Never Taught This

🚨 I don’t believe the Lord will come in the flesh a second time, because my pastor never taught me that.

  • Do we believe in God, or do we believe in pastors? Believing in God is not the same as believing in a pastor. Just because our pastor never taught something does not mean it isn’t true. We must go by God’s words. Man’s words are not the truth — only God’s words are. As the Lord Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
  • If the Lord Jesus clearly told us something in the Bible, yet we refuse to seek or investigate simply because our pastor never taught it, then who are we really following? Aren’t we placing man above God? Aren’t we choosing man’s words over God’s words? The Bible reminds us, “we ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)
  • A pastor is still a person. No one understands everything in the Bible. What they do not understand, they cannot teach. But that does not mean God never said it. So we cannot limit ourselves to only what a pastor has taught us.

1.1.7 The Spirit of Truth Comes

🚨 The Bible says the Spirit of truth comes. Some assume this means God will come only in the Spirit to share the truth.

  • The verse says, “when the Spirit of truth comes.” It does not say, “when the Spirit of truth comes in the Spirit.” The Spirit of truth can be incarnated in the flesh to speak.
John 14:10: “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”
  • Jesus was standing there in the flesh. Yet He says: “The Father is in Me.” “The words I speak are not from Myself.” “The Father dwelling in Me does the works.” This means that when Christ spoke, it was not merely His flesh expressing words. It was the Spirit dwelling in Him speaking and working through the flesh. So when Christ speaks in the flesh, it is the Spirit of truth speaking. You cannot see that Spirit directly, because it is hidden within the flesh.
✨ Almighty God says: “God can save corrupt man from the influence of Satan, but this work cannot be directly accomplished by the Spirit of God; rather, it can only be done by the flesh God’s Spirit wears, by God’s incarnate flesh.