DOCUMENTATION AND SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

 

DOCUMENTATION

INTRODUCTION: Keeping of Documentations in every business or organization is important. Many businesses and organizations are losing a lot of information. Biblical archaeology has given us an insight to preserving documents. In biblical archaeology there are still documents and pictures which are over many years. The history and record of many things in the Bible are still kept in the archives.

IMPORTANCE OF DOCUMENTATION

Central Church has being keeping documents for a very long time. The church has got a secretary who is in-charge of filing all documents that come to the church.

This has helped the church in many ways. Failing to keep records will cause the church to lose many things. Let me give you some few examples that filing of documents has done to the church.

There was a delegation that came from Ghana Education Office to claim a piece of land that is behind the church’s mission house. They did not have any documents but after presenting the church’s documents signed in 1959 by Sir Osei Agyemang Prempeh II the Asantehene. After presenting and showing them the papers that were signed by the Asantehene and Mr. J.A. Kuffour who was then the City Solicitor they left without saying a word.

In the case between Rev. Ransford Obeng and four others and Assemblies of God, Ghana, it was through this documentations in the archivals that enable the Assemblies of God won. Many documents including Wedding Certificates, Salary Voucher, Baptismal Certificates and many others bearing the name of Rev. Ransford Obeng were taken from the archives.

Another example is officers from some Embassies even come to enquire about some documents of our members who go to their Embassies to apply for visas and other documents.

 

WHAT TO DO TO IMPROVE IT

What we intend doing now is to improve the filling system and also to work on the archives. 

I will advice all our churches to maintain proper records of their church documents.

The church is about to get new boxes to keep all the relevant documents for safety keeping.

If a letter or a document is received endorsed and give it to the secretary for filing. The office has got many files for all the letters and documents that come. 

  

 

 

 

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

THE FACT OF HIS COMING

The second coming is mentioned more than 300 times in the New Testament. Paul refers to it in his Epistles at least fifty times. It is claimed that the second coming is mentioned eight times as often as the first coming. Whole book (1 and 2 Thessalonians) and chapters (Matthew 24; Mark 13) are devoted to it. It is without doubt one of the most important doctrines of the New Testament.

THE MANNER OF HIS COMING

It will be personal (John 14:3; Acts 1:10, 11; 1 Thess. 4:16; Rev. 1:7; 22:7), literal (Acts 1:10; 1 Thess. 4:16 17; Rev. 1:7; Zech. 14:4), visible (Heb. 9:28; Phil. 3:20; Zech. 12:10) and glorious. Matt. 16:27; 2 Thess. 1:7-9; Col. 3:4; Matt. 25:31.

Interpretations are held which seek to avoid the literal and personal view of Christ’s coming. Some teach that death is the second coming of Christ. But the second coming is set forth as the opposite of death, for the dead in Christ shall rise when Christ comes again. At death we go to Him, but at the coming He comes for us. Certain verses (Matt. 16:28; Phil. 3:20) become meaningless if we substitute death for second coming. Finally, death is an enemy, while the second coming is a glorious hope.

Some hold that the second was the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Others teach that Christ came at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, but in each case there did not occur the resurrection of the dead, the rapture of the living, and other events which are to accompany the second Advent.

THE TIME OF HIS COMING

Attempts have been made to calculate the time of Christ’s coming, but each time the Lord has failed to keep the appointment! He has declared that the exact time of His coming is hidden in the counsels of God. Matt. 24:36-42; Mark 13:21, 22. The arrangement is wise. Who would care, for instance, to know in advance the exact time of his death? Such knowledge would tend to disturb and unfit a person for the duties of life. It is sufficient to know that death may come at any time and therefore one must work while it is day “for the night cometh when no man can work.” And the same reasoning may be applied to the “death day” of this present age. That day has not been revealed to us. But we know that it will be sudden (1 Cor. 15:52; Matt. 24:27) and unexpected. 2 Pet. 3:4; Matt. 24:48-51; Rev. 16:15. “Occupy till I come.”

The following is a general view of Christ’s teaching relative to the time of His coming; After the destruction of Jerusalem the Jews shall be wanders among all nations, driven from their land which shall come under Gentiles control until the end of the age, when God shall judge the Gentile nations, lk. 21:24. During this period Christ’s servants will carry on His work (Lk. 19:11-27) by preaching the gospel to all nations. Matt. 24:14. It will be a time of delay when the church will sometimes wonder why the Lord does not appear (Lk. 18:1-8) – when some will prepare themselves and others will be negligent, while the Bridegroom tarries (Matt. 25:1-11) – when unfaithful ministers will fall away, saying within themselves, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” Lk. 12:45. “After a long time (Matt. 25:19, “at midnight” (Matt. 25:6) at a time the day and the hour of which not one of His disciples knows (Matt. 24:36, 42, 50), the Lord will appear suddenly to gather His servants and to judge them according to their works. Matt. 25:19 and 2 Cor. 5:10. Later, after the gospel has been universally preached and willfully rejected – when the people of the world shall be living in utter oblivion of the coming catastrophe, as in the days of Noah (Matt. 24:37-39) and as in the days of the destruction of Sodom (Lk. 17:28, 29) – the son of man mental power that the State became as a god in his eyes. What better way of impressing men with its glory than by commanding that its symbol be venerated! He therefore set up a great golden image and commands all people to bow before it under penalty of death. The image was not of  any local deity but represented the State itself. To refuse worship was considered atheism or treason. In instituting this new devotion Nebuchadnezzar as much as said to the people: “Who gives you beautiful cities, good roads, magnificent gardens? The State! Who sees that you are fed and given work, who builds your schools and supports your temple? The State! Who defends you when enemies attack? The State! Is not, then the state a mighty power, yea, even a god? Indeed, what greater god do you need, other than your exalted government? Bow before the symbol of the great Babylon!” And if God had not cast him down from his blasphemous pride (Dan. 4:28-37) Nebuchadnezzar might have claimed worship as the head of the State.

As the three Hebrew Children (Daniel 3) were persecuted for refusing to bow before Nebuchadnezzar’s image, so the Christians of the first century suffered because of their refusal to render Divine honors to Caesar’s image. There was tolerance for all religions in the Roman empire, but on condition that Caesar’s image be venerated as the symbol of the State. The Christians were persecuted not primarily because they acknowledged Jesus Christ but because they refused to worship Caesar and say, “Caesar is Lord”. They would not worship the State as god.

The French Revolution offers another example of this policy. God and Christ were cast out and a god, or goddess, was made of “La Patrie” (the State). Said one of the leaders; “The State is supreme in all things. When the State has spoken, the Church has nothing to say.” Loyalty to the State was elevated to the place of a religion. The legislature decreed the erection in all villages of alters inscribed with the words, “The citizen is born, lives and dies for ‘La Patrie.” There was prepared a ritual for civic baptism, civic marriage, and civic burial. The religion of the State had its hymns and prayers, fast and festivals.

The New Testament regards human government as divinely ordained for the maintenance of order and justice. The Christian therefore owes loyalty to his country. Both Church and State have a part in God’s program, and each is to work in its own sphere. God is to receive the things that are God’s, and Caesar is to receive the things that are Caesar’s.

But very often Caesar has demanded the things that are God’s, with the result that the church has, against her desire, found herself in conflict with the government.

The Scriptures predict that this conflict will one day reach its culmination. The last civilization will be anti-God, and Antichrist it’s heard, the world-director, will make the law of the world-State supreme above every law, and will claim worship as the embodiment of the State. The same that upon the ruins of the anti-Christian world-empire – He will establish a rule where God is supreme – the Kingdom of God. Dan. 2:34, 35, 44; Rev. 11:15; 19:11-21.

(d) In Relation to the Nations. The nations will be judged, the kingdoms of earth overthrown, and all peoples will be subject to the King of kings. Da. 2:44; Mic. 4:1; Is. 49:22, 23; Jer. 23:5; Lk. 1:32; Zech. 14:9; Is. 24:23; Rev. 11:15. Christ will rule the nations with a rod of iron, sweep all oppression and injustice from the earth and usher in the Golden Age of a thousand years. Ps. 2:7-9; Ps. 72; Is. 11:1-9; Rev. 20:6.

“Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father”. 1 Cor. 15:24. There are three stages to Christ’s work as Mediator: His work as Prophet, accomplished during His earthly ministry; His work as Priest begun at the cross and continued during this age; His work as King beginning at His coming and continuing throughout the Millennium. After the Millennium He shall completed His work of uniting mankind to God, so that the inhabitants of heaven and earth shall form one great family where God shall be all and in all. Eph. 1:10; 3:14, 15. However, Christ will still reign as the God-man, and share in the Divine Government, for “of his kingdom there shall be no end”. Luke 1:33.