Come Again?
Posted by: forthrightmag <forthrightmag@...>
http://www.forthright.net
Straight to the Cross
COLUMN: Reality Check
Come Again?
by Stan Mitchell
The first time he came, his arrival was noted by
some shepherds and astrologers from afar. No
monarch, priest, or honor guard fell at his feet.
He lay in humble splendor, where livestock ate and
slept. CNN was not present with microphone
extended, and Time did not declare him "Baby of
the Year."
"Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye
will see him, even those who pierced him; and all
the people's of the earth will mourn because of
him" (Revelation 1:7).
But the second time he comes, "every eye" will see
him, and his coming will not be universally
acclaimed. Not everyone who learned of his birth
sang "Joy to the earth, the Lord is come." Herod
tried to kill him, and in the process annihilated
a generation of Bethlehem babies. Upon his second
incarnation, the selfish, the apathetic, the
rebellious, they will all be interrupted from
their reveling to face reality.
But come again he will, not as crying kid, but as
conquering king! There are no clues to the timing
of his coming. Not even he knew, while on earth,
the day of his return.
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the
angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the father
(Matthew 24:36).
The first time he came, the world was as
unprepared as a Nebraskan on a surfboard, or a
Brazilian in a Nebraska blizzard. The world
celebrates the time he came; we should also give
some thought to the day he will come again, for as
certain as the surf rises in California, or the
snow falls in Lincoln, so is his second coming!
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