Mike,
As I see it, the difference between Jan and you on this depends on
whether one is amil or premil, which entails (oversimplifying) a single
aspect or a dual one to the second coming. Both views have a long history
and will not be settled by your declaration.
Dave
On Wed, 19 Jun 2002 13:43:49 EDT MikeSatterlee@cs.com writes:
> Jan,
>
> You wrote: at Christ's return: all those who do not accept Jesus as
> their
> Saviour ... will be destroyed, going to Hell, and not accepted on
> the new
> earth. Scripture is pretty clear on that, I think.
>
> I disagree. I do not believe that the Bible teaches that God will,
> at
> Christ's return destroy everyone on earth except true Christians. I
> believe
> that when Christ returns He will judge only the Christian world.
> Two-thirds
> of the earth's population has never even heard the good news of
> Jesus Christ,
> including billions of people in lands like China and India. many
> believe that
> God will soon kill all of these people. I think they are wrong. This
> does not
> sound like the God of love, justice and mercy I worship.
>
> One thing that leads me to believe this is an incorrect
> understanding of
> scripture is that that the Bible tells us that "Judgment begins with
> the
> house of God." (1 Peter 4:17) Jesus also said those who will rule as
> kings
> with Him will "judge the 12 tribes of Israel." (Luke 22:30) To me
> this
> indicates that when Christ returns and draws all true Christians to
> Himself
> (Matt. 24:31), they will then determine who among those who have
> heard the
> good news of Jesus Christ and not taken it to heart are deserving of
> death.
> "The 12 tribes of Israel," spoken of in Luke 22:30, I believe refers
> to all
> those who have heard the good news preached by those whom Galatians
> 6:16
> calls "the Israel of God." Remember, the literal "12 tribes of
> Israel" had
> all heard the Law of Moses, but few had taken it to heart.
>
> Remember too that it was only the Jewish world which had rejected
> Jesus as
> their Messiah that was punished by God at the hands of Roman armies
> in the
> latter part of the first century, not the entire Roman empire. Also
> to be
> considered is a fact known by most serious students of the Bible,
> history and
> science. The flood of Noah's day was a local event, not a global one.
> God
> brought that judgment only upon a land that had heard the message of
> "Noah, a
> preacher of righteousness," and failed to respond to it. (2 Pet.
> 2:5) God did
> not take the lives of those in other parts of then widely populated
> earth who
> had not heard Noah's preaching.
>
> Interestingly, Revelation chapters 8 and 9 talk quite a bit about "a
> third of
> the world" being judged. And by population, the part of the world
> claiming
> Christianity as its religion is almost exactly one-third. (See The
> World
> Almanac 1998, page 654)
>
> If your understanding is correct, that "at Christ's return all those
> who do
> not accept Jesus as their Saviour ... will be destroyed, going to
> Hell, and
> not accepted on the new earth," who, I ask, will be left on "the new
> earth"
> for Christians to then rule over as "kings" and to serve as
> "priests"? If my
> understanding is correct, that Christ is returning to judge only the
>
> Christian world, Christians will then have plenty of people to rule
> over as
> kings with Christ for 1,000 years. And they will also then have
> plenty of
> people to help come to know the true God as they serve as His
> "priests." For
> that is, after all, what priests do.
>
> Mike
>
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