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The Persecuted Church

 

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Why is it important to believe Jesus is coming back again physically?

According to the Bible, to say Jesus will or has already come again spiritually is the spirit of antichrist. If anyone claims he has shown up in their home or at their meeting they are denying that He will appear in glory, the same way and in the same place that he left- AS HE PROMISED (acts 1:11). If Jesus does not come back the way He promised in Scripture then we cannot trust the Scripture on what it says about anything about Him.

There are many who refuse to believe Christ took up the same body that died, believing in a spiritual resurrection. This is what the Jehovah witnesses believe. 1 John 4:2: “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.” John is writing after the resurrection, he uses the perfect tense “has come” in the Greek language that denotes a past action with continuing results into the future. John makes it clear that Jesus came in the flesh, rose in the flesh and is still in the flesh.

He continues this concept in 2 John 7 “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” In this epistle John uses the present tense in Greek which focuses specifically on the future coming of the Lord. People that deny that Jesus rose in the flesh or is not coming back in the flesh, by saying He rose as or is coming back as a Spirit or in some other form other than His physical body, are of the spirit of anti-Christ. (1 John 4:2 focuses on the past; 2 John v. 7 focuses on the future). This is a physical body eternally glorified.

This is one of the ways to discern a false teacher from a true one. The statement perceives a already known answer- on who came in the flesh? Rom .9:5 “… and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” 1 Tim. 3:16: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.”

Also the perfect participle is used (eleluthota). This means, according to John, not only that Jesus Christ once came in the fullness of time clothed with flesh, but that He is still in this present condition. What happened at the incarnation has not been changed nor undone. Jesus Christ who 'is come, as man continues to abide in the flesh. Just as it states 1 Tim. 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” If Jesus Christ is not today in flesh in heaven then the integrity of His incarnation has been forfeited, we have no true mediator. For he must be both God and man.

In 2 John 7, the deceivers are identified as men who 'confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh.' The expression 'in (the) flesh' is the same as in I John 4:2, the difference is the present participle has replaced 'the perfect participle, this is understood as a timeless present, which could very well be describing the second Advent.

If one claims that Christ rose as a spirit creature, and not physically, that the glorified body of our Lord is immaterial or non-flesh, is not only unscriptural but of they are of an anti -Christ spirit and denying the third point of the Gospel.

Writing after the Resurrection, John declared that Jesus "came [and remained] in the flesh" (1 John 4:2; 2 John 7). The body that emerged from the tomb Sunday morning was the same body that went in the tomb. He also showed His crucifixion scars on his hands and side on two occasions because of doubt from his disciples that he actually was alive again. To Thomas he said "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe" (John 20:27). He fell down and confessed him as his own Lord and God. Jesus said because you have seen you believe, blessed are they that have not seen and yet believe.”

An invisible resurrection would lead to an invisible coming of Jesus. Like the Jehovah Witnesses there are those who claim Jesus came again in 70 ad. This denies the fact he rose again in the same body and is coming back in this body, seen by all. As Acts 1:11 states, He will come in the same manner he left, visibly, with the physical eye.

A nonmaterial resurrection has no evidential value. If Christ did not rise in the same material body placed in the tomb, then the Resurrection loses its value as an evidence for His claim to be God. However, Jesus often offered His resurrection as a proof of His claims (John 2:19-22; 10:18). He even offered it as the unique sign of who He is, declaring that no other sign would be given to that unbelieving generation (Matt. 12:40).

The denial that Christ came in human flesh is called docetism. It diminishes the full humanity of Christ, either before or after His resurrection. This doctrinal error existed in the first century. John warned strongly concerning those who deny that 'Jesus Christ has come [and remain] in the flesh' (1 John 4:2), along with these words after the Resurrection in (2 John 7) ‘For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”

Which makes the point even clearer. John considered it one of the ultimate denials of the message to deny flesh of Christ either before or after His resurrection. Our human flesh is part of our human nature as God created it. We are both physical and spirit. John writes in his gospel in v.1-3 the word was God – in v. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”

To deny that Christ took upon himself human flesh or resurrected in his human flesh is to deny His true humanity. The resurrection body is not a spirit body but a "spiritual" (i.e., meaning a spirit-dominated and directed body 1 Cor. 15:44), it is a material body not an immaterial spirit body.

Without Christ's resurrection being physical there is no salvation (Rom. 10:9), then He did not conquer death and we have no hope of him also dying for our sin The Resurrection is the completion of the gospel (the third phase) by which we are saved (1 Cor. 15:1-5). Without believing this in the same way we believe He died for us we cannot be saved.

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