Immortality or Resurrection (Updated) - William West (top ten ebook reader .TXT) 📗

Rome and restore it as a nation as it was
under David.
4. Forty days after He was raised from the dead they still did not understand
therefore, they still did not expect Christ to go away and return to earth a second
time at the end of the world; they expected Him to restore the kingdom to Israel
"They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, Lord, do you
at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" [Acts 1:6].
AT THE TIME THEY ASKED THIS, THEY DID NOT BELIEVE JUST AS
THE JEWS DID NOT BELIEVE THAT THEIR MESSIAH WOULD BE
KILLED, BUT THEY BELIEVED THAT HE WOULD SET UP AN EARTHLY
KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. HOW COULD THEY BE ASKING ABOUT HIS
SECOND COMING WHEY THEY DID NOT KNOW THERE WOULD BE A
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SECOND COMING? MILLENNIALISTS MUST MAKE THE DISCIPLES BE
ASKING A QUESTION ABOUT THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST THAT
THE DISCIPLES DID NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT OR BELIEVE AT THAT
TIME, BUT THEY MUST HAVE THE DISCIPLES ASKING QUESTIONS
ABOUT THE MILLENNIAL AND THE RAPTURE TO MAKE THIS
CHAPTER TEACH THEIR VIEW. I have never seen where any Premillennialists
say how these disciples that did not knew that Christ was to die and be raised from
the dead and forty days later ascend to Heaven explain how the same disciples could
know anything about the rapture and the thousand years. From where do they think
these disciples had this knowledge?
[1] SIGNS OF THE THINGS THAT WERE TO COME TO PAST
THAT CHRISTIANS WERE TO WATCH FOR
Matthew 24:4-15: "And Jesus answered (His answer was to the questions they had
asked about the destruction of the temple, not about His second coming) and said unto
them, Take heed that no man lead you astray. For many shall come in my name, saying, I
am the Christ; and shall lead many astray. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of
wars; see that you are not troubled: for these things must needs come to pass; but the end
is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there
shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places. But, all these things are the beginning
of travail. Then shall they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill you: and you
shall be hated of all the nations for my name's sake. And then shall many stumble, and
shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall
arise, and shall lead many astray. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of
many shall wax cold. But, he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. And this
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the
nations; and then shall the end come. When; therefore, you see the abomination of
desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place
(let him that reads understand)."
[2] NATURAL DISASTERS TO ISRAEL AND ROME
(a) WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS [Matthew 24:6; Mark 13:7-8; Luke 21:9-10]
with nations and kingdoms rising against each other [Matthew 24:7]. There were many
conflicts and battles before A. D. 70 in which thousands of Jews were killed. In one battle
with the Syrians about 5,000 Jews were killed. From A. D. 66 to 70 there were many
wars and rumors of wars. Many thousands were killed in the many wars in the 5 years
before the destruction of the temple and Israel in A. D. 70.
"The Jewish war began in A. D. 66, and ended five years after. During this period all the Roman
Empire was filled with commotion. Nero, the emperor, was overthrown by Galba; six months
after, Galba was overthrown by Otho; a few months after, Otho was overthrown by Vitelius; a
little later, he was overthrown by Vespasian. All of these but the last, who ascended the throne
shortly before Jerusalem was destroyed, died violent deaths...Tacitus, the Roman historian, says
of this period: 'It was full of calamities, horrible with battles, rent with seditions, savage in peace
itself.'" B. W. Johnson, "The People's New Testament With Notes" Gospel Light Publishing
Company, 1889.
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From the writing of Josephus we learn that the Jews were divided into parties fighting
among themselves and Jews killed others Jews in numbers far greater then those killed by
the Roman soldiers, and villages of Syria and elsewhere were burnt to the ground in the
five years of war before the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem. During the siege many more
Jews were killed by warring bands of Jews in Jerusalem, and Josephus says the Jews
suffered far more from one another inside the walls of the city than from the Romans
outside. Thousand more were killed by bands of robbers.
• "When Christ was born, there was a universal peace in the empire...From the time that the Jews
rejected Christ, and he left their house desolate, the sword did never depart from their house,
the sword of the Lord was never quiet, because he had given it a charge against a hypocritical
nation and the people of his wrath, and by it brought ruin upon them." Matthew Henry, Matthew
24:6. Zondervan Publishing House, 1721.
(b) FAMINES IN DIVERS PLACES [Matthew 24:7; Mark 13:8; Luke 21:11]: In the
years between the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem there were severe
famines especially in the area of Jerusalem. Paul took up a contribution for the poor
among the saints at Jerusalem [Romans 15:25; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4] which many
churches took part in. Agabus signified by the Spirit that there would be a great famine
over all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius, and the disciples sent
relief unto the disciples in Judea [Acts 11:28-29].
(c) PESTILENCES [Matthew 24:7 King James Version]: Pestilences tend to come
with famine. There was a great one in AD 40 in Babylon when many Jews died and many
more fled because of it. Another one in AD 65 in Rome when many died. I have seen no
history that tells how many died by wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes in the
years before the destruction of Jerusalem, but no doubt it was hundreds of thousands.
During the siege of Jerusalem but before the fall, the dead from famines and pestilences
filled all the room for burial within the walls of the city and Josephus claims 600,000
more bodies were thrown out of the gates of Jerusalem and left unburialed.
(d) EARTHQUAKES IN DIVERS PLACES [Matthew 24:7]: The earthquakes are
spoken of as a dreadful judgment against the nation of Israel, "But all these things are the
beginning of travail" [Matthew 24:8].
"Of these significant emblems of political commotions, there occurred several within the scene
of this prophecy, and, as our Savior predicted, in divers places in the reign of Claudius there was
one at Rome, and another at Apamea in Syria, where many Jews resided. The earthquake at the
latter place was so destructive, that the emperor, in order to relieve the distresses of the
inhabitants, remitted its tribute for five years. Both these earthquakes are recorded by Tacitus.
There was one also, in the same reign in Crete that is mentioned by Philostratus, in his Life of
Apollonius, who says, that 'there were others at Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, and Samos; IN ALL
WHICH PLACES JEWS HAD SETTLED.' In the reign of Nero there was an earthquake at Laodicea.
Tacitus records this also. It is likewise mentioned by Eusebius and Orosius, who add that
Hieropolis and Colose, as well as Laodicea, were overthrown by an earthquake. There was also
one in Campania in this reign (of this both Tacitus and Seneca speak) and another at Rome in
the reign of Galba, recorded by Suetonius." George P. Holford, "The Destruction Of Jerusalem,"
1805.
Some cities of Israel were totaled destroyed by earthquakes before the destruction of
Jerusalem. I have not found an estimate of how many Jews died by earthquakes but like
both the famines and the pestilences, without doubt many more thousands died in the
earthquakes before A. D. 70.
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Dr. Philip Schaff says there is scarcely another period in history so full of corruption,
vice, and disaster as the six years between Neronian persecution in A. D. 64 and the
destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 70, History Of the Christian Church, New Schaff-
Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.
FOR MANY YEARS EARTHQUAKES, FAMINES, WARS, PESTILENCES HAVE
REPEATEDLY BEEN MADE INTO A SURE SIGN THAT THE END IS AT HAND
BY MANY WRITERS OF FICTION.
[3] PERSECUTION FIRST FROM JEWS
AND THEN ROME, AND THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL
(a) "BUT ALL THESE THINGS ARE THE BEGINNING OF TRAVAIL" [Matthew
24:9].
(b) CHRISTIANS WOULD BE DELIVER UP, KILLED AND HATED BY ALL
THE NATIONS [Matthew 24:9]. The persecution of believers came first from the Jews.
Acts 4:3; 4:18; 4:21; 5:18; 5:28; 6:12-14; 7:58-60; 8:1; 8:3; 9:1-2; 13:44-51; 14:2; 14:19;
17:5-8; 17:13; 26:9-10; Paul was one of the persecutors and then one of the persecuted.
"Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with
rods, once I was stoned...I have been in...dangers from my countrymen" [2 Corinthians
11:24-26]. "For you also suffer the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did
of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophet, and drove out us" [1
Thessalonians 2:14-15]. It was soon followed by the persecution of Nero of believers,
which began about A. D. 64. After the fire in Rome Nero attempted to clear himself by
blaming it on the Christians. He then persecuted the Christians with such cruelty that
even many of his fellow Romans were taken back by his cruelty "But before all these
things, they shall lay their hands on you, and shall persecute you, delivering you up to
the synagogues and prison, bringing you before kings and governors for my name's sake"
[Luke 21:12]. See Hebrews 10:32-34. Both the persecution from the Jews and the
persecution from Rome were severe. I have just touched the hem of the garment.
(c) MANY SHALL STUMBLE, DELIVER UP ONE ANOTHER, AND HATE ONE
ANOTHER [Matthew 24:10]. As a result of the persecutions the weak stumbled. "And
brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up
against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all on
account of My name...and a man's enemies will be the members of his household"
[Matthew 10:22-36].
(d) MANY FALSE PROPHETS [Matthew 24:11]. See 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 4:1; 2:18;
Galatians 1:7. Many false teachers saying they were the Christ [Matthew 24:5]. Josephus
says that they did come about the time of the end of Jerusalem.
(e) LIGHTNING "For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to
the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be" [Matthew 24:27]. For the use of
"lightning" in the Old Testament for God's angry and judgment see Exodus 19:16; 2
Samuel 22:7-15; Isaiah 30:27. It is also used symbolically in Revelation of judgments.
Revelation 4:5; 11:19; 16:18. The false prophets saying they were the Christ were only
seen by some. The coming of Christ in judgment on Israel with the total destruction of
Israel as a country was seen in the entire known world just as lightning in the east is seen
in the west. “But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say
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to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man
comes” [Matthew10:23].
“It is a coming, which was to take place before all the cities of Israel should be evangelized,
and hence the reference must be, we think, to the providential coming to