It is time to put some of the dots together, beginning with a scriptural summary. There were actually four major streams of prophesies in the Hebrew Bible which ultimately center on the Messiah, not the traditionally noted three. The first two: the Messiah was to be the Son of David and the Son of Man – and that was it, until after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Then the third stream of the “Suffering Servant” came into prominence, of a Messiah who would die for our forgiveness and salvation. Though Jesus also brought the Holy Spirit, nothing is directly stated in the New Testament about what I am asserting constitutes the fourth stream: the Heart of Jesus being the Heart which will heal the human heart and enable us to love God as God seeks to be loved. Faith in Christ is demanded, and the reception of the Holy Spirit is urged, but what of receiving Jesus’ Heart? How amazing that of all four streams, the fourth will be the last to be recognized; yet it is the most important for our eternal life, for our actually living with God in God’s heaven. Union with Christ’s Heart may be what it truly means to be “in Christ.”
What if the long anticipated “Second Coming” turns out to be as different from our expectations as the “First Coming” of Jesus was from the expectations of the Jewish people? The second time, of course, Christians are convinced it will be Jesus who returns, finally as the “Son of Man.” Just like the initial arrival of the Jewish Messiah two thousand years ago, the new or returned one would have a host of questions to answer and tests to pass – unless the world as we know it should suddenly, dramatically, and publicly morph before our wide open eyes into something like the vision described toward the end of the book of Revelation, what with a new heaven and earth coming down, while the old somehow passes away (Revelation 21:1-5).
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