If Jesus Is Coming Again Soon, What’s Taking So Long?

If Jesus is coming again soon, what's taking so long? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter account. You can watch Adriel live in the studio right now on our YouTube channel and send us a message that way. And you can also email us at questions at corechristianity.com. Earlier this week, we mentioned that it was our first anniversary of going live on this program.

CORE Christianity has been on the air for about three years. But one year ago, we started taking live calls. And I did a little calculation and found out that if Adriel answers about five questions a day, five days a week, about 50 weeks a year, that's about 1,200 questions that he has answered in the past year. Yes, yeah, we've got quite the vault of answers that we're building up. So it's pretty awesome. It is pretty awesome. We love hearing from you.

And our phone lines are open now if you've got a question. We also wanted to mention that we had this Facebook question come in from one of our younger listeners named Bailey. She says, my roommates in college find it weird when I have a quiet time or read the Bible. Sometimes I feel insecure about their remarks and some of their questions, which makes me think that the Bible can't really stand up to their scrutiny.

I know that's not right, but I'm not sure how to respond when that happens. Yeah. Hey, Bailey, God bless you for seeking to follow Jesus and being committed to Jesus, even though you're surrounded by people who don't understand and don't support you in that, it sounds like. I don't know who said it, but I remember one time hearing somebody quote somebody who said, the Bible is sort of like a lion in a cage. You don't need to defend the lion.

You just need to let the lion out of the cage, that kind of a thing. I think that that's true. There are many people who have sought to disprove the Bible, who have studied the scripture and actually become Christians. I think of men like Lee Strobel, a great apologist now, or even Rosaria Butterfield. She has a number of books talking about how she was very critical of the Christian faith and then began to read the scriptures. All of a sudden, she was just struck by the truth of God's word. God's word is powerful and the spirit of God works together with the word of God to open hearts.

My encouragement to you would be a couple of things. One, the word of God, the Bible does stand up to scrutiny. If you need resources in terms of defending what the Bible teaches, defending the validity of scripture, there are a few. One of the ones that we've offered before is called More Than a Carpenter, a great little resource, a short resource. You could probably find it on our website with a lot of answers to questions that people have.

We've mentioned the story of reality. That's another one by Greg Kochel, Defending the Christian Faith, another great resource to get your hands on. I want to read a section of 1 Peter 4 to you.

As I was listening to your question, this is what I was reminded of. It's Peter encouraging the Christians that he's writing to. He says, I want you to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. Verse 3, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you. They will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. In other words, the Christians to whom Peter was writing, they experienced that maligning, that being mocked, being mistreated for their faith in Jesus, for following Jesus, because they didn't want to do the things that the rest of the world was doing. We were not interested in the drinking parties and the idolatry and the debauchery.

People looked at them and just said, you guys are weird. Peter says, look, we're all going to stand before the Lord. They're going to have to give an account to the God who is ready to judge the living and the dead. So, Bailey, what I would say to you is be committed to Jesus first and foremost to following him and continuing to read the scriptures.

Have conversations with your roommates. Be a godly influence there. I would encourage you in that and continue to grow in your understanding of the word so that you might be able to defend the faith when they have questions. May the Lord bless you as you do that. God bless you again, Bailey, and thank you for that question. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Bailey, we'd love to send you one of our free resources, and this is available to all of our listeners. It's a new resource that we have, and it's called Tough Questions Answered. It really gets into a lot of these tough questions that we receive on a daily basis and that maybe you have to answer when you're talking to a non-Christian friend or relative.

I'm glad we can get that into Bailey's hands. It's only about 50 pages long, and it will really help you to defend your faith. It answers questions like, doesn't science make religion unnecessary? Why is Christianity so exclusive?

What about other religions like Buddhism and Islam? Isn't the Bible just a bunch of fairy tales, myths, that kind of thing? What about the Bible's view of sexuality and gender?

Is it overly restrictive? We answer those questions in this short booklet, and so get ahold of this resource, and it's yours for free over at corechristianity.com. It is really a fantastic resource, and as Adriel said, it covers science, faith, sexuality, different religions, the whole gamut, and really gets into those difficult questions that sometimes as Christians we get stumped by. All you have to do is go to our website at corechristianity.com forward slash offers and look for tough questions answered. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers and look for tough questions answered. Well, Adriel, here is a voicemail question we received earlier this week from one of our listeners named Lauren.

How do we respond to atheist critics who say that Jesus said he was going to be returning 2,000 years ago and he still hasn't returned yet, so it's safe to say he probably will never return? I really appreciate it. I mean, like you guys can chat on that or any input you might have. Thank you so much for your show. It's a blessing, and I hope you guys have a happy new year.

Hey, thanks, Lauren. Yeah, so responding to critics, it seems like Peter does a lot of this. I just mentioned 1 Peter chapter four, and I think Peter actually addresses your question specifically as well in 2 Peter. So you go to 2 Peter, and he says, look, these are the kinds of questions that people are going to have. They're going to be people mocking, scoffing at this idea that Jesus is coming back. He says in 2 Peter chapter three verse two, you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires, they will say, where is the promise of his coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

In other words, nothing has changed. Where's Jesus? Where is the promise of his coming? And Peter says this, they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago and that the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

By the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But don't overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Why hasn't Jesus come back yet, Peter says?

Well, it's because he's patient toward you. This world is being kept, if you will, reserved for judgment. There's this period right now of grace where God is calling all people to himself to turn to Christ, to receive his mercy and his forgiveness, and he is long-suffering toward sinful humanity. He's calling us to faith in Jesus. There is coming a day where those calls will stop, is the final judgment when God does bring that destruction on the ungodly, as Peter said in 2 Peter 3 verse 7. But right now, he's patient toward us. He's calling us to repentance. And so when scoffers arise and say, well, Jesus hasn't come back yet, it seems like he's taking his time, I think we should respond by saying, well, hey, this isn't a laughing matter. Don't scoff about that.

The reason he's taking his time is for you so that you might turn to him and know him and experience his grace because there is coming a day when he will judge the whole world in righteousness. God bless. Wow. That is a great way to respond to someone who has that question. So thank you, Adriel. Very, very good answer based with both grace and truth.

And that's the way we should respond to anyone who has doubts or questions about the Christian faith. Well, let's go to the phones. Here's the phone number. If you have a question for Adriel and we'll be taking calls for the next 12, 13 minutes or so. So hop on the phone right now.

If you have a question about the Christian faith or your faith walk and how it intersects with today's culture, maybe about doctrine or theology, we are open to all questions. 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Joanne calling in from Rogers, Arkansas. Joanne, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Hi. I have a question about 2 Timothy 2 opposite 8. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David. And I think I'm thinking biologically here because of David being Joseph through that line rather than Mary. So I didn't know if it's because we are Abraham's children, all of us that applied or if there's something else.

Yeah. Oh, you look at the genealogies in the Gospels and it's clear that even the Gospel writers are setting Jesus up as being in the line, if you will, the lineage of King David. And one of the reasons that this is important is because the Messiah, the Jewish Messiah was supposed to be a king. You think of the Davidic promise that was made in 2 Samuel 7, God's promise to King David that one of his offspring would continually be on the throne. You think of other places like Psalm 2 where it talks about the reign of the Davidic King being over the whole world. I mean, this is what the people of God were looking forward to.

And it's precisely what our Lord Jesus fulfilled. And so again, you look at some of these genealogies in places like Matthew 1, the book of the genealogy of the Lord Jesus. You look at the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

And he traces all of that in particular there. And so this is just one of the things that Paul is highlighting as he's writing to Timothy. This is central to the Gospel. Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David has preached in my Gospel for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a but the word of God is not bound. And so Jesus is the rightful heir to the Davidic throne, the ruler over the whole world as prophesied in places again like Psalm chapter 2. And he's ruling right now, Joanna, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, until his enemies are made of footstool for his feet. Jesus is at the right hand of the father, reigning enthroned.

You see this actually in the beginning of the book of Acts as well. And so this is Jesus fulfilling one of his offices. This is the office of a king. And what does Jesus do as king? He rules over and defends his people. He subdues the nations to himself by his word and spirit through the preaching of the Gospel. Jesus is doing that right now.

And we ought to be comforted by that reality. And so Joanne, just going back to you right now, was that what you were thinking specifically or was there a different concern that you had there in 2 Timothy 2.8? I understand all of that, but when I think seed of, I'm thinking biological, and since Joseph was biologically not the father of Jesus, that's where I'm... my husband's like, it doesn't matter. And I'm like, well, I don't understand why the word... and I thought maybe it's a different translation, but I don't know.

Maybe I'm just, you know, looking at something and thinking... Yeah, I don't know that we have to make too much of the word seed in this. Does this mean that it has to be biological, that Joseph had to be Jesus' biological father, that kind of a thing? I think we're thinking here in particular of this sort of lineage, this kingly lineage, which was properly Jesus'. And so that's something that's clear, and it seems like the New Testament writers felt that way as well. I mean, they identified Jesus as such. And even in the Gospels, Jesus was identified as such, as the son of David. When he himself, you know, marches into Jerusalem on a donkey, as this great king, as this great ruler, as prophesied again in the Old Testament, he's setting himself up as the Davidic king, if you will, as this great ruler. And so I don't think that we have to take it in that way that Joseph was, you know, physically, biologically the father of Jesus.

We know Mary was a virgin on the basis of what scripture says in the Gospel of Luke and elsewhere. And so I think that's the best way to understand that. But appreciate the question. Hopefully, I don't know if that'll convince your husband, but tell him if he wants, he can give me a call. So God bless. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to John in St. Louis, Missouri. John, what's your question for Adriel? Yeah, I got it there. I appreciate God's show there.

Hey, listen, I want to ask you a question. There's a verse, and I think Timothy, it's right before Revelation, where they said that men will slander celestial beings. Is that beyond the point where God will say, like, that's enough, like, you know, there's no hope for mankind to turn towards my son and, you know, believe in, you know, believe in Jesus for salvation and grace. And what does that actually mean when it comes to that stage where men will be bolsters, they'll blaspheme the celestial angels who are much stronger than men?

You know, and I'm just kind of, I'm just kind of confused. What is the timeline as far as that, as far as Jesus coming back? And our thing is, with all the things that are going on in the world now, why does it seem like the devil has more increase in the world's events, I guess, you know, with all the crime and hate, faithfulness? Is that part of the, you know, the plan of, you know, of God's, Christ coming back, or the devil will be, the increasing evil will be more and more? And I want to stay on the air and hear your question.

I mean, your answer. Yeah, absolutely, John. Hey, thanks for that question, or those questions, because it sounds like there were quite a few there. Now, the passage of Scripture that you're referring to in the first part of your question is in 2 Peter chapter 2. And 2 Peter, we've already been there a little bit, right, in chapter 3, where it was talking about the coming of the Lord. In chapter 2, specifically, Peter is warning against false teachers, which he says are going to be in the church today. He begins by saying, false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them. And then he begins to talk about the sort of characteristics of these false teachers, sensuality, a hatred of authority, greed.

He goes down this list. I mean, 2 Peter chapter 2 is pretty vivid in terms of the description of these false teachers. And they've been around since the days of Peter. I mean, they're still around today throughout the history of the church. This is just a reality that we're going to have to wrestle with. This is why it's so important for us to understand the Scriptures, to know the Bible well, to be plugged into solid Christian communities, because there's a lot of weird stuff out there.

There's a lot of weird stuff out there in churches, in media, radio, television. We have to be discerning. We have to go back to the Word of God, back to the Scriptures, and understand the Word of God, according to its context, according to the history of interpretation, and so on and so forth. And so, this is a warning that Peter is giving. Of course, you do have in other places, like Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, a sort of talk of this great deception, this strong delusion that would be coming. So, it seems like associated with the end times, there is this final apostasy, this great falling away, if you will. Timothy, Paul writing to Timothy, he says, in the latter days, many will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and the doctrines of demons.

So, it's right there in the text. I think I could say, yeah, that is a part of the end times. One thing I will say, and maybe hopefully this is a comfort to you, is I think every society, we tend to think ours is the worst time in history to be like, I mean, things have never been this bad. Look at how horrible things are. You just think about the days in which the disciples lived, the apostles. I mean, Nero, he would set Christians up in his garden on fire. I mean, these were the kinds of rulers that they had back then.

It was pretty bad, and it's been pretty bad at various times in the history of the world, in human history. And yet, here's the encouraging thing. The Church of Jesus Christ has continued to stand, and it will continue to stand because it has the promise of Jesus himself. I am going to build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And so, our eyes as Christians need to be fixed on Christ. We need to be grounded in the word of God, growing in charity for each other within the church, and for all men, as God calls us to love all people, sharing the love of Christ with them through hospitality, not panicking.

Peter, again, it seems like we've been in the letters of Peter quite a bit today. He says in 1 Peter 4 verse 7, listen closely to what he says, the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling, as each has received a gift. Use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. And he goes on there in 1 Peter 4, 7 and following, but the point is this. He says, look, the end of all things is at hand. We're living in the end times, right?

Things are pretty bad. So, what should we do? What should we be focused on as followers of Jesus? He says, be self-controlled, be sober-minded, be committed to prayer, be committed to hospitality, be committed to loving your neighbor and continuing to serve Jesus.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. And that's what I want to say to you as well, John, as we think about the things that are happening around us, as we have concerns about the things that are taking place in the world. We know that, I mentioned it earlier on the program today, Jesus is king. He's reigning right now. He's ruling and defending his people. He's subduing the nations to himself through the preaching of the gospel, through his word.

We know the end of the story, and so we have comfort. God bless. Some great words. Thank you for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder, we have that free resource available to you, which would be really great at helping you answer some of those tough questions that might be posed to you by a friend or relative who maybe doubts the Christian faith, maybe somebody you know who's an agnostic or an atheist, and they're always kind of peppering you with questions. It's called Tough Questions Answered, and you can get that by going to our website corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers, and look for that particular wonderful offer.

Well, let's go to an email question. This is from Annette, and Annette says, a new church opened up recently, and we know the pastors and most of the members. They know that my husband sings on our church's worship team, but the pastor at that new church keeps trying to recruit my husband for his worship team.

I feel very uncomfortable with that. I love my current church. We went without a church for many years until God finally led us to the one we're at now. Is it right that the other pastor keeps trying to recruit my husband, knowing very well that he belongs to another church already? Trying to steal away the worship pastor. Your husband must be pretty good at leading worship if the churches in the neighborhood are trying to get him to go there. A couple of things. One, Annette, just really glad to hear that you found a good church and that you're plugged in and that you love being there.

I love hearing those stories. It's something that we want for all of our listeners, that they're plugged into good, solid churches. Here's what I think as a pastor. As churches, our goal should not be how can we siphon members away from other local churches in our area that are preaching the gospel well, but how can we disciple the people that we have here and engage our neighbors who aren't going to church so that they might come to church, and maybe some of them are pretty gifted musicians. I would say that that shouldn't be where we're focusing as churches.

Now, I do know that there are situations where an individual says, I think this is going to be a better setup for me. Maybe that's what this pastor thinks is, hey, I think you'd fit better here, that kind of a thing, but I really don't think it's that appropriate for us as ministry leaders to be trying to do that. I really would love to see the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the United States focusing on engaging the lost. Too often, the growth that we see in our churches is just sort of transfer growth.

Again, that's not always necessarily a bad thing. I'm not saying that when members from one church transfer to your church, that's a bad thing. No, it's good to get plugged into good churches, especially if you're leaving one church for a good reason as opposed to a bad reason, but we really need to think about the mission that Jesus gave us to go into all the world and make disciples baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching the nations to observe everything that Jesus commanded in his word.

I guess be encouraged that your husband is a coveted worship leader and stay at that church where you're at, where you love the fellowship and may the Lord continue to bless you guys as you're there and be with you in your service. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.