Does Revelation Teach That Christ Is Going To Return Soon?

Does Revelation teach that Christ is going to return soon? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open, and you can call us for the next 25 minutes or so. Here's the phone number, it's 833-THE-CORE. Maybe make a note of that, 833-THE-CORE, or 833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. You can watch Adriel live in the studio right now on YouTube, and you can send him a question through our YouTube channel, plus you can email us anytime at questions at corechristianity.com.

Next up today, here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Cherie. John the Baptist baptized, Jesus' disciples baptized. I would like to know where baptism came from. If John was the first one, I would like to know that.

Thank you so much. That's a great question. Did baptism just fall out of thin air in the New Testament? Well, no, there were various types or pictures of baptism in the Old Testament, and so I think we can point to some of those. The earliest being in Genesis 6 with the flood, and Peter in 1 Peter refers to that as a type of baptism, this picture of salvation through judgment.

You also have the children of Israel crossing through the Red Sea being delivered from Egypt. The Apostle Paul refers to this as a type of baptism in the book of 1 Corinthians. With regard to what John was doing, that activity in the wilderness where he was baptizing people for repentance, the crowds were coming to him. There are some who will say, well, what was taking place there was a ritual that was common among those sort of wilderness dwellers. There was a group known as the Essenes around this time in the wilderness, and one of the things that they practiced were purification rituals with water. Some people think, well, maybe John got his idea from them, or there's some overlap there, but certainly it's this picture of washing, it's this picture of repentance certainly for John's baptism, but we also have those other baptisms and pictures of baptism in the Old Testament so that it didn't just come out of nowhere, but it was really deeply rooted in the Scriptures and in particular in some of those big redemptive historical events in the Old Testament.

Thanks for that question. And I mentioned to you a couple days ago when I was teaching Sunday school this past weekend, I told the kids how Pharaoh and his army were baptized in the Red Sea. Yeah, they were too.

I mean, it didn't go so well for them. They didn't come out of the waters actually. That's where, again, we've talked already this week about baptism as a picture of judgment as well. In particular, if Jesus is baptism, he was baptized by John the Baptist, but he talks about undergoing a particular baptism with reference to the cross, the suffering that he experienced. And so we are baptized into Jesus, into his death and resurrection. We're dead to sin in and through him. This is the point that the apostle Paul makes in Romans chapter seven. So again, that picture of judgment is really important for us to understand and to grasp the fact that we have undergone the judgment, if you will, in Christ. And so we've been freed from the law.

We're no longer under the laws, this sort of works covenant, but we're free to follow the Lord as those who are alive from the dead through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen. Good words.

Thanks, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life doctrine or theology, hey, we're open to hearing from you. Also, maybe you have a question about how your Christian walk is intersecting with what's happening in today's culture.

Maybe you've run up against some type of opposition or even persecution for your faith. We're open to questions about that as well. Here's the number. It's 833-843-2673.

That's 833 the Core. Let's go to Don, who's calling in from Kansas. Don, what's your question for Adriel? Yeah. In Genesis, when God created man, then he put Adam into deep sleep, took a rib from his side, but he made Eve. What's the difference between created and made? Why is that maybe read that way?

I went back and looked at all the different versions of the Bible, and most all of them use created, and most all of them use made for Eve and the rib, except several of them use built instead of made. Could you give me your thoughts on that? Yeah. So, I just opened up to Genesis 2, verse 18, then the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him.

The idea there is sort of face-to-face opposite of. Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. And the man gave names to all the livestock and to all the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field, but for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman because she was taken from man.

And that word made there can be translated as built. And I think what's being highlighted here is that that complimentary relationship between the man and the woman, the woman here being brought before Adam as that helper fit for him. Now that word helper doesn't in any way signify inferiority. In fact, oftentimes when that word is used in the Hebrew Bible, it's used with reference to God.

God is the great helper of his people. What we're seeing here, Don, is that perfectly complimentary relationship that exists between the man and the woman that they were created for each other and to serve the Lord there in the garden. And so I think that's one of the things that's being highlighted there is this distinction is raised.

It's not in any way signifying again inferiority or that the woman is less in terms of nature or value or something like that, but complementarity. And so that's what I think is being highlighted. Don, thank you for your question. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Here at the Core, we often talk about the overarching theme of the Bible, which is really the gospel, the life, the death, resurrection of Jesus. And we actually have a wonderful book on that topic we'd like to offer you today.

Yeah. The book was written by a professor that I had in seminary, actually a man that I think very highly of. His name is Dennis Johnson, and the title of the book is Journeys with Jesus, How Every Path in the Bible Leads Us to Christ. You know, if you listen to this broadcast, that we are saturated in the scriptures, that we take questions about the Bible every single day, and that through the scriptures, we want to help you have a fuller understanding of the core doctrines of the Christian faith, but we want to direct your eyes to Jesus. And that's one of the reasons why I love this book in particular is because Dr. Johnson does such a good job of tracing those themes in the scripture and helping you to see how all roads really do lead to Jesus, to his redemptive work when we're looking at the Bible. And so if you want to help understanding the overall themes of scripture and how to rightly read the Bible as well, get ahold of this resource over at corechristianity.com.

You can get it for a donation of any amount. Once again, it's called Journeys with Jesus, How Every Path in the Bible Leads Us to Christ. You can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. And while you're at our website, cruise around, check out some of the other resources we have, lots of great free ones that will help you grow in your faith. And corechristianity.com for that book, go to forward slash offers. Well we do receive voicemails here at Core Christianity. You can call us anytime 24 hours a day and leave your voicemail.

Here's one that came in from one of our listeners named Rosemary. My question is, if the world is supposed to end, is it going to be ending with Jesus coming down with the whole trumpet and everything? Is it going to end soon? Do we know this? I just wanted to know the pastor have an understanding of what it's supposed to look like and how it does happen. And if it does happen, the good people will be taken up, will believe in Jesus, will go up to heaven, and the other ones will perish.

So I'm just curious, thank you so much. Yeah, well, the end does come with Christ's second advent, with his second coming to judge the world and to redeem his people. The second coming of Jesus Christ is both the hope of the people of God, what we look forward to, the blessed appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it's also judgment day for those who have rejected the gospel and don't embrace the truth of who Christ is, his lordship.

And so there's sort of like this double-edged sword. I mean, Paul, when he talks about it in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, it's really interesting how he sort of puts these two things together, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. He's encouraging the Thessalonians because they're going through some difficulty, some suffering persecutions. And he says, these persecutions are evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering, since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. And he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good work and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, you see those two things right there. He's talking about the end that you've asked about. When is that going to happen? It's going to happen when Christ returns and that's going to be unmistakable.

Everyone is going to notice this. And for the people of God, those who are believers throughout the world, some of our brothers and sisters in Christ suffering immensely, crying out to the Lord, come Lord Jesus, Maranatha. This is going to be deliverance, salvation in the fullest sense, but for those who reject the gospel, who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, there is vengeance and judgment. Now the question as to when this is going to happen, when is Jesus going to come back? Well, he said very clearly in the gospels, he comes as a thief in the night.

He doesn't say, here, I'm going to come back on this day. The call is for all of us as believers to be ready, to be watching, to be vigilant. And of course, that's what the church has always been, or at least called to be. And so, you look at other places in Scripture like the Book of Revelation, where you do have a picture of, I think, world history as it unfolds, different snapshots of what that looks like. By the way, we have a wonderful study on the Book of Revelation.

But also, the coming of the Lord, the consummation, the final judgment, you see that also throughout the Book of Revelation depicted through these visionary prophecies. And so, we're called always to be vigilant, always to be watchful, always to be ready. Thank you for that question. Great words.

Thanks, Adriel. This is Cora Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, maybe there's a passage of the Bible that really stumps you.

You're like, I'm not really sure I understand what that means. Hey, we're open to that question. Or maybe you're a person who has some doubts about Christianity, and you'd like to air a few of those and have Adriel respond to your doubts. Here's the number to call. It's 833-The-Corps. That's 1-833-843-2673. Well, let's go to a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners.

This is from Liz. My question for Pastor Adriel is, how can we restore the filed sexuality? For those of us who have committed gross sexual sins, how can we recover and heal from that? I feel as if I don't deserve to be married or have sex because my past sexual sin is so bad. What does the Bible say about this, and what should we do? Thank you.

Liz, thank you for reaching out to us, and my heart goes out to you, sister. I hear your question, and the shame that you feel, the fact that you feel like maybe you're not deserving of ever getting married because of your past, how can you restore this? Well first, let me say, it's through the blood of Jesus Christ that our sins are washed away your sins. No matter how bad you think they are, how bad they were. They're not so bad that Jesus' blood can't wash you clean. You think of what King David said after he had committed sexual sin, committed murder, acted in such a terrible way, and this as an individual who had known the blessings of God, and he says to the Lord in Psalm 51, purge me with hyssop, and I will be clean.

Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. In other words, the blood of Jesus is what restores us, what restores you. And let me just say this, there's this beautiful scene. It's one of my favorite scenes in all the Gospels in John chapter 4, where Jesus meets a woman at the well, and he doesn't just meet her by chance. He actually intentionally goes out of his way to pursue this woman. Now what's interesting about this woman is she was a woman of Samaria. The Jews didn't have dealings with Samaritans, they sort of had a real issue with the Samaritans because of what they believed religiously, they were treated as outsiders. But this woman in particular also had a past, a sexual past, and Jesus says to her, go and get your husband, and it basically comes out that she's had multiple lovers over the years, and now the person that she's living with isn't even her husband.

They're not really married, so she's living with someone, presumably has this intimate relationship, this sexual relationship out of wedlock. So she's a Samaritan, she's already rejected for that reason, but she also has this past that probably caused the Jews to look at her and say, oh man, keep your distance. You don't want anything to do with her, but Jesus did. He pursued her and he met her at the well. And what's so interesting about that specifically, I've mentioned this on the broadcast before, it's one of the reasons why again, this story is my favorite, is that motif of a man meeting a woman at the well is something that you see over and over again, especially in the Old Testament. So many of the patriarchs met their wives, they would go to the well, and there they would find a woman of marriageable age. And so you have this sort of background here in John chapter four of bridegroom imagery, finding a spouse, finding a bride. In fact, right before this, John the Baptist refers to Jesus as the bridegroom. So here you have the bridegroom, and who does he pursue? Who does he want to be a part of his bride at the church? This woman, this woman who the world had rejected, this woman who had probably been abused and mistreated and probably also had sinned greatly in all of these relationships and probably feels like, man, nobody wants me.

And of course, among the Jews, they didn't, but Jesus did. And sister, he loves you and wants you and welcomes you into his church and he washes you white as snow so that you don't have to walk around feeling like, oh man, I'm just a mess. No one will ever want me. No one, you know, I'm disqualified from being married.

No, not at all. No, you're not. Jesus loves you. Jesus has forgiven you as you've confessed your sins to him. And as you pray and as you seek him, I pray that the Lord would bring the perfect man, a godly man into your life who will love you as Jesus loves you, as one of his own children, one of his own sheep that he's died for.

And you deserve nothing less than someone who's going to love you and treat you well. So thank you, Liz, for reaching out and may the Lord bless you. Some beautiful words. Thanks for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder that we are a listener supported ministry, so we count on people just like you to help us pursue our mission of sharing the gospel, equipping believers, and answering the questions of non-believers. And if you'd like to make a gift of this ministry, you can easily do that by going to corechristianity.com. Click on the donate link. You can also learn more about becoming an ongoing supporter by joining what we call our inner core. That's a group of people that support us with a monthly gift. We'd love to have you involved in that.

Check it out at corechristianity.com. Just look for that donate button. Let's get back to the phones. Debbie is on the line calling from Nashville, Tennessee. Debbie, what's your question for Adriel?

Hi, Pastor. I appreciate you so much. Just wanted to ask a quick question. I'm at work, so I'll only keep you a moment, but I break the speed limit every day because I'm in two-hour day traffic on the interstate, and if I don't, I'll get ran over and sideswiped or whatever. I know that's the laws of the land that we're supposed to obey. Could you please give me some insight?

You don't want to get out there and get murdered nowadays, but could you please give some insight? Yeah. Well, is this a sin? You've broken the speed limit. Obviously, you don't want to be driving recklessly, and those laws are there for a purpose.

This is the question. You're going this speed of traffic. I live in Southern California, so people tend to drive a little bit more quickly.

You're going the speed of the traffic 75 miles, 80 miles an hour. You probably aren't going to get pulled over by a police officer. I mean, usually, I feel like the folks that get pulled over are the people that are going 90 plus, or they're distinguishing themselves out there on the highway. We are called to submit to governing authorities, but I don't think that you need to feel guilt or like, you know, I've broken God's law, if you will, because you're going the speed of the traffic, or because you make a maneuver that is something that you have to do, sort of defensive driving because of avoiding a car accident or something like that.

By the way, maybe I'm just speaking this way because I'm covered with guilt. I got my first speeding ticket bill ever in my entire life, just a couple of weeks ago, which was... I was driving actually in Arizona, a highway that I wasn't familiar with and thought I was doing fine. Everybody around me, and I got pulled over, the state trooper was a real nice guy, but he didn't let me off the hook.

So I'm going to be learning about this because I think I need to take a defensive driving class or something like that. I didn't feel... Afterwards, I felt bad, but I wasn't like, oh man, God, I need to repent. It was just, again, so I would say, Debbie, don't beat yourself up about this. I think you want to make sure that you're driving safely on the road, obviously, and that you're not doing anything to put yourself or someone else in harm's way. And so that's what I would say.

We want to exercise wisdom here. And so, thank you. Bill, how many speeding tickets do you have? I think I have two or maybe three in my life. One of them was not my fault, but I can get to that story later.

I think that the Lord did this. I think this was just to humble me because I often would boast in my perfect record of ... I mean, in all my years of driving, I've never gotten a speeding ticket, and then all of a sudden, my wife was in the car, and so she was laughing, you know? Oh, gosh. So, anyways, well, glad to hear, Bill, that you're a safe driver too.

Most of the time. Let's go back to the phones. Tammy's on the line from Missouri. Tammy, what's your question for Adriel?

Hi. A few minutes ago, a gentleman called in and asked the difference between created and made. I don't know that I heard an actual difference.

You highlighted the relationship between the men and the women. Is it just a matter of definition of the word? Is there a difference between being created and being made? I think that in the Hebrew Bible, we are talking about two different words, specifically, and I'd have to get my Hebrew Bible because I don't carry it with me everywhere.

I use my English Bible here. So I think in terms of the difference specifically, we believe in what's called creation ex nihilo, that is God making all things from nothing. And of course, with regard to the making of man, you have that seen early in Genesis where God makes man from the dust of the earth. And so sometimes people will draw the distinction, you know, to be made is to be made out of pre-existing material. Creation on the whole, we talk about God making all things from nothing, which highlights the fact that He is all powerful, sovereign. There wasn't like God existed and there was a bunch of other stuff that existed before Him or alongside of Him that He just kind of molded to make. God made everything from nothing and then He made man from the dust of the earth.

And then we're told in Genesis 2 that He made the woman from man and the Apostle Paul speaks about this to the Corinthians as well, I believe. And so I do think there is some distinction there. Maybe I can do a little bit more research and open up the broadcast tomorrow, Tammy, with a discussion on this, if I find anything interesting, but do appreciate your follow up and thank you for giving us a call. This is Core Christianity.

Our live program is just about over. We're going to be continuing and taking your calls for the next 35 minutes or so as we record a second episode of Core Christianity. And just one more reminder about that wonderful book we have, Journeys with Jesus, how every path in the Bible leads us to Christ.

It's by that seminary professor that Adriel had, Dr. Dennis Johnson. You can find it at CoreChristianity.com. 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.