Luke 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:
v. 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
This Scripture does seem to be saying that the world will be carrying on as usual when suddenly the Son of Man will appear. This age is about experiencing good and evil and it has been full of wickedness, it was at the time of Noah and is now and will be to it ends. So I think that is what Christ is saying, as it was then, it will be that way right up to the end of this age.
In Matthew 24 Christ gives this same prophecy of His return beginning in verse 29.
Mat 24:29 "Immediately
after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
So Christ says it's "after the tribulation of those days"... after the tribulation or all the difficulties of the days of the lives of the elect down through the centuries or when they are completed it's the end of this age. That's precisely when Christ returns and the start of the next age, when Christ has every elect that was predestined are prepared, then the time is ready.
Rev 6:9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
v. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"
v. 11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer,
until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.
Back to verse 29 "...the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken." I can see how this is showing that Christ's appearing will be such a spectacular event, it would have to be the most incredible thing ever seen. So terrifying will it be that verse 30 says "all the tribes of the earth will
mourn (CLV grieve)."
But there are many Scripture speaking of how brilliant Christ is in His glory and when He returns and literally appears, I think the world will actually 'see' Him. If you think about how it might be with His glorious appearance, I think that He would actually outshine the sun or it would appear darkened. I mean I don't think the sun will actually go dark or the stars fall, because they will still be needed. This is just saying His glory will literally outshine any physical thing, the sun, moon and the stars.
Here is a another verse you mentioned Alex.
Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the day of the Lord come, That great and notable day.
In this Scripture that speaks of the moon turning to blood, that is speaking of the apostasy of the church and here is where Ray spoke about this.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,5815.0.html -----
Peter thought, well this is the last days. Now he was right, he was inspired to write that because God did start pouring out His Spirit on Pentecost. So that was the last days. How long do the last days last? Until they are over. It’s been a pretty long time. But he didn’t finish the prophecy, he quoted Joel, but he didn’t finish all of Joel. Because it doesn’t all fit then. But the portion that he did quote, it does fit then.
You say, ‘but didn’t it mention heavenly signs.’ He said, you know these people aren’t drunk. These people are like the people that prophesied in Joel, where it says they shall dream dreams and see visions, all of that. And the sun shall not give it’s light and the moon shall turn to blood.
Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the day of the Lord come, That great and notable day.
Did that happen on Pentecost? Yes it did! How so? How did the sun not give it’s light? How did the moon instead of reflecting light, turn to blood?
Light is symbolic of God’s Truth. Jesus Christ is the light. The brightest physical symbol of light, brightness, this is our sun. So light comes from the strongest source. God - Jesus Christ is that light.
John the Baptist said, “that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,” (John 3:19). But He was that light. The Son gives light, that’s direct revelation from God.
Now the moon is the reflected light. That should come through the church and through the ministry. They get it from the Son. The moon (church) reflects it’s light from the Son (Christ), it doesn’t have it’s own light (Truth). If the sun went out, the moon would go out, because the moon has no light, it’s reflected light.
So as the ministry gets light, they give it to the congregation, they feed the sheep.
But what did He say would happen, starting on Pentecost? The sun/Son isn’t going to give it’s light anymore. God is not going to give direct light to the people anymore. The light that should be coming, that was already given to the moon, to be reflected, now it’s not going to give it’s light. It’s going to be turned to blood. What is this talking about?
Their revelation from God was going to cease. Apostasy is going to set in. The church is going to go amuck and instead of teaching the light from God and passing it on, they are going to turn to blood. How so?
Well on that very day they stoned Stephen (Acts 7). Instead of giving light to the world as a secondary light, they turned to blood. They turned murderers.
Tomorrow we are going to go through and see how many men, who wanted to present God’s Word to everyday people like us, they had to pay with their lives. Well who would do such a dastardly thing? The moon! The secondary light of God’s Truth - the church - the Popes - the Bishops. If you even had…. you didn’t have to teach it or even read it, if you were found with a copy of Tyndale’s Bible, you were put to death. I mean it was pretty bad.
Tyndale was burned at the stake. Russ was burned at the stake, lots of people were burned at the stake. They kind of took the Catholics out of England for a while. Then bloody Mary came back and she wanted to bring back the Catholic church. Then she started burning people at the stake. She said, ‘I’m not doing anything to these people, that God isn’t going to do to them for all eternity. I’m not doing anything wrong.’ She didn’t see anything wrong with burning people at the stake. It’s unbelievable.
Calvin didn’t see anything wrong with burning people at the stake either. That man is so adored by so many. I mean considered the greatest theologian. He was, I mean absolutely the scum of the earth.
Martin Luther although he did a lot of good things, you just read what his attitude was towards the peasants. ‘Kill them all and make it dirty, make it fast.’ No mercy.
So it did start then. They went from teaching God’s Truth, they turned their hands to blood. They killed Stephen, a real saintly man, they killed him and gnawed on him with their teeth. They just despised that man. You don’t know what hatred is. Like I’ve said so many times, hell hath no fury like a Christian who’s just been told the Truth.
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mercy, peace and love
Kat