Second Coming study - chapter 1
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Hope the Introductory Chapter of the "World events and the Birth and Life of Christ:
Death of Christ
No INCIDENT O.T. Reference 1 Betrayed by His friend Apart from the above, each book of the Bible gives at least one reference to Jesus Christ. (As this is a separate subject, the references are not mentioned here). All the incidences referred to the first Advent of Jesus Christ have already fulfilled. But the Jews could not identify & believe Him when He was born on Bethlehem and lived with them 2000 years ago. The expected a Messiah and still expecting Him. They crucified Jesus because of ignorance. At the same time the prophecies of the prophets and other books of the Bible had to be fulfilled. At the birth, life and death of Christ, almost all the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament came true. But in the Old testament, the Book of Daniel gives a different picture. Its prophecies are about the incidents before the birth of Christ and also the future incidents which would happen after the death and resurrection of Chris until the end of this world. All the prophecies are accurate and we should have a prophetical eye and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to understand them. Though our main theme is to explain the incidents which happen today which herald the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, we have to study the background of events which leads to the happenings of the present world. As we have already seen one can believe the prophecies related to this present time only if the prophecies regarding the past had already fulfilled. Now we are going to see the details of the Book of Daniel regarding the coming of Christ and this dispensation. Half of the dream (until the leg part of the image) seen by Nebuchatnezzer in Daniel Chapter 2 has been already fulfilled. The Roman Empire fell in A.D. 364 when it was divided into Eastern Province having Constantinople as the capital and the Western Province having Rome as the capital. After the fall of Rome, no other Kingdom could arise so powerful as the Roman empire. The present time can be compared to the foot of the image. The Bible says that the feet of the image was partly of iron and partly of clay (Daniel 2:33) . Now what does this mean. The Kingdoms which arise after the Roman empire would be with less power, but at the same time they will have the culture of Rome (denoted by iron). If we carefully study the characteristics present kingdoms and the nations we can understand that Babylonian & Roman culture have influenced almost all the countries of this world. The time of the toes of the image and the incident of the stone breaking the feet of the image have not been fulfilled. In this Bible Study we are going to see how these two things are going to be fulfilled and how the incidents of the world are pointing towards these things. To understand these things we have to read 9th chapter of the Book of Daniel. Daniel was praying to God to reveal him the prophecy of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:11). According to this the Jews were expecting a deliverance at the 70th year of captivity to Babylon. But at the time of Daniel the 70 years have already gone. So to understand the prophecy Daniel started praying with a doubt. To clear his doubt God sent His angel and revealed the secret to him. When we read the prayer of Daniel in the Book of Daniel 9:4-20, we can understand the method of prayer which will bring results. Daniel 9:23,24 say, "At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved: therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision: "Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city,
These two verses can be studied as follows:
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