Sickle of Truth

Symbolic Meaning of Matthew 24:30-31 Heaven and heavens are often symbolic of corrupt religious systems (2 Pet. 3:5-10; Isa. 34:5-4; Joel 2:9-11). See can denote mental perception (Luke 3:6; John 1:51; Rev. 19:10; Matt. 27:4, 24). Clouds often represent trouble as in Joel 2:1-2, a parallel text of Matt 24:30-31. The word “angels” is translated from the Greek word aggelos which literally means messenger and often refers to any messenger of God (Rev. 2 and 3, the seven angels or…

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Mental Perception Now let us consider more thoroughly Rev 7: 1 and Matt 24:30, which speak of all mankind seeing the returned Lord. Are they literal or symbolic? “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.” “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth…

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“Having established scripturally (See our last two studies, “Signs of Christ’s Presence” and “I will Come Again”) that the second advent of Christ begins with a secret invisible presence  which is discernible only by the eye of faith, and only to those members of the Church who are awake and watching, the question logically arises, Will the future revealing to all mankind likewise involve mental perception or literal sight? Harmony must be sought between two sets of scriptures relative to…

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Evangelical and Fundamentalist Consent to “Presence” The Emphasized Bible translated by Rotherham is published by Kregel, an evangelical publishing house. Rotherham relates his struggle with the word parousia in the third edition of his translation. Although contrary to his theology, he acknowledged that parousia means “presence” and so translated it in every occurrence. He states on Page 271 in the Appendix: “In this edition the word parousia is uniformly rendered ‘presence’ (‘coming,’ as a representative of this word, being set…

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“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I WILL COME AGAIN, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:3) When this age-abiding promise was first uttered by Jesus to his apostles, it did not make sense. To the naturally minded men who followed Jesus, they assumed the logical move would be for Jesus to take charge as a King, throw off the yoke of Roman bondage, exalt the Jews…

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Nations on the Run—another Remarkable Prophecy “Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him! Or as though he went into the house, Leaned his hand on the wall, And a serpent bit him! Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? Is…

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Are things getting better or worse? Population Explosion: Before 1650 A.D. the population doubled every 1,000 years; it doubled in 1850 (200 years later); doubled again in 1930 (only 80 years later); and doubled again in 1965 (only 35 years later). In 1990 the world population was 5.5 billion; in just a little under 30 years it increased by 2.2 billion to 7.7 billion in 2019. In 1990 it was estimated that 15 million people died of starvation that number…

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Wars and War Preparations “…Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, Let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ Assemble and come, all you nations, and gather together all around…” (Joel 3:9-11) Joel 3:1 identifies the events of this chapter as occurring during the regathering of Israel. As already seen, the regathering of Israel is a proof of Christ’s presence,…

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