Opened Scriptures Bible Studies

W e are studying the early church to understand how they viewed the coming of Jesus Christ.  We are simply taking the texts as they come, relative to this beautiful doctrine. The second coming of Jesus Christ is called our blessed hope, and indeed it is.   In our last post, we looked at 2 Corinthians 5:1-3. We saw how Paul used the Old Testament tabernacle as a way to illustrate what happens when a believer in Christ dies.  Like the tabernacle being taken apart, and reassembled in a new location, so death is putting away our body of flesh, so that we may be clothed by a new heavenly body from God.  All creation groans under the effects of the curse. 2 Corinthians 5:4  For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.   Paul continues to use the picture of the tabernacle, as a metaphor for our physical body. Our body is still under th...

All work in in vain when we do not know God.  Ecclesiastes 6:7  All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. Solomon continues to show us that trying to live your life without knowing God, is a poor quality of life indeed.  This picture here is of a man who works hard every day in order to feed himself or to provide food for his family. Food can give only a temporary satisfaction from hunger. We will need more food soon enough, and after eating a meal, we will need to eat once more. It is an endless cycle.  Meats are for the belly and the belly for meats. The problem is that physical food has nothing for our mind and soul. Food offers nothing to nourish or enrich the soul.  A little food will serve to sustain us comfortably for a short time.  Having a great deal of food cannot do more than this.  Our natural desire for food still returns each day. A man may feast today and yet be hungry tomorrow. This shows us that our lu...

King Solomon, the Preacher who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, continues to impart his understanding of a man living his life without God.  His consistent conclusion has been that such a life is empty, purposeless and causes great agitation in that man's heart. The foolishness of a self centered life.   Ecclesiastes 6:3-5  If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.  4)  For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.  5)  Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.  He continues to observe the foolish man who hoarded all the good things God provided for his needs.  This man, you recall, did not enjoy what God blessed him with. He did not enjoy life because he constant...

How did the early church view the second coming of Jesus Christ? We are finding out that they longed for Jesus to return.  We also discovered that the apostles were focused on showing us how to live, until Jesus does return.  We are simply following the references as they are found in the Bible, beginning with the book of Acts and going through the rest of the New Testament.  I find this study to be a great blessing and an exhortation to live for my Lord's glory as I await His return. Waiting to be clothed with a new, glorified body from God.   2 Corinthians 5:1   For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  Paul refers to our body as an earthly house, and describes it as a dwelling place for our soul. In this body, we make a pilgrimage through this life, all while we look for our eternal home in heaven.  We live as a stranger pa...

  In our previous lesson, Solomon concluded that it was good for us to use what God has providentially provided to meet our needs.  This is the idea that our basic necessities of food clothing and shelter are met, and we are content. In this post, Solomon will show us the evil connected with hoarding all your wealth and provisions for some unknowable, future day of calamity.  This is the idea that we do not use God's gracious provision for our immediate needs. Rather, we develop a hoarding mentality and try to acquire more and more to carry us through a disaster of some sort. A common evil seen in the world. Ecclesiastes 6:1-2  There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:  2)  A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.  The Preach...

We are looking at the New Testament teaching on the second coming of Jesus Christ. We are taking the verses in the order that we find them. The second coming of Jesus Christ spans at least a seven year period.  The church age will end with Christ coming in clouds, and the dead in Christ rising from the grave with new, glorified bodies. Then, all living Christians will be caught up in the air and Christ will take us home to heaven. The rapture of the church begins the final countdown of God's prophetic calendar. The seven year tribulation period will begin, with a peace treaty signed by the antichrist and world leaders.  There will be about 3 1/2 years of relative peace and prosperity until the antichrist reveals his true evil purposes.  The last 3 1/2 years of the tribulation period will be marked by extreme idolatry and the unholy trinity consisting of the beast, antichrist and false prophet. Revelation, Daniel and Ezekiel describe these personages and events i...

Pursuing wealth is a hopeless endeavor. Ecclesiastes 5:13-14  There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.  14)  But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.    King Solomon begins to expand on the harmful impact of those who try to become wealthy and are never satisfied.  Riches can harm if the wealthy man uses them wrongly. If he is driven to alcohol or drugs, or gluttony and loses his health.  If he cannot cope with the increased stress of trying to keep his assets to gain even more, and his mind is flooded with discontentment and anxiety.  The rich man may enter a partnership and lose it all. He may become the target of thieves who seek to steal his wealth, or extortioners who demand a ransom payment. The rich man may pass on his wealth to his son when he dies, only to see his son foolishly squander it away and become poor. ...