ALMOST 2000 YEARS AND STILL COUNTING – BLOG 6
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
April 14, 2011
Matthew 24:3 – And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
JESUS ANSWERED 3 QUESTIONS BUT NOT IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER! THEY ARE LINGUISTICALLY SEPARATED FROM ONE ANOTHER BY THE FOLLOWING EXPRESSIONS IN LUKE’S OLIVET DISCOURSE:
(1) “BUT THE END IS NOT BY AND BY’ – LUKE 21:9
(2) “THEN SAID HE UNTO THEM” – LUKE 21:10
(3) “BUT BEFORE ALL THESE” – LUKE 21:12
(4) “UNTIL THE TIMES OF” – LUKE 21:24
(5) “AND THERE SHALL BE” – LUKE 21:25
Blog 5 ended w ith
a promise to continue the exposition of the answer that Jesus
gave his disciples, concerning the events that they would personally experience from the time
they asked the question, until the actual leveling of the temple mount.
It was a time period of some 40 years, and the book of Acts validates that all the things found in Luke 21:12-19, did indeed come to pass exactly as Jesus had predicted.
Luke 21:19 – In your PATIENCE POSSESS ye your SOULS.
The word used for PATIENCE is HEPOMONE, which means “the act of ENDURANCE.” It is through trials and tribulation that our faith grows, and a growing faith is one in which the SOUL learns more and more to following the direction of the Spirit of Christ, which dwells alongside it to make up the heart of a saved man or woman. The word HEPOMONE is translated as ENDURE in II Thessalonians 1:4.
II Thessalonians 1:3-5 – We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; [4] So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye ENDURE: [5] Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted WORTHY of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
This is the process of spiritual growth in faith by a SOUL kept by God, as it grows by the trials it ENDURES.
I Peter 1:5-7 – Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
[6] Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: [7] That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
By ENDURING through the trials and tests of the period up to the time of their physical deaths, or the leveling of the temple mount, they were to POSSESS, or gain control, of their saved souls by faith through the spirit in the promises Christ had made them. This would assure them of the reward of the crown of life at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
The word HEPOMONE is also translated as ENDURETH in James 1:12.
James 1:12 – Blessed is the man that ENDURETH temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
The word KTAOMAI is used for POSSESS in Luke 21:19, and it is also used for POSSESS in I Thessalonians 4:4.
I Thessalonians 4:2-4 – For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
[3] For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: [4] That every one of you should know how to POSSESS his vessel in sanctification and honour;
Here, the word POSSESS is used to refer to the post-salvation spiritual growth by a SOUL eternally kept by God as it grows through the trials it ENDURES.
It is to gain control of its vessel, its physical body, in the abstaining from immoral acts in it, through obeying the Spirit of Christ that dwells alongside it in the body. Likewise, in Luke 21:19, in the disciple’s ENDURANCE through all the trials of 21:12 to 18, they were to practice the same thing. They were to spiritually grow by the trials and tests they experienced, gaining more and more control of their flesh through their souls growing confidence in Christ, who indwelled them.
The word for SOULS is PSUCHE, and PSUCHE is quite often translated as LIFE. That is the case in the following verses, which refer not to the new birth experience of the SOUL, or LIFE, but to the post-salvation acts of it.
My SOUL is saved, and is definitely going to heaven. But I have a L
IFE to live in my present LIFE. If I do not live it for Christ, I do not lose my salvation, but I do
lose all the rewards I could have received, had I lived it by ENDURING in the faith.
Luke 9:23,24 – And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
[24] For whosoever will save his LIFE shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his LIFE for my sake, the same shall save it.
If the disciples had saved their physical lives by denying him in failing to ENDURE through the trials before the leveling of the temple, they would have lost the rewards
they had waiting for them. But if they ENDURED, they would be rewarded for having POSSESSED their SOULS during their time of testing.
Lord willing, I will continue beginning with Luke 17:20 in Blog 7.