The much-awaited Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will soon become a reality. Many people know this. But, the issue is, how many people are ready for him? A lot of people seem not to be bothered by the fact of Jesus’ return. This is because, for a long time (since Jesus made the promise about his return to his disciples) nothing has happened.
In 30 AD, the year of Jesus’ ascension to Heaven, angels of God re-echoed on Mt. Olivet words he had earlier-on spoken to his disciples about his sure-return to earth. The year 2030 AD will therefore be the two-thousandth year, since this promise. Obviously, it has been a long time since; long enough for many people to have turned themselves into scoffers, who teasingly suggest that he is unable to return.
However, this sure-to-come event of Kingdom Calendar now seems imminent. This is why there are, today, many rumours and predictions about the Master’s return. These are signs, among others, pointing to the fact that because of the integrity of the one who made the promise to return (Jesus Christ the Nazarene), the fulfillment of his words can no longer delay.
Of course, nobody knows when the return of the Master will take place. The Master has however, warned his disciples that it will come like a thief. He has cautioned all his disciples that, if the master of the house knew when armed robbers would break into his home, to take away his goods, he would not have been sleeping.
It seems to me that, everything about this coming event is characterized by surprise: season, day, hour and a never-seen cataclysm of its kind in the earth. At a time when people will seem to enjoy peace, then, this surprise will come upon them.
Not only in these things will the Second Coming, of the Lord Jesus Christ, be a surprise to the inhabitants of the earth. The composition of the group of the elect few, qualified to enter Heaven, will also shock many. We are told in the Word of God, that all creation awaits the revelation of this select-group, which will be declared eligible to enter Heaven (Romans 8: 19).
There are people who many others do not expect to see in Heaven, but who will surprise the many, when they find their way there. At the same time, a select few (of so-called archbishops?), expected by many to be in Heaven, will fail to enter it. It could be that some rank-free disciples of the Master will find their way into Heaven, while some high-rank so-called archbishops (and self-styled reverends?) will be denied entry.
According to the Master people will come, from the east and west, to feast with Abraham in Heaven, whilst many Israelites born out of his loins are cast out into darkness (Matthew 8: 11-12). Jesus has also said that, while many people of Tyre, Sidon, Nineveh and the south (Ethiopia of Africa) will gain places in Heaven, many Israelites of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum will be denied entry (cf. Matthew 11: 21-24; 12: 41-42; & Luke 11: 31).
The greatest surprise of entrees into Heaven to many people will, however, be king Nebuchadnezzar: one-time king of the erstwhile Babylonian Empire who was a thorn in the flesh of unrepentant-Israel. Nebuchadnezzar ruled with an iron hand for more than forty years – 605-562 BC. Though many people do not know of a single good thing he did in his reign, he ended it in a manner worthy of earning him life in Heaven.
How could this be, many may ask? And this is the reason why it will surprise many to see him with them in Heaven. Many more others may seek to find issues with God, for being cast out of Heaven, while this one-time wicked king is made to enter. How is Nebuchadnezzar able to achieve God’s blessing in this? The answer is simple: God’s Word in Ezekiel 36: 25-27, became real to Nebuchadnezzar at the tail-end of his life. Here are these verses:
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36: 25-27, KJV).
You see, when it pleased God to lead Nebuchadnezzar into His salvation, He turned him into a beast. Please read Daniel 4: 1-37 to understand this drama. For many people, it was God’s judgment upon him for his wickedness; and they rejoiced in it. But that was God’s disguised blessing to him.
God wanted to wash Nebuchadnezzar in the dew of Heaven but could never get him into the open, out of his palace, to do so. And so He turned him into a human-beast; drove him into the fields and commanded angels to guard him; so nobody would hunt him down as game. And all this, God did for a period of seven years, during which He caused the dew of heaven to do a thorough work of taking out his heart of stone, and transplanting in him a heart of flesh.
With his new heart, Nebuchadnezzar was able to worship God for his very first time. Because God washed Nebuchadnezzar in the dew of heaven (waters of baptism?), he was able to meet Jesus’ condition for anyone’s entry into Heaven, stated in John 3: 3-5. Do you see the love of God for Nebuchadnezzar and how in this love, God caused all things to work together for his good? Nebuchadnezzar will therefore surprise many to be found in Heaven to spend Eternity with God.
Nebuchadnezzar will not be the only surprise in Heaven. Remember the sailors who were with Jonah, the disobedient messenger of God who was sent to the people of Nineveh? Well, they had their idol-polluted hearts purified in the rain-waters of the storm which hit them, while they were on the deck of their ship casting its cargo into the sea. In that thorough drenching by the rain-waters, they had their stony hearts replaced with those of flesh, thus enabling them fear God, offer sacrifices and make vows to worship Him. Please Jonah 1:4-16 from the King James Version of the bible to understand the drama of this account. These seamen will therefore surprise many to be found in Heaven.
Also, Naaman, the leprous-Syrian army general, will surprise many to be found in Heaven. You see, Naaman was not only cleansed of his leprosy in the seven dips he made into the waters of the Jordan. But in the process, he had God take out his heart of stone and transplant in him, a heart of flesh.
When God was through with Naaman in His transformation process, he not only worshipped God with a heart of flesh, but was ready to take a load of the earth of Israel, to build a temple unto Jehovah in Syria. In Second Kings 5: 1-19, we read the entire account of Naaman’s cure from leprosy and the recreated heart of flesh that God him after he dipped himself seven times, into the waters of the river Jordan, in obedience to Elisha, a man of God.
The Old Testament has accounts of how God (Personally) baptized some people, to make them eligible to enter Heaven, when they had no idea what blessings He was bestowing on them. The list of such blessed people is a very short one.
It consists of Noah in the ark (First Peter 3: 20-21); Abraham in the waters of the Euphrates river (Joshua 24: 2-3); infant-Moses in the Nile waters (Exodus 2: 1-10); Israel in the Red sea crossing (First Corinthians 10: 1-2) and the generation of Israelites who crossed the waters of the Jordan (Joshua 4: 1-9). Nebuchadnezzar, Naaman and Jonah’s ship mates in his infamous journey from Joppa to Tarshish were God’s latter additions to this short list of men baptized by God Himself.
All these incidents of baptism occurred as and in the shadows of this ordinance of the New Testament doctrines, which brings new-life to all who are blessed by God to receive it in Jesus’ name. Later on, God sent Jesus to make real these and many other shadows of baptism, in that which he received at the hand of John the Baptist.
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Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ and is the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His e-mail address is: [email protected].
