Questions about Acts 3?

[Retrobyter]

Shalom, coheir.

 

 

 

Shalom, Willamina.

 

Acts 15:16-17 After this I will return and rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins and set it up; So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the gentiles that are called by My Name, Says the Lord Who does all things. NKJV

I also believe that Jesus' 2nd coming is spoken of here. I also firmly believe that you confuse the 2nd coming with our being caught up to meet Him which occurs prior to His coming again. Otherwise we would not be able to return with him. We are repeatedly told that we are not destined for wrath.

Rev 7:9, NKJV after the sealing of the 144,000 Jews: After these things I looked, and behold a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands.. 14. These are the ones who come out of great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So if we do go through the great trib, we do not go through the wrath which follows in chapter 8.

 

Where to begin.... I am a Messianic Jew. So, I looked up Amos 9:11-12 from which this quote was taken and noticed right away that the "tabernacle of David" is David's sukkah (cukah in my transliteration scheme or cukat in the noun construct state)! We're right now in the middle of the week of Sukkot, or as you might have read, "the Feast of Tabernacles." So, this is David's sukkah, but what is significant about such a structure? It was neither a "house" nor was it a "tent," per se; it was a HUT that was constructed for the purposes of meeting with others outside one's normal residence. In the case of David's sukkah, it was the structure built over His judgment seat existing outside of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem).

 

Amos 9:11-12

11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.

KJV

 

 

It is DEFINITELY about Yeshua`s second coming! It is talking about the war tribunal at the beginning of the Millennium!

 

Joel 3:1-2

1 For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

KJV

Now, you are correct on many things regarding the second coming, but the reason for the "harpazoo" is NOT to "take us out of the way" or to "keep us from the wrath of God!" The reason for the "harpazoo" is to provide a MASS TRANSIT SYSTEM for all God's saints to bring us to Yeshua` while He is still within the air and about to DESCEND!

 

We are already IN the "tribulation period!" It is NOT a "seven-year period," because it is NOT synonymous with the seventieth Seven of Daniel 9:24-27! It's more like a "2000-year period" such that there are "bookends" of 3.5-year offers of the Kingdom to Isra'el. The first one was during the "ministry" of Yeshua` (Jesus) during His first advent. When they rejected Him, He also rejected that generation and shelved Isra'el until they can welcome Him as the Messiah of God.

 

Matthew 23:37-39

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till (until) ye shall say, BLESSED IS HE THAT COMETH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD.

KJV

 

Psalm 118:22-26

22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.

23 This is the LORD'S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.

24 This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

25 Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.

26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.

KJV

 

Now, the Hebrew of verse 26's phrase (transliterated) is this:

 

26 Baruwkh haba' b-shem YHWH:...

 

It literally translates to "Welcome, the-comer in-name/authority of-YHWH." And, the "Comer in the authority of YHWH" is the Messiah, Yeshua` (the Christ Jesus).

 

Thus, HE was the one who put the gap within the 70 Sevens, but the gap is NOT between the 69th and the 70th Seven; it's in the MIDDLE of the 70th Seven! The first half of the Seven was Yeshua`s "ministry" or actually His offer of the Kingdom to Isra'el. But, for the overspreading of the abominations of rejecting Him, their house was left to them desolate, and they have been desolate and suffering the Time of Ya`aqov's (Jacob's) Trouble ever since! That will change when they welcome Him back, and when Yeshua` returns, He will continue the offer of the Kingdom to Isra'el. He was to be King of the Jews (of the tribe of Y'hudah or Judah), but He was also to be accepted as King of Isra'el, and then, like His ancestor Shlomoh (Solomon), He will become a King of kings, that is, a World Emperor!

 

Im not an expert by any means, this sounds like Preterism. Am I missing something in the post I should not miss?

 

 

Well, are we going to sink into name-calling? Most preterists I know are amillennialists; that is, they do not believe in a premillennial return of the Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus). Thus, they push EVERYTHING prophetic in Matthew 24 and 25 into the past. I do not. I emphatically DO believe in a premillennial return of the Messiah, and I emphatically DO believe in a 1000-year millennium (I know ... that's redundant) yet to come!

 

I believe that PARTS of Matthew 24 ARE in the past; however, although certainly not everything. At worst (best?) one might call me a "partial preterist," although that certainly doesn't cover what I believe. See, the simple truth is that there are portions of Matthew 24 that are written specifically and directly to the JEWISH disciples of the first century - those who were actually sitting/standing around Him on the Mount of Olives (Har HaZeitiym) that day. See, I believe that the best way to study the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) is to harmonize them in the Greek FIRST and THEN to translate the combination into the English. I've done this with the Olivet Discourse. I used the primary colors for Matthew only (red), Mark only (yellow or golden rod), and Luke only (blue), then used the secondary colors for combinations: sections that were the same in Matthew and Mark (orange), sections that were the same in Mark and Luke (green), sections that were the same in Matthew and Luke (purple), and sections that were the same in all three (brown). (It's really amazing how close the Greek is between the three!)

 

One thing I discovered is that (at least in the KJV) when a single Greek word (out of many Greek words exactly the same) was missing in one Gospel account, it could change the English translation DRASTICALLY!

 

When all the Greek texts have been harmonized into a single Greek text that is THEN translated, we get a much more complete picture of what Yeshua` was discussing with them. Furthermore, one learns that whenever the Greek pronouns "humeis" ("you" plural or "ye") or its alternate forms ("humoon," "humin," "humas"), Yeshua` was directly talking to the disciples who were with Him that day! Only when He peered off into the future and changed the pronouns, was He speaking about the future events.

 

Whenever the pronoun is absent, if the verb form ends in "-te" (tau, epsilon) or "-the" (theta, epsilon),  (the second-person, plural of the conjugation of most verbs), we are STILL talking about the first century!

 

Furthermore, there are contextual clues that demand that certain portions are written to children of Isra'el more than just to anybody! For instance, why would trying to escape on the Shabbat (the Sabbath) be restrictive to ANYBODY other than the children of Isra'el?

 

Why would Yeshua` INSIST on individuals STAYING UP ON THEIR ROOFTOPS? That would make NO sense for anybody outside of the old city of Jerusalem. You see, in old Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) the houses were (and still are) built quite close together. The only "roads" they used to have were for foot traffic. So, in an emergency, one could jump from rooftop to rooftop and escape over the walls of the city! That's not so true today in modern Yerushalayim! Yerushalayim today is a modern metropolis, sprawling well outside of the walls of the old city, with high rises and skyscrapers, like other modern cities in the U.S.A. and other countries!

 

THEREFORE, it is JUST AS WRONG to push everything Yeshua` said in the Olivet Discourse into the future as it is to push everything He said into the past, as the preterists do!