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Remember, satan travesties truth. The false messiah's parousia is connected with
"powers, signs and lying wonders." Now these powers, signs, and lying wonders are an
exact counterfeit of Pentecost, as a reference to the Greek of Heb. 2: 4 will show, and go
to prove that the parousia of the Lord Jesus is that spoken of by Peter in Acts 3: 19, 20,
connecting it with Israel, the prophet Joel, and the day of the Lord. Matt. 24: 29
continues:--
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the
moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and
then shall all the tribes of the land mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in
the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."
"Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which
pierced Him, and all tribes of the land shall wail because of Him" (Rev. 1: 7).
Isaiah, speaking of "the day of the Lord" (Rev. i.10) in Isa. 13: 6-11, says in v.10:--
"For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun
shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine."
See also the following passages, Ezek. 32: 7; Joel 2: 30, 31; Amos 5: 20;
Zeph. 1: 14, 15; Acts 2: 19, 20; Rev. 6: 12-17; and again consider the question, What
has all this to do with the church of the mystery? Interpreted of Israel and the kingdom,
all is clear; strained to fit the church of Ephesians, all is confusion. In Matt. 24: 37-39
we read:--
"But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the parousia of the Son of man be. For,
as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not till the
flood came and took them all away; so shall also the parousia of the Son of man be."
To what do the words "eating, drinking and marrying" refer, for of themselves these
things are right and good? In Exod. 32: 6 in connection with the idolatry of the golden
calf, we read, "The people sat down to eat and to drink." Further on in the history of
Israel we read in Numb. 25: 1-3:--
"And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the
daughters of Moab, and they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the
people did eat, and bowed down to their gods, and Israel joined unto Baal-peor."
The previous chapter gives the record of Balaam, and this throws a lurid light on the
prophetic picture of the near future given in Rev.2: 14, 20:--
"Thou hast there them who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a
stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to
commit fornication."
"Thou sufferest that-woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and
seduce My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols."
The parousia of the Son of man will take place when this world has become a very
pandemonium of licentiousness and uncleanness (see Rev. 3: 4; 9: 20, 21; 21: 8, and
22: 15, where this fearful sin, done under the cloak of a religions observance, is referred