Joseph J. Dewey
The second coming of Christ has to be the most misunderstood doctrine in all Christendom for there is not one of the sects that is even halfway preparing for it correctly. When the Christ comes again He will again find His greatest response from the same type of people who received Him the last time: the non-religious, and people who were ostracized by the normal religious community.
When Jesus was with the twelve they asked him:
“What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?” Matthew 24:3
The word “coming” comes from the Greek PAROUSIA which more correctly is translated as “presence.” This word is used by Paul to demonstrate this:
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence [PAROUSIA] only, but now much more in my absence…” Philippians 2:12
PAROUSIA means the opposite of “absence.” The word can also be translated as “nearness.” Thus we see that the signs given in Matthew 24, are indications of the nearness or the presence of Christ.
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The three stages of the coming of Christ are:
- The teaching and introduction of the Christ Consciousness. The Son of Man or the Christ consciousness will be lifted up to a large group of people.
- The partial and/or complete overshadowing of certain disciples and groups.
- The appearance of Christ himself in a physical body.
The second step is the beginning of the presence of the entity who is Christ on the earth. He shall indeed be present even though it may not be in a body of his own to start with, and this event is actually prophesied of in the scriptures themselves.
A careful reading of Zechariah will reveal that the persons mentioned as Joshua and Zerubbabel are representative of the Christ. Keeping this in mind let us read:
“Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” Zechariah 3:8-9
Here we have mention of Joshua who is Jesus and the stone which is laid before him who was the overshadowing Christ, the stone of Israel. Then there is the servant, the BRANCH who will repeat the vibration of Moses on a higher octave. Finally there is a group of disciples who are “wondered at.”
These persons are the seven eyes of the stone of Israel or the Christ. They are seven entities who shall experience the overshadowing presence of Christ as Jesus did. We see that when this will happen that the Lord will remove the iniquity out of the land. Thus it is obvious that it shall occur near the beginning of the new age of peace.
The seven eyes are mentioned again in the next chapter:
“For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.” Zechariah 4:10
We find another mention of this in the Book of Revelation:
“And in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” Revelation 5:6
Seven men are mentioned in another prophecy concerning Christ:
“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; [Christ] whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. [He has the experience of many lifetimes] …
And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then we shall raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principle men.” Micah 5:2 & 5
We see from these scriptures that there will be seven men raised up in the last days who will be called the eyes of the Lord. They will run to and fro through the earth and finally assist the Christ in driving back the Assyrian or the Anti-Christ forces. Altogether there will be eight principle men if we include the Christ.
They will be men of wonder because these seven men will be overshadowed and will fulfill the prophecy of doing even greater things than Jesus did. They will be greater because the Christ will come in unto them and sup with them; and the Christ has even more wisdom, experience and power than he had two thousand years ago so we can look forward to great things ahead.
Christ will use these seven entities as seven projections of his presence through the assistance of other Masters in his group. His spirit will shift from one person to another as His overshadowing presence is needed and will produce a tremendous effect as if there were a group of saviors on the earth.
The second stage of the presence of Christ involves a larger group of disciples wherein the Christ within them will be manifest on a larger scale. These disciples will try and fulfill the commandment given by Paul:
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” Philippians 2:5-6
In speaking of himself and faithful disciples he said:
“But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:16
Many people quote these scriptures, but few believe them. If we really have the mind of Christ then we will find that all of the scriptures that apply to Jesus also apply to us. For instance, Jesus said:
“And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” John 3:13
We are also Sons of God who will ascend into heaven who have in the beginning come from heaven.
Jesus continues:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” John 3:14
It is true that this corresponds to His death on the cross, but He also wanted to illustrate that each man should have the Son of man, or the mind of Christ lifted up within him so that:
“when he shall appear we shall be like him.” 1 John 3:2
Next Jesus said:
“That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:15 & 16
Not only should we believe the words and works of Jesus, but we must believe in and have faith in the Son of God that dwells within us. If we do this we can have everlasting life and life at the end of the age or in the age of peace.
The Son of God that can be lifted up within every man forms a part of “Christ, the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God.”
Thus when we lift up the Son of Man within ourselves, we also become the Only Begotten Son. We are an extension of the only Son there is; all the sons of men share an oneness that few can realize. Paul tried to teach the real Christ when he said:
“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: <so also is Christ … Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular.” 1 Corinthians 12:12 & 27
We can see that Christ is an office that is composed of all those who take upon themselves His name. To take upon ourselves the name of the Son means a lot more than remembering the works of another man however great he is. It means that we are to have the mind of Christ within us and to not think it mockery to be equal with God or to be “a savior on Mount Zion,” or “a Christ.” [Obadiah:21]
Copyright © 1999 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved