see, if you wanna be a teacher then answer a pertinent Q imo; i mean look, you don't have to right now, but you are going to be asked this again someday soon, and you are not going to be able to plead the 5th then i guess, nor puke all over it as CI has done
I don't think anyone is debating the fact that before we can expect to be accepted by the Lord when He returns, we first must receive z Him. But I do not think for one moment that that one verse containing the word'return' can be used as I believe you are doing to cent the second coming of Jesus. The entire chapter of Matthew 25 is dedicated to Jesus speaking of His own coming again at a time of His Fathers choosing. The previous chapter Jesus was feelingdeali the expectations of His disciples regarding the coming of the 'kingdom'. They, along with every other Jew, and in full accord with the traditions and teachings handed down from generation to generation, expected their Messiah to come and defeat their enemies, in the immediate context, Rome.
So Jesus, not for the first time, had to gently realign their hopes and expectations. Do first, he dismantled their concept of an impending early kingdom with them at the head table, telling them that their previous temple and everything connected to it will be destroyed... Utterly. To the disciples, that was the end of the world. So they asked, when shall these things be, what shall be the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world. Jesu hav s answered on such a way as not to destroy their hopes completely. He didn't tell them it would be 1000s of years away, yet for our sakes have us signs and indications to when all these things would takes place. But Jesus did not expect us to be clairvoyants in predicting the future. He said elsewhere that the way to determine our place in the prophetic timeline was not to look to the future, but to the past. He said, ye shall see... Ye shall hear... Ye shall observe...
KJV Luke 21
28
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
31 So likewise ye,
when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that
shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
KJV John 13
19 Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.
KJV John 14
29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.
It is when we have observed history to fulfill all that the prophets have said, then we know where we are. We are in expectation of the second coming because of what has taken place in the past... What we have in the past witnessed, and what we witness today. It is because of what has recently taken place, W can with some certainty understand in general terms what we can expect to come next.
But only those who watch... Only those who are willing to stand on the walls of the city and give the warning will be given the eyes to see and the ears to hear the signs of the times.
Jesus is coming again, and it is a fact that his coming had been delayed, as the parable of the ten Virgin's shows. Delayed not because he wasn't ready to come nor because it wasn't time, but because the church has been asleep. So in a sense, your "return to me" call to the church is extremely appropriate. Yet, the bridegroom came when some were not ready. The time is coming that the numbers will be sufficient, and the time right, for God to declare, "it is time".
KJV Revelation 22
11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.