First Advent of Jesus Christ


I have come a light into the world that whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness. And this is the will of my Father who sent me: that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in Him, may have life everlasting, and I will raise him up in the last day. If you love Me keep my commandments.




Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel. [God with us] (Prophet Isaiah 7:14)

For a Child is born to us, and a Son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, Father Eternal, Prince of Peace. (Almighty God - Isaiah 9:6 )

And you, Bethlehem Ephrata, are a little one among the thousands of Judah, out of you shall He come forth unto Me who is to be the ruler in Israel, and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity [Deity of Christ]. Therefore He shall give them up [the Jews, after his rejection and crucifixion], until the time wherein she who travails [the Virgin Mary] shall bring forth [the birth of the Children of Mary and the Children of God in heaven, with glorified bodies similar to her Firstborn Jesus]; and the remnant of His brethren shall return to the children of Israel. [salvation of the remnant of Israel in the end times] (Almighty God - Prophet Micah 5:2,3)

The Lord has said to me: You are my Son, this day I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the Nations for your inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for your possession, you shall rule them with a rod of iron, and shall break them in pieces like a potter's vessel. (Almighty God Psalm 2:7-8)

The voice of one crying in the desert  [St John the Baptist]: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord has spoken. [Prophet Isaiah 40:3-5]

Behold I send my Angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face. And the Lord, whom you seek, and the Angel of the testament, whom you desire, shall come to his temple. Behold he comes, says the Lord of hosts. [Prophet Malaki 3:1]
  The angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel having come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women. She having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for you have found grace with God. Behold you shall conceive in your womb, and shall bring forth a son; and you shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I do not know man? And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God. And behold your cousin Elizabeth, she also has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren, because no word shall be impossible with God. And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.

And Mary rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste into a city of Juda. And she entered into the house of Zachariah, and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb [St John the Baptist]. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold as soon as the voice of your salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed are you who have believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to you by the Lord.

And Mary said: My soul does magnify the Lord. And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he has regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from now on all generations shall call me blessed. Because he who is mighty, has done great things to me; and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them who fear him. He has showed might in his arm: he has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. And Mary stayed with her about three months; and she returned to her own house. (St Luke 1:26-56)

The spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me, he has sent Me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. (Prophet Isaiah 61:1-2)

 

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold I send my angel before your face, who shall prepare the way before you. A voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. John was in the desert baptizing, and preaching the baptism of penance, unto remission of sins. And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all they of Jerusalem, and were baptized by him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying: There comes after me one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I have baptized you with water; but he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And it came to pass, in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately coming up out of he water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit as a dove descending, and remaining on him. And there came a voice from heaven: you are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased. And immediately the Spirit drove him out into the desert. And he was in the desert forty days and forty nights, and was tempted by Satan; and he was with beasts, and the angels ministered to him. And after that John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying: The time is accomplished, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe the gospel. (St Mark 1:1-15)

 

When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. Saying, Where is he who is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and have come to adore him. And king Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born. But they said to him: In Bethlehem of Juda. For so it is written by the prophet: And you Bethlehem the land of Juda are not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of you shall come forth the ruler that shall shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod, privately calling the wise men, learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them; And sending them into Bethlehem, said: Go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come to adore him. Having heard the king, they went their way; and behold the star which they had seen in the east, went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was. And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him; and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country. And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell you. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him. He arose, and took the child and his mother by night, and went into Egypt: and he was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Out of Egypt have I called my son. Then Herod perceiving that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the male children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. (St. Matthew 2:1-18)

 


 

One of the prophetic mysteries of the First Advent was revealed by the Angel Gabriel to the Prophet Daniel:

 

"Seventy weeks [of years] are determined upon your people, and upon your holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished, and everlasting justice may be brought, and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled; and the Saint of saints may be anointed.

Know you therefore, and take notice, that from the going forth of the word, to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ the Prince, there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks [69 weeks of years]; and the street shall be built again, and the walls in straitness of times. And after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain, and He shall have nothing [or the people that shall deny him shall not be his or shall have no people or no kingdom]. And a people of the leader that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be waste, and after the end of the war the appointed desolation.

And he [Antichrist] shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week [the remaining unfullfilled week - 7 years], and in the half of the week the sacrifice and offering shall fall, and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation; and ihe desolation shall continue even to the consummation, and to the end". (Prophet Daniel 9:25-27)


A decree went forth to rebuild Jerusalem by king Cyrus of Persia, and the actual work began by another word by king Artaxerxes of Persia, and was carried on by the Prophet Nehemiah, accompanied by captains of the army and horsemen and letters from the king, which was about 444 BC. The 69 weeks of years - 483 biblical years of 360 days,  476 years of 365 days - were fulfilled, Beginning from 444 BC, when Jesus was crucified in 33 AD. The parting in two of the period is because in the first 7 weeks, or 49 years, Jerusalem was rebuilt, and in difficult times as stated. Then as stated, Christ was killed, and the Jews were rejected, and Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans and laid waste, in 70 AD, followed by the appointed desolation, which lasted until Israel was restored in the end times, as also prophesied in many places, to face her final destiny, along with the rest of the world. The last week revealed to the Prophet Daniel, the 70th week, when Antichrist will take control in that week or 7 years until "the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven", and the judgment of the living and the dead, and "Antichrist power is taken away and broken in pieces and that the kingdom, and power, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, is given to the people of the Saints of the Most High", and as spoken by Our Lord and the Prophets and the Apotles and St John in the Apocalypse. The gap between the 69th and the 70th week, as in most prophesies in the Old Testament, between the desolation and the final restoration of Israel, the first and the second advent, was partially hidden for it was a mystery of the birth and expansion of the Church until the full inclusion of non-Jews; "And I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth".

 

In the Second Advent of Christ, no time was given, as Our Lord Jesus also affirmed, but numerous prophesies and prophetic signs and events preceding and following that Great Event, were given by the Prophets of the Old Testament, Our Lord Jesus, and the Apostles. Referring to some old commentaries (Christian and Jewish), they state that God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th day; therefore creation will go on for about 6000 years (from Adam, following the chronological account of the book of Genesis and the Patriarchs life span - 4000 BC to 2000 AD), and the 7th millennium, the Great Sabbath the rest of God, the beginning of the eternal state, where He will judge the living and the dead, abolish all inequities, establish his Kinfdom, and be glorified in His Reserrected Saints. Hebrews Chapter 4 also refers to the 7th day where God and His people will enter that rest. Although, the Apocalypse and other Old Testament prophesies give the impression that Satan and his fallen angels judgment and other judgment, take place after the Great Sabbath, and after one last assault of evil, before the final eternal state takes place and the universe takes its final shape by the Eternal God.

 

 

 


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