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✨ THE COMPLETE COVENANT‑DISCIPLINE & RESTORATION SEQUENCE (WITH VERSE REFERENCES)

📜 What We’ve Been Taught—And Why It’s Worth Rethinking

1. The Second Coming happens spiritually to the individual

Acts 3:20

“…that He may send Jesus Christ…”

This is not a sky‑event. It is the personal presence of Jesus being sent to the repentant unbeliever.

It is conversion, when they repent of unbelief and are born again.

This matches Jesus’ own words:

• John 14:18 — “I will come to you.”
• John 14:23 — “We will come to him and make our abode with him.”

And it matches the angels’ rebuke:

• Acts 1:11 — “Why are you looking up…?”

They redirect the disciples away from expecting a physical descent.

In the first part of their statement the Angels ask “why” the disciples are looking up (Acts 1:11) because Jesus had already told them He would make His abode within them John 14:23.

In the second half of their statement the angels refer to His coming on a cloud for judgment as in Isaiah 19:1.

• this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
• Jesus ascended in Acts 1:9.
• Acts 1:9 ASV — And when he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

2. Jesus returns on the Day of the Lord in the manner of Isaiah 19:1 — a spiritual presence or coming in discipline and judgment, Joel 1:15.

The Second Coming is distinctly for salvation (Heb 9:28).

The Day of the Lord is a subsequent time of the Lord’s visitation for judgment, Joel 1:15.

Salvation and judgment are two different concepts.

Acts 1:11

“…He will come in the same manner as you saw Him go…”

The “manner” is cloud/spirit‑concealed covenant visitation for judgment:

• 2 Peter 3:10 Presence of Devil, Elemental/carnal things melt
• Colossians 2:20 NASB20 — If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,
• Re 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
• Isaiah 19:1“The LORD rides on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt…”
• The willfully sinful believer is sent into the presence of the Devil and His Angels in Hell on the Day of the Lord, Matt 26:41
• When they pay the uttermost farthing or repent of the ungodly behavior they are released from the prison of Hell (Matt 5:26) and again dwell in the presence of the Lord

This is individual discipline, not a worldwide geographical event.

This is the “Day of the Lord”:

• Joel 1:15–16 — the Day of the Lord brings covenant discipline, loss of joy, and devastation.
• It is not salvation (Heb 9:28)

3. Willful sin sends a person into covenant discipline (Babylon/Hell)

Hebrews 10:26–27

“If we sin willfully… there remains only a fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation…”

This is the same pattern as:

• Jeremiah 50:6–8, 17 — God’s people are driven into Babylon for willful sin.
• Matthew 25:41 — the goats are told, “Depart from Me… into the fire…”

Thus:

Babylon = the covenant prison / Hell = the presence of the devil and his angels.

Instead of Jesus presence, these willfully sinful believers experience the presence of the Devil and His angels. Their presence in the believers life is the everlasting fire which Jesus judgment sends them into in Matt 25:41. This fire is called everlasting not because people stay there forever, but because it was created as a prison for everlasting beings – the Devil and His Angels.

4. This discipline is described in the Three Woes

Woe 1 — Torment without death

• Revelation 9:5–6 — “They were not allowed to kill…”
• Matches Job 2:6 — Satan forbidden to take Job’s life.

Woe 2 — Death permitted

• Revelation 9:13–21 — one‑third are killed.
• Spiritual death becomes possible.

Woe 3 — The voice of the Bridegroom is silenced

• Revelation 11:14 → Revelation 18:23“The voice of the Bridegroom shall be heard in you no more.”

This is the final covenant‑death condition mentioned in John 3:16.

5. Repentance is the release from the covenant prison

Matthew 5:25–26

“You will not come out until you have paid the last penny.”

This is the mechanism of release:

• repentance
• reconciliation
• turning from unbelief
• restoration of relationship

This is the repentance John the Baptist restored:

• Matthew 17:11“Elijah comes and will restore all things.”

Elijah = John = repentance.

The initial repentance from unbelief results in the unbeliever being born again (John 3:3). A believer repents from sin in their lives as the Grace of God teaches them to deny ungodliness, Titus 2:11-12.

A believer must do works (Rev 2:23) of righteousness, but is not capable of teaching themselves to deny ungodliness, Eph 2:8-9.

6. Initial Repentance triggers the spiritual Second Coming, subsequent repentance leads to the crown of life which God gives James 1:12 and Rev 2:10.

Acts 3:19–21

• v.19 — “Repent… that times of refreshing may come…”
• v.20 — “…that He may send Jesus Christ…”
• v.21 — “…the restoration of all things…”

This is the reversal of Genesis 3:24:

• Genesis 3:24 — the way to God’s presence is barred.
• Acts 3:20–21 — the way is reopened through repentance.

7. Restoration leads to Ephraim & Gilead — full inheritance

Jeremiah 50:19

“He will be satisfied on Ephraim and Gilead.”

These represent reward:

• the west (Ephraim)
• the east (Gilead)

Together symbolizing:

• full covenant restoration
• return to inheritance
• the presence of Christ restored

⭐ THE WHOLE SEQUENCE IN ONE SENTENCE (WITH VERSES)

Willful sin (Heb 10:26) sends God’s people into Babylon/Hell (Jer 50; Matt 25:41), where the three woes unfold (Rev 9–11; Rev 18:23), but repentance (Matt 5:26; Matt 17:11; Acts 3:19) which originally triggered the spiritual Second Coming of Jesus to the individual (Acts 3:20), also leads out of sin bringing the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21) and leading the person back into the satisfaction of Ephraim and Gilead (Jer 50:19).

A Gentle Admonition: Revelation 22:19 and the Danger of Replacing the Spiritual Coming With a Physical One

It is worth noting the closing warning of Scripture: Revelation 22:19 cautions that anyone who adds to or takes away from the prophetic pattern risks losing their share in the tree of life and the holy city.

In the context of the covenant‑discipline sequence, this serves as a gentle reminder that redefining Christ’s coming as a physical sky‑event—rather than the spiritual visitation He promised (John 14:18, 23; Acts 3:20)—can unintentionally alter the pattern itself.

The angels already corrected the disciples’ upward gaze (Acts 1:11), directing them instead toward the Isaiah‑19 “cloud‑coming” of covenant discipline (Isa 19:1) that unfolds on the Day of the Lord (Joel 1:15–16).

When this correction is ignored, the believer is left expecting an external spectacle rather than the internal visitation that brings repentance, release from the covenant prison (Matt 5:26), and the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21).

Revelation’s admonition therefore gently warns us not to replace the spiritual Second Coming with a physical one, lest we trigger the very disciplinary sequence—Babylon, the woes, the silence of the Bridegroom—that Christ designed to bring us back to repentance (Matt 17:11) and ultimately into the satisfaction of Ephraim and Gilead (Jer 50:19).

Matthew 23:39 is where Jesus tells unbelievers that they will choose the time of the Second Coming in their lives – when they welcome Him into their hearts.

In Luke 13:35 He says the same thing to willfully believers. They will come out of the prison (Spiritual Influence of Hell) when they welcome His Spirit back into their lives.