A verse for 3/16/12

Rev 19:11  Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

Rev 19:12  His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

Rev 19:13  He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.

Rev 19:14  And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.

Rev 19:15  From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

Rev 19:16  On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

True or False: the text above is describing the Second Coming of Christ?

Most people would answer, TRUE. However, many of these same people believe that His Second Coming will be both bodily and visible because of the angel in Acts 1:11  "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

If Jesus is to return in the same manner He was taken up, why was there no white horse in the ascension? Where was the robe dipped in blood? Where were the heavenly armies following on white horses? We cannot deny these discrepancies between the ascension and the Second Coming accounts above. Perhaps we have misapplied the term “in like manner.” Instead of applying the words to how Christ ascended into the air (sky), what if we apply them to how He ascended from the air into heaven (the spiritual dimension)? In what “manner” did that occur? “A cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). He left in the clouds and He would return in the clouds (Rev 1:7) The Old Testament describes several “cloud-comings” of God--- and yet God was never seen physically on the clouds (Isa 19:1; Joel 2:1,2: Nah 1:2,3) In light of this Old Testament precedent, how would the New Testament generation have understood Christ’s “coming on the clouds”?