Second Coming

One of the more-than-I’d-like-to-admit regrets I have looking back on my years as a pastor is that I never reminded people enough that the Lord Jesus is coming again. I don’t want to have the same misgivings about my blog ministry for the church. Consequently, this blog is about the glorious fact of the Lord Jesus’ Second Coming…

“Living, He loved me; Dying, He saved me; Buried, He carried my sins far away; Rising, He justified freely forever; One day He’s coming – O glorious day!” – “One Day” Hymn

JESUS IS COMING AGAIN!

The Second Coming of Christ is an essential component of orthodox Christianity. I would not go so far as to say that belief in this doctrine is necessary in order to be saved, but I would say a proper perspective on the Second Coming is essential to living a successful, God-honoring Christian life.

“The Spirit in the heart of the true believer says with earnest desire, Come, Lord Jesus.” – John Wesley

It is important to be reminded that Jesus is coming again. We should not need to be reminded, but I believe most of us do. Studying and meditating on the Second Coming of Christ helps us keep our perspective clear in our daily lives.

J. Dwight Pentecost, a great scholar on prophecy, wrote, “A short time ago, I took the occasion to go through the New Testament to mark each reference to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to observe the use made of that teaching about His coming. I was struck anew,” Pentecost writes, “with the fact that almost without exception, when the coming of Christ is mentioned in the N.T., it is almost always followed by an exhortation to godliness and holy living. While the study of prophecy will give us proof of the authority of the Word of God, it will also reveal the purpose of God and the power of God, and will give us the peace and assurance of God. We have missed the whole purpose of the study of prophecy if it does not conform us to the Lord Jesus Christ in our daily living.”

Living in the shining light of the future Second Coming will never fail to improve our present lives.

Think of it: Jesus Christ is coming again! The same Lord Jesus born of a virgin two thousand years ago, the same Lord Jesus who died in our place on the Cross and rose again here days later, the same Lord Jesus who is the focus and reason of our daily lives; that same Jesus is coming to earth again! Astounding beyond words! And yet, that is the clear testimony of the Bible. This is what the Word of God says.

The truth of the Second Coming is an essential part of our faith. Many Christians, however, are simply too ignorant (not stupid, please don’t get me wrong; ignorance is absence of knowledge), too immature, to embrace this great truth. It is crucial, therefore, that we learn about the Second Coming and prioritize our lives according to its teachings.

(I am happy to say I am not speaking of Barabbas Rd. We can be thankful that our Pastor is an exception. In our recent long study of the gospel of John, for example, Pastor Matt referenced the Second Coming numerous times, particularly from Revelation 19, to be discussed immediately below. We have been and are being regularly reminded!)

ESV Hebrews 5:12-14 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

The Second Coming of Christ is, indeed, “solid food.”

The Second Coming of Christ is both a wonderful and terrible event. It is wonderful to the believer and terrible to the one who has rejected Him in His first coming. Allow me to begin from the perspective a little-taught and difficult-to-digest part of Scripture: Revelation 19:5, a part of Scripture that speaks graphically of the meek and lowly Jesus as a blood-splattered conquering King.  It is an awesome passage; it is indeed “strong”…

NAS Revelation 19:11-16 And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Quite a different picture of Jesus than that of His First Coming! Compare the picture of Christ on “Palm Sunday” in His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem:

ESV Matthew 21:5 (from Zechariah 9:9) “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'”

John MacArthur writes,

I believe Jesus Christ will literally return victoriously to earth one day in bodily, visible form. My convictions on this point are as emphatic as my belief in Christ Himself. My faith in the future return of Christ is as firm as my certainty about past redemptive history. Furthermore, I would argue that the fact of the Second Coming is a cardinal doctrine of Christianity. It is the end and goal of God’s purpose on earth, and the divine climax will be as precise and purposeful as every other revelation of God. Those who abandon the hope of Christ’s bodily return have in effect abandoned true, biblical Christianity.

WHAT ABOUT THE RAPTURE? Is the Rapture the same as the Second Coming? The answer is no. A search of the Scripture will clearly reveal they are two distinct events.

The teaching of the Rapture is most clearly presented in two passages of Scripture:

NAS 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.

NAS Acts 8:39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing.

The Rapture is also arguably alluded to in the opening verses of John 14:

NAS John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

The reason John 14:1-3 can be seen as a different event than the Second Coming – even though the words “come again” are conspicuously found – is because of the contention that in the Second Coming, the Bible prominently affirms that during the Second Coming believers will accompany the Lord; whereas in the Rapture He is coming for believers.

NAS Revelation 19:11-14 And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.

While throughout the centuries credible theologians on both sides of the debate have disagreed, these passages seem to clearly testify to a supernatural end time event that is distinguishable from the actual Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Consider the following chart, which, I believe, presents a strong argument that the Rapture and the Second Coming cannot be seen as one happening:

RAPTURE	SECOND COMING
1. Translation of all believers	1. No translation at all
2. Translated saints go to heaven	2. Translated saints return to earth
3. Christ comes for His own	3. Christ comes with His own
4. Christ comes in the air	4. Christ comes to earth
5. Christ claims His bride	5. Christ comes with His bride
6. Only His own see Him	6. Every eye shall see Him
7. Earth not judged	7. Earth judged and righteousness established
8. Imminent, any-moment, signless	8. Follows definite predicted signs, including tribulation
9. Not mentioned in Old Testament	9. Predicted often in Old Testament
10. Affects believers only	10. Affects all humanity
11. Before the Day of Wrath (Tribulation)	11. Concluding the Day of Wrath
12. Begins Tribulation	12. Begins Millennial Kingdom
13. No reference to Satan	13. Satan bound for 1,000 years

Whether or not John 14 speaks of Rapture, the fact remains that when Jesus was ready to leave this earth, the night before His crucifixion, He promised His disciples – and the whole world and everyone who has ever lived in it – that He was coming again. That is a promise from God Almighty.  It will be fulfilled!

That promise was restated for emphasis at Jesus’ Ascension:

NAS Acts 1:11 and they (the angels) also said, “Men of Galilee (the disciples), why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

Make no mistake, Jesus is coming again!

One of the major events in the Bible, surely, is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to earth. It is also called “The Second Advent (appearing) of Christ.” Jesus Christ is coming again to vanquish His enemies and to reign in righteousness upon this earth for 1,000 years. The 1,000 years is referred to as the Millennium. The Second Coming will mark the end the Tribulation, which is a seven year period in which God will pour His wrath out on the earth (Matthew 24-25). The Second Coming will also mark the beginning of the Millennium.

As I have tried to demonstrate, the Rapture is not technically the Second Coming. The Rapture is more correctly the “first phase” of the Second Coming.  The event known as the Rapture is the beginning of the larger event we call the Second Coming. Here are some significant facts about the Second Coming:

• The Second Coming of Christ is mentioned eight times more frequently in the Old and New Testaments than His first Coming. Consider this! If His First Coming was predicted and it came to pass, and His Second Coming is predicted even more than the First…

• The apostle Paul mentioned The Lord’s Supper only twice in his epistles. He mentioned baptism 13 times. But he mentioned the Second Coming of Christ 50 times!

• The Second Coming is alluded to in 22 of the 27 books of the New

• No one knows the time of the Second Coming:

ESV Matthew 24:36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

In spite of this, modern day false prophets regularly and outrageously claim to know; witness Hal Lindsay and Harold Camping, to name but two.

The Second Coming will be a time of unspeakable upheaval:

ESV Matthew 24:27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. 29  “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30  Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Those are the words of Jesus Himself.

NAS Zechariah 14:4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.

ESV Matthew 24:22 And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is thus the culmination of redemptive history. It is the end for unbelievers and the beginning of heaven on earth for believers.

A group of escaped convicts in the1940’s movie “Strange Cargo” (Clark Gable and Joan Crawford) are hiding in the jungle. One of the convicts, Ian Hunter, the movie’s “Christ- figure,” goes off to find food. It is a life-saving mission. Hunter is a righteous man; even his enemies trust and respect him.  But a long time goes by.  It begins to look as if Hunter is not coming back. Hostile Indians and wild animals are noticeably present in the background. One of the remaining prisoners says to another prisoner, “He won’t be back.” The other convict says with quiet, convincing assurance, “He’ll be back; I’ll bet on it.  He’ll be back because he said so.”

JESUS IS COMING AGAIN BECAUSE HE SAID SO…

NKJ Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

JESUS IS COMING AGAIN – IT COULD BE TODAY! The Rapture of Jesus Christ could come at any moment. As scholars are fond of saying, “There is nothing on the prophetic calendar that must happen before the Rapture; it could happen anytime.” Our lives today should consistently reflect this imminent reality.

MacArthur makes this insightful comment:

The Christian who is not living a holy and obedient life with heavenly priorities is a Christian who does not grasp the significance of the Lord’s imminent return. If we genuinely are expecting our Lord to appear at any time, that blessed hope should move us to be faithful and to walk properly, lest our Lord return and find us walking improperly, disobeying or dishonoring Him.

We should be living in expectation of the return of Jesus Christ. We should be living in such a way that if Jesus did come today two things would be true: (1) He would find us ready, and (2) He would be pleased with the lives we are living.

NAS 2 Peter 3:14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,

JESUS IS COMING AGAIN!

– Professor Thomas A. Rohm