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Christ’s Second Coming: What Will It Be Like?
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.
Summary: Jesus’ Second Coming will be real, visible, and worldwide in its impact. “Every eye will see Him.” Are you personally ready?
Revelation 1:7 Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.
•• “Look, He is coming...” — Jesus’ second coming is a central theme in Revelation and in the entire New Testament.
• Australian Bible Teacher Kevin Conner says, “There are some 318 references in the 216 chapters of the New Testament to His second coming. That is to say, one out of every 13 verses in the N.T. speaks of this truth. Of the 27 books of the N.T., 23 speak of His second coming. In the epistles, one out of every 10 verses speaks of this truth.”
• Bible scholars almost universally agree that this coming is recorded in Revelation 19:11-21 (it’s well worth taking a moment right now to read those stirring verses).
• Let’s look at some truths about that glorious day. Note to readers: This is not intended to be an exhaustive treatment of this topic, but rather an inspiring one.
Vs. 1:7 “He is coming with the clouds...”
•• Perhaps these are natural clouds, such as Jesus ascended into in Acts 1:9, when He left earth for heaven.
•• Or these “clouds” could be the “great cloud of witnesses” of Hebrews 12:1 — the saints and the angels.
•• It is possible also that the “clouds” could be the Glory cloud of His Presence, as Israel experienced in the wilderness and as in the glory cloud covering the Mercy Seat in the Tabernacle.
•• Or it could be a combination of various senses of clouds, natural and spiritual.
Vs. 1:7 “...every eye will see Him...”
•• The second coming will be a visible coming, not a “secret” one, as some Bible teachers allege. Human eyes will “see” Jesus when He comes.
•• The Bible knows nothing of a secret coming before the great tribulation. Christ’s coming will be literal, worldwide, and visible to “every eye...”
Vs. 1:7 “...the peoples ... will mourn...”
•• At His coming, the days of opportunity for salvation will be past. The believers are caught up to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, discussed below). For the unbeliever there’s no second chance, but only impending judgment (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).
Acts 1:9-12 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. [10] They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. [11] “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” [12] Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. These verses offer us a wealth of information about Jesus’ second coming.
•• Who will it be at the second coming? — “This same Jesus.” He will be exactly the same person, the same Savior, who ascended into heaven before their eyes.
•• How did He “go into heaven”? — bodily ... from earth ... up into a cloud ... into heaven.
•• The “two men” (angels?) said He would “come back in the same way.”
• Bodily (not just “spiritually”, as some wrongly teach) ... from heaven ... in the clouds ... to the earth.
• I am open to the possibility (but am not certain) that at His coming Jesus will reach the earth at the Mount of Olives, based on what the following Scripture may be indicating:
• Zechariah 14:4-5 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west.... [5c] Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
Hebrews 9:28 So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
•• Fact = “He will appear a second time.” That is an indisputable statement of Scripture. There will be a “second” coming of Jesus to this earth.
• Not some arbitrary list of alleged “spiritual” appearances, but a real, countable, visible “second time” that hadn’t happened by the time of the writing of Hebrews.
• So the “second” coming of Jesus was not Pentecost of Acts 2, as some teach. That had already occurred decades before Hebrews 9:28 foretold a future second coming.
• The second coming was not the new birth, as some Bible teachers maintain. Thousands had already been born again when Hebrews 9:28 foretold a yet-future “second” coming.
• The Scripture is speaking of a real, bodily, visible “second” coming. Just as He came physically in His first coming two millennia ago, Jesus “will appear”. It won’t be mysterious, hidden, internal, or invisibly spiritual.
• The Bible knows nothing of a contrived “secret” coming that men came up with less than two centuries ago to make their non-biblical pre-tribulation “rapture” theory work.
• And when Jesus comes this “second time”, there will be the saints “who are waiting for Him” — in other words, they were not already caught up in a man-invented earlier rapture.
Matthew 24:26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. [27] For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
•• Again, there is not a “secret” coming “for” the Church, then a later, visible coming “with” the Church, as some hold.
•• And “the coming” [singular!] will be very public, very visible, “as lightning”! Remember, “every eye” will see Jesus at His coming, not just the believers.
1 Corinthians 15:22-23 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. [23] But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; THEN, WHEN HE COMES, those who BELONG TO HIM.
•• The resurrection of believers is “when He comes”.
• In my opinion, this is the key to understanding the order of events at the end of the age. I have written a one-page summary of end-time events in another study.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. [16] For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. [17] After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
•• Picture the flow of action:
(1) The “Lord Himself will come down from heaven.”
(2) Very publicly — a loud command, the voice of the archangel, the trumpet call of God.
(3) “The dead in Christ will rise first.”
(4) “AFTER that, we who are still alive...will be caught up together with them...to meet the Lord in the air.”
•• Where is the “rapture”? Right here, at Jesus’ public, visible second coming. “Raptured” means “caught up”.
• At the same time, at Christ’s second coming, the resurrected dead believers and the living believers are “caught up” [raptured] to meet the Lord in the air as He is coming to earth!
Acts 1:6-8 ...they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” [7] He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. [8] But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
KJV: [7] It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
•• I have in the past misspoken, saying, “We may not know the day or hour, but we can know the season.”
• Then a pastor friend reminded me of this verse, where Jesus tells us that it is not for us to “know the times or the seasons”.
• What is for us to know is that He has given us Holy Ghost power to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. And that is a sufficient commission to keep the Church productively occupied until the second coming!
If God has stirred a response in your heart today, and you desire to know that you are in right relationship with Jesus Christ, I sincerely invite you to take a look at evangelist Billy Graham's Steps to Peace with God.
Preached at South Valley Church, Phoenix Oregon, May 28, 2003
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©2003, James H. Feeney. Copyright statement.
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