A Promise

“The return of Jesus Christ is a sure and certain promise, and it is our glorious and blessed hope.” (Roy Lessin)

The Second Coming is when Jesus Christ will return to earth in fulfillment of the prophecies made about Him.  Jesus will rule as King for a thousand years. His Second Coming will defeat sin for all eternity. To doubt the reality of the Second Coming is to doubt the reliability and validity of God's Word. If Jesus was wrong about the Second Coming, how can we trust anything else He taught?

The Second Coming is also important because it will come at the time when the world is most in need of a righteous King. The world will be devastated, millions of people will perish, and the most evil person in all history will be ruler of the entire world, the Antichrist.

The Second Coming of Christ puts all this to an end. No event in the history of the world has been more anticipated than the Second Coming. Every generation of believers (including believers in the New Testament) has strongly believed that Jesus would return in their lifetime.  No Christian song captures this joyous event as well as Sandi Patty’s “We Shall Behold Him” Read the lyrics, and see where you are emotionally.  Note that I have included scripture passages next to the lines developed from the Bible:

The sky shall unfold
Preparing His entrance (Matthew 24:30)
The stars shall applaud Him
With thunders of praise

The sweet light in His eyes shall
Shall enhance those awaiting
And we shall behold Him
Then face to face

Oh, we shall behold Him (Revelation 1:7)
Yes, we shall behold Him
Face to face in all of His Glory

Oh, we shall behold Him
Yes, we shall behold Him
Face to face our Savior and Lord

And the angels shall sound
The shout of His coming (Matthew 24:31, I Thessalonians 4:16)
And the sleeping shall rise from
Their slumbering place (I Thessalonians 4:14)

And those who remain shall
We shall be changed in a moment (I Thessalonians 4:15, I Corinthians 15:53-54)
And we shall behold Him
Then face to face

We shall behold Him
Oh yes, we shall behold Him
Face to face in all of His Glory

We shall behold Him
Oh yes, we shall behold Him
Face to face my Savior and Lord

And we shall behold Him
Our Savior and Lord.
Savior and Lord.

While we don’t know every detail of Jesus’ return, The Bible gives us key information about His Second Coming, a promise Jesus has made to us. Here are five important facts you should know about this special event:

 

1.   His Return Will Be Different than the First: We are told in Scripture that the second coming of Jesus will be “with power and great glory.” During Jesus’ first coming, he humbled himself being born in a stable in Bethlehem, and living a life on Earth with great humility. Upon his return,

He will come back as King of Kings and Lord or Lords. On this day, in a triumphant return, the whole world will see and know who Jesus really was. Humility stands out in Jesus’ first coming. Glory stands out in his second. His return will be triumphant, marked with the powerful accompaniment of angels and saved saints.

2.   It Will Be Visible and Audible: When Jesus returns, it will be universally visible and audible. Matthew 24:31 (ERV) says, “He will use a loud trumpet to send his angels all around the earth. They will gather his chosen people from every part of the earth.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16 also speaks of great sound of a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. Revelation 1:7 tells us that He will be universally seen.

 

3.   Jesus Will Return from Heaven: Jesus actively spoke of this during His earthly ministry. According to Jesus, the purpose of His ascent to Heaven was for the purpose of receiving a kingdom from His Father while also returning with authority to rule throughout the earth. Jesus will return with thousands upon thousands of angels.

 

4.   The Second Coming Is Not the Rapture: While the two are often confused, the second coming is not the rapture. The rapture is when Jesus returns to remove the church from the earth. The church in this context refers to all believers in Christ. At this time, believers who have died and believers who are still alive will be raised together, and meet the Lord in the sky as an act of deliverance.

 

The second coming speaks of the return of Jesus to triumph over evil when He will establish his millennial kingdom. While it is not always easy to differentiate between the two when reading scripture, the Bible importantly distinguishes between the two. Both include the return of Jesus and both are end-time events.

 

In short, the rapture involves removing all believers from the earth before God’s wrath. The second coming marks the return of Christ to bring an end to tribulation by defeating Satan (a Post-Tribulationist viewpoint). [i]Many things must occur before Jesus’ second coming.

 

5.   We Won’t Know The Time: Many people have attempted to pinpoint the time of Christ’s return, and each has failed. Jesus told His disciples on the Mount of Olives (Matthew 24:36,ERV) that “No one knows when that day or time will be. The Son and the angels in heaven don’t know when it will be. Only the Father knows.” It is impossible to pinpoint the exact day or time of Jesus’ return.

However, we are told by Jesus that we will know when His return is near. “Then there will be something in the sky that shows the Son of Man is coming. All the people of the world will cry. Everyone will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds in the sky. He will come with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:30, ERV)These signs will point to his return.

“We talk of the Second Coming. Half the world has never heard of the first.”  (Oswald J. Smith)[ii]

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[i] A Post-Tribulationist believes the Second Coming will happen after the Tribulation. A Pre-Tribulationist believes the Second Coming will happen before the Tribulation. Amid-Tribulationist believes the Second Coming will happen in the middle of the Tribulation.

 

[ii] Sources used:

·        “5 Important Facts about Jesus’ Second Coming” by Lesli White

·        “The Second Coming” by AllAboutGod.com