Missing Answer

BIBLE PROPHECY AND CHRIST’S RETURN

by Pastor David O' Gorman

The Second Coming of Christ is referred to more that three hundred times in the New Testament. Chapters, and almost full books, are dedicated to this great doctrine. By comparison, the crucial doctrine of repentance is mentioned about seventy times. When one reads the New Testament with this doctrine in mind, he finds that there is hardly a portion of Scripture that does not refer to the Second Coming!

The Apostles and early Christians lived with the expectation of seeing Christ’s return rather than of meeting Him through death. In fact, the New Testament prepared believers for the return of Christ rather than for death.

“It is acknowledged that the eschatology [doctrine of end times] of the New Testament is not the eschatology of the church today. The hope of the early Christians is not the hope of the average Christian now. It has become our habit to think of the change which comes at death, or our entrance into Heaven, as the crowning point of the believer’s life, and the proper object of our hope. Yet the apostles never speak of death as something which the Christian should look forward to… Jesus Christ Himself was their hope, and His appearing they intensely loved and longed for.”[i]

That is why there was confusion among early Christians regarding those believers who had died. Paul deals with that situation in his first letter to the Thessalonians.

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13, 14)

We understand biblically that the thinking of our hearts is the driving force of life.

“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

The New Testament is laden with commands to be focused upon the return of the Saviour.

“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” (Matthew 24:42)

“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” (Matthew 24:44)

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” (Matthew 25:13)

“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” (Mark 13:33)

“Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the home cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” (Mark 13:35-37)

“Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” (Luke 12:40)

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all those things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” (Luke 21:34-36)

“So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1:7)

“Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:6)

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13)

If all our thoughts are to be brought into obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, must not this one too? Are Christians not to live in a constant state of expectation as they wait for the blessed hope of His return?

God’s people are to live in the state of readiness so aptly described by the little girl returning from a Sunday School, where the return of Christ had been discussed:

She asked, “Mommy, do you believe that Jesus is coming soon?” Her mother replied, “Yes, dear, I do.”

“Mommy, do you believe that He could come today?” “Yes, dear, I do.” “Mommy, do you believe that He could come at any moment?” “Yes, dear, I certainly do.” “Then Mommy, would you comb my hair?”

The imminent return of Christ was real to that child.

Christians need to realise, first of all, that the Return of Christ is truly imminent.

“Imminent” and “soon” are not synonymous terms. An “imminent” event is one that is always "hanging overhead, is constantly ready to befall or overtake one; close at hand in its incidence."[ii] Thus, imminence carries the sense that the event could happen at any moment. Other things happen before the imminent event, but nothing else take place before it happens. If something else must take place before an event can happen, then that event is not imminent. In other words, the necessity that something else must first take place destroys the concept of imminence.

Since a person never knows exactly when an imminent event will take place, he cannot count on the fact that a certain amount of time will transpire before the imminent event happens. In light of this, he should always be prepared for it to happen at any moment.

Also, a person cannot legitimately set or imply a date for an imminent happening. As soon as a person sets a date for an imminent event, he destroys the concept of imminence, because he thereby is saying that a certain amount of time must transpire before that event can happen. A specific date for an event is contrary to the concept that the event could happen at any moment.

Furthermore, a person cannot legitimately say that an imminent event will happen soon. The term "soon" implies that an event take place "within a short time” (after a particular point of time that is specified or implied). By contrast, an imminent event take place within a short time, but it does not to do so in order to be imminent.

As I hope you can see by now, "imminent" is not equal to "soon."[iii]

A.T. Pierson has noted that "Imminence is the combination of two conditions, viz,: certainty and uncertainty. By an imminent event, we mean one which is certain to occur at some time, uncertain at what time."[iv]

The New Testament doctrine of imminence, then, requires that no event is necessary before Christ’s Second Coming can occur.

If the Tribulation must occur before Christ’s return, then we could not say that Christ’s return is “imminent” — although we might say that the Tribulation The disciples were not taught to look for the Tribulation, but for the Lord’s return. Ultimately, the doctrine of imminence leads to a Pre-Tribulation Rapture position as the only plausible way that we can look to the Lord’s “any moment” return.

In the words of author Kenneth Wuest, “To teach that the Church will go through the Tribulation period is to nullify the biblical teaching of the imminent coming of the Lord Jesus for the Church.”[v]

The Second Coming of Christ will happen without warning, just as the Flood did. Jesus warned,

“But as the days of Noah so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:37-39)

The greeting of the early New Testament Church was “Maranatha How today’s churches would change if their reality would once again be expressed sincerely in the greeting “Maranatha

Not only may it be demonstrated that the New Testament church held the coming of Christ to be imminent, but the same conclusion is reached from the writings of men of God in subsequent generations. Silver says of the Apostles that “they expected the return of the Lord in their day…They believed the time was imminent because their Lord had taught them to live in a watchful attitude.” Concerning the early leaders of the church after the Apostles, he says: “By tradition, they knew the faith of the Apostles. They taught the doctrine of the imminent and pre-millennial return of the Lord.”

Many authors can be cited to prove that a belief in the imminent return of Christ existed throughout the first three centuries. Even A. Harnack, a member of the liberal theological school, out of sheer honesty as a historian, writes: “In the history of Christianity three main forces are found to have acted as auxiliaries to the gospel. They have elicited the ardent enthusiasm of men whom the bare preaching of the gospel would never have made decided converts. These are a belief in the speedy return of Christ and in His glorious reign on earth…First in point of time came the faith in the nearness of Christ’s second advent and the establishing of His reign of glory on the earth. Indeed, it appears so early that it might be questioned whether it ought not so be regarded as an essential part of the Christian religion. The weight of evidence from the writings of the apostles and from the faith of the early church on into the third century is solidly behind the claim that the Bible teaches the imminency of the return of Christ.”[vi]

Taking the New Testament at face value, we are led to conclude that Jesus can come back at any moment. No other position is consistent with a literal interpretation of more than three hundred verses. While this may not be news, the question we must ask ourselves is: Do we live in that reality? Christians may indeed hold the right position; but without the expectant heart that that position requires, it becomes only knowledge that puffs up!

Christians must realize, secondly, that the Return of Christ will be a personal

Christians always face the danger of becoming “theologians” who understand all the intricacies of the many different positions of the end times, yet who neglect the reality of the truth that “He is coming back for me Jesus said,

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it werenot so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:3)

When Christ said these words, the disciples were distraught. They were about to go through the confusion and despair of the cross. Jesus, like a mother leaving a small child, is reassuring them, “I will come again and receive you.” I am coming back for you!

One author puts it this way: “He, the Lord of Glory, will come in person for His own. Had He promised to send an angel, or had He spoken of a company of angels, grace indeed would have betokened. We might in that case have thought of Him on His throne, summoning His saints as the one who had the full right to command, and sending servants, even angels, to conduct them into His presence. But what no man could have conceived will be then done. He who has sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, crowned too with glory and honor, will come Himself. Yet not as a king, accompanied by His guards, even myriads of angels, delighting to do His bidding, will it be; for, as scripture teaches us, He will come without any angelic escort. It is a family matter, rather than one of display.”[vii]

Finally, Christians must realize the effect that living in the shadow of Christ’s return will have in their lives. The Second Coming motivates God’s people to evangelise the lost.

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 1:14, 15)

“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:” (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8)

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:8-10)

The coming of the Lord will usher in the great Tribulation, during which the cup of God’s wrath will be poured out upon the lost. During that time, the God who said “Vengeance is mine” will execute judgment upon a world that has rejected His offer of love and mercy. There will be slaughter, agony, darkness, and earthquakes.

“And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17)

Today is the day of grace — the day of mercy. Today we have the wonderful Gospel, and its marvelous power to change men. Today the Lamb says, “Come and be saved.” But this glorious day will end with the Rapture. Then the day of wrath will begin.

A church fired up by the reality of His imminent return is a church aflame with the Gospel. The Second Coming is the antidote to worldliness and apathy (Luke 12:22–40). The Second Coming is the incentive to sanctification (2 Peter 3:10–14). The Second Coming is the comfort of the church (John 14:1-4, 2 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The Second Coming is the vindication of His people. Paul reminds us, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).

Finally, the Second Coming is the glorification of the Lord in the eyes of the world. If the crucifixion was the last view the world had of the great King, it would leave Him looking pathetic. But it is not. Even when He stood before the high priest, enduring the shame and injustice of a mock trial, the Lord looked into the future and foretold of a different day:

“Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” (Mat 26:64)

“He did not look like the Messiah as He stood there with bound hands before His accusers. His appearance seemed to belie His words. But the time would come when they would see that His claim was true. Through all the shame of those awful hours, the vision of His return in Glory to the world that was rejecting Him now shone like a beacon upon His soul.”[viii]

The Second coming of Christ dominates both the Old and New Testaments. God’s people are commanded to await eagerly this imminent, visible, bodily return of their loving Saviour. The church is to live in the same eager anticipation that she did in the book of Acts. A return to the level expectancy of the early churches would impact greatly upon today’s church, and lead to the level of focus and intensity that early Christians had. That would, in turn, result in the level of divine power that they knew.

May “The Blessed Hope” be the ever-present reality of every child of God!

Maranatha.

[i] John Mc Nichol, The Hope of the Church,

[ii] "Imminent," Oxford English Dictionary

[iii] Renald Showers, (Bellmawr, N.J.: The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, Inc., 1995), pp. 127-28.

[iv] Arthur T. Pierson, (published by John Wanamaker, n.d., cited in Showers, , p. 127.

[v] Kenneth S. Wuest, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Berdmans Publishing Co., 1955), 54.

[vi] Gerald B. Stanton, (Miami Springs, FL: Schoettle Publishing Company, 1991), p 126.

[vii] C. E. Stuart, (London, England: E. Marlborough & Co., n.d.), 298.

[viii] McNichol The Hope of the Church,