18. The Second Coming Of Christ
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
“Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also" (John 14:1-3).
“Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11).
“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17).
The second coming of Christ is the “Blessed Hope” and the inspiration of the Christian church.
We are told in the Word of God:
To be prepared (Luke 12:31-48),
To be waiting (Luke 12:36),
To be ready (Matthew 24:44),
To be faithful (Luke 12:42-44,
To be patient (James 5:7-8),
To be confident (1 John 2:28),
To be careful (Romans 14:13),
To be steadfast (1 Corinthians 15:57-58).
The person who is ready to meet his Lord is not content just to be ready and waiting, but he is busy telling others of Christ’s coming, and he is helping them to get ready also. “Be ye therefore ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh" The Christian in this troubled world is giving thanks and rejoicing that he is ready. The being ready in this confused world is expressed in this quotation:
“On a bough that swings,
Sits a bird that sings,
Because it has wings.”
The second coming of Christ is a prominent theme throughout the New Testament. More is said about the second coming of Christ than is said about His first coming; and there are twenty times more references in the Old Testament about Christ’s second coming than there are about His first coming. One in every thirty verses in the New Testament refers to Christ’s return. The second coming of Christ is the “Blessed Hope” and the inspiration of the Christian church.
We are told in the Word of God:
To be prepared (Luke 12:31-48),
To be waiting (Luke 12:36),
To be ready (Matthew 24:44),
To be faithful (Luke 12:42-44,
To be patient (James 5:7-8),
To be confident (1 John 2:28),
To be careful (Romans 14:13),
To be steadfast (1 Corinthians 15:57-58).
The person who is ready to meet his Lord is not content just to be ready and waiting, but he is busy telling others of Christ’s coming, and he is helping them to get ready also. “Be ye therefore ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh" The Christian in this troubled world is giving thanks and rejoicing that he is ready. The being ready in this confused world is expressed in this quotation:
“On a bough that swings,
Sits a bird that sings,
Because it has wings.”
The second coming of Christ is a prominent theme throughout the New Testament. More is said about the second coming of Christ than is said about His first coming; and there are twenty times more references in the Old Testament about Christ’s second coming than there are about His first coming. One in every thirty verses in the New Testament refers to Christ’s return. The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us when shall these things be" “What shall be the sign of Thy coming?” “What shall be the sign of the consummation of the age?”
Only the Omniscient God could answer these questions; and He answered them in advance by prophecy. These are the signs that are prophesied, and which immediately usher in the second coming of Christ. They match this age universally and exactly. A number of these signs are recorded in Matthew 24:1-51 and in Luke 21:1-38.
1. The present condition in the nations is like that just before the flood. “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man" (Luke 17:26-30). Then, people were engrossed in material interests, and they forgot God. In the time of Noah, there was:
A. An increase in city population.
B. Progress in civilization.
C. Worshipping God as Creator, and not as Redeemer as accomplished through the cross of Jesus Christ.
D. Fellowship of the church with the world.
E. Changed law about women and marriage.
F. Demon possession.
G. Indifference of many preachers marked with but few conversions.
H. People lovers of mere pleasure rather than lovers of God.
I. Wickedness prevailing all over the world. These conditions are now universal, as they were in the time of Noah.
2. Crime and lawlessness exists. Most crimes now are committed by young people. “In the last days perilous times shall come"
3. False Christs, apostasy in the church, cults, and doctrines of demons prevail (1 Timothy 4:1).
4. Scoffers, worldly people, ridiculing the Bible, second-coming preachers called “obsolete”.
5. Persecution and hatred both of Jew and of Christian Gentile.
6. Travel. “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased"
“Chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of His preparation, and the fir tree shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like lightning" (Nahum 2:3-4). This refers to automobiles. It was prophesied over 2600 years ago.
Airplanes also are prophesied. “As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also He will deliver it, and passing over He will preserve it" (Isaiah 31:5). This was prophesied 2667 years before it happened in 1917 under the command of General Allenby.
7. Knowledge surely is increased by radio, by telephone, by telegraph, and the like. We are nearing the end.
8. Great wealth, yet much national debt and unemployment (James 1:5-8).
9. Social disturbances, economic distress, fear, financial trouble, taxes, strife, sickness. These precede Christ’s second coming.
10. Wars, and peace planning. England is fighting, but she has a reconstruction commission preparing for peace. Still, war marches on.
11. Consolidations and unions, preparing for a superman, the Antichrist.
12. Earthquakes, floods, pestilence, famines (Matthew 24:7).
Earthquakes, in recent years, have become so numerous that men do not stop to count them. There is yet to be one of the greatest earthquakes (Zechariah 14:4-8). There is now great famine in many places.
13. Revolutions and strikes. There is hatred over conditions as they exist today. There is general uprising among the people.
14. Dictatorship like that in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Federations like at the start of the Old Roman Empire (Daniel 2:31-45).
15. The return of the Jews to Palestine. They have been returning without faith in their Messiah.
16. A church that is not considering the return of Christ.
There is apostasy in the church. A very small number of people are looking for Christ’s return (Luke 12:40). Behold, He is near at hand.
17. Signs in the heavens.
The true church of Jesus Christ is beginning to understand God’s prophecies pertaining to the second coming of Christ. Prophecy is not now a closed book, as it has been in the past. The time of Christ’s return therefore is near at hand. “Watch, therefore. Be ready". The second coming of Christ is in two parts. Many students of the Bible become confused about the second coming of Christ because they do not realize this fact. The two stages are seven years apart.
The first stage of Christ’s return is called the “Rapture.” as shown on the Art Chart (www.BibleSupport.com/a/gppc.png). Here, Christ comes for His church.
The second stage is called the “Revelation,” as shown on the Chart. Here Christ comes with His church, and with all His Hosts of Heaven to judge the nations, and to set up His kingdom on earth. The saints go at the time of the Rapture to be with Jesus. They cannot come with Him at the time of the “Revelation” unless at that time they are already with Him.
Christ’s coming at the “Rapture” is a surprise. “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh" The saints are the body of Christ and the body cannot be broken. Scripture demands that the “Rapture” come before the tribulation period. The tribulation period is not for the church, the body of Christ. The church has no part in it (Luke 21:36; 2 Peter 2:9).
The time space of seven years between the first stage and the second stage of Christ’s coming is filled with events.
On the earth will be the time of the tribulation, the time of “Jacob’s trouble”;
In the heavens above will take place the judgment of the church at the “Judgment Seat of Christ” and the marriage feast of the Lamb.
Then Christ will receive His kingdom. “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7).
What is said about how Christ will come at the time of the “Rapture”? He will come with a “shout of victory”-A “shout” that will command the “Dead in Christ”, and a “shout” which they can hear. He shall come with the voice of an archangel, so that those who are alive, and who are His, will detect His call. As the disciples on earth saw Jesus go, so will the church see Him come at the “Rapture.”
He will come with the “trump of God”, which is looked upon as a final call to the “dead in Christ,” who have all heard His “shout,” who have been separated from the “wicked dead,” and who have been raised from their graves; and then at the same time as a final call to His living church, which will be ready and which will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. It is a call to the righteous and holy, both the quick and the dead, to leave the earth and to meet their Lord and Saviour in the air. The Holy Spirit, who has been with the church on earth since Pentecost, will go also.
The bodies of the “dead in Christ” will rise first. They are “called out” from among all the bodies of the dead. The rest of the dead, the bodies left in the grave at that time, are the “wicked dead.” They do not hear the “shout” of Christ, because they do not know Him. They will remain dead in the grave, for they will not be raised until the second resurrection, which comes after the
thousand years of the Millennium kingdom, and which leads up to the judgment of the “Great White Throne,” the judgment of the “wicked dead.” Read John 5:28-29 : “Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth"
The raising of the “dead in Christ” out from among the wicked dead is like separating particles of choice steel from a great pile of rubbish outside of a steel mill. In order to separate the choice steel from the rubbish in the pile, a great magnet fastened to a huge steel crane is swung out over the mixed pile. The particles of steel feel the pull of the great magnet and they take the life of the magnet. They quickly push their way out from among the other particles in the pile. They rise then to meet the magnet, and they cling to the magnet in the air. With the magnet, they are swung back by the crane to their home in the foundry. Thus the “Rapture” will be the first stage of the second coming of Christ. “Beloved, our citizenship is in heaven.”
Jesus Christ first came to earth as a babe, which event is called the First Advent of Christ. He came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. He came to save the souls of men. He suffered bodily, and He went away bodily. The Second Advent of Christ will be bodily and personal. He will come then to save the bodies of men and women whose souls are saved. Many teachers try to explain away the personal return of Christ, principally because they lack a knowledge and an understanding of God’s Word.
The second coming of Christ does not mean the death of the believer.
The second coming of Christ does not mean the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
The second coming of Christ does not mean the conversion of the sinner.
The second coming of Christ does not mean the diffusion of Christianity.
The second coming of Christ does not mean the destruction of Jerusalem.
It means just what Jesus said it meant: I, Jesus Christ, will come again and will receive you, both the “dead in Christ” and the living church, to be with me. The church is destined to play an important part in the program of God, for its members will reign with Christ.
To the born again Christian, the second coming of Christ means that he will be like Jesus, that he will be with Him, that he will reign with Him. To the down-trodden, Christ-rejecting, persecuted Jew, the return of Christ to the earth will mean his hope of a new life.
The Jews will recognize Him then, and will accept Him as their Messiah. It will mean that the Jews will be restored to their own land in peace, and that they will become a nation again (Jeremiah 16:14-15; Isaiah 43:5-7; Acts 15:14-17). The waste places of Palestine will be inhabited and builded and tilled. All this prophecy has not yet been fulfilled.
To the Gentile nations, the return of Christ will mean the destruction of the present political world-system of which the devil is the prince (Daniel 2:34-35, Revelation 19:11).
It will mean the end of wars, of labor troubles, and of subversive movements. It will mean the judgment of the nations (Matthew 25:31-46). It will mean the separation of the “sheep nations” from the “goat nations.” It will mean the destruction of the “goat nations”, and the survival and peace of the “sheep nations.” The “sheep nations” will become righteous (Matthew 25:31-40Micah 4:3-4, Isaiah 2:1-22).
To the earth, the return of Christ will mean that it will no longer be cursed, and it shall yield its increase (Isaiah 35:1; Psalms 67:6).
Be ye therefore ready. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).