- Yes, Jesus Christ Will Return
I am not surprised that I still meet people who do not believe in the return of Christ. Some of them, in fact, armed with Bibles, would like to set me straight. Not too long after an editorial appeared in which I quoted the apostle Paul, I heard from a professor who told me I had it all wrong. Paul did not mean what I had said he meant as I applied his statement to present day life.
I took time to write a reply. “When it comes to saying what he meant,” I began, “Paul’s batting average has been pretty good up to now. So I will string along with what Paul plainly, clearly said.” I did not figure I needed someone to straighten me out—especially someone who had decided the Bible does not mean what it says. When the Bible says God is calling a special people out of the nations to bear His name, I believe it! When the Bible declares His name is Jesus and His people are Christians—Christ’s ones—I believe that, too! No one is going to argue me out of my faith in what God has said. As far as I am concerned, it is a fact that Jesus is coming again. The question I raise is this: “Are we prepared spiritually for His coming? Are we tolerating conditions in our midst that will cause us embarrassment when He comes? In the evangelical church, we have come through a period when nearly everyone believed and taught the same thing concerning our preparation for Christ’s return. There has been just one prerequisite to readiness: being born again. Being born again is almost like receiving a pass to a special event. When Jesus returns, we whip out the pass to prove our readiness!
Frankly, I do not think it will be at all like that. I do not believe that all of the professed believers are automatically ready to meet the Lord. If being born again was the only prerequisite, I must ask why Peter and Paul and John and our Lord exhorted, warned, pleaded that we should live and watch and pray so as to be ready for Jesus’ coming? If we are automatically ready, why does our Lord admonish the Philadelphia church to hold tenaciously to their faith and strength “so that no one will take {their} crown” (Revelation 3:11)?