Keep Looking Up

 

 

Wikipedia lists about fifty predictions of the second COMING of Christ based on all sorts of ideas from the dimensions of Noah’s ark to theories of physics. Some of these prophesies came from Christians, others from cults and a variety of people including two murderers. It seems all of them (and possibly dozens more not listed) disregarded Jesus’ words saying no one knows that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, nor Himself as the human Son, only the Father.

However, Jesus did give us a few clues. When He ascended, He said He would “come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” This will be a visible, bodily event, yet in a body unlike ours. He also says His return will not be to offer salvation as He did with His first appearance. Instead, it will be to take His own people to be with Him forever, and then to judge those who remain.

Hebrews 9:27–28. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

1 Thessalonians 4:15–18. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

As for when this will happen, 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 describes a person (or perhaps persons) who will first appear. He says to Christians,

“Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.”

This ‘man of sin’ may represent a single person or maybe a world attitude in which God and Jesus Christ are rejected and people think they are their own god. That chapter goes on to indicate that the One who restrains this rebellion will be “out of the way” and “then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.”

While some may have a sense of when this will happen, Jesus said His return would be “as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west” and as the world was “unaware until the flood came and swept them all away” so would be His return. His people are told to “keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come” but our focus should be on how we live, not on predicting His return:

1 Thessalonians 5:23. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. The Bible tells this will be an orderly event, that the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive will be taken up. We are “not in darkness for that day to surprise us like a thief” yet not able to mark that day on our calendar. Instead, we are to be patient, just as a farmer waits for his crop, “for the coming of the Lord is at hand” realizing that God is “patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8–9). This repentance attitude applies to everyone, including Christians as James tells us, “to also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

Thoughts of the end times encourage me to have hope during hardship and to tell others of that hope. I’m also encouraged to live as He desires because I am certain that when He comes evil will be punished and faithfulness will be rewarded. For those reasons, I keep looking upward!