Christ’s Second Coming Might be Different than You Think
There is much confusion today over how Jesus will return. The problem is, most do not know they are confused. The popular expectations are that we are living in the end times and soon Jesus will return to setup His 1000-year reign of peace. Those who do not believe in Him now will have ample opportunity to get things clear when Jesus Himself is reigning in this world. There are many variations on this, of course. Some believe in a 7-year period of trouble during which believers will be in heaven watching it happen. That seven years is usually divided into two 3 1/2 year periods with various combinations of trouble, conversion of the Jews, evangelization of the world, and Christ coming in glory, etc. But the one thing most theories have in common is that when Jesus finally does return, He will usher in a reign of peace.
Question: Is the expectation of Christ returning for a one thousand year reign of peace Biblical or fanciful? What does Revelation say concerning the return of Christ? There are several verses in Revelation, and many more elsewhere in the Bible, that give a different picture of the return of Christ. Let’s look at a few. We will start with the first mention of His return in Revelation and proceed through the book.
“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him,” Revelation 1:7. This agrees with the description in Acts 1:9-11, which tells how Jesus left,and says He will return in the same way. He left literally, and He will return literally—not spiritually. Every eye will see Him, around the globe.
“And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?’” Revelation 6:12-17. Here we get a completely different picture of Christ’s return than the popular view. The earth is violently shaken. The sun, moon and stars react. Those who have put off salvation run and hide and seek death. It is called the day of wrath—hardly the picture of the beginning of an earthly reign of peace and second chances.
Revelation chapter 7 describes the people who will have survived and been faithful through a terrible ordeal just before Jesus returns. This agrees with Daniel 12:1 and Matthew 24:21 which both refer to a time of trouble such as never has been.
Revelation 11:15 and following verses describe the beginning of Christ’s reign as King: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever… And the nations were enraged, and Thy wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to Thy servants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear Thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” Notice that Christ’s coming, the day of wrath, the beginning of His eternal reign, is also a day of destruction for the ungodly. That is hardly a time of peace.
Revelation 14 describes Christ’s coming with agricultural metaphors: “And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head, and a sharp sickle in His hand, and another angel came out of the temple crying out… ‘Put in your sickle and reap,because the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.’” Verses 14-15. It goes on to say that He also put in His sharp sickle and gathered the ripened clusters of grapes and threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. The grain harvest represents the saved who are waiting for salvation, and the grape harvest represents the ripened condition of the lost who have continually put off salvation and clung to their wickedness. This picture is one of finality for both groups when Jesus comes in the clouds.
Chapters 15 and 16 speak of the last plagues that will fall on the earth, specifically on the lost, just before the coming of Christ. Chapter 19 uses the metaphor of Christ leading the armies of heaven, riding on white horses and going out to make war. “And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the
nations.” Verse 15. It goes on through verse 21 to describe the destruction caused by His coming.
After the destruction is over, chapter 20 kicks in with a more accurate description of what takes place during the thousand years: The devil is bound to this earth, the unsaved are all dead from the violence of Christ’s coming, the righteous, both the living saved and the resurrected saved, go to Heaven to reign with Christ for the duration. At the end of the one thousand years, the dead (lost) are raised to see what they have lost and to receive their punishment, hell fire, which totally consumes them and then finally goes out.
Chapter 21 and 22 describe God making all things new again and the New Jerusalem that is inhabited by the saved. Verse 12 of Chapter 22 says, “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”
All of these verses paint the picture of Christ’s second coming being one of finality, judgment, destruction and salvation. Preceding Christ’s first coming, the devil made it politically incorrect to talk about Christ’s humility, suffering and sacrifice. Instead, all they saw in the prophecies was His coming as a conqueror, to do away with their enemies. When Christ came as a suffering Servant, they were unprepared and rejected Him. The same thing is happening in anticipation of Christ’s second coming: political correctness has created an image of God who has no wrath, who does not bring things to a head, who comes lovingly and peacefully. The whole anticipation is a reverse of the anticipation 2000 years ago, the shrewd devil is happy in the way Christians have swallowed the deception pill just as the Jews did before them.
The coming of Christ is not only soon, but will be climactic and final. God has given every opportunity for people to sort out truth from error. The Bible is plain on the subject. God cannot afford to jeopardize eternity by spoon-feeding all into repentance. He tests us on how seriously we take the Bible for what it really says as opposed to following the flow of popular myth. I hope that you the reader will make the decision to read and study the Bible for yourselves and reject pop theology where it differs from God’s Word.
Blessings of every reader.
Dennis
dennispumford.com
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