Richard C. Halverson, chaplain of the U.S. Senate from 1981 to 1995, said of the Second Coming of Christ: “If you could pin people down, I think you would find very few longing for the return of Christ. His return now would instead constitute an interruption of our plans.” (Christianity Today, 1982)
That, in spite of the promise that Jesus made shortly before He was crucified on Calvary. When He would come, He said, it was to “receive you unto myself, that where I am ye may be also.” (John 14:3) Paul referred to this promise as “that blessed hope.” (Titus 2:13)
A Scottish preacher said, “The doctrine of the Lord’s second coming, as it appears in the New Testament, is like a lofty mountain that dominates the entire landscape.” One student of scripture pointed out that there are more than 300 New Testament references to it.
It should be noted that the Second Coming of Christ will be preceded by the Rapture of the Bride of Christ, His Church—an event that since His ascension back to heaven, followed by the birth of the New Testament Church (Acts 2), has always been, and remains to this day, imminent. (Titus 2:13; I Cor. 15:51-58; I Thess. 4:13-18; Matthew 24,25)
The tribulation—the Great Tribulation—will happen on earth following the Rapture and preceding the Second Coming. The tribulation will be a seven-year long unleashing by God of a three-tiered series of awful judgments upon the earth, an earth that will—for the duration of that time—be dominated by Satan’s opposition to Christ, in league with the Antichrist (the Beast), and the False Prophet. This unholy trinity will deceive the inhabitants on earth at that time and, if it were possible, the elect. The seven-year time of unthinkable judgments will be “shortened” (terminated), culminating in the promised return of Jesus Christ “in power and great glory”—putting down the Satanic opposition to His rule in the great battle of Armageddon, fought by the kings of the earth and their armies of 200 million soldiers, under the command of the arch-enemy of Christ, the Old Dragon, the Serpent Satan. Jesus will, of course, prevail. Satan will be bound and cast into a bottomless pit for the duration of the millennial reign of Jesus on earth. The beast (Antichrist) and the false prophet will be cast into the Lake of Fire—forever. Christ shall rule and reign—with His Church—on earth for a thousand years. (Rev. 19,20)
Following the 1,000-year millennium—a period of worldwide peace on a renovated earth that will have been restored at Christ’s second coming to pre-fall, Edenic-like conditions—Satan will be loosed from the bottomless pit. True to his demented, devilish modus operandi, he will once again deceive masses of earth-dwellers who have been born during the millennium, many of whom will not have personally trusted Christ as Savior and Lord. There will be one more great battle (think of it as Armageddon 2.0). Jesus will handily put Satan and his army down (Rev. 20:7-10), and Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire, where he will dwell eternally.
Immediately following that last battle, the unbelieving dead of all ages will be resurrected to appear before God at the Great White Throne Judgment. Sets of books will be opened, and the Book of Life will be opened. Whoever’s name is not found written in that Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire, their eternal domain—an unspeakable place of torment that God originally prepared for the Devil and his fallen, angelic cohorts in evil. (Rev. 20:11-15)
As horrendous as the Great Tribulation will be, climaxing with hail-stones falling from heaven that weigh 100 pounds each (Rev. 16:17-21)—while men blaspheme one last time the name of God—no one need live in fear of going through that time. Jesus is waiting now for anyone who will to come unto Him for salvation, which is “by grace through faith.” (Eph.2:8,9) John put it as simply as he possibly could: “But as many as received Him (Jesus) to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” (John 1:12)
It has been a long time since Jesus said, “I will come again.” Don’t let the Devil use this “delay” to deceive you into believing that He is not really going to return. Peter anticipated this modernistic denial of the Second Coming when he wrote: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all men should come to repentance.” He hastened to warn that “The Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.” (II Pet. 3:9,10)
So, to repeat, Jesus said: “I will come again.” When He does, it will be too late to prepare. Paul declared that “now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (II Cor.6:2) Come today. Take Jesus at His word: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28)
“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. 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)
YOU and GOD 