The Revelation

The Manner of His Second Coming

The Scriptures show that Christ will return personally, visibly, and tangibly in the same manner that He went away (Acts 1:9-11).

• The same Jesus who walked on earth and ascended to Heaven will come back to earth. Jesus did not become a human only for His time on earth. It was a permanent change, and the Bible teaches us that He will retain His humanity for all eternity. Jesus spoke about His return as the ‘Son of Man’ coming on clouds of glory (Mk. 14:62). When John saw the ascended Jesus in his vision, he saw him in the form of a man (Rev. 1:13-16). Jesus is the only mediator between God and man because He is still human (1 Tim. 2:5). He is the perfect High Priest who can sympathise with us and represent us before God because He is human (Heb. 4:15). The only change in the humanity of Jesus is that since His resurrection, He has a new glorified body.
• Jesus will return in great glory, even the glory of His Father (Mt. 16:27; 19:28; 25:31). He will return with all the angels of Heaven — millions and millions of them (Mt. 16:27; 25:31; Mk. 8:38; 2 Thess. 1:7; Rev. 5:11).
• Jesus will return with believers who were with Him in Heaven (1 Thess. 4:14).
• Jesus will return in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that do not know God and do not obey the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 1:7-10; 2:3-12). There will be universal awareness and instant recognition. Everyone will know He has come, and everyone will know who He is. It will be the most public and publicised event in history (Mt. 24:26-27, 30; 26:64).

The Signs of His Second Coming

The second coming of Christ, unlike the rapture, has signs which precede it. Lord Jesus gave us the longest discourse on His second coming in Matthew 24, where He listed the signs that will precede His return and the end of this age (Matt. 24:3).

1. False Christs and Deception

In Matthew 24:4-5, 11, and 23-26, Jesus said: “Watch out that no one misleads you. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many…And many false prophets will appear and deceive many … Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe him. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Remember, I have told you ahead of time. So then, if someone says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe him.”

2. Wars and violence

In Matthew 24:6-7a, Jesus said, “You will hear of wars and rumours of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom."

3. Famine and starvation

In Matthew 24:7b, Jesus said, “And there will be famines.. in various places.”

4. Death and plagues

In Matthew 24:7c, Jesus said, “plagues and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of birth pains.”

5. Persecution and Martyrdom

In Matthew 24:9, Jesus said, “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My Name. At that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.”

6. Cosmic signs

In Matthew 24:29, Jesus said, “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

7. Global judgement

In Matthew 24:37-39, Jesus said, “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

The judgments mentioned in the Olivet discourse correspond with the seven seals of Revelation. Hence, Bible students have long understood this to refer to the time of the Great Tribulation, which shall be unleashed on this world after the rapture of the church.

The correspondence between the signs of the end time taught by Jesus and the seals of Revelation also proves that the signs Jesus mentions in Matthew 24 are not the mere general kind of suffering or trouble that characterises the entire church age (“wrath of man”). Rather, since the seals are opened by the Lamb, each of these judgements come from the hand of the Lord. Hence, this is the period when the wrath of God shall be poured out on earth. This is another reason to believe that the church would not undergo the Great Tribulation.

The Place of His Second Coming

Since an embodied Jesus can only be in one place at one time, it is obvious that His return will be in one geographical location. We read that the angels will be sent to the uttermost parts of the world to “gather the elect” and bring them to where the Lord is (Mt. 24:31; Mk. 13:27). We also know that it will be in the region of Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4 cf. Acts 1:9-12).  This is the mountain from where Jesus ascended to Heaven. This mount is located to the east of  Jerusalem, and from here one can view the city on one side and the wilderness down to the Dead Sea on the other side. It was on the slopes of this mountain that thousands of pilgrims used to camp for the three annual Jewish feasts. It was also here that they welcomed Jesus with palm branches when He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey (Mk. 11:1, 8-10).

The Results of His Second Coming

In order to understand the results of Christ’s second coming, we should briefly explain what happens between the rapture and the second coming. With the rapture of the church, God’s prophetic timeline would once again focus on the nation of Israel. The seventy weeks that were prophesied by Daniel for Israel would move to its final week, the final seven years, which are called the Tribulation. It is also the time when a world dictator known as the Antichrist would rise. Antichrist is a name that means “against Christ” or “in the place of Christ” and comes from John’s epistles (1 John 2:18–19, 22; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7). However, he is the same person that Paul identifies as “man of lawlessness” and that which Revelation speaks of as the first beast who receives authority from Satan, the dragon, to blaspheme against God, His name, and His tabernacle (Rev. 16:1-6). He will become a world ruler and make war against the saints of God, namely Israel (Rev. 16:7). 

In the middle of this seven-year period, the Antichrist would fulfil “the abomination that causes desolation spoken of through the prophet Daniel” (Matt 24:15). This abomination is a reference to the Antichrist setting up himself as the god to be worshipped in the Temple in Jerusalem (2 Thess. 2:4). This latter half of the Tribulation is hence called by Jesus as the “great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will” (Matt. 24:21) and Daniel calls it “a time of distress such as never occurred” (Dan.12:1). As Revelation chapters 6 to 18 describe this period of Tribulation, it would be a time of God’s wrath being poured upon this world. By the end of this Tribulation period, Antichrist would gather the armies of many nations for the battle of Armageddon to attack Israel (Rev. 16:12-16). The Lord Jesus will then return and defeat the Antichrist and his forces “with the breath of His mouth” (2 Thess. 2:8; Rev. 19:11-21, Zech. 14:2-5, 9). 

As a result of Christ’s return and victory, the world will witness the following:

• Antichrist defeated and doomed

Both the Antichrist and his false prophet are thrown into hell after Christ defeats them (Rev. 19:20). This will deliver Israel once and for all from all her enemies, and they will finally enter into the rest that God has always promised them, but that which they have never experienced so far due to their rejection of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ (Zech. 14:8-11). 

• Binding of Satan

Satan, who was behind the Antichrist and the false prophet, is bound by an angel and kept in an abyss for a thousand years, forbidding him from deceiving the nations for these thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3).

• Millennial Reign of Christ

The thousand-year period when Satan is shut in, the Lord Jesus Christ will set up the earthly Davidic kingdom on this earth wherein He will reign from Jerusalem (Zech. 14:16) and all His earthly promises to Israel shall be literally fulfilled (Zech. 14:9, 16-19). The raptured church saints will reign with Him (Rev. 20:4-6), and it will be the time when this earth will finally experience universal holiness (Zech. 14:20-21). 

• Eternal State

After the millennium, Satan is again let loose for a short while, and he attempts a rebellion again, but he will be thrown into the lake of fire, where, along with the Antichrist and the false prophet, he will be tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev. 20:10). All the dead unbelievers are resurrected to be judged and punished. After which the Lord will renew the whole universe and create the new heavens and the new earth where the Lord and His redeemed people shall dwell together forever and ever: “Behold, the dwelling of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (Rev. 21:3-4). 

The Timing of His Second Coming

In His discourse, Lord Jesus points out that despite the signs of His second coming, the exact timing of His advent cannot be known by anyone. For He said, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Matt. 24:36). So all attempts to predict the exact date of His second coming are utterly foolish. In the history of the church, many have ventured so against this clear teaching of the Lord Jesus. All of them have been proven wrong, having only reaped confusion and shame for those who believed such predictions. We should stay away from anyone who claims to have a secret insight into the timing of Christ’s coming, remembering these solemn words of our Lord. Such secret things not revealed to us belong to the Lord and are none of our business to know them (Deut. 29:29; Acts 1:6-7). 

Rather than give us the exact time, the Bible teaches us that the coming of Christ is very soon. With respect to the rapture, we can say the New Testament teaches it as an imminent return of Christ, which could happen at any time. With respect to the second coming, we can say the New Testament teaches it as an impending return which would happen sometime soon in history.  Though wars, famines, persecution, and earthquakes have happened throughout the church age, as seen earlier, Jesus is speaking about a specific set of wars, famines, persecution, and earthquakes which come as the result of Him opening the seal judgments of God’s wrath as found in the book of Revelation. This outpouring of God’s wrath is yet to happen. So the wars, famines, earthquakes, plagues, etc., that we see today could be considered as the general signs of the end times or "the birth pangs” as Jesus said (Matt. 24:8). When we see them increasing in number and the world going into utter chaos, we can be sure the second coming of Christ is very near. If the second coming of Christ is very near, how much more the rapture, which has no preceding signs and could happen any moment? Hence, believers should always be marked with watchfulness and readiness to meet the Lord (Matt. 24:42-44; 1 Thess. 5:1-10).