Questions About The Second Coming Of Jesus

Let no man deceive you by

any means: or that day shall

not come, except there come

a falling away first, and that 

man of sin be revealed, the son

of perdition: who opposeth and

exalteth himself above all that

is called god, or that is worshipped:

so that he as God sitteth in the

temple of God shewing himself

that he is God.

2Thessalonians 1:3-4

     Rome in even under Nero had become both for good and evil but as things in the Roman empire became difficult to deal with changes came for the worse and that worse was much against Christianity. You see, at first the Roman empire, by its laws of justice, was the protector of Christianity for we find that Rome came to the rescue of Paul on several occasions, as in Corinth through the proconsul Annaeus Gallio, in Jerusalem through the Captian Lysias, and Caesarea through the procurator Festus, but now had become a deadly foe towards Christianity. The restraining power that kept back for a while outbreak of the Antichrist, it now openly assumed the character of Antichrist with fire and sword.  The subject to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would become a present subject that those in Thessalonica worried over because they had misunderstood the words of Paul and needed clarification. Other churches had this same problem and Paul wanted these letters read to the churches so that they too would come to the truth of the matter.

     Today we have the same problem only it has gotten larger and more confusing as many men have written about the Second Coming and applied many speculations as though those speculations were applying Scripture truthfully. Men such as Hal Lindsay and his many books on this subject, the movies "Left Behind Series," movies about Armageddon, as did Bruce Willis made, and many other movies, all bringing horror and not being true to Scripture. We have such groups as the Seventh Day Adventist that focus on the Last Days, and bring to their congregations many speculations as though they have the truth. Jehovah Witness who have applied dates as to the Second Coming of Jesus and when He did not appear then gave some sort of spiritual coming to save their mistake. Do they have the truth? What was the understanding of the Advent in the days of the Apostles? 

     The coming of the Messiah and the establishment of His kingdom was and is a great object of expectation and desire for God's people and this from the beginning of the world. It was the subject of prophecy and promise under the old dispensation. Those ancient saints were described, as are Christians today, those who are or were constantly hoping for the coming of the Lord (Ephesians 2:12, Acts 26:6-7). Even the dying thief on the cross with Jesus knew about the resurrection and hoped to come into that kingdom. The last question the Apostles of Jesus asked was: "Lord, remember me, when thou come into they kingdom," and "Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel" (Acts 1:6). 

     As the time of the Second Coming advent was unrevealed either to men or angels, the early Christians hoped it might occur in their day. The early apostles cherished that expectation, although they did  not know when the Lord was to come but what they, and us do know, there must be first an apostasy as Paul wrote to give clarification to this hope. This apostasy will be found in the Antichrist that is to come and there must be a falling away by those who claim to be Christian but will not stand up under the wiles of this Antichrist. It is good to look for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, but it is not good to speculate outside of what Scripture teaches. Think on this: if God, who know that Christ was not to come for at least eighteen centuries after his ascension could say to His people: "the day of the Lord is at hand," therefore watch, for ye know neither the day  nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh", then that language was appropriate even on the assumption that those who used it knew that the second advent was not to occur for thousands of years falls under this fact, time is not the same with God as it is with us for Peter showed us that to God a thousand years are with God as one day, and one day as a thousand years (2Peter 3:8). The Church waited four thousand years for the first advent: we may be content to wait God's time for the Second Advent. We do know this: God does not lie and if He said Jesus is coming again, He is, this fact should give to us comfort. We do know this: Jesus is coming on the Last Day, not before, therefore, build on your relationship with Jesus Christ so when you stand before Him you will hear: "Well done, faithful and discreet slave." 

Ponder the path of they feet,

     and let all they ways be establish.

Turn not tot he right hand nor to the left:

     remove thy foot from evil.

                    Proverbs 4:26-27

Jesus is coming: you do not have to speculate

Richard L. Crumb