What is the Second Coming?

Question 10048.

The Second Coming is the visible, glorious and physical return of Jesus to the earth to defeat His enemies, rescue Israel, and reign as King. When I speak of the Second Coming I mean something quite specific and utterly certain, an event as real and bodily as the first coming in Bethlehem long ago. Jesus came once in deep humility, born in a borrowed stable and hung upon a Roman cross. He will come again in blazing power, riding out of an opened heaven to judge the nations and to reign over them. It will be the same Jesus, in the same glorified body, seen at last by every eye on earth.

I want to distinguish the Second Coming clearly from the rapture, because confusing the two events causes endless muddle in prophecy. The rapture is Jesus coming in the air for His Church before the tribulation begins. The Second Coming is Jesus coming down to the earth with His Church after the tribulation has run its course. They are two distinct events separated by seven years, and holding them firmly apart keeps the whole prophetic picture in sharp focus, as I argue in my study of the difference between the rapture and the Second Coming.

What Scripture says about the Second Coming

The fullest picture of the Second Coming anywhere in the Bible is Revelation 19:11-16. Heaven itself is torn open, and Jesus appears riding on a white horse, called Faithful and True, His eyes like flames of fire, a sharp sword coming from His mouth, and the armies of heaven following after Him. Written on His robe and on His thigh is the title King of kings and Lord of lords. This is no gentle nativity scene. It is the return of the rightful King to reclaim a rebel world that is His by right, and it brings the tribulation to an end in a single, decisive stroke of judgement.

The angels promised exactly this at the ascension, and their words have never been withdrawn. In Acts 1:11 they told the watching disciples that this same Jesus, who had just been taken up from them into heaven, would come again in the very same way as they had seen Him go. His return is therefore visible, bodily and personal from start to finish. It is not some vague spiritual influence or a mere symbolic idea dressed up in dramatic language. It is the literal return of the literal Jesus, and the whole New Testament treats it as the sure hope toward which all of history is steadily moving.

How the Second Coming differs from the rapture

I keep returning to this distinction because so much hangs upon it. At the rapture, believers are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and are then taken to be with Him where He is. At the Second Coming, the Lord descends all the way down to the earth, and His feet actually touch the Mount of Olives, exactly as Zechariah 14 foretells in careful detail. At the rapture He comes for His saints to gather them. At the Second Coming He comes with them, the armies of heaven in Revelation 19 plainly including the Church already glorified. I unpack the catching away itself in my study of what the rapture is.

There is also the matter of signs, which points the same way. The rapture is imminent and signless, able to happen at any moment without warning. His return, by sharp contrast, is preceded by the whole visible sequence of the tribulation, so that those living on the earth in that day will actually be able to reckon the time as it draws near. When you keep these two comings distinct, the New Testament reads with a lovely and unforced coherence. When you fuse them into a single event, passage after passage suddenly begins to contradict itself. Two comings, one Lord, and a seven-year gap set carefully between them.

What the Second Coming accomplishes

The Second Coming is not a bare appearing with nothing to do. It achieves a great deal in a very short space of time. First it brings judgement, as Jesus destroys the Antichrist with the mere breath of His mouth and casts both the beast and the false prophet alive into the lake of fire. Then it brings rescue, for a repentant Israel, besieged and surrounded at Jerusalem, is delivered at the very last moment by the returning King. Zechariah 12:10 pictures the nation looking on the One whom they pierced and mourning bitterly for Him, and that is the national conversion of Israel at the moment of His coming.

Above everything else His return brings in the kingdom. Having judged His enemies and saved His ancient people, Jesus establishes His reign upon the earth, taking His seat on the throne of David in Jerusalem and ruling the nations with a rod of iron. This is the very doorway into the thousand years I describe in my study of the millennium. The Second Coming is the great hinge upon which the whole of history turns, swinging the world from the long reign of rebellion into the righteous reign of Christ Himself. Nothing after it is ever the same again.

The certainty of the Second Coming

If there is one thing above all that I want people to carry away from this, it is that the Second Coming is absolutely certain. It rests on the plain and repeated promise of Jesus Himself, confirmed by angels, apostles and prophets alike, who speak of His parousia, His royal coming and presence, across the whole of Scripture. He said He would come again, and He does not and cannot lie. Mockers in every generation have scoffed at the delay, asking where the promise of His coming is now, and Peter answered them long ago that the Lord is not slow at all but patient, giving the world room to repent before the appointed day finally arrives.

The whole sweep of Scripture leans forward toward that day, and creation itself groans and labours in expectation of it. Nature waits for it, the martyrs under the altar cry out for it, and the Spirit and the Bride together say come. I stake absolutely everything on it. The King who came once in weakness will surely come again in power, and no force in heaven or on earth can prevent it or delay it beyond its appointed hour. That certainty is the deep anchor beneath all my hope, and it holds me steady whenever the world seems to be spinning hopelessly out of control.

How the Second Coming shapes life now

The New Testament never once leaves this hope lying about as cold, abstract doctrine. It always draws the truth out into the ordinary business of daily life. Because Jesus is coming, John writes, everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Because He is coming, Paul urges, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Because He is coming, Peter reasons, live holy and godly lives as you wait. The sheer certainty of His return is meant to make me a better and holier man today, not a mere idle speculator about the shape of tomorrow.

So I hold the Second Coming as a constant spur to holiness, to mission and to patient endurance under trial. When I am tempted to lose heart at the state of the world, I remember that the King is already on His way and that every wrong will soon be set gloriously right. When I am tempted to compromise and cut corners, I remember that I will one day stand openly before Him and give account. The doctrine is never an escape hatch out of the world but a ringing summons to live faithfully within it, in the strong and searching light of His certain return.

So, now what?

The Second Coming is wonderful news for all those who love the King, and dreadful news for all those who defy Him to the end. He is coming to reign, and when He comes the time for choosing sides will be finally and forever over. The one question that truly matters is where you personally will be standing on that great day, among the joyful armies who welcome Him home or among the rebels who are swept away. That question cannot safely wait for the event itself, because the event will be far too late to decide it in.

So make your peace with the King now, today, while He still offers it to you freely at the foot of the cross. Bow to Him in glad and willing surrender, and His coming will be the crown of your joy rather than the object of your terror. The very One who is coming as Judge of all comes first to you as a gentle Saviour, with His arms flung wide open. Will you go out to meet Him as your own King before He comes at last as everyone’s King?

Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

Luke 21:27-28 (ESV)