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Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life

Bible Reading Plans

• Plan One: New Testament Only
• Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
• Plan Three: New Testament + History
• Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3

Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.

Extras

Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute

Overflow

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(Today’s Reading)

The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact

(Book Installment 2)

Part One – The Second Coming of Jesus Christ

Chapter 1 – Sorting Out the Confusion

Most everyone, even those who take little interest in spiritual things, has heard of the Second Coming. In our time it has not been uncommon to hear newscasters report of some new cult sequestering itself from society in anticipation of the last days, Armageddon and all – its leader a self-professed reincarnation of Jesus Christ Himself. Or, in a more orthodox vein, some well-intentioned group with no members pretending to be deity will arise proclaiming urgently that Jesus Christ is on the verge of appearing from the sky in the flesh. And there are all sorts of variations on this theme – some sinister and despicable, some well-meaning, and some impossible to tell.

Some of these groups end with a bang and some with a whimper. Some actually go on indefinitely, boldly forecasting new dates for the Second Coming as if they didn’t realize that the passing of the old dates had already discredited them. When natural disasters and world tensions are on the increase, speculation about the Second Coming appears beyond the bounds of these types of groups we have mentioned. Even more people begin to ask, “Are these the last days?” “Is this the time that the Second Coming of Christ is about to occur?”

As a result, the knowledge most people have about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is a knowledge of hopes – raised and dashed. Repeatedly. For the one thing that all these forecasts, speculations, prophecies, and prognostications have in common is that they have failed to produce a Second Coming that matches what was promised. And so for many people, the hope for the Second Coming has become like the hope of many Jews for their Messiah: a hope not completely abandoned, yet a hope long overdue for fulfillment. The surrounding world cannot be blamed if it is confused by all this.

The New Testament Record

It is widely acknowledged that the writers of the New Testament expected the Second Coming in their lifetime. What are we to think about this? Are we to conclude that as fine a moral specimens as were Peter, Paul, John, and the others (not to mention Jesus Himself), that still they must fall into the same category as those groups we’ve mentioned who raised hopes they could not fulfill? Hardly! On the other hand, are we to believe Jesus and His apostles were mistaken about the Second Coming but trust them about everything else? That’s not reasonable either! The good news is that all that they promised did, in fact, come to pass. They did not raise hopes that could not be fulfilled. We can trust them fully and completely. That is the message of this book.

Part Two of the book will examine carefully just what Jesus and the apostles said about the timetable for the Second Coming. For now, we simply acknowledge that a straightforward reading of Matthew through Revelation will leave a reader unable to deny that these people had a great expectation; that they believed they were on the verge of that cataclysmic coming of the Lord that would climax in the last days of the old age they were living in and usher in the glorious new age. It is my contention in this book that Jesus and His apostles were absolutely right in everything that they said.