Have you ever heard anyone say (or heard yourself think), “Who are we kidding? Jesus is never coming back – that’s a myth!”
If so, congratulations! You just identified one of the signs of His coming.
The apostle Peter wrote, “…there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” (II Peter 3:3-4, KJV)
A Moment of Expectancy
I remember that, when I was a teenager in the 1960s, there seemed to be a general anticipation in the church of Jesus’ imminent return. I didn’t realize until recently what had caused that undercurrent of excitement 50+ years ago – the rebirth of Israel (May 14, 1948).
The book of Revelation refers to a Temple in Jerusalem. For centuries, the nation of Israel didn’t even exist, much less have a Temple in their Holy City. So John’s prophecies about the last days seemed fantastic. But when Israel became a nation again, the book of Revelation came alive!
Then the years passed. And the decades passed. And Jesus didn’t put in an appearance. In fact, there’s not even a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem yet.
Confusion
Now, believers are starting to wonder, “What’s going on? Did Jesus sneak into the world in camo and we missed Him? Or did He change His mind about coming back? And how do I really, really, really know the Bible is true, anyway?”
Wait! Before you give up on the Bible, think about this:
How many times have you seen a list of the Scriptures foretelling Jesus’ first sojourn on Earth? There are a lot of them, aren’t there? But they’re spread out all through the Old Testament. It’s easy for us, with 20 versions of the Bible on our shelves, to find those exciting prophecies of a coming Messiah.
BUT, the reason it’s easy is because He has already come. We know He was born in Bethlehem to a virgin. (Isaiah 7:14) We know He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9) We know Psalm 22 (Psalm 22) describes His crucifixion in gruesome detail. It’s easy because we can take the story of His life and match it to the prophecies in the Old Testament.
But in the year 0000 A.D…
How many Israelites, do you suppose, even had a copy of the Scriptures in those days? How many of them knew about the specific prophecies of the Messiah’s coming? How many of them realized it was TIME?
I have an idea that not many did. Simeon and Anna seemed to get it (see Luke 2:21-38); but what about the rest of the nation? Maybe they had some vague hope of a coming Savior. But they were probably a lot like us, going about the business of life without much expectation that anything would ever change.
But change it did!
When the time was right, angels sang, shepherds worshiped, a star shone, and Magi traveled. When the time was right, a Miracle Worker healed every disease and cast out every demon. When the time was right, God hung on a Cross and died. When the time was right, God rose from the dead. When the time was right, a rushing mighty wind blew into an upper room.
And the world has never been the same.
Second Coming
So, to answer the title question, “Yes, Jesus is coming back.” I don’t know exactly when, but He gave us signs – famine, earthquakes, wars, and many others. (You can “google it” if you want details.)
Plus, the book of Revelation describes a world united under a charismatic leader where people can be controlled meticulously through a “mark” on their forehead or hand. Every day it becomes more obvious that clandestine powers are laying the groundwork globally for that future despotic empire.
“Fine,” you may be thinking, “but what’s taking so long? And why does it have to be such a mystery?”
First, maybe it’s taking so long because the Lord is waiting for the last, recalcitrant Gentile to accept Jesus as Lord and join the family. Remember, He delayed Israel’s possession of their Promised Land for hundreds of years in order to allow the current inhabitants of the land opportunity to change. When the various nations in the land remorselessly continued their evil ways, the nation of Israel was allowed to move in and take over.
In other words, God has His own timetable. And He is patient because He cares. (II Peter 3:9)
Mysteries
Second, why does it have to be such a mystery?
Michael Heiser, Ph.D., in his book, The Unseen Realm*, explains that God speaks and acts in mysteries to thwart the efforts of our enemies – that is, the devil, the demons, the fallen angels, etc. In other words, there are powerful spiritual beings who are determined to prevent God’s will from going forth. One of them led Adam and Eve astray at the beginning of history. Some of them inspired Pharaoh and Herod to kill baby boys. They lured the nation of Israel into idolatry. They crucified the Lord of Glory . . .
. . . and that’s when God check-mated them!
If the evil powers of darkness had understood that Jesus’ death would result in His resurrection and the empowerment of His followers to change the world, they never would have crucified Him. (I Corinthians 2:7-8) For the devil and his minions, Jesus’ crucifixion was the beginning of the end.
And that’s why God hid his plan in mysteries. Heiser points out that Jesus “baited” the powers of darkness to plot against Him and engineer His death. (Heiser, 285-287) They wouldn’t have taken the bait if they’d understood what they were going to be doing to themselves!
Mosaic
According to Heiser, the whole Bible “is really a theological and literary mosaic.” (Heiser, 15) God has scattered His truths among the 66 books of the Bible to conceal them from His enemies. But we need to realize that, taken together, all those scattered bits of information form a larger picture. Our challenge is to study the various facts and use them to discover the panorama they reveal, the mosaic.
In 2022, as I showed above, it’s easy to look at the Old Testament and find the picture of the first advent of Messiah. Does that mean we can find His second coming in the mosaic? Yes, it’s there. It’s not a figment of some ancient scholar’s imagination.
When Jesus was on Earth, He told His followers He was coming back. We’ve been waiting for Him ever since – nearly 2,000 years. It’s tempting to get restless, to have questions, to grumble about the wickedness around us.
But we can put our doubts away. Jesus is coming back for us – His second coming is right there in the mosaic. And it could be any day now!
“In [Christ] are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:3, KJV
*Michael S. Heiser, Ph.D., The Unseen Realm, Lexham Press, 2015Photo credit: anncapictures on pixabay