Jesus is Coming

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Matthew 24:36 NASB).

A basic tenet of responsibility is to appropriately prepare for certain outcomes, whether they be more probable ones, like saving-up my money for a time when I am no longer able to work, or even merely possible ones, such as purchasing accident insurance in case I incur an injury.

However, sometimes our concern over the future manifests itself in problematic ways. An unhealthy obsession along these lines can be observed within certain Christian circles regarding the return of Jesus Christ.

To be clear, the Bible does teach that Jesus Christ will someday return to earth, that his coming should be anticipated by his followers, and that this future event is the substance of Christian hope. Yet, the Bible is also quite clear that its timing is unknowable. In other words, while the fact of Jesus’ return is revealed truth, the time and specific circumstances surrounding his return are mystery.

Nevertheless, Jesus’ claim that no one (not even him) knows the day or hour of his return, and the New Testament’s otherwise uniform silence on the matter has not stopped some Christians from making predictions for this event, all of which have to date unsurprisingly failed to come to pass. Examples of these failed prophecies have been enumerated by many and so I will not bother to do so here.

Instead, I want to highlight what I believe is truly important about this event, but which is sometimes distorted or altogether ignored by far too many people.

It is a troubling development that among some Christian groups, especially in America, entire so-called “end-time” scenarios are sketched out by means of wrenching a host of biblical texts from their historical and literary context, and then arranging them into a blueprint of sorts that supposedly tell what will happen in the future leading up to Christ’s return. While this might make for exciting fiction, the violence done to these texts—making them speak to things that are quite foreign to any sound interpretation—is, frankly, upsetting to informed readers of the Bible.

In Scripture, the phenomenon of Jesus’ return coincides not with the end of the world, but rather its final salvation—the coming of God’s eternal kingdom and this kingdom’s King to earth in order to set all things right. It is not a secret event in which people are snatched away in order to escape persecution, but rather an unmistakable, public event in which God’s people are once and for all rescued and vindicated.

At the same time, it is likewise not an opportunity to escape God’s impartial judgment, as all people—both Christians and everyone else—will then stand before the Lord to give an account of themselves.

Importantly, Jesus’ return is expressly revealed as motivation for God’s people to be agents of peace, reconciliation, and restoration in the world during the present time. It is not something that should inspire people to be apathetic about or—worse yet—gleeful over the outbreak of war, discord, and/or disaster (which is, of course, much easier to do from the safe confines of America), as if the things that cause horrific suffering to very real people and consequently wound God’s heart should be welcomed instead as simply the “signs of the times.”

Indeed, such self-indulgent forecasting leaves Jesus behind and is more in keeping with the sort of imperial pretenses of the empires of the world that God’s just and righteous kingdom intends to supplant.

In sum, while the Bible gives us a glimpse of the very end of the story, it does not provide an explanation of how, exactly, we get from “now” to “then.” But what we do get is an exhortation to remain faithful to the end no matter what happens, and the assurance that when that time comes all of God’s promises will at last fully come to pass.

“The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions” (Deuteronomy 29:29 NLT).