Jesus told His followers that He would come back for them. Taking Him at His word we wait for His return. We can ask ourselves “Was Jesus talking about His second coming or was He alluding to a secret snatching away of His bride, the Church.
Later on Paul tells us of this snatching away of the believers that occurs just before an evil man is revealed who will desecrate the Jewish temple with his abomination declaring himself to be God.
Even later John sees the second coming of Jesus occurring after this evil man gathers all the armies of the world together at a place called Armageddon.
Logical deduction would say that Jesus interjects Himself back into our future at two different times, once in the clouds to take us away with Him and a second time when we return with Him from heaven to earth. Between these two appearances an evil man reigns. Because of this sequence of events it would be easy for anyone to recognize the time of the second coming of Jesus. It’s at His first future appearance that He can come as “a thief in the night” to those not waiting and watching.
So what are we to be looking for? Luke tells us the message that Jesus gave His followers to watch for: “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And 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.”
Paul tells us of this redemption as we leave to meet Jesus in the air. We receive immortal bodies and best of all we are transformed into His likeness. But before that moment we will know it’s about to happen when we see the “signs in sun and moon and stars” and the whole earth will be in physical chaos.
At the beginning of the book of Acts Peter tells us “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day”. These same events are describe in the book of Revelation as occurring at the sixth seal: “When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.”
We see between the sixth seal and the seventh seal a gathering of the Church into heaven. John writes: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
So is right now the right time to be looking for these things to happen? Jesus would have us be watchful always until these things do happen but we always want to know if it’s near and if we will be the ones alive to see that day.
Are there clues in scripture that would tell us if we are in the season of the Lord’s return for us?
It was not for men to know the seasons or times and hundreds have made failed predictions for over 1,900 years. The only thing we can be certain of is that it is still a future event that we must watch for.
United States
Australia
...