We Believe: The Doctrine of the Second Coming
The ultimate appearance of God’s kingdom is the focus of the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.
But this scriptural emphasis is not on times, dates, or world events, but on the revelation of Jesus Christ as the Sovereign Lord of all creation.
Christ’s sacrifice on the cross secured our salvation and victory over sin and death.
But his return will bring us to that state of complete victory when we have glorified bodies unstaffed by sin and fleshly desires.
That will be the fulfillment of our blessed hope.
Doctrinal Statement: We believe that Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will return to earth bodily, in power and glory, at a time fixed by the Father and unknown to the Church, to raise the dead and judge the world. He will clothe the righteous with immortal, glorious bodies, rewarding them according to their deeds. But the unrighteous, Satan, and the forces of darkness, he will punish with eternal destruction. God will consummate redemption and renew creation, and his people from every nation will enjoy, worship, and reign with him forever.
Jesus will return to the earth bodily.
Jesus will judge the world when he returns.
The righteous will have a great hope in the resurrection.
The wicked will pay the penalty of eternal destruction.
The entire creation will be made new and glorious.
Jesus will return to the earth bodily
Acts 1:11 ESV
“and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.””
God’s rule is continuously advancing throughout history.
It will culminate in the final establishment of his kingdom when Jesus returns to the earth suddenly, visibly, and bodily.
He is the Sovereign Lord of creation and history, and when he returns to establish his kingdom, he will remove all evil and set up his throne of righteousness and justice.
God is in control of history, and his victory is assured.
The theme of God’s coming kingdom unfolds in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.
The biblical writers never emphasize times, dates, or world events but God’s plan to establish his rule on earth.
Therefore, we should look forward to the Lord’s return, but we should not be consumed with dates and times.
God has set a definite time for the return of Christ, but no man knows when it will be.
Mark 13:32-37 ESV
““But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.””
One reason God has not told us when Jesus will return is so we will not turn our focus away from the Great Commission and toward self-preservation.
Rather than being concerned with “when he will return,” God wants to focus on “why he will return.”
We should not wait passively for his return but actively obey the mandate to make disciples of all nations.
God’s victorious return should spur us to action as we disciple the nations.
But we do look forward to his return.
Because he ascended with a physical body and will return with a physical body, we have hope that we will also have glorified physical bodies one day.
This assures us that the material creation is valuable to God and is part of his ultimate plan for the universe.
This knowledge protects us from asceticism - severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence.
We can fully enjoy God’s material blessings as a part of our worship.
Jesus will judge the world when he returns
Matthew 25:31-32 ESV
““When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”
“He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
The Apostles’ Creed affirms the glorious truth that Christ has ascended into heaven and reigns victorious.
It further affirms, “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.”
This truth stirs our hearts with the promise that every wrong will one day be made right.
That should comfort us and terrify us at the same time.
Everyone will die and face a personal judgement of either damnation or salvation.
Hebrews 9:27-28 ESV
“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
There will be a great final judgment of believers and unbelievers.
All will stand before the judgement seat of Christ and hear the proclamation of their eternal destiny.
Life is not cyclical, and we do not get multiple chances through reincarnation.
*Death and judgement are the inevitable reality for all people.
This judgment is good news for Christians.
For on that day, Jesus will say:
Matthew 25:34 ESV
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
But this judgment is bad news for unbelievers.
For on that day, Jesus will say:
Matthew 25:41 ESV
““Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
This doctrine has several positive moral influences on our lives.
It satisfies our inward need for justice.
We live in a world marred by sin and rife with injustice, and we know that no laws or leaders can ultimately fix what is wrong.
We long for the judge of all the earth to do right.
Genesis 18:25 ESV
“Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?””
It also provides a motive for holy living and evangelism.
Paul was deeply mindful of his accountability before a holy God.
That knowledge produced in him the fear of the Lord, a yearning for holiness, and a desire to persuade others to reconcile to God.
2 Corinthians 5:10-11 ESV
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.”
The righteous will have a great hope in the resurrection
1 Peter 1:3 ESV
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”
Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, breaking death’s hold on humanity.
He is the ”firstborn from the dead” (Revelation 1:5, Colossians 1:18), “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (I Corinthians 15:20).
He was the first to be resurrected eternally, but not the last.
On the Final Day, God will raise the righteous to eternal life and the unrighteous to eternal condemnation (John 5:28-29, Daniel 12:2-3, Acts 24:15).
*So his resurrection ensures our resurrection.
It gives us a living hope, a hope that is securely kept for us in heaven.
It is our inheritance, imperishable, undefined, and unfading (I Peter 1:4-5).
But though God purchased our salvation through his Son’s death, our final salvation will not be complete until the “day of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is what theologians call the already; not yet tension.
In this life, we experience his promises, but the full completion of those promises awaits our resurrection on the Last Day.
That is why Christianity is a forward-looking faith.
It is a life of hope.
The basis of our hope is the finished work of Jesus Christ, but the object of our hope is the final appearance and complete salvation he will bring when he returns.
His sacrifice on the cross secured our salvation and victory over sin and death.
But his return will bring us to that state of complete victory when we have our glorified bodies that are unstained by sin and fleshly desires.
*Therefore, hope is our dominant perspective about the future.
*We are not simply trying to hold on until Jesus comes back; we labor expectantly during the brief time God enables us to inhabit his planet.
And we labor against the backdrop of Christ’s ultimate return in victory, power, and glory.
The wicked will pay the penalty of eternal destruction
2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 ESV
“This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”
Jesus taught more about eternal judgment than any other biblical author.
He called Hell a place of eternal torment (Luke 16:23) and unquenchable fire (Mark 9:43) from which there was no return (Luke 16:19-31) - a place of “outer darkness” (Matthew 25:30) where people will gnash their teeth in anguish and regret (Matthew 13:42).
He called it Gehenna in reference to the valley along the south of Jerusalem where people burned garbage and corpses.
Maggots consumed the bodies and the trash.
Because there was a constant supply of trash and corpses, the maggots that fed on them “never died” (Mark 9:48).
Three Old Testament authors referred to eternal destruction: Daniel (12:1-2), Malachi (4:1), and Isaiah (66:22-24).
Eight of the nine New Testament authors also referred to it: Matthew (18:8, 25:46), Mark (9:48), Luke (3:17, 16:19-31), John (3:36), Paul (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9), Peter (2 Peter 2:4, 17), Jude (1:7,13), and the author of Hebrews (9:27).
Despite all the biblical evidence, eternal destruction is still one of the most challenging doctrines to embrace.
“The sentimental secularism of modern Western culture, with its exalted optimism about human nature, its shrunken idea of God…makes it hard for Christians to take the reality of Hell seriously. [It] assumes a depth of insight into divine holiness and human sinfulness that most of us do not have.”
-J.I. Packer
God does not punish sinners in a fit of temper but rather as the result of his perfect love and unchanging hatred of evil.
*Hell is a place of justice, not cruelty.
*Cruelty involves punishment more severe than the crime.
Cruelty, in this sense, is unjust, and God is incapable of inflicting an unjust punishment.
But human concepts of justice and love are distorted by sin and, therefore, deceptive and unreliable.
God is infinitely worthy of our love, obedience, and honor, and our failure to do so is an infinite evil and deserving of eternal destruction.
The entire creation will be made new and glorious
Revelation 21:1 ESV
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”
“God created the earth…to be man’s permanent home. But sin and death entered the world and transformed the earth into a place of rebellion and alienation; it became enemy-occupied territory. But God has been working in salvation history to affect a total reversal of this evil consequence and liberate earth…from bondage to sin and corruption”
(Alan F. Johnson, Expositors Bible Commentary, 12:592).
Though God subjected the original creation to futility, the new creation will be free from corruption and full of the glory of God.
Awaiting us is a glorious future kingdom where death is defeated, and God will wipe away tears of sorrow, pain, and grief.
The sea - the source of the satanic beast (Revelation 13:1) and the place of the dead (Revelation 20:13) - will be no more.
This is a symbolic picture of the new creation’s freedom from evil in all its forms.
In this new creation, we will enter into the full enjoyment of life in the presence of God forever.
Jesus will say to us, “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).
In this kingdom:
Revelation 22:3 ESV
“No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.”
God made the original physical creation “very good” (Genesis 1:31).
Nothing is inherently sinful about the physical world.
God will perfect his creation in the new heavens and earth and bring it into harmony with his original purpose.
We will dwell in a fully redeemed universe that is “very good.”
We shall eat and drink at “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9).
The “river of the water of life” will flow from the throne of God (Revelation 22:1).
The tree of life will bear “twelve kinds of fruit for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2).
And our physical bodies will again be “very good” in God’s sight to fulfill the purpose for which he created us.
This is our blessed hope.
