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The Second Coming of Christ
Speculation and the Second Coming
Throughout history many have boldly predicted the time of Christ’s second coming
and the end of the world. The journalist, Jeffery L Sheler and Mike Tharp
have written about the intense interestthat each generation has had in this
subject in an article in the Online US News entitled "Dark Prophecies."
America's fascination with apocalypticism begins in a sense with Christopher
Columbus, a devout reader of biblical prophecies who is said to have believed the
world would end in 1650. He considered his discovery of the "New World"
part of a divine plan to establish a millennial paradise. "God made me the
messenger of the new heaven and the new Earth of which he spoke in the Apocalypse
of St. John," Columbus wrote in his journal, "and he showed me the spot
where to find it."
Puritans in colonial America thought their New England settlements were outposts of
the kingdom Christ would establish at his Second Coming. Cotton Mather enjoyed
speculating on the specifics of Christ's return--how, when, and where it would
occur--all of which he believed could be predicted by interpreting current events.
...
Hippolytus, a Roman priest and theologian in the second and third centuries,
predicted Christ would return in A.D. 500, based on the dimensions of Noah's ark.
And about A.D. 172, the Phrygian prophet Montanus drew a following by proclaiming
himself the Holy Spirit incarnate and declaring that the Last Judgment was at hand.
In medieval times, an influential Calabrian monk, Joachim of Fiore, fanned
apocalyptic fervor with his writings on Revelation. They included elaborate charts
and drawings mapping out the end-times scenario, and fueled support for the
Crusades, launched between 1097 and 1270 to retake the Holy Land from its Islamic
conquerors.
Joachim's approach to prophecy, scholars say, presaged popular 20th-century views
regarding the Second Coming. John Nelson Darby, a 19th-century Englishman,
after studying the Bible's apocalyptic prophecies, came up with an elaborate end-
times theory known as premillennial dispensationalism. Darby concluded that
history was divided into seven ages--or dispensations--that will culminate in
the Second Coming.
Darby's thinking came to dominate Christian evangelical theology in the 20th
century, popularized in books like Hal Lindsey's 1970 bestseller, The Late Great
Planet Earth, and Dallas Theological Seminary Chancellor John Walvoord's
Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis. Both writers used current events to
explain mysterious biblical images and to fashion intricate end-times scenarios...
Over the years, some premillennialists have confidently identified Adolf Hitler,
Mikhail Gorbachev, and Saddam Hussein as the Antichrist, Cobra helicopters as the
swarming locusts of Revelation, and credit and debit cards as the "mark of
the Beast" without which, according to Revelation 13:17, "no man might
buy or sell."
No single modern event has stirred more apocalyptic excitement, however, than the
founding of the State of Israel. Since much of the end-times drama revolves
around Israel, its nearly 2,000-year absence from the world scene had posed
something of a problem for generations of prophecy believers. So when the United
Nations chartered Israel in 1948, premillennialists exulted that the final
countdown had begun. For many Orthodox Jews, Israel's founding also stirred
Messianic expectations linked to biblical prophecies that the Temple in Jerusalem,
destroyed by invading Romans in A.D. 70, would be rebuilt and herald the coming of
the Messiah (Online:http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/971215/15prop.htm. (Link archived)
This is a small sample; but it illustrates how popular it has been for religious
people to predict the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world.
I believe that Jesus will come again! This was the message the apostles received
from angels as they watched the Lord ascend into heaven.
(Acts 1:11) "Men of Galilee,why do you stand looking into the
sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the
same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."
Furthermore, this was the message proclaimed by the apostles: That Jesus would
come a second time, apart from sin (Heb 9:28).They taught that he would one day...
(1 Thess 4:16) ...descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trumpet of God...
They said that he...
(2 Thess 1:7-10) ...shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels
in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those
who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty
of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of
His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be
marveled at among all who have believed-- for our testimony to you was believed.
I believe the angels and I believe the apostles -Jesus IS coming again! But
if you want me to do what others have done and predict the time of his return, I’m
not going to do it! For though I know that Jesus is coming again, I don’t know
when this will happen and no once else knows either! Those who tell you otherwise
are deceived.
Jesus spoke on more than one occasion about his Second Coming. He said:
(Matthew 24:35, 36, 44; 25:13) Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words
shall not pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the
angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone... For this reason you be
ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think
He will... Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.
While on earth Jesus told his apostles that no one knows "the day and hour of his
return -"not...the angels...nor the Son, but the Father alone. "Moreover, lest
anyone think that this has changed since Jesus’ ascension, Peter said:
(2 Peter 3:10) But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the
heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense
heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
Does a thief give you warning that he is about to rob your house or your
car? Jesus' final coming will be like the coming of a thief-unannounced. But
some say that his coming will only be like a thief for the unprepared; the
watchful disciple, however, can know the day of the Lord’s return. But let's
read once again the words of Jesus in Matt 24:44, "for the Son of Man is coming at
an hour when you do not think He will." Thus, not even His disciples will know the
time of his return; that day, even to them, will come like a thief.
THE ANTICHRIST
But some are unwilling to be convinced. We are told that we will know that
the end is near when the antichrist appears. We have all heard of the antichrist,
haven’t we? He is a prominent theme in many speculative theories about Jesus'
return. We are told that the Bible teaches that he is a world leader that
will shortly take a major role in world affairs. In the past Adolf Hitler,
Mikhail Gorbachev, and Saddam Hussein have all been identified as the
Antichrist. So have Mohammed, Henry Kissinger, Moshe Dayan and several of
the Popes. The way that some preachers talk about the antichrist the layman might
be forgiven for not knowing that the word antichrist is found in only three places
in the Bible - 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7. Furthermore, John never says
that there would be only one antichrist, but many.
(1 John 2:18) Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that
antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know
that it is the last hour.
What's more, John, who wrote near the close of the first century, said that these
antichrists had already arisen in the world. So when you hear someone tell you
that there is only one real antichrist and that his coming is in the imminent
future you need to know that these people don’t know what they are talking about.
They are not speaking where the Bible speaks!
Finally, these antichrists were not world leaders, but religious teachers who were
denying either that Jesus is the Christ or that he had come had come in the flesh.
(1 John 2:22) Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the
Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.
(2 John 7) For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not
acknowledge Jesus Christ as comingin the flesh. This is the deceiver and the
antichrist.
As a quick re-cap of what John says about antichrists and what premillennial
dispensationalist teach:
1. John speaks of many antichrists while
premillennial dispensationalists say that there is only one. STRIKE ONE!
2. John says that there were many antichrists in his
day, but premillennial dispensationalists tell us that the Antichrist has yet
to come. STRIKE TWO!
3. John identifies them as false religious teachers,
but premillennial dispensationalists say that he will be a world leader.STRIKE
THREE! The theory of premillennial dispensationalism is out!
But some are still not convinced! They tell us that the son of destruction
in 2 Thess 2:3 and the beast in Revelation 13 is the antichrist. But these
passages are speaking about entirely different issues; and are most certainly not
talking about something of our generation. I will speak more about this later.
CAN WE KNOW WHEN?
Before returning to the Father Jesus told the apostlesthat it was not for them "to
know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority" (Acts 1:7).
There is always talk about how earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes and wars are
signs that Jesus' return will be soon. But the belief is based upon a
misapplication of what Jesus said in Matthew 24.
"For nation will rise against nation, andkingdom against kingdom, and in
various places there will be famines and earthquakes...when you see these things,
recognize that He is near,standing right at the door." (Matthew 24:7,33).
Yes, these are signs but not of Jesus' SecondComing. Instead they were signs
that warned the 1st century Christians that the holy city - the city of Jerusalem was
about to be destroyed. Those who heard Jesus speak these words witnessed
these signs before the city was destroyed in AD 70. And if you find this too
incredible to believe, listen to Jesus' words as He explainsthat the fulfillment
would come in that generation.
"And Jesus came out from the temple andwas going away when His disciples came
up to point out the temple buildings to Him. And He answered and said to them, 'Do
you not see all these things? Truly I say unto you, not one stone here shall be
left upon another, which shall not be torn down ... Truly I say unto you, this
generation shall not pass away until all these things take place." (Matthew
24:1,2, 34).
To lift these signs out of first century and apply them to our own century is to
misapply them.
In my generation there has been another "sign" added to the list which we are told
tells us that the end is near - the bar codes found on products at the store. These
codes are for the purpose of making it easier to ring up a person’s purchases, but
some claim that the codes are the mark of the beast mentioned in Revelation
13:17,18. But to make their theory workable the proponents of this point of
view must ignore what the book of Revelation itself says about the timeframe of
these events. For the book opens by saying that it is dealing with events
which were taking place or shortly would take place back in the first century.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants,
things which must shortly take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel
to His bond-servant John...Blessed is He who reads and those who hear the words of
the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time
is near." (Revelation 1:1,3).
And so, what was this sign that permitted people to buy and sell? A religious
cult had grown up around Caesar who was given the authority to licensed people to
buy and sell. But to get this license one had to worship Caesar as
God. If they would not do this (and Christians wouldn’t) they would not get
this license. This was how the prophecy was fulfilled.
There has been so much foolish and fruitless speculation about Christ’s return in
spite of the fact that Jesus said that we can’t know the time of his return. Do
you believe Jesus? Then let’s not get caught up in this foolishness.
Kieran Murphy
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