Bruce Collins, Evangelist

The personal website of Bruce Collins

Is There Really Going to be a Second Coming?

 

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:3). 

 

We do Know that The Promise is Sure

The Lord speaking to His disciples says, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:3).”  This promise is just as sure as the promise in John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

 

There is only one second coming, not two.  But there are many events associated with the second coming.  For the Christian the second coming is one of hope and comfort.  1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 tells us, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”  Christians who die before the Lord comes will not be forgotten or left out.  They will actually rise first so that they can be caught up or raptured with the saints who are living when the Lord comes.

 

The second coming is one of dread and judgment for the unbeliever.  1 Thessalonians 5:3 says, “For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”  One of the signs of the second coming of the Lord is that men will mock the fact that it is going to happen. Peter tell us in  2 Peter 3:3-4, “Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to 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 creation."  When this destruction comes, it will be unexpected because unbelievers are like those who don’t lock their doors at night.  They don’t lock their doors because they don’t expect a thief to come and rob them.  Unbelievers likewise don’t expect that the prophetic events associated with “the day of the Lord” or the “great day of His wrath” will really come.  But the Lord is coming again!.

 

We Don’t Know When the Events Associated with the Second Coming Begin

We know that the events that usher in the judgment of God upon the world that has rejected His Son begins with the signing of a covenant with a Roman prince (Daniel 9:27).  The many that confirm that covenant likely refers to the Jewish nation.  We know that the true believer has been delivered from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10).  So the catching away of Christians must occur before or simultaneously with the signing of this covenant.  But the signing of this covenant ushers in a 7 year period of prophetic years.  The prophetic year based on the Jewish calendar would be 360 days.  So while we don’t know when the seven years which is normally called the tribulation period begins, we do know that once it begins  there will be exactly 7 years of 360 days each until the Lord comes back to the Mount of Olives to set up His righteous kingdom.  That kingdom lasts for 1000 years. 

 

We do know that when the events begin, they will take place suddenly.  The Lord say, “Behold I come quickly (Revelation 22:20).”  A better translation would be “Behold I come suddenly.”  An example would be the fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall.  There was a long time between WWII and those events.  But once the events started to happen, they happened quickly or suddenly.  We don’t know when the events will start taking place but that when they do take place the Lord is not going to wait on those who weren’t ready.  We need to be ready for the Lord’s second coming NOW!  (See Hebrews 10:37).

 

So What?

When we see the turmoil in middle east, when we see the potential for nuclear conflict, when we see pollution in our seas from Japan’s accident involving its nuclear reactors, when we see the Jewish nation being brought back into Israel in unbelief so that they can sign the peace treaty that we have mentioned above, we should recognize that God in His mercy is warning us to be ready for His second coming.  Men cruelly crucified Him when He came the first time.  For those who repent and believe that He died to save us, His second coming is something the believer can anticipate with joy and hope and comfort.  For those who reject Him, His second coming is going to be much different than His first coming.  . 

 

Luke 17:26-30  says, “And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.  Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

 

We all need to be prepared now.  We are accountable to the Lord; He is not accountable to us.  Now is the day of salvation.  We are not given tomorrow.

 

Bruce Collins

 

Meditation for the week of April 9, 2017

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