The return of Jesus Christ
“And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?” [Matthew 24:3].
The disciples’ three questions are just as relevant today as they were when they first asked them. Christians of all times and in all places around the world have wondered the same things. For two thousand years, believers have lived and died with the expectation that Christ’s second coming was near.
The importance of this teaching is difficult to exaggerate. Christ’s physical return from Heaven is the subject of nearly one-third of His preaching in the four Gospels. In the New Testament, one of every seven verses refers to this promise. Moreover, Christ’s return has been the theme of countless sermons, multitudes of books, and a myriad of hymns throughout church history. This a topic upon which there can be no neutrality. Either Jesus’s promise is still real, though yet unfulfilled, or He was a fool, insane, or a liar.
Many religious, but unsaved church people, reject this teaching. Others go even further and openly ridicule it. But the rejection of Christ’s return is in itself is a mark of the “last days.” [2 Pet. 3: 3-10]. Regardless of the ridicule and distortions, the Biblical promise of Christ’s return remains the “Blessed Hope” of the Christian. [Titus 2:13]. But this teaching is much more than an encouragement to believers. It is an emphatic warning and divine ultimatum that people must look to Christ as Savior or perish forever.
The Bible forbids any date setting and denies that anyone knows the precise time for the return of Christ [Matt. 24:36]. But it is Biblical and appropriate that a multitude of conservative and dispensational theologians concur that our present time is uniquely suited for this event.
First, the physical conditions of this world predicted by the Lord before His return begins with His warning that there will come “wars and rumors of wars.” The violence, hostilities, and conflicts that have plagued our world since the end of World War II are ample verification of Christ’s warning. Statistics confirm that well over 100 conflicts have ensued since 1990. These wars, rebellions, and campaigns are more than twice the usual number for any previous decades. [Matthew 24:6,7].
In the same passage in Matthew’s Gospel, Christ also warns of “famines, pestilences, and earthquakes.” Regardless of the causes, the United Nations remind us that currently, one of every five people on earth suffers from hunger. This lack of basic sustenance for multitudes will surely increase before the Lord’s return. Experts are united in predicting more and worse famines regardless if the cause be climate issues, war, drought, or other factors.
We are also seeing a fulfillment of Christ’s warning of an increase in the frequency and magnitude of earthquakes before He comes. According to the National Geological Service, in the 1940s, there were [51] earthquakes, which measured above 6.0 on the Richter scale. In the 1950s, there were [475]. In the 1980s [1085]. More alarming is that since the 1990s and up to the present, there have been well over [1500] major tremors.
The Lord’s end-time warnings and His promised return include a prediction regarding “pestilences.” A pestilence is a devastating, contagious, virulent disease. New viruses, contagions, and undocumented diseases, which mostly originate in 3rd world countries, seem to continually overwhelm us. These biological afflictions have devastated entire nations and frightened the entire world. A current example is perhaps the worldwide pandemic connected to Coved 19. [Cf. Matthew 24:6-8; Rev. 6:1-8].
But these natural phenomena are not the most compelling indication of Christ’s coming. Other evidence pointed to by conservative theologians include several specifically predicted, significant and observable events from Scripture. Among these stated indications of Christ’s soon coming is the reestablishment of the nation of Israel. This event occurred on May 14, 1948, and this establishment of modern Israel is what Christ referred to as “the budding of the fig tree, [Matthew 24:32-38; cp. Lk. 21: 24].
The Lord also offered that there would be an acceleration and acceptance of aggressive, homosexual activity just before He comes again. The Lord’s implication of the rampant Sodomy is what is meant when He refers to as “days of Lot” [ Genesis 18,19; Luke 17: 28-30; Jude 7,8].
This is not the only Biblical evidence that Christ’s return is near. Also predicted for the “last days,” is a vast social decline which is accompanied by lawlessness and societal chaos. These convulsions of upheaval are what the Apostle Paul identified as “perilous” times. Has anyone paid attention to the lawlessness and what is happening in many of our major cities in recent days? [Matt. 24:12; 2 Timothy 3:1-5.] In these times just before His coming societal behavior will mimic what the Lord referred to as the “days of Noah,” [cf. Matthew 24: 37,38; Cf. Genesis 6: 5,11].
There is a final thought regarding the return of Christ. Perhaps the most serious of all the Lord’s warnings of things which will occur in the end times and prior to His return are warnings of a great apostasy among nominal Christians. It involves
the dramatic rejection of God’s word and its replacement by a false gospel. When abominations and perverseness are both condoned and embraced by professing Christians, then apostasy is here. Who can dispute that God’s word is no longer the final authority with many denominations, local churches, and individuals in Christendom today? [Matt. 24:5,11, 23-24; Luke 18: 8; 2 Thess. 2: 1-4].
The promised return of Christ is indeed the real believer’s sure and certain “blessed hope.” It is also a divine ultimatum to the unsaved to trust Christ or perish forever. [2 Thessalonians 1: 7-9].
William “Ed” Nicholson is pastor of Grace Baptist Chapel in the village of Little Summit in Dunbar Township.