When
we look at Jesus’ first coming we have hundreds of years of prophecy telling us
what would happen, we have all the eye-witness testimony of what did happen,
and we have the after-the-fact declarations of how each aspect of Jesus’ life
and ministry fulfilled the things that God said must happen.
That
is NOT going to be available to us concerning the second coming!
Here
is what I mean. Since Jesus’ first coming was just that, his first coming, and
because it would, by nature, be followed by his second coming, there are things
that surrounded his first coming that we can look back and marvel at as we
continue to live in this world, but will never have the same opportunity to
look at the second coming in the same way.
With
regard to Jesus’ first coming we have the prophecies telling us what must soon
take place, we have the gospels telling us what did take place, and we have the
gospels, the book of Acts, and the epistles, all telling us how to understand what
took place, and how those prophecies were perfectly fulfilled. All of that
together gives us our encouragement to trust the promises of God and live the
persevering life of faith.
Concerning
the second coming of Christ, the only thing we will ever have in this earthly
lifetime is the prophecies. We will never have some equivalent to the gospels
telling us what is happening at the time it is happening. We will not have a
gospel like Matthew’s being written as events unfold telling us, “this is to
fulfill this prophecy”. In fact, both Jesus and Paul warned us to not get
sucked in to any letters or claims that Jesus has come since his coming will be
so gloriously public that not one person will miss seeing it.[1]
When
Jesus comes the second time, it will be over! When Jesus comes, the elect will
be gathered to be with the Lord forever, and the condemned will call on the
rocks and the hills to cover them because of their terror of the wrath of the
one who sits on the throne, and of the Lamb[2]. There will be no gospels written during the time of Jesus’ coming
because he will come like a thief in the night[3], the elect will be raised in the twinkling of an eye[4], and the doomed will be instantly resigned to utter hopelessness
that the day of their judgment has come. There will be no time to write about anything
because it will happen suddenly before our very eyes. We will not need a gospel
account of Jesus’ second coming to encourage us to continue to live faithfully
for the Lord because when Jesus comes we will become just like him when we see
him as he is[5]. Neither will we need any more Scripture to tell us what God is
thinking or saying. We will see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ[6] and will never again need to read aloud the Scriptures, or hear the
Scriptures being read, for we will be with the Word of God forever! [7]
All
of this simply makes the book of Revelation wonderfully significant. It is the
last Scripture God has given us. Jesus’ coming is near. No one will need to
tell us about it. When the disciples asked Jesus what would be the sign of his
coming he simply stated, “30 Then
will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of
the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send
out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the
four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”[8]
In
other words, the sign of Jesus’ coming will be his coming. This is why we are
to live in the mindset that the time is near.[9] The sign of Jesus’ appearing will be that he appears. When he
appears everything is settled. Those who belong to him are gathered to him, and
those who do not belong to him immediately know that their doom is sure.
Once
Jesus, the Word of God, appears, we will no longer need any kind of Scripture
to tell us about him. We will be too busy seeing him face to face. Until then,
enjoy and delight in the book of Revelation, the Scriptural prophecy of what
must soon take place.
© 2012 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K
1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
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