To the faithful child of God there are many precious promises of Scripture, the fulfillment of which are eagerly awaited. The one promise that will open the door to the fulfillment of all remaining promises is that of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. That the Word of God clearly assures this fact cannot be successfully denied. Yet, there are those who scoff at the promise. There are those who falsely teach that his Second Coming has already occurred. There are those who in error teach that his Second Coming will be followed by a third coming, at which time he is to establish a physical, earthly kingdom over which he will rule from the city of Jerusalem. These errant suggestions have no place in Scripture, but are rooted in the fanciful traditions and doctrines of men (Matthew 15:9-13).
We can know that Christ has not yet come, because the Bible teaches that “He is coming with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, even they who pierced Him” (Revelation 1:7). It is the true case that our eyes have not yet seen him. Certainly there has been no news coverage by television and radio of such an event. Since none have seen him come, it is evident that he has not yet come. As well, we can know that Christ is not coming the second time in order to establish his kingdom, because his kingdom has already been established. It was successfully established on the day of Pentecost during the lives of those to whom Jesus spoke face to face (Mark 9:1; Acts 1:4-8; Colossians 1:13).
There were those who scoffed at the promises of God at the time of the flood in their rejection of the preaching of Noah (2 Peter 2:5). There were scoffers in the first century and today 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” (2 Peter 3:1-4). Their foolish argument seems to be that ‘since Christ has not returned after all of this time (2000 years), this is evidence that he is not going to ever come again.’ However, Peter, by the inspiration of God in 2 Peter 3:5-9, reminds all scoffers of two things. The first thing is that since God kept his promise in destroying the world of old by water, that he will likewise keep his promise to destroy it again the second time by fire. The second thing they forget is that man’s time is not according to God’s time — that one day is as a thousand years with the Lord, and a thousand years as one day. Considering God’s concept of time, as stated by Peter, then the past two thousand years could possibly be considered but two days by God. So Peter is saying, ‘don’t be bothered by the time that has passed, because the Lord is not slack (tardy) concerning his promises, regardless of the time involved. He will do what he said!’ The reason given why he has not yet returned is because he is very patient, “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). In words that cannot be misunderstood, we are told that “the day of the Lord will come” (2 Peter 3:10), followed by a detailed description of the destruction of the earth by fire, after which he recites the promise of a new heavens and new earth for the righteous of God — those who are diligent to be found in peace when he comes, without spot and blameless.
There can be no doubt that Jesus is coming again, the second and final time, for salvation to those who eagerly await him (Hebrew 9:28). “But of that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36), so Jesus tells his servants to always be prepared and watching for his return. Are you prepared and watching? If not, it will be a day to fear (Matthew 25:41)!
