The Right Approach to Christ’s Return
“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne.” (Matthew 25:31)
Let me take you on a brief safari. To begin with, here are some facts about prophecy that will surprise most people:
- One out of every 30 verses in the Bible mentions the subject of Christ’s return or the end of time.
- Of the 260 chapters in the New Testament, there are well over 300 references to the return of Jesus Christ.
- Only 4 of the 27 New Testament books fail to mention Christ’s return.
- That means one-twentieth of the entire New Testament is dedicated to the subject of our Lord’s return.
- In the Old Testament, such well-known and reliable men of God as Job, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and most of the minor prophets, fixed at least part of their attention on the Lord’s return.
- Christ spoke of His return often, especially after He had revealed His death. He never did so in vague or uncertain terms.
- Those who lived on following His teaching, who established the churches and wrote the Scriptures in the first century frequently mentioned His return in their preaching and in their writings.
After those apostles left the earth, that message of Christ’s return did not die. On the contrary, it found its way into the Nicene Creed, into the Athanasian Creed, and into the thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, the fourth of which says, “He ascended into heaven and there sitteth until He returns to judge all men at the last day.” The Augsburg Confession deals with it somewhat at length. The familiar Apostles’ Creed, repeated at many churches in their liturgy of worship, includes the statement, “from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”
I remember repeating those words as a little boy in a church where our family worshiped. I wondered who “the quick” would be at that time. I understood “the dead.” I didn’t grasp that quick is the Old English term for “living.” “He will come to judge the living and the dead.”
The Bible teaches it. The Lord Jesus stood upon its truths. The apostles declared it and wrote about it. The creeds include it and affirm it. Quite obviously, His return has not been considered an insignificant issue through the centuries. But the strange thing is that many Christians in this generation either ignore it or are somehow confused by it. Too bad. It is a marvelous truth that only gains significance as we move closer to death.
