Second Coming:  Why has He still not returned? 

Don’t the Scriptures clearly tell us the apostles and others expected Christ to return in their lifetime, even in THAT generation in which they were then living?

Matthew 24:33-35

³³So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things [the signs He had just mentioned in this passage], know that it is near, even at the doors.

³⁴Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

³⁵Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. [Emphasis added]

For the details about why His return DID NOT happen in THAT generation, please see my other articles about all this.

Jesus Christ:  Will He return in this generation?

Jesus Christ:  Is His return soon?

Decades after our Lord promised this, we see others believing He would soon return to establish His kingdom at any moment.

James 5:8-9

⁸Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

⁹Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. [Emphasis added]

The apostle Peter says much the same.

1 Peter 4:7

⁷But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. [Emphasis added]

The apostle Peter talks about this at length in his second epistle.

2 Peter 3:3-13

³Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

⁴And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

⁵For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

⁶Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

⁷But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

⁸But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

¹¹Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

¹²Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

¹³Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. [Emphasis added]

All these men thought Christ was going to return VERY soon.

1 John 2:18

¹⁸Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. [Emphasis added]

Was not all this what they were then preaching and telling people? It surely was! We have all that right here in writing.  So, what was the holdup? Why had He still not come? And now roughly two-thousand years have come and gone, and He’s still not come.  Is this why so many church leaders now don’t believe this return will ever happen?  Others have “spiritualized” these passages, saying He HAS come but in a different form? What are we to think of all this?

Because of all the persecution, believers in the time frame of early Acts were thinking The Tribulation Christ predicted was already underway.  They felt that He’d surely return any day.  Even going back to the time of John the Baptist, he also was wondering about all this.  He, too, was predicting Christ’s soon coming to establish His kingdom on Earth.

Matthew 3:1-2, 7

¹ In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,

²And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 

John was thinking that Christ would soon come to right the wrongs all these people had done.  He even asked Jesus if He was the promised Messiah they’d been expecting [Matthew 11:2-4].

⁷But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? [Emphasis added]

Did the “wrath” then come? No! It did not! But this “wrath” was the prophesied baptism of fire our Lord spoke about.

Matthew 3:11-12

¹¹I [John the Baptist] indeed baptize [BAPTIZO = to identify with] you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

¹²Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor [speaking of the world of mankind], and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff [speaking of unbelievers] with unquenchable fire. [Emphasis added]

Here we’re told that this punishment will go on forever.  Just like Heaven for believers is forever, unbelievers will experience torment forever.  And all anyone has to do to avoid the torment is to accept God’s provision for their salvation.  It is not something you can work to earn or deserve as so many believe.  Today, gaining salvation involves simply accepting by faith Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as the sole basis for it.  So simple! But so often ignored and/or rejected! One reason our means to salvation is called the gospel is because it surely is good news.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4

¹ Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel [EUAGGELION = the good news] which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

²By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

³For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

⁴And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: [Emphasis added]

What could be clearer than this! What Christ did through His death, burial, and resurrection represents the redemption price He paid so we’d all have an opportunity to be saved.  Faith alone in this work of His secures it for us forever.  Faith in anything else or any combination of other things does not.  Please be sure to believe that.

Romans 4:4-5

⁴Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned [LOGIZOMAI = taken into account] of grace, but of debt.

⁵But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. [Emphasis added]

When Christ returns to the Earth, He’ll bring judgment to all those who failed to accept His provision for their salvation.

In the first chapters of the book of Acts God offered the nation Israel salvation, but at that time they had to repent, that is, they had to have a change of mind about the identity of this Person they’d crucified.  I have an article about this on this website.  Here’s the name of it—

Jesus Christ:  What does it mean to believe in His name?  

If Israel had accepted Him as their Messiah, the promised and prophesied earthly kingdom would have then come.

Acts 3:19-21

¹⁹Repent ye [METANOEO = change your mind] therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when [HOPOS = so that] the times of refreshing [a reference to the coming Kingdom] shall come from the presence of the Lord.

²⁰And he shall send Jesus Christ [speaking of His Second Coming], which before was preached unto you:

²¹Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things [again speaking of the establishment of His promised earthly kingdom], which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. [Emphasis added]

But the fulfillment of all this was interrupted because of Israel’s unbelief and rejection of their Messiah.  All we have to do to see that is to take a look at the verses leading up to what is stated here.  Here we’ll note that the first portion of this passage was fulfilled.  But there was an interruption, and the last portion was not fulfilled but will be at a future time, namely, in the still coming seven-year period of what is usually called The Tribulation.

Acts 2:16-20

¹⁶But this [the coming of the Spirit upon them] is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

¹⁷And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

This “pouring out of the Spirit” came then for a time and will come again at a future time.  Today we don’t have that empowerment of the Spirit that they had in this “pouring out of the Spirit.”  We’re indwelt with the Holy Spirit today, but we don’t have the enduement of special power that they were given for a time and will have again in a future time.  For more information about the work of the Holy Spirt in our time today, please see my article about it—

Holy Spirit:  What is His role in our life today?

¹⁸And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

But right here is where the interruption came.  These next promises have not been fulfilled but will be at a future time.  These things will all come to pass in the still future time of the seven-year period of The Tribulation that occurs before Christ returns to the Earth to establish His earthly kingdom.

¹⁹And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:

Again, all these things will happen in the time known as The Tribulation.

²⁰The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: [Emphasis added]

This “day of the Lord” begins with Christ’s return and the establishment of His promised Kingdom.  All this was prophesied centuries before—

Psalm 2:2-5

²The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying,

³Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

⁴He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.

⁵Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath [APH = anger], and vex [BAHEL = trouble] them in his sore displeasure. [Emphasis added]

Other passages tell us much the same about all this.

Joel 2:28-32

²⁸And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh [as was partially fulfilled at the time of Acts 2]; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

²⁹And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

Then we have this present gap in time of which we are a part today. How long it will last is something no one knows.  These next verses are not fulfilled until the time of the coming Tribulation and the return of Christ to the Earth.

³⁰And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

Absolutely none of this will be fulfilled until after the Rapture, our resurrection.

³¹The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.

³²And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord [acknowledging Jesus as their Messiah] shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. [Emphasis added]

Meanwhile we’re now in this period of history called the Dispensation of the Grace of God.  At the time of Acts 7, one year after Acts 2, Israel’s leaders heard God’s warning of judgment through the prophet Stephen.  Instead of responding to his warning, they stoned him to death.  It is then that Jesus Christ who has been seated at the right hand of God the Father STANDS.  For information about what that means, please see my article on this website where I address this specifically—

Jesus Christ:  Why did He stand at the stoning of Stephen?  

It is at this point that God’s program for Israel was interrupted.  In the passages that follow we see the record of the salvation of Saul of Tarsus [Acts 9] who comes to be known as the apostle Paul, our apostle, the one said to be the apostle of the Gentiles.

Romans 11:13

¹³For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: [Emphasis added]

It is too bad most churchgoers have no idea about the significance of this.  But you’ll find numerous articles on our website that address this.  Here are the names of two—

Paul:  What’s so special about his teaching?

Paul:  Who exactly is this man to us?

Even Paul had to spend a lot of time helping people understand his identity as THE apostle to the Gentiles speaking to them in our Lord’s behalf.

Romans 15:16

¹⁶That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. [Emphasis added]

He continued to drive this important point home with people to the end of his ministry.

2 Timothy 1:11  

¹¹Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. [Emphasis added]  

He had even made a special trip to Jerusalem [Acts 15] to explain all this to Peter and the other apostles there.  Christendom incorrectly teaches that Paul went to Jerusalem then to get orientation from Peter and the eleven.  But instead, Paul went to teach them about what God was then doing with him and the Gentiles.  He even had to explain that his gospel message for people’s salvation was not the same as theirs.

Galatians 2:7  

⁷But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; [Emphasis added]  

Beware of how some Bible translations translate this verse.  What they’ve done in their “translation” is give the meaning of their own incorrect interpretation.  For more information about these TWO different gospels please see my other article about this—

Gospels:  Did Peter & Paul preach the same gospel?  

Even people like Peter, James, and John all had to learn about this from the apostle Paul.  Peter speaks of this in the last words we ever hear from him.  We see there, too, that he also was having trouble understanding the delay in Christ’s return to establish His earthly kingdom.

2 Peter 3:15-16

¹⁵And account that the longsuffering [speaking of the delay in Christ’s return] of our Lord is salvation [meaning the delay will result in the salvation of many more]; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

¹⁶As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest [STREBLOO = twist], as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. [Emphasis added]

This delay in Christ’s coming brought on a period of time and much more that had been completely unknown.  That’s why it is spoken of as a mystery, that is, a secret that had been held in the mind of God until it was first disclosed through the apostle Paul.

Colossians 1:25-26

²⁵Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil [PLEROO = to fulfill or bring to completion] the word of God;

²⁶Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: [Emphasis added]

Paul speaks of this important truth often [Romans 16:25-26; Ephesians 3:1-11].  During this present time Israel has lost her position of privilege for an undisclosed period.  In the meantime, God is forming a new group of believers now known as the Church which is the Body of Christ.  No one knows how long this formation period will last. Meanwhile we have scoffers who know little about all this, with some even claiming Christ is not going to ever return.  This goes on in this present age of grace and it will also in the coming time of tribulation after the Rapture.

Again, 2 Peter 3:3-4

³Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

⁴And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. [Emphasis added]

His return has been by no means canceled, only delayed! In the meantime, the group of people called the church which is the Body of Christ keeps getting larger and larger. More and more people are getting in on all the blessings of salvation.  Should we then be complaining about the delay? Of course not! But the day will come when the Rapture occurs and is soon followed by Christ’s return to the Earth.  The apostle Peter describes that return for us.

2 Peter 3:7-14

⁷But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

⁸But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

In other words, the lapse of time is not a factor with God even as it should not be to us.  It was He Who created time.  When the time is exactly right the Rapture will occur and, again, roughly seven years later there will be Christ’s Second Coming to the Earth to establish His prophesied earthly kingdom.

⁹The Lord is not slack [BRADUNO = slow] concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering [MAKROTHUMEO = patient] to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all [as many as possible]  should come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

He then follows this up with some clear instructions about the manner of life His people should all be living.

¹¹Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

¹²Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

¹³Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

¹⁴Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. [Emphasis added]

Conclusion—  

Our Lord will surely come back to establish His earthly kingdom.  The delay has resulted in the salvation of many who otherwise would never have had such a wonderful opportunity.  Despite what seems to us a long delay, the time when God will express His wrath is still coming.  Fortunately for us as members of the Body of Christ in this present age of grace, we won’t be here to experience The Tribulation that’s coming.  We’ll be completely delivered as we’ll be a part of what is called the Rapture.  It is this event, not the Second Coming, that we as believers today should all be eagerly anticipating even as the apostle Paul was in his day.

Titus 2:11-14

¹¹For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

¹²Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

¹³Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

¹⁴Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. [Emphasis added]

For more information about this glorious event called the Rapture please see my articles about it—

Rapture:  What is the meaning of this term?

Rapture:  How is this different from the Second Coming?

Approximately seven years after the Rapture, the Second Coming of Christ will occur.  From now until then many people will be saved.  Again, because of what we think of as a long delay in Christ’s coming, many have benefitted from it.  As I sometimes say, we may be in the minority now, but we’ll certainly be in the majority then.

Maranatha! [Aramaic for “Our Lord is coming!”]