Question: Dear Greg,

Is there more to the return of Jesus Christ than his dramatic glorious return that will be visible to the world? How could Paul have been so wrong about the return of Jesus Christ? Does reference to "last days" really just mean all of the time after Christ – the latter days, since we don’t have any idea when he will return anyway? Is this not a better way to look at this than trying to pinpoint the "last days" just before the return of Christ, which seems to get Christians off track and getting all involved in prophecy and speculation?

David

Answer: Dear David,

In some ways there are three comings of Jesus: 1) The past – the historical coming. His first coming, the incarnation, when the Eternal Son became flesh, adding flesh to his divinity (Matthew 1, John 1, Philippians 2). 2) The present coming. Jesus Christ is coming now, to live his life in those who accept him and believe in him; the new life in Christ that is enjoyed by those who have "passed from death to life" (John 5:24, Galatians 2:20, Romans 8:9, 1 John 4:1-3). 3) The future coming. Jesus Christ will return to this earth, bodily, in his resurrection body, and he will stand on the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:11, Matthew 24:3 following, Revelation 19:11-21).

How could Paul have been wrong? The same way that many Christians have been "wrong" over the last two thousand years. Our hearts lead, instead of our heads. We want the Lord to return, and want him to come in our lifetimes, so we make the huge mistake of interpreting the Bible within our culture and our reality as being written for our times, and that our times are the "time of the end".

We know that there will be a time of the end. We just don’t know when it will be and we are warned by Jesus not to speculate. But that warning doesn’t stop us, does it? Our award winning video on Millennial Madness provides a detailed look at the history of date setting, at the methologies, at why people are led to certain conclusions about what the Bible says, etc.

Hope this helps, David,

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht