When is Jesus coming back?

When Jesus ascended into heaven from Mount Olive, His disciples looked on. Suddenly, standing beside them were two angels who said, “Men of Galilee, why are you looking up at the sky? This same Jesus will come back in the same way you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1: 10-11). Since Jesus ascended into heaven approximately 2,000 years ago, when will He return? At the close of Revelation, the risen Christ stated, “Surely I am coming quickly” (Revelation 22: 20). Based on the risen Lord’s statement, first century Christians thought Jesus would return during their lifetimes.

Yet, it has been 2,000 years since Jesus’ ascension, and Christians still await His return. In 500 AD, three theologians predicted Jesus would return that year. Since then, there have been more than 50 predictions, none of which came to pass. Four future predictions are: 2024, 2025, 2029 and 2057. In the 1940s, while attending the old Perry Baptist Church, an evangelist stated he expected Christ to return some 50 years later in the millennial year of 2000. While many dates have been proposed, none have been correct. The fact that Jesus has not returned in 20 centuries has caused some individuals to reject the Christian faith.

Matthew 23:37-39 and Matthew 24:1-2 provide Jesus’ prophesy in 30 A.D. regarding the coming destruction of the Jewish temple. Forty years later, in 70 A.D., the Roman Army blockaded Jerusalem. Its primary purpose was to starve the citizens of Jerusalem, and it did. Four months later, the Romans invaded Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish Temple—just as Jesus predicted. The remainder of chapter 24 provides the events that will precede the second coming of Jesus. Some Bible commentators contend that some strands of tribulations in Matthew 24 relate to both the destruction of Jerusalem and Jesus’ second coming.

Matthew 24:36 states that “no one knows the day or the hour that the Lord Jesus will return—neither the Son, nor the angels, that only God the Father knows.” In I Thessalonians 4:16-18, the Apostle Paul described the second coming of Jesus. He wrote: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever.” The “Left Behind” series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins is an excellent source concerning the second coming.

For those who feel that 2,000 years is sufficient time for the Lord Jesus to have returned to earth and that it belies the “I am coming quickly” passage of Revelation 22: 20, I refer you to two passages from II Peter 3. They state: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” and “The day of the Lord’s coming will be like a thief in the night.”

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