The Return of Christ

The Promise of His Return

Jesus promised that he would come again, and the whole Christian church, in every age and every tradition, holds this as a sure and shared hope. At his ascension two angels told the disciples that this same Jesus would return in like manner as they had seen him go. This is not a matter over which Christians divide. That Christ will come again is certain; how and when he leaves in the Father's hands.

Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.Acts 1:11 (KJV)

The hope every Christian shares

Of all the things Christians have believed across two thousand years, few are held as widely or as firmly as this: Jesus Christ, who lived, died, rose, and ascended, will one day return. Catholics and Orthodox and Protestants, ancient churches and new ones, the persecuted and the free, all say it together in the historic creeds: he will come again. The Nicene Creed confesses that he shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Whatever else divides the church, the fact of his return does not.

This page begins the cluster there, on purpose. The return of Christ can be talked about in ways that frighten, or that fuel endless argument over charts and dates. But at its heart it is the simplest and most hopeful thing in the faith: the person who loved us to the end has promised he is not finished, that he is coming back for his people, and that history is going somewhere, toward him.

There is a quiet logic in it, too. The one who promises to return is the one who already came once, exactly as the prophets foretold, born of Mary, teaching in Galilee, crucified under Pilate, and raised on the third day. His first coming was not a rumor but a matter of public record, witnessed and written down. That is the ground of confidence in the second. The Christian does not hope for a stranger to appear, but for a friend already known to keep a promise he has already begun to keep. A faith built on a Savior who has come is a reasonable faith to hold about a Savior who will come again.

His own promise, in his own words

On the last night before he died, Jesus gathered his frightened friends and gave them a promise that the church has clung to ever since. He told them not to let their hearts be troubled, that he was going to prepare a place for them, and then this:

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.John 14:3 (KJV)

It is a promise made in the language of a coming wedding, of a bridegroom going ahead to ready a home and then returning for his bride. The point is not merely an event but a reunion. He does not simply promise to send for us or to greet us from afar; he promises, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. The goal of the whole promise is to be with him.

Again and again in his teaching he spoke of a day when the Son of man would return in glory. He warned that it would be plain and unmistakable, not hidden in a corner or claimed by some secret group, but visible as lightning that shines from the east to the west. The one who came the first time in a manger, unnoticed by the world, has promised to come the second time in a way no one could miss.

The word at the ascension

The clearest statement of the promise comes at the very hinge of the story, when the risen Jesus was taken up into heaven and his disciples stood staring after him. Luke records what happened next:

Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.Acts 1:11 (KJV)

Every phrase matters. This same Jesus, not a different figure or a mere idea, but the one they had walked with, whose wounds Thomas had touched. Shall so come in like manner, in the same real, personal, bodily way he departed. The angels gently turned the disciples from gazing up into the sky toward the work he had given them to do until he came. The promise of his return was never meant to make Christians stare at the heavens; it was meant to send them out in hope.

Why the church has always longed for it

The earliest believers did not treat the return of Christ as a distant doctrine but as a daily longing. One of the oldest Christian prayers, preserved in the very words the first church prayed, is Maranatha, meaning O Lord, come. The New Testament itself closes on this note, with Jesus saying, Surely I come quickly, and the church answering, Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. It is the last prayer of the Bible.

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.Revelation 22:20 (KJV)

They longed for it because they trusted the one who promised it. A returning Christ meant that death did not have the last word, that the martyrs had not been forgotten, that every injustice would be set right, and that the God who came near in Jesus would come near again and stay. The Apostle Paul called it the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Hope, not dread, is the true color of this promise.

What is certain, and what is left open

It is worth saying plainly at the start of this cluster what belongs to every Christian and what belongs to honest disagreement. That Christ will return is certain and shared. That the dead will be raised, that there will be a judgment, and that God will make all things new are certain and shared. These are the load-bearing beams of Christian hope, confessed in the creeds and written across the New Testament.

The details are another matter. Sincere, faithful believers have long differed over the timing, the sequence, the meaning of a rapture, and the nature of the thousand years in Revelation. The Living Bread is non-denominational, and on these secondary questions it does not take a side. The pages that follow will describe the main views fairly and let you weigh them, always returning to the solid ground all Christians stand on together. We watch, we get ready, and we love, because he is coming, and that much is sure.

It helps to keep those two lists clear in your mind as you read. One is short and settled and shared by the whole church; the other is longer and open and held in good faith many ways. A great deal of needless fear and division has come from treating the second list as if it were the first, insisting that a particular chart of the end is the gospel itself. It is not. The gospel is that Christ died for our sins, rose again, and is coming back for his own. Around that certain center there is room for humble disagreement about the rest, and this cluster tries to model exactly that: firm where the church is firm, and gracious where the church is free.

A note on the end times: on the questions where sincere Christians differ, chiefly the rapture, the millennium, and the timing and details of Christ's return, this platform is non-denominational and describes the main views fairly rather than declaring a winner. What all Christians share and hold as certain is this: Christ will return, the dead will be raised, there will be a judgment, and God will make all things new. We anchor on that, and hold the rest in peace.

Related: The signs of the times · How then should we live · Who is Jesus? · The Return of Christ