Our Christian Beliefs: The Second Coming of Christ

"Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the end of heaven to the other." (Matthew 24:30-31)

One of the events that every Christian can look forward to is the second coming of Christ. The New Testament repeatedly announces that Jesus Christ will one day be back. Christ will return to this world in glory.

The second coming will be sudden, personal and physical, visible and triumphant (Matthew 24:44; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Revelation 1:7). It will result in the end of human history, resurrection of the dead and the final judgment of the world (John 5:28-29). It will give God's children their final glory and bring in new heavens and a new earth.

No one knows the timing of the second coming. The Bible, however, tells us that a number of predictions must be fulfilled before Christ returns:

Natural disasters - earthquakes, famines, pestilence, fearful events, signs from heaven (Luke 21:11, 25).
Social evils - lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
International wars - kingdoms rising against kingdoms (Mark 13:7-8; Luke 21:9-10).
Persecutions, betrayals, and spiritual deception (Matthew 24:4-14; Mark 13:12; Luke 21:26).

Christians are to live in readiness at all times for the second coming of Christ.