When will the rejected Redeemer return? We don’t know. Unlike human governments, heaven never leaks, but keeps all the secrets it wants to keep. We may be certain of one thing: Galatians 4 tells us that it was in the fullness of time that God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. This means that God the Father knew just precisely when the best possible time arrived for the entrance of Jesus into the world. That’s when He sent Him. That was for the first coming of Jesus to Bethlehem. We expect nothing less by way of strategic timing when God has Him return for the second coming.
The differences between the advents are stunning. The first provided the lamb – gentle, meek and mild, a suffering servant. The second will provide a lion – rapacious and war-like. Jesus is after all “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” and He will behave in a lion like way when he comes again. No suffering servant here. He did that. This time around it will be as a conquering King, depicted in Revelation 19. One wag put it this way: “Jesus is coming again, and this time He will not be in a good mood.” His arrival will be stunning, electrifying, if you will. It’s recorded in Matthew 24 and 25 and Revelation 19, plus numerous Old Testament passages overflowing with promises and details of His second coming. We are told that every eye will see him when he comes in the clouds a generation ago we couldn’t quite grasp that, but modern technology and the satellites simplify that.
This second coming of Christ will serve multiple purposes. The destruction of the Antichrist will be high on the list. Coupled with that will be the rescue of the nation of Israel who will be at the very brink of annihilation. This is not new to Israel. They’ve been there before. They live on the brink of annihilation. But never have they been so thoroughly and ominously threatened as they will be at the hands of the Antichrist. The seven-year peace pact signed between Israel and Antichrist will be violated halfway through the agreed duration of it. Open season will be declared on all Jews worldwide and multitudes will die during this time of Jacob’s trouble, otherwise known as “the Great Tribulation,” or “the 70 weeks of Daniel” spoken of by Christ in Matthew 24. The rejected Redeemer returns at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation period, and every eye will see Him, and all of Israel will embrace Him.
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