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[TD="width: 100%"]Many Christians repeat every Sunday the Creed "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end." How often do we actually reflect on what we say we believe in? The habit of repetition can dull our minds to what we are saying. If we are orthodox Christians, we believe that the Second Coming of Jesus, the parousia, will bring to an end this dispensation of human existence, and will be followed by divine judgement and eternal life.
Whereas the New Testament Christians were looking forward to the Second Coming and indeed praying for it: "Amen, Come Lord Jesus!" (Rev 22.20), many Christians today seem to hope very much that it will not happen in their lifetime or at least not until they have had more time to do this or that and enjoy life for some more years. Indeed I can understand that a little. After having worked hard on my first book for some years, I asked myself whether I would have rejoiced if the Lord returned the day before it was due to be published. Part of me would have felt like saying, "Lord please wait until my book has been published for at least a short time!" Of course such thoughts would show a profound lack of faith and understanding. When Jesus returns God's plan for creation will be wonderfully fulfilled in every way and nothing more perfect could be imagined.
"Are we ready to die or ready for the Second Coming?
It is good to think about these things however. Are we ready to die or ready for the Second Coming? If we do not feel ready this can act as a spur to help us get ready without delay. At different times over the centuries Christians have felt that the Second Coming of Jesus was imminent or would be soon. St Paul seems to have thought that when he wrote his letters to the Thessalonians. Pope Gregory the Great (cAD 540-604) thought that the Lord was about to return because the situation in the Roman world of his time had become so disastrous with the barbarian armies overrunning Italy plundering wherever they went.
When the year AD 1000 arrived quite a few Christians expected the parousia because of the references to one thousand years in Revelations 20. Likewise in the 14th century when the Black Death killed as many as two thirds of the population in some areas of Europe the belief that Jesus was about to return was not uncommon.
In our own times there are millions of Christians, particularly among the Pentecostal Churches, who are convinced that Jesus will return soon. What is meant by "soon" varies. Some people expect Jesus to return any day now, others would be more flexible. However, they would all say that we are living in the "end times" and by that they do not mean the whole period between the first and second comings of Jesus, but something relatively soon.
"God will not allow anything to happen that would distroy His plan"
For many years I rejected this view but I have now changed my mind. I am not a scientific expert, but when one looks at the threatening crises in several areas of life there seems humanly speaking no way out. The dangers of nuclear disasters, of biological warfare, of chemical warfare, of terrorism, of genetic developments, and of the destruction of the environment humanly speaking threaten the existence of human life on earth as never before. It is not I think that humanity is more wicked or fanatical than it was in the past. But the development of science has enabled these men to do so many more harmful things than in the past. If I were a humanist I would think that this human experiment on earth was coming to an end. As it is, however, I believe as a Christian that God is working his purposes out, that He has the whole situation under control, that He will not allow anything to happen that would destroy His plans for humanity and despite the attacks of the devil, that we are moving towards the New Jerusalem.
So I look to the Bible and Christian tradition to know what to expect. In St Matthew's gospel Jesus tells us that "About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matt 24.36) But he also says in the same chapter "From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also when you see all these things, you know that he is near at the very gates" (Matt 24:32) This would suggest that the signs mentioned in Matthew 24 and the parallel passages in the gospels of Mark and Luke may be able to tell us something about the Second Coming of Jesus and its timing.
"Christians hold different views about the Second Coming"
Christians hold different views about the Second Coming. Some like Pentecostal leader Morris Cerullo, expects in his own lifetime to be caught up in the rapture in accordance with 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18. Many Pentecostals agree with this and many Pentecostals and others believe that Jesus will return soon and reign for a thousand years from Jerusalem in a very literal way. Catholics theologians since the time of St Augustine (354-430) usually think that the millennium mentioned in Revelations 20, however, started with the early Church and will end with the Second Coming of Jesus, whenever that happens. So for them the number 1000 is not to be taken literally. Many Liberal Christians sometimes take this one step further and tend to believe the Second Coming is just symbolic and largely irrelevant for their lives - it will never happen.
"What the Catholic Church teaches"
The official teaching of the Catholic Church on the end times and the Second Coming of Jesus is found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraphs 673-677. This is very illuminative and is worth study.
Several things are mentioned in this:
1) That although we don't know when, it will happen!
2) That the Second Coming will be delayed until the recognition of Jesus as the Messiah by the Jewish people.
3) That before Christ's Second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers (cf Luke 18.8 Matt 24.12) and that there will be some kind of religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.
4) The emergence of the Anti-Christ - a pesudo-messianism - by which man glorfies himself in place of God and his messiah come in the flesh, seeks to bring about the kingdom himself.
5) The final triumph of God who will himself defeat the final unleashing of evil and bring to an end this passing world for the New Jerusalem.
"We do not know the hour or the day of Jesus' return"
Thus in a nutshell the Catholic Church teaches that there will be a Second Coming of Jesus, bringing to an end the present dispensation of human existence; that we do not know the hour or the day of Jesus' return; that the Jews will recognise Jesus before he returns; that before Jesus returns the Church will have to pass through a very difficult time which will be linked to the coming of the Antichrist; that the Church does not believe in mileniarism, (that is to say that there will be a special 1000 years of blessings on earth before the return of Jesus) that God's final triumph will be at the Second Coming of Jesus, and the Last Judgement and the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.
Apart from the political and social situation of the world which I mentioned earlier, for me one of the pointers towards the imminence of the Second Coming of Jesus, and in connection with it the conversionof Israel and the phenomena of Messianic Judaism is the extraordinary spiritual vitality of the Pentecostals/Charismatic Christians who hold this view. Their rise from nothing to 500 million in only a hundred years or so is quite unique in Christian history. Is part of the reason for this incredibly rapid progress due to the fact that they have discerned better than other Christian groups the signs of the times concerning the Second Coming?
"May the binding promise of the Lord Jesus be fulfilled"
When the Pope recently visited the Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Poland a couple of years ago on 17th August 2002 he concluded his talk by quoting from St Faustina's diary "May the binding promise of the Lord Jesus be fulfilled : From here there must go forth "the spark which will prepare the world for his final coming" (cf Diary 1732) . Perhaps he too is wanting Catholics to think about the Second Coming more. Even if I am wrong, and the Second Coming will not be soon, it will do us no harm at all to think of these things more, to desire them and pray for them, as it will give us a better perspective on our life in this world and enable us to keep our priorities right.
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