Judgment and Rescue: The Return of our Savior

All Christians realize that we must be about the Lord’s business when He returns for us, but when will He return? This is a question that perplexes many. Some believe it will be before the great seven-year tribulation (pre-trib) and some after (post-trib).

The three main texts on the subject seem to argue persuasively for a post-trib return. After Jesus informed His disciples about the destruction of their temple, while they were sitting together on the Mount of Olives, they asked:

• "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" (Mat. 24:3)

Focusing on the latter part of their question, He explained that many things would have to first occur before the great tribulation and His return for His church:

• "Immediately after the distress [“tribulation,” KJV] of those days 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky [Dan. 7:13-14], with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” (Mat. 24:29-31) 

Even though Jesus’ return would take place at the end of the tribulation, many, as in the days of Noah, would be taken by surprise. Jesus therefore emphasized the need for them to “keep watch” (24:42) because He would come suddenly and decisively:

• Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. (Mat. 24:40-41) 

Jesus mentions absolutely no return prior to this post-trib return. If there was to be a secret pre-trib return, Jesus would have misled His disciples, who, as a result of this teaching, would have anticipated a return after this tribulation.

Generally, when Christians think about the rapture, the first verses they think of are these:

• Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For 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. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thes. 4:13-17)

When will this return take place? Right after this passage, Paul relates Jesus return and the rapture into the clouds with the “day of the Lord” and the “destruction” of His enemies – the very end:

• For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. (5:2-4)

If Jesus’ return comes right before the “day of the Lord” and the “destruction,” we have to conclude that His return will also be post-trib.

Despite the suddenness of Jesus’ return, Paul assures us that we – His people - will not be surprised, the very assurance that Jesus gave us:

• "Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.” (Mat. 24:32-33)

Although we do not know the actual dates, we will be able to anticipate our Lord’s return as events unfold.

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I must reflect that this kind of thinking is repugnant to the thinking of our age, which is contemptuous of any judgment and any distinction between the righteous and unrighteous, believer and unbeliever. Instead, universalistic and radically tolerant worldviews are in vogue. Along with this understanding, is the assertion that we are not truly free moral agents who deserve punishment. Instead, modernity either denies freewill and culpability or degrades humanity to no more than a product of nature and nurture – a result, an animal, sophisticated but dehumanized and degraded.

Consequently, as long as modernity embraces this worldview, judgment becomes disdained as inappropriate and contradicts the idea of oneness that is now esteemed above all else. However, if modernity wants to be consistent – if they want to reject the biblical revelation in favor of a radical egalitarianism of outcome – modernity should test this hypothesis by eradicating any form of judgment here in this temporal world. However, this cannot happen without chaos.

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Paul warns the church to not be deluded that we will not have to go through the tribulation. Instead, the revelation of the anti-Christ must precede Christ’s return for His church:

• Concerning the (2) coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being (2) gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. 3Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the (1) rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God… 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his (2) coming. (2 Thes. 2:1-8)

In order to allay any confusion or deceptive, Paul lays out the order of events:

1. “Man of lawlessness is revealed” (2:3) and desecrates the temple “proclaiming himself to be God” (2:4), working miracles (2:9), deceiving the unbelievers (2:10).
2. Christ returns for His church and the destruction of the anti-Christ (2:1, 8)

Christ’s return isn’t simply a matter of rescuing His church but also of establishing justice with the destruction of the forces of evil. In this text, Paul explains why this teaching about the relative time of Christ’s return is important. He explains that he doesn’t want the church to be deceived into believing that Christ will return before the revelation of the “man of lawlessness.” This deception is dangerous because believers might be “easily unsettled or alarmed…that the day of the Lord has already come.”

This is precisely the scenario painted by the pre-trib philosophy that claims that Jesus will come prior to these events and, therefore, might unsettle many who had expected that they would not have to go through the tribulation. Paul does not want this to happen. Therefore, he warns against such a notion.

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We must not regard God’s judgments and punishments as antiquated ideas. Society has found them to be ubiquitously vital to human flourishing. Why then should we insist that eternal consequences should have no place in the next life!

Jesus and His “Errant” Prophecies

On several occasions, Jesus seemed to prophesy His speedy return. When He sent His disciples out on their first evangelistic outing, He promised them:

• “When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” (Matthew 10:23)

Regarding this perplexing prophecy, Albert Schweitzer claimed that Jesus had wrongly believed that He would return and set up His everlasting kingdom prior to the return of His disciples:

• He tells them in plain words…that He does not expect to see them back in the present age.

However, was this really what Jesus had communicated? It seems highly unlikely. The preceding verses reveal that His return would be preceded by many global events:

• "Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles…Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 10:17-22)

Instead, it seems that Jesus was preparing His disciples for both a long wait and possibly their martyrdom. What them did Jesus intend to convey when He stated that “you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 10:23)?

I think that Jesus, so thoroughly imbued as He was with the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures, spoke in a way that mimicked them. Often, these prophecies would begin with the immediate in view but would then jump years into the future in the same breath. Here’s a familiar example – the prophecy to Abraham:

• "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:1-3)

Although this prophecy had some immediate applications, the blessing to “all the peoples of the earth” would come much later.

Similarly, it seems that Jesus’ prophecy to His disciple would also be realized by later generations.

He delivered a similar prophecy to the high priest:

• But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." (Matthew 26:63-64)

This shouldn’t be interpreted to mean that the high priest himself would see this take place. However, in harmony with the character of Hebrew prophecy, He was probably suggesting that the Jewish people would observe His return.

It is interesting to note that the liberal skeptics claim that the Gospels were written by the early church (70-100 AD) to justify their evolved understanding of Jesus as God. In other words, instead of the Gospels containing the very words of Jesus, spoken 27-30 AD, they largely represent the “pious” invention of the early church.

For an extreme example, New Testament critic Bart Ehrman claims:

• The idea that Jesus was divine was a later Christian invention, one found, among our Gospels, only in John. (Jesus Interrupted, 249)

Ehrman believes that the last Gospel, John’s, would have the most to say about the deity of Christ, because, at this point, the church had fully evolved into this belief. Meanwhile, Ehrman claims that the earliest Gospel, Mark’s Gospel according to him, had the least to say about Christ’s deity, because the church had not yet evolved to the point of worshiping Jesus as God. In this regard, Ehrman makes an extravagantly erroneous claim:

• There is not one word in this Gospel about Jesus actually being God. (247) 

However, if the Gospels were a later Christian invention, it would be impossible to explain why the early church would have invented prophecies that seemed to indicate that Jesus had been mistaken! By 70-100 AD, Jesus hadn’t yet returned, and an early return was no longer possible. Why then invent or include prophecies that would make Jesus appear wrong! These clearly are not prophecies that the early church would invent 70-100 AD.

Perhaps the most fought-over prophecy about Jesus’ return comes from Matthew 24:34, after Jesus had described the signs preceding His return:

• “I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” (Matthew 24:34; also Mark 13:30-31 and Luke 21:32-33)

“This generation” seems to take away any ambiguity about His return. Specifically, it would be during “this generation!” However, there is some controversy what “this generation” really refers to. As we found in Matthew 10, here too we find that Jesus clearly doesn’t believe that the end is near:

• You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death [Evidently, the Apostles will not be living at the time of His return!], and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold…And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:6-14)

Many things must first take place – martyrdom, apostasy, and worldwide evangelism - prior to Jesus’ return. Therefore, “this generation” shouldn’t be interpreted literally.

It is therefore more likely that “this generation” should be understood as “this Jewish people.” In other words, Jesus seems to be saying that the Jewish people will still exist when He returns.

However, while the Greek word for “generation” (“genea”) can be understood in certain verses in this sense (Luke 11:50-51; Mat. 12:39), only in the Hebrew Scriptures can we find the corresponding term (“dor”), usually rendered at “generation,” used unequivocally in this manner:

• There they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company [“dor”] of the righteous. (Psalm 14:5)

• By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants [“dor”]? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. (Isaiah 53:8) 

In both of these cases, “dor” cannot be understood as “generation” – a typical human lifespan. In Isaiah, “dor” can only be understood as the many generations, “descendents,” or people who didn’t come forth from the Messiah, because He died for the sins of the people.

Therefore, was Jesus mistaken about the time of His return? Well, if we choose to understand His words as indicating an early return, then it does seem that He was mistaken. However, if we don’t dismiss entire context of His remarks, then it is not possible to construe His words as prophesying an early return.