4.8 The Return of Christ
The resurrection means that Jesus was raised from the dead. The ascension means that Jesus was exalted by God and given authority. The return of Christ means that Christians believe Jesus will one day be revealed again and that God’s kingdom will be fully established.
This belief is often called the return of Christ or the Second Coming.
The Promise of Christ’s Return
The New Testament teaches that Jesus will return.
According to the book of Acts, after Jesus’ resurrection He was taken up from the disciples’ sight. As they were looking upward, two men in white robes appeared and asked why they were standing there looking into the sky. They told the disciples that Jesus would return in the same way they had seen Him go.
This passage is sometimes understood to mean that Jesus will return visibly from heaven or with the clouds. However, the immediate point of the passage is that the disciples should stop watching the sky. The men in white redirect the disciples away from passivity and back toward the mission Jesus had given them.
Because of this, Christians have understood the language of Jesus’ return in different ways. Some expect a visible, public return from heaven. Others emphasize that Jesus’ return will be sudden, unmistakable, and according to God’s timing rather than something people can predict or control.
The Language of Clouds and Coming
The New Testament often uses dramatic and poetic language to describe the return of Christ. It speaks of Jesus coming with power, glory, trumpets, angels, judgment, and clouds.
Some Christians read this language very literally. They expect Jesus to physically return from the sky in a visible worldwide event accompanied by signs such as trumpets, angels, and clouds.
Other Christians understand some of this language more symbolically. In Scripture, clouds often represent God’s presence, glory, mystery, and authority. Clouds appear in stories connected with Mount Sinai, the tabernacle, the temple, and visions of divine glory. They often show that God is present, but also that God’s presence is holy, powerful, and not fully controllable by human beings.
This is especially important because of Daniel 7. In Daniel’s vision, “one like a son of man” comes with the clouds of heaven and is brought before the Ancient of Days. There, this figure receives authority, glory, and a kingdom. The point is not simply that someone is moving through the sky. The cloud imagery presents this figure as connected with divine authority and heavenly kingship.
Because of this, Christians have understood cloud language in different ways. Some read “coming with the clouds” as a literal description of Christ’s visible return from heaven. Others understand the cloud language primarily as biblical imagery of divine authority, revelation, judgment, and kingship.
One important point is that people should not spend their lives staring into the sky, but rather that Christ’s return belongs to God’s timing, God’s power, and God’s final revealing of truth.
Judgment and Restoration
The return of Christ is often connected with Judgment Day.
In Christianity, Judgment Day is the final revealing of truth. This connects with the word “apocalypse,” which means an unveiling or revealing. In popular culture, apocalypse often means disaster or the end of the world, but in biblical language it is more about something hidden being revealed.
The phrase “Judgment Day” does not always have to mean a literal 24-hour day. It can refer more broadly to the final judgment, when God exposes evil, judges injustice, brings hidden things into the light, and sets all things right.
Judgment does not only mean punishment. It also means that reality is no longer allowed to remain distorted by lies, violence, corruption, oppression, deception, or cruelty. Evil is named for what it is. Injustice is exposed. What has been hidden is revealed by God.
Christians believe that evil will not be ignored forever. Human beings may hide their motives, excuse their actions, or build systems that protect corruption, but Christian hope says that God’s truth will eventually confront everything false.
The return of Christ is also connected with restoration.
Christians believe God’s final purpose is not merely to destroy evil, but to restore what has been broken. The dead will be raised. Creation will be renewed. God’s kingdom will be fully revealed across all creation.
In this vision, judgment and restoration belong together. God judges evil in order to heal, cleanse, reorder, and restore His creation. Justice, mercy, truth, and life will have the final word.
Different Christian Views of the End Times
Christians typically agree that Christ will return, but they disagree about many details.
Some Christians emphasize a future, visible return of Christ. In this view, Jesus will personally return, the dead will be raised, evil will be judged, and God’s kingdom will be fully revealed. This basic belief is shared across most historic Christian traditions, including Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, and many Messianic Christian communities.
Some Christians read end-times passages very literally and expect a specific sequence of future events. These believers often teach about tribulation, the rapture, the Antichrist, a millennium reign, final judgment, and the renewal of the world. This approach is especially common in many evangelical, fundamentalist, Pentecostal, dispensationalist, and some Messianic circles.
Some Christians read many end-times passages more symbolically. They understand the language of beasts, battles, clouds, fire, and judgment as highly symbolic language describing spiritual conflict, divine authority, human empire, persecution, and the final victory of God. This approach is common in many Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, mainline Protestant, and non-dispensational Protestant traditions.
Some Christians hold preterist or partially preterist views. In these views, some end-times passages are understood as already fulfilled in the first century, especially in events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70. Full preterism, which teaches that all major end-times prophecies have already been fulfilled, is much more controversial and is rejected by most historic Christian traditions.
Some Christians emphasize that Christ already came to His followers in a powerful way through the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In this view, Pentecost is not necessarily understood as the full Second Coming, but as a major sign that the risen Jesus was still active among His people. The Spirit empowered the disciples to continue Jesus’ mission and bear witness to God’s kingdom.
Eastern Orthodox Christians usually place less emphasis on detailed prophecy charts and more emphasis on the final victory of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the judgment of evil, and the renewal of creation. Orthodox theology often treats the end times as part of the larger mystery of salvation, transformation, and union with God rather than as a timeline to decode.
Many Messianic believers connect the return of Christ with the restoration of the nation of Israel, the fulfillment of biblical festivals and prophecies, the kingdom of God, and the reign of the Messiah. Some Messianic groups read end-times prophecy very literally, while others emphasize the Jewish context of Jesus’ return, the restoration of all things, and the faithfulness of God to His covenant promises.
Some Christians focus heavily on prophecy timelines and a dramatic final sequence of events. Others focus less on predicting dates, identifying world leaders, or mapping exact event sequences and focus more on the call to faithfulness, endurance, repentance, and hope through all things.
Most historic Christian traditions warn against trying to predict the exact timing of Christ’s return. The point is not to control the future through speculation. The point is to live faithfully under God’s rule now while trusting that God will judge evil, restore creation, raise the dead, and fully reveal His kingdom.
A Present Foretaste of the Kingdom
Many Christians understand the work of the Holy Spirit as a present foretaste of the kingdom that Christ’s return will fully reveal.
When a person turns to God, receives God’s Spirit, and begins to live under God’s rule, that person begins to experience the kingdom of God in the present. Truth returns. Conscience awakens. Hidden sin is brought into the light. Repentance begins. What is false is judged, and what is broken can begin to be restored.
In this spiritual sense, Christ “returns” into a person’s life whenever that person becomes aligned with God through repentance, faithfulness, and the work of the Holy Spirit. The person begins to participate now in the reality that Christians believe will one day be fully revealed.
In Christianity, the return of Christ is not only a future doctrine to look forward to. It is also a present call to be changed, judged truthfully, restored, and brought under God’s kingdom now through the Holy Spirit.
Next, we will start Module 5 by taking a closer look at the Holy Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of Christ in some New Testament passages.