What will happen when Jesus comes again?
For the past 2000 years,
people have predicted exact dates for the Second Coming of Christ.
Many people have done that,
but every single time someone has predicted a date,
that date proved not to be the time that Jesus would return.
Can we know when Jesus will return, and what's going to happen when He does?
The first question regarding the time of Christ's Second Coming,
it's really easy to answer thanks to material found in the Bible.
In Matthew 24:36, after describing the signs
that would lead to the destruction of Jerusalem,
Jesus shifted the topic to His Second Coming,
and He made it clear that there would be no signs that would signal His Second Coming.
He stated, "But of that day and hour no one knows, no,
not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only."
"Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming
at an hour when you do not expect Him."
In another portion of Scripture, the apostle Paul said that
the day of the Lord would come, "...as a thief in the night."
When will Jesus return?
The simple answer to that question is nobody on Earth has any idea,
and if a person suggests that they can figure that out
from Bible prophecy or signs, etc.,
then they're incorrect because Jesus said
there's going to be no indication of when He will come again.
It's going to come, "as a thief in the night."
Well, so what will happen when Jesus returns?
Immediately after Jesus ascended back to heaven,
two heavenly messengers told His followers,
"This same Jesus,
Who was taken up from you into heaven,
will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."
From that very moment,
the apostles waited for Christ's Second Coming.
It's one of the main themes of the apostles' preaching.
Paul wrote, "For the Lord Himself would descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air..."
Christ won't send an angel to bring Christians to heaven,
He'll come Himself.
He won't sneak back to Earth,
but it will be announced in a glorious fashion for all to see.
How long will it take for the faithful followers of Christ to be ushered into heaven?
Well, Paul wrote, "Behold, I tell you a mystery:
We shall not all sleep,"
meaning that not all Christians would die physically before the Second Coming,
"but we shall all be changed-in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed."
In a single instant, as fast as an eye can blink,
the resurrection of the saints will be accomplished at the Second Coming of Christ.
Other events will accompany the Second Coming of Christ,
and we see that they deal not only with the Christians,
but with the entirety of the physical Universe.
The apostle Peter wrote,
"But the day the Lord will come as a thief in the night,
in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise,
and the elements will melt with a fervent heat;
both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up."
"Nevertheless we, according to His promise,
look for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."
Peter's description of the destruction of this
physical Universe leaves little to the imagination.
The earth and the heavens, the totality of this physical Universe,
will utterly melt with fervent heat.
There will be no reign of Christ on this earth at His Second Coming.
The new heaven and the new Earth,
for which Peter says faithful Christians yearn,
are the spiritual homes promised by Jesus in John 14:1-6,
and described so vividly in Revelation 21 and 22.
They will not be physical matter like the present heavens and Earth,
but instead, be designed especially for the new
spiritual bodies that Paul discussed in 1 Corinthians 15.
When Christ comes again,
this physical universe will be destroyed,
but what will happen to those who have not been faithful to Christ during their lives on Earth?
The Bible paints a grim picture.
Jesus told us that,
"...the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will
hear His voice and come forth--
those who have done good, to the resurrection of life,
and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."
Although many strange and contrived stories have
been concocted about the Second Coming of Christ,
the Bible presents a clear picture of what will happen.
Christ will appear to the entire world,
the heavens and the earth will be burned up,
the elements and every part of the physical Universe at the final Judgment,
and every person who ever lived,
for all eternity,
will be in either heaven or hell.
There will be no second chances once Christ comes again.
Knowing this truth, we should all determine
to listen to Jesus when He said,
"Therefore you also be ready,
for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect him."