The promise He made

On the last night before His death, in an upstairs room in Jerusalem, Jesus made a promise to eleven frightened men. It is the promise on which every Christian funeral, every Christian hope and every Christian prayer for a better world finally rests.

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

“I will come again.” Not “I will send for you one at a time.” Not “you will find your way to Me.” He will come. The New Testament refers to that coming more than three hundred times; it is mentioned in every book but four. The early church greeted one another with a single Aramaic word, Maranatha, “Our Lord, come” (1 Corinthians 16:22), and the Bible closes with the same prayer: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

The question this book asks

Christians across almost every tradition agree that Jesus will return. Where they differ, and where a great deal of confusion has grown up in the last two centuries, is on the manner of His return. Will it be seen? Will it be heard? Will the whole world know, or will believers quietly vanish while life goes on for everyone else? Will there be one coming or two? Will it happen before a time of trouble, so that the church escapes it, or after?

This is not a quarrel about details. What you believe about the manner of Christ’s coming shapes what you expect, what you will recognise, and what you can be deceived by. Jesus Himself made that point. Of all the warnings He gave about the end, the one He repeated most was this: “Take heed that no one deceives you” (Matthew 24:4). And the specific deception He described was about the manner of His coming: “If anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it” (Matthew 24:23). He then told His disciples exactly how to tell His real coming from every counterfeit. That is the heart of this book.

What this book is not

It is not a timetable. Jesus said that of the day and hour “no one knows” (Matthew 24:36), and anyone who tells you otherwise has already left the Bible behind. It is not a quarrel with any church or any Christian. Millions of sincere believers hold the view of the second coming that this book will question, and they hold it because it was taught to them by people they trust. I was taught it too. This book simply puts the texts on the table, in their contexts, and asks what they say.

And it is not a frightening book. The second coming is called “the blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). It is the day when the dead in Christ rise, when the living are changed, when every wrong is righted and every tear wiped away. If anything in these pages leaves you afraid rather than eager, I have written it badly. The One who is coming is the One who said, “Let not your heart be troubled.”

How this book works

Part One examines the manner of His coming: what the Bible says about how Jesus will return, and what it means that He comes “like a thief” and that “one will be taken and the other left”. It also looks, with as much fairness as I can manage, at where the idea of a secret, silent return came from and why it does not fit the texts. Part Two turns to the signs Jesus gave and to the deceptions He warned about. Part Three is about readiness: what His coming will actually do, and how people who expect Him live now.

Each chapter opens with a reading line so that you can read the passages before you read me. Each ends with a summary, questions for reflection or group discussion, and one thing to practise. Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version. Please check everything.

The two men in white

Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus led His disciples out to the Mount of Olives and, while they watched, was taken up from them. Luke, who records it, had interviewed eyewitnesses, and he gives us the scene with a physician’s precision.

Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Four things stand out. The disciples watched; the ascension was visible. A cloud received Him. It was this same Jesus, the man with the nail-scarred hands who had eaten with them an hour before, who went up, not a spirit or an influence. And He “will so come in like manner as you saw Him go”. Whatever else the second coming is, the angels say it will be like the ascension: visible, bodily, with clouds, and the same Jesus.

That sentence rules out a great deal. It rules out a coming that is merely spiritual, as some have taught: Jesus “coming” in the hearts of His people or in the spread of His church. It rules out a coming that is secret, since the ascension was seen by the gathered disciples in broad daylight. And it rules out a coming that is not personal, since it is “this same Jesus” who returns.

Every eye will see Him

John, who was on that hill, later heard the same thing in vision, and gave it the widest possible scope:

Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

Every eye. Not every believing eye; every eye. Even “they who pierced Him”, the very men responsible for the crucifixion, will see Him, which means that the second coming is attended by a resurrection of some who are not saved. And “all the tribes of the earth will mourn”. The whole world will know what is happening. There is no reading of “every eye will see Him” that is compatible with an invisible return.

What Jesus told the high priest

At His trial, Jesus was put under oath and asked whether He was the Christ. His answer was a statement about His return:

Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Jesus told Caiaphas, who was about to condemn Him, that Caiaphas himself would see Him coming on the clouds of heaven. That is a public coming if ever there was one. Jesus was quoting Daniel, who had seen “One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven” to receive “dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him” (Daniel 7:13-14). The clouds, in Scripture, are the sign of the visible presence of God; it was in a cloud that He led Israel, filled the temple, and overshadowed the mount of transfiguration. When Jesus comes with clouds, He comes in open glory.

Power and great glory

Jesus Himself described the moment, in the same sermon in which He warned against deception:

“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

“They will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Mark adds that He will send His angels to “gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven” (Mark 13:27). Matthew adds a “great sound of a trumpet” (Matthew 24:31). Paul adds a shout and the voice of an archangel (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Every description, from every writer, is of an event that fills the sky and fills the ear. Nobody in Scripture describes the second coming as quiet.

Why “in like manner” matters so much

The angels’ phrase is the anchor of this whole subject. We know what the ascension looked like. It was bodily: the disciples watched a man go up. It was visible: they “looked steadfastly toward heaven”. It was with clouds. It was the same Jesus. The second coming will be like that. That is the standard against which every claim about His return, including every claim that He has already come or will come secretly, is to be measured. He has told us beforehand, so that when someone says, “Look, here is the Christ,” we will know better.

The comparison Jesus chose

When Jesus wanted to tell His disciples how to recognise His coming, He did not reach for an image of stillness. He reached for the most sudden, public and unmistakable event in the natural world.

“Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Notice the contrast Jesus builds. The counterfeit is in a place you have to go to: the desert, the inner rooms. It is local and it is hidden; someone has to tell you where to find it. The real coming is like lightning that lights the whole sky from one horizon to the other. Nobody has to tell you that lightning has struck. You do not go looking for it. It finds you. That is the test Jesus gave: if someone has to tell you He has come, He has not come.

The loudest event in history

Paul’s description to the Thessalonians is the fullest in the New Testament, and it is written to comfort people who had buried loved ones and wanted to know whether the dead would miss the Lord’s return.

For the Lord Himself will 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. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Count the sounds: a shout, the voice of an archangel, the trumpet of God. Then count the events: the Lord Himself descends from heaven; the dead in Christ rise; the living are caught up together with them in the clouds. This is the passage from which the word “rapture” comes, from the Latin for “caught up”. It is worth noticing that the very passage used to teach a silent, secret rapture is the noisiest passage in the New Testament. Nothing in it is secret. The Lord is seen; the trumpet is heard; graves open all over the earth.

Jesus said the same thing in the same order:

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

The sign appears in heaven; all the tribes of the earth mourn; they see Him; the trumpet sounds; the angels gather the elect. The gathering of the elect, the “rapture”, happens at the visible, audible coming, in full view of a mourning world. It is not a separate, earlier event.

Fire and glory

Paul wrote a second letter to the same church, and described the same coming from the other side, as it will be experienced by those who are not ready.

and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.

Once again, one event with two faces. The troubled believers receive rest “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels”. Those who do not know God meet “flaming fire” at the same moment, “in that Day”. The relief of the church and the judgment of the world happen at the same coming. There is no gap in which the church is gone and the world carries on.

The Old Testament saw it too

Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; A fire shall devour before Him, And it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, And to the earth, that He may judge His people: “Gather My saints together to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”

“Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent.” A thousand years before Paul, the psalmist described the gathering of the saints at the coming of God with fire, tempest and a voice that calls to heaven and earth. The second coming is not a New Testament novelty, and in neither Testament is it quiet.

What the world will do

John saw how the unready will respond when the sky opens:

Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

Kings, generals, the rich, the powerful, the slave and the free, every class of humanity, see “the face of Him who sits on the throne” and cry out to be hidden from it. Nobody is wondering where the Christians went. Everybody is looking at the same sky. And John saw who is in that sky: heaven opened, a white horse, One called Faithful and True, with eyes like a flame of fire and many crowns, followed by the armies of heaven, and on His robe a name written, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:11-16).

Putting the pictures together

Lightning across the sky. A shout, the voice of an archangel, the trumpet of God. Clouds, power and great glory. Mighty angels and flaming fire. The sky receding like a scroll, and every class of humanity seeing His face. The Bible has given us, from Jesus, Paul, John and the psalmist, a single consistent portrait of the second coming, and every brushstroke is public. We will see in the next two chapters that the two phrases most often used to argue for a secret coming, “like a thief” and “one taken, one left”, come from the very passages that paint this portrait, and that they mean something quite different from what is usually claimed.

The phrase and the picture

“He will come like a thief in the night.” For many Christians that sentence settles the matter: thieves are quiet, they come when nobody is looking, they take what they want and are gone before anyone wakes. Surely, then, the coming of Jesus must be quiet and unnoticed, at least by the world. But the Bible uses the thief picture five times, and in every case it tells us what the comparison means. It never means silence. It means unexpectedness.

Paul’s explanation

Paul uses the phrase immediately after the loudest description of the second coming in the New Testament, which we read in the last chapter. He has just described the shout, the archangel’s voice and the trumpet of God. Then he writes:

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.

Read what Paul says the thief comparison means. The day “comes as a thief” in that people are saying “Peace and safety!” and then “sudden destruction comes upon them”. The point is suddenness and surprise, not stealth. A thief in the night is a picture of an arrival that catches you unprepared. And for whom is it a surprise? For “them”, those in darkness. “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.” The thief image is explicitly not about believers quietly disappearing. It is about unbelievers being caught off guard by a day they refused to expect.

Paul then adds the application: “Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:6). The thief is a reason to stay awake. That is the whole meaning.

Peter’s explanation

Peter uses the same phrase, and he too tells us what happens on the day that comes like a thief:

But the day of 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 fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

The day comes “as a thief”, and in that day “the heavens will pass away with a great noise”. If the thief picture meant silence, Peter has contradicted himself in a single sentence. It does not. The day is unexpected by scoffers who say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:4), and when it comes, it comes with a great noise. Thief means surprise; the day itself is anything but quiet.

Jesus’ explanation

Jesus Himself introduced the picture, and He explained it before anyone else could misunderstand it:

Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Look at the single point of comparison. “If the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come.” The thief illustrates one thing only: you do not know the hour. Jesus states the lesson twice, before and after the picture: “you do not know what hour”, “at an hour you do not expect”. Nothing about the thief’s quietness, nothing about the thief slipping away unseen. The comparison is about timing and watchfulness, and Jesus does not let it mean anything else.

The two uses in Revelation

In the letter to Sardis, a church that had a reputation for being alive but was dead, Jesus says: “Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you” (Revelation 3:3). Again the thief is paired with “you will not know what hour”, and again it is a warning to the unwatchful, not a promise to the watchful. And in the middle of the account of the last plagues, as the kings of the earth gather for the battle of the great day of God, a voice breaks in:

“Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”

“Blessed is he who watches.” Five times the thief picture appears, and five times the lesson attached to it is the same: the hour is unknown, so watch. Not once is the lesson that the coming itself will be quiet.

What a thief actually does

It is worth noticing, too, what the thief picture does not say even on its own terms. A thief does not take the master of the house; he takes the master’s goods. If anything, the thief picture fits the world being plundered of its false security, not the church being quietly removed. But the biblical writers do not press the picture that far, and neither should we. They use it for one thing. We should let them.

The sum of it

When Scripture says that Jesus will come as a thief, it is answering the question when, and the answer is: when you are not expecting it, so expect it always. When Scripture describes how Jesus will come, it answers with lightning, clouds, a shout, a trumpet and every eye seeing Him. The two sets of texts do not compete. A thief-like day can also be a world-shaking day; Peter puts both in one sentence. The only way to make “thief” mean “secret” is to ignore every explanation the Bible gives of its own comparison.

The verses

Second only to “a thief in the night”, these are the verses most often used to picture a silent disappearance of believers: an aeroplane whose pilot vanishes, a car with no driver, a bed with one sleeper gone.

Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.

The usual reading is that the one taken is a believer, snatched quietly to heaven, and the one left is an unbeliever who carries on, puzzled, in a world that has lost its Christians. It is a vivid picture. The only question is whether it is the picture Jesus was painting. To find out, we read the verses before and after them.

The verses before

But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Here is the illustration that governs “one taken, one left”. In the days of Noah, who was taken away? Not Noah. The flood “came and took them all away”, the unprepared, the ones eating and drinking who “did not know”. Noah and his family were left, alive, on a cleansed earth. “So also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” Then, in the very next sentence, “one will be taken and the other left”. In the illustration Jesus has just given, to be taken is to be taken away in judgment, and to be left is to be spared. There is nothing quiet about a flood.

The verses after, in Luke

Luke records the same teaching with an extra detail. After “the one will be taken and the other left”, the disciples ask the obvious question:

I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.” So He said to them, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”

“Where, Lord?” the disciples ask, meaning, “Where are they taken?” And Jesus answers with a grim proverb: where the body is, there the vultures gather. The ones taken are taken to death. That is not a description of being carried to heaven. It is a description of judgment, and it matches Noah’s flood exactly. Luke also gives Jesus’ second illustration, the days of Lot: “on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:29-30). Lot was left; Sodom was taken. And the day is the day when the Son of Man is revealed, which is the opposite of hidden.

What Jesus said about the harvest

Jesus taught the same order elsewhere, in parables about the end of the age, and He was careful to interpret them Himself.

Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

“First gather together the tares.” When the disciples asked Him to explain, He said: “the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels ... The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire” (Matthew 13:39-42). In the parable of the net He said it again: “So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire” (Matthew 13:49-50). In both parables the wicked are separated out and taken, and the righteous remain. Jesus never once describes the righteous being quietly removed while the wicked remain to enjoy the world.

Does any of this contradict the gathering of the elect?

No. The elect are gathered at the coming; Jesus says so (Matthew 24:31), and Paul says we are “caught up together ... in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). But that gathering happens at the visible, audible coming, at the same moment as the judgment of the unready. Both groups are dealt with on the same day: one is caught up to meet the Lord, and one is “taken away” by the sudden destruction that falls when the sky opens. Neither is secret. The two men in the field are standing in the same lightning.

Why the detail matters

The picture of believers vanishing and the world carrying on has had a powerful effect on Christian imagination. It has taught a generation to expect a second chance after the church is gone, a period in which the unready can still get ready. Jesus gave no such hope. In the days of Noah the door of the ark was shut, and the flood came. In the days of Lot the fire fell on the same day Lot walked out. “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32), Jesus said, in the middle of this very passage. The day of the Lord is one day. It is the day of rescue and the day of judgment at once, and the time to be ready is now.

A fair question

If the Bible is as clear as the last four chapters suggest, why do so many Christians believe that Jesus will come twice: once secretly, to remove the church before a seven-year tribulation, and once visibly, at the end of it? The honest answer is that the idea is recent, and it arrived through a specific route.

For the first eighteen centuries of Christian history, no major teacher, Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant, taught a secret, two-stage coming. The Reformers did not. The Puritans did not. Wesley and Whitefield did not. The idea took shape in the British Isles in the 1830s, in circles connected with the early Plymouth Brethren and the teaching of John Nelson Darby, who built a system in which God deals separately with Israel and the church, and in which the church must be removed before God resumes His dealings with Israel in a final seven-year period. The scheme travelled to America, was printed in the notes of the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909, was taught in a generation of Bible colleges, and reached the general public through best-selling books and films in the second half of the twentieth century. Many who hold it have no idea that it was unknown to the church before their great-great-grandparents were born. That does not by itself prove it wrong; new insight is possible. But it does mean that the burden of proof lies with the new view, and the proof must come from the texts.

The passage about the “gathering together”

Paul wrote his second letter to the Thessalonians precisely because they had been told that the day of the Lord had already arrived or was about to. His answer is the clearest timetable in his letters.

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Read the first verse carefully. Paul is writing “concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him”. The coming and the gathering are one subject; he does not separate them by seven years or by a single day. And he says that this coming-and-gathering “will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed”. In other words, the church will still be here when the man of sin is revealed; the church will see him. Paul does not say, “Do not worry, you will be gone.” He says, “You will not be gathered to Him until these things have happened.”

Then Paul tells us how the man of sin ends:

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

The lawless one is destroyed “with the brightness of His coming”. The Greek word for “coming” here, parousia, is the same word Paul used in verse 1 for “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together”. There is one parousia. It gathers the church and it destroys the lawless one, and it is bright, not secret.

“After the tribulation of those days”

Jesus Himself placed His coming on the timeline, and He placed it after the time of trouble, not before.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days ... they will see the Son of Man coming ... and He will send His angels ... and they will gather together His elect.” The gathering of the elect, with a trumpet, happens after the tribulation and at the visible coming. Jesus had just said that the tribulation would be shortened “for the elect’s sake” (Matthew 24:22). Why shorten it for the elect’s sake if the elect are not there?

John’s vision agrees. When he sees the great multitude in white robes before the throne, he is told: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). They came out of it, through it, not around it.

What Jesus promised about trouble

Jesus never promised His people that they would be spared from tribulation. He promised them the opposite, together with His presence in it: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). In His last prayer for them He said, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). Paul taught the young churches that “we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Every generation of believers from the apostles to the Reformers to the persecuted church today has entered the kingdom that way. There is no biblical reason to expect the last generation to be the exception, and there is good reason to expect the last generation to need, more than any before it, to have counted the cost.

Why the difference matters

If the church is taught to expect removal before the trouble, then when the trouble comes, the church will be unprepared and confused, and may conclude that the trouble is not the real one, or that God has failed. If the church is taught to expect Jesus to come after the trouble, visibly, with a trumpet, then nothing that happens before that moment can be mistaken for Him, and no hardship can shake the expectation. The secret coming is not merely a harmless alternative. It is a reading that leaves people open to exactly the deception Jesus warned about: “If anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it.” A people who know that His coming will be seen by every eye are safe from every counterfeit that is not.

The question on the mountain

The disciples asked Jesus two questions at once, and He answered both together, which is why the sermon on the Mount of Olives needs careful reading.

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

“These things” meant the destruction of the temple, which Jesus had just predicted and which happened in AD 70. “The sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age” meant the end of the world. The disciples assumed the two would happen together. Jesus wove His answers so that the fall of Jerusalem became a picture of the end, and the signs He gave apply to both, with the final fulfilment still ahead of us.

The signs that are not the end

The first thing Jesus did was to warn against reading the end into every disturbance.

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

War, famine, pestilence, earthquake: “the end is not yet”. These are “the beginning of sorrows”, literally the beginning of birth pains, which grow more frequent and more intense as the birth approaches. Every generation has had its wars and plagues. What Jesus describes is not their existence but their intensification, and every honest reader of the last century’s history can see it. But He will not let us set dates by them.

The condition of society

Jesus went on to describe what people would be like:

And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Paul filled in the portrait with uncomfortable detail:

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

Notice that the list ends inside the church: “having a form of godliness but denying its power”. The last days are marked not only by open wickedness but by religion without transformation. Jesus said the same thing when He compared the end to the days of Noah: ordinary life, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, carrying on as if nothing would ever change, “until the day that Noah entered the ark” (Matthew 24:38).

Signs in the heavens and distress on the earth

“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

“Distress of nations, with perplexity.” The word means having no way out. Jesus foresaw a world in which the problems outrun the solutions, in which people are afraid not only of what is happening but of “those things which are coming”. A century that has lived under the shadow of weapons that could end civilisation, and now under the shadow of a climate and an economy that nobody seems able to steer, knows what the sentence means.

The sign that is the end

Among all the signs Jesus gave, one stands apart, because He attaches the end directly to it:

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Wars and earthquakes are “not yet” the end. The gospel preached to every nation is followed by “then the end will come”. This is the sign that the church has a hand in. In the first century the gospel was confined to the Mediterranean. Today the Bible exists in whole or in part in thousands of languages, and the message of Jesus reaches places that were unreachable within living memory. John saw the same thing from heaven’s side: an angel “having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6), with the announcement that “the hour of His judgment has come” (Revelation 14:7). The last sign before the end is not a disaster. It is a message, going to the whole world.

What the signs are for

Jesus did not give signs so that we could calculate. He gave them so that we would not be surprised, and so that we would know which way to look. His own summary is the kindest sentence in the sermon:

Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

The believer reads the news differently from everyone else. Where the world sees distress with no way out, the believer sees birth pains, and births end in joy. “Look up and lift up your heads.” The signs are not a reason for fear. They are the reason to expect Him.

The first word and the last

Jesus began His sermon on the end with a warning, repeated it in the middle, and came back to it near the close. If frequency is a guide to importance, the thing Jesus was most concerned about was not that His people would miss the signs but that they would be deceived.

And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

“Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many” (Matthew 24:11). And then the warning we have already met, which is the most specific of all:

“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.

Three things in that warning deserve attention. First, the deception is about the coming of Christ: people will claim He is here, in a particular place. Second, it will be backed by “great signs and wonders”: miracles, not mere arguments. Third, it will be good enough “to deceive, if possible, even the elect”. This is not a deception that only fools will fall for. It is aimed at the most sincere, and Jesus says the only defence is that “I have told you beforehand”.

Power, signs and lying wonders

Paul describes the same climax in his timetable of the end:

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The lawless one has a “coming” too, the word is again parousia, and it is a counterfeit of Christ’s: “with all power, signs, and lying wonders”. Those who fall for it are those who “did not receive the love of the truth”. Notice what the safeguard is. Not cleverness, not suspicion, not even sincerity, but love of the truth: a settled willingness to be told by Scripture what is so, and to prefer that to what we wish were so. Paul says elsewhere that the enemy’s agents will look like the real thing: “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

Why the manner of His coming is the safeguard

Put the warnings together with what the earlier chapters established and the protection becomes clear. If Christ’s coming will be like lightning from one horizon to the other, with clouds, a trumpet and every eye seeing Him, then anything that is local, that someone has to announce, that happens in a desert or an inner room or a city or a stadium, is not it, no matter how impressive its miracles. Jesus has told us beforehand. A believer who knows the manner of His coming can say to the most dazzling claim, “When He comes, I will not need you to tell me,” and walk away.

That is why the question of a secret or spiritual coming is not academic. Every teaching that allows Christ to come in a way that is not seen by every eye opens a door through which a counterfeit can walk. A people who expect Him on the clouds cannot be fooled by anyone who arrives on the ground.

The test of every voice

The Bible gives one test for any claim to speak for God, and it was given long before the New Testament:

To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Not the size of the miracle, not the sincerity of the speaker, not the feeling in the room, but the Word. Luke praised a congregation for exactly this: the Bereans “received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). They checked Paul. We may check anyone. And we must, because Jesus said the last deceptions would be good enough to fool the elect if the elect were not checking.

Deception from inside

It would be comfortable to imagine that the great deception comes only from obvious enemies. Jesus did not allow that comfort. “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:22-23). Miracles in His name are no guarantee. Paul’s list of the last days ended with people “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). The final test is not whether something is religious but whether it is true to the Word and whether it produces obedience to it. “He who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13), and endurance means holding to what has been written when everything around you says otherwise.

Told beforehand

Jesus ended His warning with four words that are the sum of this chapter: “See, I have told you beforehand.” He has not left His people to work out the end by instinct. He has described the counterfeit and He has described the real thing, and the difference between them is the difference between a claim and a sky full of glory. The one who knows that difference is safe, not because they are clever, but because they believed what He said before it was needed.

The sentence that ends every calculation

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.

People have been setting dates for the return of Christ for nearly two thousand years, and every date has passed. Each failure has made unbelievers scoff and believers weary, and each one was a direct contradiction of what Jesus said. Not the angels, not even the Son during His earthly ministry (Mark 13:32), knew the day. Anyone who claims to know it is claiming more than Jesus claimed. That should settle the matter, and for the believer who loves the truth it does.

Why He did not tell us

Jesus did not withhold the day to tease us. He withheld it so that we would watch. His own explanation is a short parable:

Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning— lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

If the servants knew the master would return on Friday at noon, they would idle until Thursday night. Because they do not know, every hour matters. Not knowing the day is the thing that makes faithfulness continuous. “And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” The command is not only for the disciples on the hill; it is for every believer in every generation, including the generation that will actually see Him come.

The servant who said “my master is delaying”

Jesus described two servants, and the difference between them was entirely in how they handled the delay.

But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The evil servant does not deny that the master will come. He says, “in his heart”, that the master is delaying, and he lives accordingly. That is the danger of the long wait: not open unbelief but a quiet decision that the coming is far enough away to make no practical difference. The faithful servant, by contrast, is the one “whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing” (Matthew 24:46): doing the work, feeding the household, not because he has calculated the date but because he has not.

Ten virgins and a long delay

But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’

All ten virgins expected the bridegroom. All ten had lamps. All ten slept when he was delayed. The only difference was oil: the wise had brought enough for a long wait, and the foolish had not. When the cry came at midnight, there was no time to buy more. “Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut” (Matthew 25:10). Jesus draws the lesson Himself: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (Matthew 25:13). The parable is about readiness that lasts through delay. It is not enough to have been ready once. The oil, the inward life of the Spirit, has to be there at midnight.

The scoffers and the patience of God

Peter foresaw that the delay itself would become an argument against the promise:

knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

His answer is one of the most important verses on the subject:

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

The delay is not neglect. It is mercy. Every day the Lord waits is a day in which someone else may come to repentance. The same patience that kept the door of the ark open for a hundred and twenty years keeps the door of grace open now. But the ark door did shut. Peter goes on in the next verse to say that the day “will come”, and when it comes, it comes with a great noise. The patience of God is real, and it is not endless.

Will He find faith?

Jesus asked a question that hangs over the long wait:

I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?

He asked it at the end of a parable about a widow who kept praying when there seemed to be no answer. The faith He is looking for is not faith that has calculated the date. It is faith that keeps praying, keeps working and keeps the lamp filled when the bridegroom is delayed. Habakkuk was told, when he complained that the vision was slow: “Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry” (Habakkuk 2:3). It will seem to tarry. It will not tarry. Both are true, and the believer lives between them.

The day everything changes

We have spent most of this book on the manner of Christ’s coming, because that is where the confusion lies. But the manner matters only because of what the coming will do. Here is the New Testament’s own list.

The dead in Christ will rise

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, 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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

The first thing the trumpet does is open graves. Every believer who has died, from Abel onward, rises incorruptible. Paul told the grieving Thessalonians that “the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16), before the living are caught up, so that nobody who died in faith misses the moment. This is why the second coming is the believer’s answer to death. We do not go to Him one at a time; He comes for all of us at once.

The living will be changed

“We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” Those alive when He comes will not die at all. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, mortality is exchanged for immortality. Paul describes it to the Philippians as the work of a Saviour who comes from heaven:

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.

John adds the deepest part of the transformation:

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

“We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” The sight of Jesus completes the work He began in us. And notice the consequence John draws: everyone who has this hope purifies himself now. The expectation of His coming is not an escape from holiness; it is the strongest motive for it.

The whole church will be gathered

“Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Together. The raised dead and the changed living, gathered by angels “from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:31). Every believer of every century, every language and every nation, in one company, meeting the Lord. This is the fulfilment of John 14:3: “I will come again and receive you to Myself.”

The world will be judged

The same coming that gathers the church ends the rebellion. Jesus described it as a shepherd dividing sheep from goats:

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.

Paul says that the Lord “will consume [the lawless one] with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8) and that those who do not know God “shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). John sees the kings of the earth and their armies gathered against the Rider on the white horse and overthrown (Revelation 19:19-21), and then the dragon himself bound for a thousand years, “so that he should deceive the nations no more” (Revelation 20:3). The deceiver’s long work is over the day the sky opens.

The thousand years and the end of evil

John describes what follows the coming in Revelation 20: the saints reign with Christ a thousand years; “the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:5); then Satan is loosed for a final rebellion, fire comes down from God and devours the wicked, and death and the grave are themselves cast into the lake of fire, “the second death” (Revelation 20:14). The second coming is the beginning of the end of evil. It is not yet the end itself, but after it nothing stands between God’s people and the new earth except the final judgment that settles every question for ever.

All things new

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

This is where the road ends. Peter called it “the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21). Everything sin broke is mended. The Garden is restored, and this time the tree of life is open. “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son” (Revelation 21:7).

Why the manner and the meaning belong together

Now we can see why it matters that His coming is visible, audible and once. An event that raises every dead believer, changes every living one, gathers them all together, ends the deceiver’s rule and begins the restoration of all things cannot be quiet. It is the climax of history. Nobody will miss it, and nobody will need to be told. And an event like this is worth waiting for, worth watching for, and worth being ready for, which is the subject of the final chapter.

The grace that teaches

The clearest New Testament summary of how to live between the two comings of Christ is a single sentence from Paul to Titus.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

Grace appeared: the first coming. Grace teaches: the present age. Grace looks for the glorious appearing: the second coming. And in between, a people redeemed, purified and “zealous for good works”. The hope of His coming is called “blessed” and His appearing “glorious”. Paul does not describe a people hiding from the world and waiting for the exit; he describes a people made holy by the expectation.

Readiness is a way of life, not an event

“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.

Girded waist, burning lamp, listening for the knock. Readiness in Jesus’ picture is not a frantic last-minute scramble; it is a posture held steadily through the night. And look at the reward. The master will “gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them”. The One who washed His disciples’ feet will do it again. His coming is not only the end of our waiting; it is the beginning of His serving us at His own table.

Jesus also named the things that smother readiness:

“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Carousing and drunkenness we would expect. “Cares of this life” we would not, and it is the one that catches most believers. A heart can be weighed down by legitimate responsibilities until the coming of Christ becomes a doctrine on a shelf. The remedy Jesus gives is “watch therefore, and pray always”. Prayer keeps the lamp lit.

Do business till I come

Waiting is not idleness. In the parable of the talents the master “delivered his goods” to his servants and went away; when he returned “after a long time” he “settled accounts with them” (Matthew 25:14-19). The faithful servants had traded and doubled what they were given, and heard the words every believer longs to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant ... Enter into the joy of your lord” (Matthew 25:21). In Luke’s version the instruction is even plainer: “Do business till I come” (Luke 19:13). The people who expect Jesus are the busiest people on earth: feeding the hungry, raising children in the faith, preaching the gospel to every nation, which is the very sign that brings the end. The expectation of His coming is the opposite of an excuse to withdraw.

Holy conduct and godliness

Peter draws the same conclusion from the destruction of the present order:

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;

“What manner of persons ought you to be.” If the house is coming down, you do not spend your life polishing its furniture. You invest in what will survive: character, relationships, the kingdom. And Peter says something startling: believers are “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God”. The gospel to every nation is the sign of the end, and the church has been given the gospel. In some real sense, how we live and what we proclaim bears on when He comes.

Awake, and clothed

And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.

Paul wrote that nearly two thousand years ago, and it is truer now than when he wrote it. The night is far spent. Every morning the believer is nearer than they were. The response is not panic but a change of clothes: off with the works of darkness, on with the armour of light. Readiness is something you wear.

Not ashamed at His coming

John adds a motive that is easy to miss: “abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming” (1 John 2:28). The question is not only whether we will be saved when He comes but whether we will be glad to see Him. A servant who has been doing the master’s work is not embarrassed by the master’s arrival. A life lived in the open, with nothing to hide when the lightning fills the sky, is the only kind of readiness that will not be ashamed.

The last prayer in the Bible

“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Bible ends in a conversation. Jesus says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” The church answers, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” And in between, the invitation stands open to anyone who thirsts: come, and take the water of life freely. That is the posture of a people who expect Him: calling to Him to come, and calling the world to come to Him, while there is still time.

He is coming. Not secretly, not in a desert or an inner room, not in a way that only the enlightened will recognise, but with clouds and with a trumpet, in the glory of His Father with His angels, so that every eye will see Him. He said so. He has told us beforehand. The only question left is the one He asked of the long night before the dawn: will He find us watching?

The references below gather the main passages used in this book under the headings of its argument, so that a reader or a study group can work through them in their own Bible. Each is given with a one-line note of what it contributes.

1. The promise of His coming

John 14:1-3

I will come again and receive you to Myself.

Acts 1:9-11

This same Jesus will come in like manner as you saw Him go.

Hebrews 9:28

To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time.

Titus 2:13

The blessed hope and glorious appearing.

Revelation 22:20

Surely I am coming quickly. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

2. The manner of His coming: visible and audible

Revelation 1:7

He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him.

Matthew 26:64

The high priest will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven.

Daniel 7:13-14

One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven to receive a kingdom.

Matthew 24:27

As the lightning flashes from east to west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Matthew 24:30-31

All the tribes of the earth mourn; they see Him; a great sound of a trumpet; the elect gathered.

Luke 21:27

They will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Mark 13:26-27

Seen coming in the clouds; the angels gather the elect.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

A shout, the voice of an archangel, the trumpet of God; the dead rise; the living caught up.

2 Thessalonians 1:7-10

Revealed from heaven with mighty angels in flaming fire; rest for believers, judgment for the rest, in that Day.

Psalm 50:3-5

Our God shall come and shall not keep silent; gather My saints together.

Revelation 6:14-17

The sky recedes; every class of humanity sees His face and hides.

Revelation 19:11-16

Heaven opened; the Rider called Faithful and True; King of kings.

3. “Like a thief”: unexpected, not silent

1 Thessalonians 5:1-6

The day comes as a thief on those saying “Peace and safety”; not on believers, who are not in darkness.

2 Peter 3:10

The day comes as a thief, in which the heavens pass away with a great noise.

Matthew 24:42-44

If the master had known what hour the thief would come; you do not know the hour.

Revelation 3:3

If you will not watch, I will come as a thief and you will not know what hour.

Revelation 16:15

I am coming as a thief; blessed is he who watches.

4. “One taken, one left”: judgment, not disappearance

Matthew 24:37-41

As in the days of Noah: the flood took them all away; one taken, one left.

Luke 17:26-30

The days of Noah and of Lot; destroyed them all; the day the Son of Man is revealed.

Luke 17:34-37

Where, Lord? Where the body is, there the eagles gather.

Luke 17:32

Remember Lot’s wife.

Matthew 13:30

First gather together the tares.

Matthew 13:39-43

The angels gather out the lawless; the righteous shine in the kingdom.

Matthew 13:49-50

The angels separate the wicked from among the just.

5. One coming, after the tribulation

2 Thessalonians 2:1-4

The coming and our gathering together will not come unless the falling away and the man of sin come first.

2 Thessalonians 2:8

The lawless one destroyed with the brightness of His coming.

Matthew 24:21-22

The tribulation shortened for the elect’s sake.

Matthew 24:29-31

Immediately after the tribulation, the sign, the coming, the trumpet, the gathering.

Revelation 7:9-14

The great multitude who come out of the great tribulation.

John 16:33

In the world you will have tribulation; be of good cheer.

John 17:15

Not that You should take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil one.

Acts 14:22

Through many tribulations we enter the kingdom of God.

6. The signs

Matthew 24:3

The disciples’ two questions: the temple and the end of the age.

Matthew 24:6-8

Wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes: the beginning of sorrows, but the end is not yet.

Matthew 24:12-13

Lawlessness abounds, love grows cold; he who endures to the end shall be saved.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

The character of the last days; a form of godliness without its power.

Luke 21:25-26

Signs in the heavens; distress of nations with perplexity; hearts failing for fear.

Matthew 24:14

The gospel preached in all the world, and then the end.

Revelation 14:6-7

The everlasting gospel to every nation; the hour of His judgment has come.

Luke 21:28

When these things begin, look up and lift up your heads.

7. Deception

Matthew 24:4-5

Take heed that no one deceives you; many will come in My name.

Matthew 24:11

Many false prophets will deceive many.

Matthew 24:23-26

Look, here is the Christ: do not believe it; signs and wonders to deceive even the elect; I have told you beforehand.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

Power, signs and lying wonders; those who did not receive the love of the truth.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15

Satan transforms himself into an angel of light.

Matthew 7:21-23

Wonders in His name are no guarantee.

Isaiah 8:20

To the law and to the testimony.

Acts 17:11

The Bereans searched the Scriptures daily.

8. The unknown day

Matthew 24:36

Of that day and hour no one knows.

Mark 13:32-37

Not even the Son; watch, for you do not know when the master is coming.

Matthew 24:45-51

The faithful servant and the servant who said “my master is delaying”.

Matthew 25:1-13

The ten virgins; the bridegroom delayed; the door shut.

2 Peter 3:3-4

Scoffers: where is the promise of His coming?

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slack but longsuffering, not willing that any should perish.

Habakkuk 2:3

Though it tarries, wait for it; it will not tarry.

Luke 18:8

When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?

9. What His coming will do

1 Corinthians 15:51-53

In a moment, at the last trumpet, the dead raised incorruptible, the living changed.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

The dead in Christ rise first; caught up together; always with the Lord.

Philippians 3:20-21

The Saviour from heaven transforms our lowly body.

1 John 3:2-3

We shall be like Him; everyone with this hope purifies himself.

Matthew 25:31-34

The Son of Man on the throne of His glory separates the nations.

Revelation 19:19-21

The beast and the kings of the earth overthrown.

Revelation 20:1-6

Satan bound; the saints reign a thousand years; the first resurrection.

Revelation 20:14-15

The second death.

Revelation 21:1-7

A new heaven and a new earth; no more death; he who overcomes inherits all things.

Acts 3:19-21

The times of restoration of all things.

10. Living ready

Titus 2:11-14

Grace teaches us to live godly, looking for the blessed hope.

Luke 12:35-40

Girded waist, burning lamps, waiting for the master; he will serve them.

Luke 21:34-36

Take heed lest your hearts be weighed down; watch and pray always.

Matthew 25:14-30

The talents: faithful trading until the master returns.

Luke 19:13

Do business till I come.

2 Peter 3:11-14

What manner of persons ought you to be; hastening the coming of the day of God.

Romans 13:11-12

High time to awake; put on the armour of light.

1 John 2:28

Abide in Him, that we may not be ashamed at His coming.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Revelation 22:12

I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me.

Revelation 22:17

The Spirit and the bride say, Come.