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Will Jesus Christ Return to Earth?

W

hen one of my nephews was only five he heard me talking about Christmas being the time when we celebrate Jesus Christ's coming to earth. He wanted to know if Jesus would come to earth again.

Christ's first coming 2,000 years ago is a fact of history. He is as real a person as was Julius Caesar. In fact, the Encyclopedia Britannica gives more space to the life of Jesus than it does to many of the world's great leaders combined. The secular historian, Josephus, who lived in and wrote about civilization in Bible times, also verifies the historical Jesus.

But one question people have been asking ever since the time of Christ—and perhaps even more so in these days of ever-increasing terrorism, wars, and threats of wars—is the same one my nephew asked: "Will Jesus come to earth again?"

The only reliable source for an answer to that question is in God's Word, the Bible, which in the words of Herbert Lockyer, Snr., gives us the Promise, the Proof, the Plan and the Preparation for Christ's return.

First, the promise. Actually, every prophet in the Old Testament part of the Bible except Jonah promises or makes reference to the end of this world age (as we know it), which will be marked by the second coming of Jesus.

Christ himself will come
down from heaven with the
great trumpet call of God.

Jesus himself promised he would return. His disciples were troubled when he told them that he would soon be leaving them, so he assured them with, "There are many homes where my Father [God] lives, and I am going to prepare them for your coming. When everything is ready, then I will come and get you, so that you can always be with me where I am going."¹

When Jesus did leave, two angels gave the same promise. Imagine the surprise of Christ's disciples on the day he returned to heaven and two angels appeared saying: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."²

And almost every writer in the New Testament repeats the promise. According to one Bible scholar there are 308 references to Christ's second coming in the New Testament alone. This promise pulsates throughout the entire Scriptures, right through to the last page and the last word. "Yes, I am coming soon," Jesus said.³

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