A lot of folks believe that Jesus is rapturing all the Christians this Saturday. It’s based on the out-of-context scriptures and bad math of a radio preacher, which I explained on my other blog. While most Christians don’t believe the Rapture is on Saturday, we do believe that Jesus is returning for His followers, and for the rest of humanity. We just don’t know when—and we’re not going to be so arrogant as to claim we do, especially after Jesus told us that even He doesn’t know when. (Mk 13.32-33)
But let’s dip into what we do know about Jesus’s return. Starting with the fact that He left. About a month and a half after Jesus was raised from the dead, He took His students to a hill just outside Jerusalem, told them to wait for the Holy Spirit, and “was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.” (Ac 1.9) Two men in white, who were standing with them (whom Christians usually assume were angels) explained that “Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday He will return from heaven in the same way you saw Him go!” (Ac 1.11)
Jesus in heaven.
Jesus, said Peter, “is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand.” (Ac 2.33) No, Jesus isn’t literally sitting on God’s right hand, as some folks put it; we’ve all heard of a “right-hand man,” who is as useful to an executive as that executive’s literal right hand. That’s Jesus. When God does stuff, it’s through Jesus. When God created the universe, it was through Jesus, (Jn 1.3) and Jesus simply went back to the position He held in heaven before He became human: Everything God does is done by His Word, and the Word is the person of Jesus; Jesus is God. (If this “Jesus and God”/“Jesus is God” language is confusing, see the post on the Trinity; of course it’s confusing. But accurate.)
The difference, though, is that Jesus is now a human. He took back up His old position, but He now takes on a new position: Jesus is our ambassador, so to speak, to God. He speaks on humanity’s behalf as our advocate, pleading our case. (Ro 8.34)
He’s functioning as our high priest. (He 8.1, 6) Under the Hebrew system that Jesus had set up in the Law, there were many priests, but a head-priest whose job was to supervise the others; and once a year, on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) he was to supervise the main sacrifice for the entire nation, then step into the Most Holy Place of the temple and represent his people personally. (He 9.7) Jesus now does that; and does it far better and effectively than any previous high priest could. (He 9.11-12) As the writer of Hebrews put it:
Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. And He did not enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, He has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by His own death as a sacrifice.
—Hebrews 9.24-26 NLT
So that, in part, is what He’s been up to all this time. Jesus has been interceding for His people. When we pray for stuff, in Jesus’s name, we’re going through Him to the Father, which is after all the only way we can get to Him. (Jn 14.6) We don’t have to worry about our sins getting in the way of our relationship, for Jesus’s death has taken care of those sins once and for all. That’s why we don’t need to perform sacrifices any more. That’s why we did away with the priestly caste and temple system. Now we’re all priests, (Rv 1.6) with Jesus as our high priest; and together we’re all the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1Co 3.16)
Jesus on earth.
Even though Jesus is in heaven, from time to time Jesus makes visits to earth. I’m not talking about those ridiculous “appearances” where the face of Jesus appears on a tortilla, or in a mold stain on the side of a building, or in the spots of a cow. I’m talking about Him really, truly, showing up and talking to people. Either to get them to stop what they’re doing and follow Him already:
As I was on the road, approaching Damascus about noon, a very bright light from heaven suddenly shone down around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me,
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” “Who are you, lord?” I asked.
And the voice replied,
“I am Jesus the Nazarene, the one you are persecuting.” The people with me saw the light but didn’t understand the voice speaking to me.I asked, “What should I do, Lord?”
And the Lord told me,
“Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything you are to do.” —Paul, Acts 22.6-10 NLT
or to give directions and encouragement to His followers:
That night the Lord appeared to Paul and said,
“Be encouraged, Paul. Just as you have been a witness to Me here in Jerusalem, you must preach the Good News in Rome as well.” —Acts 23.11 NLT
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But He laid His right hand on me and said,
“Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.” —John, Revelation 1.17-18 NLT
Stories of Jesus-sightings abound throughout Christianity, and appear to be happening on almost a daily basis. While some of them are obviously fake, by folks who are trying to get attention or grab power, the bulk of them are obviously real—because they produce the sort of fruit that an actual Jesus-sighting should produce. Namely repentance, humility, renewed enthusiasm for God, lifestyle changes, greater love, stronger faith, and so forth.
These little, unofficial returns are not the same thing as what many folks call Jesus’s “second coming”—when He returns to our world in power, to personally take it over.
Jesus’s return.
As the men in white pointed out, Jesus will return from heaven in the same way His students saw Him go. (Ac 1.11) Apparently Jesus told Paul how this was going to look:
We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet Him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words.
—Paul, 1 Thessalonians 4.15-18 NLT
This idea of getting caught up, or “raptured,” into the clouds to meet the Lord, is popularly called “the rapture.” Dispensationalists* teach that this rapture will be secret—all the Christians in the world will mysteriously disappear, and no one will know where we’ve gone—and that Jesus won’t actually return for another seven years, during which God will dump a big bowl of wrath on the rest of humanity ’cause they’re wicked. Of course, this idea is completely contrary to what Paul just said, ’cause “with a commanding shout, with with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God” (1Th 4.16) is hardly secret.
I’ll discuss variant End Time theories in another post. But the point of Jesus’s return is not to judge the world; that comes much later. It is to take it over and rule it personally. Dead Christians (and likely everyone else throughout history who’s followed God) will be raised from the dead; the rest of us Christians will be resurrected immediately; and we don’t disappear and live in heaven for seven years, but we join Jesus’s invading force and take over the world with Him. We “will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him a thousand years.” (Rv 20.6) Since Revelation isn’t meant to be taken literally, we have no idea whether this is actually a thousand years or just a mighty long time. Either way, it’s gonna be a long time.
This idea that when Jesus returns it’s Judgment Day is very popular; as is the idea that us reigning with Him means we get to sit on thrones and boss people around. A lot of that comes from various people’s angry, twisted revenge fantasies. Lest you buy into it, remember what kind of ruler Jesus is:
If we’re not currently helping Jesus grow the Kingdom, it will likewise be a lot for us to get used to. The reason we Christians are following Jesus is because we’re not just getting the world ready for His return: We’re getting ourselves ready for His return. We’re praying, “Your Kingdom come” (Mt 6.10) because it needs to come for us now, so that we can be prepared for when Jesus brings it to everyone.
When?
We don’t know when Jesus will return. Jesus didn’t know either. (Mk 13.32-33) It’ll happen when He’s good and ready. Peter said Jesus is taking His time because He’s patient; He wants everyone who can to come to Him first. (2Pe 3.9) Meanwhile, be ready… and wait.
Every generation has believed and taught that Jesus would return in their lifetimes, and have pointed to current events as proof—“Things are worse than they’ve ever been,” or “Things are better than they’ve ever been,” or “Look at all the signs of the times”—and yet Jesus hasn’t come back. He said Himself that stuff like that will happen; life goes on, and life’s disasters don’t automatically mean the End has come. (Mk 13.4-8) There have always been wars, always been natural disasters, always been evil, always been antiChrists. The fearful point to these and say, “Worry,” and the gullible point to those and say “Panic!” But the Christian is supposed to trust in Jesus, not in their stockpile of canned food, gold coins, and firearms.
You notice that the folks who are convinced that Jesus is returning this Saturday are not making any plans for the future. And other than warning others that the End is near, they’re not doing anything for others—they’re only looking out for themselves. But that’s not consistent with Jesus’s instructions for how we’re supposed to watch for Him. He put it this way:
The coming of the Son of Man can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. When he left home, he gave each of his slaves instructions about the work they were to do, and he told the gatekeeper to watch for his return. You, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know when the Master of the household will return—in the evening, at midnight, before dawn, or at daybreak. Don’t let Him find you sleeping when He arrives without warning. I say to you what I say to everyone: Watch for Him! —Jesus, Mark 13.34-37 NLT
We’re supposed to keep doing as He instructed: Love one another, love our neighbors, love our enemies; encourage one another, teach what He taught, preach good news; heal the sick, feed the hungry, clothe the naked; be Jesus to others in His absence. It’s all practice for how He expects us to reign with Him when He returns. So don’t just drop everything, do nothing, and stare at the sky in expectation: Take advantage of His delay and practice.