What is the Second Coming of Jesus?

A Promise Made by Jesus Himself

The Second Coming of Jesus Christ — his future, personal, physical return to earth — is one of the most consistently taught doctrines in the New Testament. It appears in the Gospels, the letters of Paul, the letter of James, Peter's letters, the letter of John, and the book of Revelation. By some counts, one out of every twenty-five verses in the New Testament references Christ's return. It was not peripheral to the early church's thinking — it was central to it.

Jesus himself promised it in some of the clearest language in the Gospels. In John 14:3, he tells his disciples: "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me." In Matthew 24:30, describing the end of the age: "They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." At his trial, when the high priest asks directly whether he is the Messiah, Jesus replies: "You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Matthew 26:64).

The angels at the Ascension confirm it explicitly: "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" (Acts 1:11). The return is described in the same terms as the departure: personal, visible, bodily.

What the Second Coming Is — and Is Not

Theologian Wayne Grudem, in his widely used Systematic Theology (Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), identifies several characteristics the New Testament consistently attributes to the Second Coming:

It will be personal. The same Jesus who ascended will return — not a spiritual influence, not a symbolic event, not a gradual improvement of society that counts as his "coming." Acts 1:11 is explicit: "this same Jesus." As Grudem writes: "The return of Christ will not be a coming in the hearts of believers, or a coming at death, or a coming in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70... it will be a real, physical, historical event" (Systematic Theology, p. 1091).

It will be visible and public. Matthew 24:27 — "For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." Revelation 1:7 — "Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him." This is not an event that could be missed or disputed. Any claim of a secret return is ruled out by the text.

It will be glorious. The contrast with the first coming is total. Jesus came the first time as a vulnerable infant, in obscurity, to die. He will come the second time in power and great glory (Matthew 24:30), accompanied by angels (Matthew 25:31), with all authority already established.

It will be sudden and unexpected. Matthew 24:36 — "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Matthew 24:44 — "So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." Every confident prediction of the date of Christ's return has been wrong, because the text rules out the possibility of knowing it in advance.

What Will Happen at the Second Coming?

R.C. Sproul — the founder of Ligonier Ministries and one of the most influential Reformed theologians of the 20th century — taught that the Second Coming will involve several simultaneous events. In his Essential Truths of the Christian Faith (Tyndale, 1992), Sproul identifies the return of Christ as inseparably linked to the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, and the renewal of creation:

The resurrection of the dead. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 — "the dead in Christ will rise first." John 5:28–29 — "a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out — those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned." The Second Coming triggers the general resurrection of all the dead, not only believers.

The final judgment. Matthew 25:31–32 — "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." Revelation 20:11–13 describes the great white throne judgment, where the dead are judged according to what they had done. Sproul writes: "There is an inescapable day of reckoning coming for every human being who has ever lived" (Essential Truths, p. 259).

The renewal of all things. 2 Peter 3:10–13 describes the present creation being transformed — "a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells." Revelation 21:5 — "He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!'" N.T. Wright, the New Testament scholar and former Bishop of Durham, has argued extensively in Surprised by Hope (HarperOne, 2008) that the biblical hope is not escape from the physical world but its radical renewal: "The resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven" (p. 293).

How the Early Church Lived in Light of It

The early Christians did not simply believe in the Second Coming as an abstract doctrine. It shaped how they lived. The Aramaic prayer Maranatha — "Come, Lord!" (1 Corinthians 16:22, Revelation 22:20) — was part of early Christian worship. They prayed for Jesus to return. The Apostles' Creed, which dates to at least the second century, concludes: "He will come to judge the living and the dead." The return of Christ was not a peripheral belief — it was creedal.

As GotQuestions.org notes in their article on the Second Coming: "The early church was motivated by the expectation of Christ's return. It kept them from complacency and motivated them to evangelise, to live holy lives, and to care for one another." The "blessed hope" of Titus 2:13 — "the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ" — was meant to be a daily comfort and motivation, not merely a distant theological category.

What Christians Disagree About

While there is broad consensus across all major Christian traditions that Jesus will personally and visibly return, there are significant disagreements about the sequence and details surrounding that return — particularly regarding the millennium (the 1,000-year reign described in Revelation 20) and the rapture (discussed in our article on What is the Rapture?).

Premillennialism holds that Christ will return before a literal 1,000-year reign on earth. Amillennialism — held by much of the Reformed tradition and Roman Catholic Church — sees the millennium as a symbolic description of the current church age, with Christ reigning spiritually through his church until his return. Postmillennialism holds that the gospel will progressively transform the world until Christ returns to a largely Christianised earth.

These are genuine and longstanding disagreements between serious, orthodox Christians. Grudem notes: "The millennial question is one on which Bible-believing Christians have disagreed throughout church history, and it is a question on which a measure of humility and openness to other viewpoints seems appropriate" (Systematic Theology, p. 1109).

Why It Matters Now

The Second Coming is not merely a future event to speculate about. It has immediate ethical and spiritual implications for how Christians live in the present.

2 Peter 3:11–12 draws the connection directly: "Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming." The expectation of Christ's return is meant to produce holy living, not passive waiting.

1 John 3:2–3 adds: "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure." The hope of seeing Christ purifies the person who holds it.

And for those who grieve, 1 Thessalonians 4:18 gives the pastoral purpose of the entire doctrine: "Therefore encourage one another with these words." The Second Coming is not primarily a theological puzzle. It is a pastoral promise — that the one who left will return, that death is not the end, and that the story God began is the story God will finish.

"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." — Acts 1:11 (NIV)

Sources and further reading:

• Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Inter-Varsity Press, 1994) — Chapter 54: "The Return of Christ: When and How?" pp. 1,091–1,116. The standard evangelical systematic theology treatment.
• R.C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith (Tyndale, 1992) — Chapter 66: "The Second Coming." Clear, accessible Reformed treatment.
• N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (HarperOne, 2008) — The fullest scholarly case for the Second Coming as the renewal of creation rather than escape from it.
• GotQuestions.org, "What does the Bible say about the second coming of Jesus Christ?" — Thorough biblical survey with key verses.