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| "The Last Judgment" by Michelangelo resides on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. It depicts the Second Coming of Christ and the Apocalypse. |
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The Second Coming Has Been 'Imminent' for 2,000 Years
.
Generations
have believed that the world was ending in their lifetimes and that Christ's
return was therefore imminent. The Second Coming refers to a host of biblical
prophecies foretelling Jesus Christ's triumphant return to Earth to defeat the
forces of evil and establish a 1,000-year reign of peace before the Final
Judgment of all mankind. When Jesus finally returns, according to Revelation,
he and his army of angels will defeat the Antichrist and lock up Satan for
1,000 years. After the Millennium, Satan will be released for one final
fruitless rebellion before the Final Judgment. The biggest sticking point in
Christian eschatology is the timing of the Second Coming. For the past 2,000
years, people have been predicting a date for the end of the world and/or
Christ's return
BY
DAVE ROOS
Among white, evangelical Christians in the
United States, 58 percent believe that Jesus Christ will return to Earth by the
year 2050, according to a 2010 Pew Research survey.
If you think that's a fringe position, Pew
says that 41 percent of all Americans (not just evangelicals) believe that the
Second Coming is not only real, but that it's going to happen by 2050 — in
other words, in their lifetime.
What modern Christians may not know is that
countless other generations have believed that the world was ending in their
lifetimes and that Christ's return was therefore imminent.
Indeed, Matthew 16:28
ends with Jesus saying to his disciples, "There be some standing here,
which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his
kingdom."
(There are differing interpretations on what this passage really means.)
The Second Coming refers to a host of
biblical prophecies foretelling Jesus Christ's triumphant return to Earth to
defeat the forces of evil and establish a 1,000-year reign of peace before the
Final Judgment of all mankind.
The doctrine of the Second Coming forms the
bedrock of Christian eschatology, a word that means the study of the "last
things," otherwise known as the "end times."
While Christians from various denominations
might share a general belief in the Second Coming, there are significant
disagreements over the details, says Richard Kyle, an emeritus professor of
religion at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas, and author of "Apocalyptic
Fever: End-Time Prophecies in Modern America."
"Some would say
that 'spiritually speaking,' Christ has already come," says Kyle.
"Others would
say no, he's going to come physically at a particular point in time. Then there
are differences about when and how and everything in between."
Seven Years of Tribulation, 1,000 Years of
Peace
The book of Revelation in the New Testament
is the main source of prophecies concerning the Second Coming, but it's not the
only apocalyptic text in the Bible (an "apocalypse" is a divinely
revealed vision of things to come).
Jesus and his fellow Jews would have also
been familiar with the book of Daniel, the most apocalyptic text in the Hebrew
Bible (known to Christians as the Old Testament).
The modern Christian conception of the Second
Coming is a combination of snippets from Daniel, Revelation and Jesus' own
prophecies of the last days as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew.
From Daniel, it's understood that the Messiah
will only come after a seven-year period of "tribulation."
In Matthew, Jesus
describes this tumultuous period as being dominated by "wars and rumors
of wars," plus "famines, and pestilences and earthquakes, in divers
(sic) places."
The
"Antichrist" will also make himself known halfway through the period
of tribulation, a false prophet who, according to Jesus, "shall come in
my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."
Attempts to identify the Antichrist have always been a big part of predicting the timing of the Second Coming.
"Anytime you get
a highly undesirable figure in history, obviously the Hitlers and the
Mussolinis, they're at least seen as servants of the Antichrist," says Kyle.
"The Antichrist
is a sneaky guy who comes across as being OK, but halfway through this
seven-year tribulation, he shows his true colors."
When Jesus finally returns, according to
Revelation, he and his army of angels will defeat the Antichrist and lock up
Satan for 1,000 years.
During that 1,000-year period of peace, known
as the Millennium (from the Latin mille for
"thousand"), Christ himself will rule on Earth in the "Golden
Age" of peace and prosperity long awaited by the Jews.
After the Millennium, Satan will be released
for one final fruitless rebellion before the Final Judgment.
Does the Bible Give a Time Frame for the
Second Coming?
The biggest sticking point in Christian
eschatology is the timing of the Second Coming.
Specifically, will Christ return to Earth
before the Millennium or after it?
Those who believe that Jesus will come back
before the Millennium and personally reign over the 1,000 years of peace are
called "premillennialists."
Those who believe Christ will only come back
after his Church has created a Golden Age on Earth are called
"postmillennialists."
In the Bible, when
the Apostles ask about the timing of Christ's return, Jesus famously answers, "No
one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,
but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36).
That hasn't stopped generations of Christians
from guessing, though.
Kyle says that for the first century after
Jesus' crucifixion, resurrection and ascension to heaven, most Christians were
premillennialists who believed that his Second Coming was close at hand.
"They had a hard
time believing they were going to die before Christ's return," says Kyle.
Even as the promised day failed to appear,
early Christian writers like Clement of Rome and Tertullian held to the
premillennial belief that Jesus would return in person to conquer evil and
reign as the prophesied "King of Kings."
Gradually, though, that belief faded and a
new interpretation of the timing of the Second Coming was popularized by the
fourth-century theologian Augustine of Hippo.
In his best-known work, "The City of
God," Augustine argued that the Millennium had already begun
(postmillennialism), or more accurately, says Kyle, that the 1,000-year reign
of Christ was a "spiritual kingdom" rather than a physical kingdom.
Some theologians call Augustine's approach
"amillennialism" because it ditches a literal reading of Revelation,
Daniel and Matthew, and interprets the prophecies as figurative language
describing how Christ works through his Earthly Church to prepare the world for
His triumphant return.
"Through the
Middle Ages, the Church saw itself as fulfilling much of [these millennial
prophecies]," says Kyle.
"The Church was
seen as working out God's will on Earth."
Premillennialism Makes a Big Comeback
Augustine's symbolic reading of the Second
Coming ruled the Church for nearly 1,500 years, but then came a 19th-century
preacher named John Nelson Darby.
The Irish reformer was convinced that the
Church was in ruins and that the end times were upon us.
In his literal reading of the Bible's
apocalyptic texts, Darby found that God's creation was divided into seven
distinct ages or "dispensations," the final one being the Millennium.
Darby taught a fiery premillennial doctrine
that Christ would undoubtedly return in person to vanquish the Antichrist, bind
Satan and reign over his Earthly kingdom for 1,000 years.
But first, the righteous and faithful would
be "caught up" to heaven during the "Rapture," an event
prophesied in the New Testament book of 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.
Darby's creative interpretation of the Second
Coming and end of days became known as "premillennial
dispensationalism" and eventually came to rule the apocalyptic worldview
of evangelical Christianity.
"The Late Great Planet Earth" was a
bestselling book in 1970 that popularized Darby's system for a new generation
of Christians.
The book, written by Hal Lindsey, was one of
the first to link biblical prophecies of the Second Coming explicitly to
current world events like the Cold War and the restoration of the Jewish state
of Israel.
More than 35 million copies of "The Late
Great Planet Earth" have been sold, a strong indication of the ongoing
urgency and resonance of the Second Coming with modern Christians.
The bestselling "Left Behind" series
by Jerry B. Jenkins, which fictionalized the Rapture in our day, is further
proof that the Second Coming is alive and well in the Christian imagination.
NOW THAT'S INTERESTING
For the past 2,000 years, people have been
predicting a date for the end of the world and/or Christ's return (Wikipedia
has a very long list of predictions).
In the 1840s, the Millerites sold their
Earthly possessions ahead of William Miller's chosen date of Oct. 22, 1844.
"Some went so
far as to climb up into trees to be closer to heaven when the Second Coming
came,"
says Kyle.
When the prophecy failed to materialize, Miller's followers continued on as Seventh-Day Adventists.
Dave
Roos
CONTRIBUTING
WRITER
Dave
is a freelance journalist who has contributed hundreds of articles to
HowStuffWorks since 2007, with a specialty in personal finance, economics and
business. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he attended Duke University where
he earned the B.A. in comparative religious studies that has served him so
well.
Dave began freelancing when he and his wife moved to Mexico in 2003, publishing
articles about Mexican food and culture in The New York Times, the Los Angeles
Times and Newsweek. Nearly 15 years and three kids later, Dave and his family
recently moved back to Mexico and just might stay a while.
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