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Could Jesus Return at Any Moment?

by Max Aplin
5/16/2024 / Salvation

The Bible teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth, as many passages make clear. For example, in Acts 1:11 we read that on the day Jesus ascended to heaven, some angels told the 11 remaining apostles:

‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’ (ESV)

So Jesus will come back. But when will this take place? Could he return at any moment, or are there things that still have to happen first?

Things still have to happen before Jesus returns

A good place to start on this topic is in the second chapter of Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. It is worth setting out the first three verses of the chapter in full:

‘1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction . . .’ (ESV)

Verse 1 is clear that Paul is talking about the return of Jesus, and in v. 3 Paul says that his return will not happen until ‘the rebellion’ occurs and ‘the man of lawlessness is revealed’.

Importantly, there is no good reason for thinking that these things have happened yet. The rebellion, which must be some sort of specific rebellion against God, has apparently not yet taken place. And the man of lawlessness, sometimes referred to as ‘the antichrist’, is apparently a literal man who has still to appear on the scene and do his evil thing. (These events are spelled out in a bit more detail in the following verses.)

In seeking to answer the question we are asking in this article, therefore, this means that we can rule out the solution which says that Jesus could return at any moment and that things are as simple as that. The vast majority of Bible-believing Christians agree with this conclusion.

Passages which might seem to suggest that Jesus could return at any moment

What makes this issue a bit more complicated is that there are biblical passages which seem at first sight to suggest that Jesus could return at any moment.

Matthew 24:37-44 provides a good example of this, and, again, it is worth setting out the passage in full:

‘37 As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. 38 For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark. 39 They didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away. This is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding grain with a hand mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore be alert, since you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this: If the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into. 44 This is why you are also to be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’ (CSB)

This passage tells us repeatedly that Jesus will return. And in verses 42 and 44 the disciples are told that they need to be alert and ready for this.

At first sight, the instructions here to be alert and ready for Jesus’ return seem to suggest that he could return at any moment. So at first glance, this seems to contradict passages like 2 Thess 2:1-3 that we looked at above.

We have a bit of work to do, then, figuring out what is going on with all this, because obviously the Bible isn’t going to contradict itself on this issue.

The dispensationalist solution

Christians who accept what is known as dispensational theology have come up with a novel solution to this conundrum, which is to say that Jesus will return twice – once to the air above the earth and then 7 years later to the earth itself. They say that Jesus could return at any moment to the air above the earth, at which time the church will be caught up to meet him in the air (1 Thess 4:14-17), and then 7 years later he will return again and actually set foot on the earth.

In dispensational thinking, passages like Matt 24:37-44 and 1 Thess 4:14-17 are referring to Jesus’ first return, to the air above the earth, and passages like 2 Thess 2:1-3 are referring to his second return, when he sets foot on the earth.

Although this is a popular view today, no or almost no Christians believed this before the 1830s. Like the vast majority of believers down through the centuries, I am convinced that Jesus will return only once. Together with a large majority of Christians, I am sure that on the day Jesus returns, believers will be caught up to meet him in the air and then on the same day he and we will set foot on the earth.

Thinking more carefully about the passages which seem to suggest that Jesus could return at any moment

In this article I am not planning to give a long defence of the view that Jesus will return once. Rather, I want to focus on what is probably the main argument used by dispensationalists to support their idea that Jesus will return twice, which is the existence of passages that seem to teach that he could return at any moment.

Let’s think about this issue more carefully, using Matt 24:37-44 that I quoted above. And in this section let’s look at things from the point of view of dispensationalist theology, with its idea that Jesus will return twice, once to the air above the earth and then 7 years later to the earth proper.

What I want to show is that, even according to dispensational ideas, it is not possible to say that Jesus could have returned at any moment to the air above the earth until decades after he first spoke the words in this passage.

The teaching in this passage is given to Jesus’ disciples (Matt 24:3), which certainly includes the 12 apostles. As I have noted, Jesus tells his disciples to be alert for his coming (v. 42) and ready for his coming (v. 44).

At first sight, these commands look as if they were applicable from the moment Jesus spoke them. See how he says ‘be alert’ for the Lord’s coming, not ‘a time will come in the future when you will need to be alert’ for the Lord’s coming. And note how he says ‘you are also to be ready’ for Jesus’ return, not ‘a time will come in the future when you will need to be ready’ for his return.

However, these commands cannot possibly have been applicable from the time Jesus spoke these words. His return was clearly not possible before he had even left! He needed to complete his earthly teaching ministry, die, rise from the dead and ascend to heaven first. So although at first glance Jesus seems in these verses to be referring to something that could have happened at any moment from the time he spoke these words, this cannot have been the case, as even dispensationalists have to agree.

But what about when Jesus had ascended to heaven? Could Jesus have returned to the air above the earth at any moment after that point?

No! Another 10 days were needed until the Holy Spirit was given on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4), as even dispensationalists have to agree.

OK, but once the Spirit had been given on the Day of Pentecost, surely the point was reached when Jesus could return at any moment to the air above the earth, wasn’t it?

Again, no! In John 21:18-19 Jesus prophesies that Peter will grow old and be martyred, and there are very good reasons for believing that this happened in the 60s of the first century. So even after the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost, which took place at some time between 30 AD and 33 AD, at least another three decades or so were needed before it would be possible for Jesus to return at any moment to the air above the earth.

And dispensationalists, if they are consistent with what else they believe, have to agree with this. Dispensationalists claim that when Jesus returns for the first time, to the air above the earth, the Christians on earth at that time will be caught up to meet him and then taken away to heaven. Before he died, Peter was obviously a Christian on earth. So, if Jesus had returned while Peter was still on earth, he would have been caught up to heaven and the prophecy of his martyrdom would never have been fulfilled. Therefore, even according to dispensational ideas, the Christians on earth couldn’t have been caught up to meet Jesus in the air until Jesus’ prophecy of Peter’s martyr death had been fulfilled sometime in the 60s of the first century.

My point is that, although in Matt 24:37-44, and other similar passages, Jesus seems at first sight to be saying that his return could happen at any moment, that wasn’t actually the case. In reality, there needed to be a delay of no less than some decades before he could return even to the air above the earth, as even dispensationalists have to agree.

Of course, I don’t agree with dispensationalists that there will be two returns of Jesus, first to the air above the earth and then 7 years later to the earth itself. But my point is that even if we were to think that Jesus will return twice, his first return wouldn’t have been possible until decades after Jesus spoke the words of Matt 24:37-44 and other similar prophecies.

A crucial point to consider

So there were at least some decades after Jesus spoke the prophecy in Matt 24:37-44 (and similar passages) before the return he was referring to in this passage could have happened. But crucially, why do we have to say that the point has been reached even today when it could happen at any moment? I would suggest that it hasn’t. There are still things that need to happen before the return of Jesus referred to in this passage can happen, including the rebellion and revelation of the man of lawlessness that we read about in 2 Thess 2.

Many dispensationalists criticise other Christians for supposedly not taking seriously enough the passages which seem to teach that Jesus could return at any moment. But what they often fail to recognise is that they themselves have to allow for a delay of some decades between the giving of the prophecies and their fulfillment. And if there has to be a delay of decades, then why could the delay not be as long as centuries, even up to the present day?

To put it another way, the approach of dispensationalists to the passages which seem at first sight to suggest that Jesus could return at any moment is far too simplistic. They often look at these passages and just assume that these passages must be saying that today Jesus could return at any moment. But this is an unwarranted assumption. And if there is no good reason for thinking that today Jesus could return at any moment, this means there is no good reason for thinking that Jesus will return twice.

What is the point of these passages?

As we have seen, passages in the New Testament which seem at first sight to suggest that Jesus could return at any moment actually need to be qualified to some extent.

But this raises a question. What should we make of these passages? If they don’t actually teach that Jesus could return at any moment, what do they teach and what is their purpose?

There are a few points to make here:

(1) Even though at the present time there are still things that need to happen before Jesus returns, it is quite possible that end-times events could unfold very rapidly. So even though he couldn’t return today, he could return very soon. Exhortations to be watchful for his return are therefore still highly relevant.

(2) I think exhortations to be watchful for Jesus’ return actually encourage people to get ready for their deaths.

Each human being could die at any moment, and in terms of what the end result will be, death has the same outcome as Jesus’ return. When he returns, those on earth who are saved will then spend eternity with him and those who are unsaved will be expelled from his presence. Likewise, when people die, the saved will spend eternity with him and the unsaved will be expelled from his presence.

Exhortations to get ready for Jesus’ return, and therefore to be ready to meet him, remind us that we will also need to be ready to meet him if we die. These exhortations therefore encourage people to think about the need to be ready to meet Jesus, whether or not we do this by dying or by being on earth when he returns.

(3) A time will obviously be reached at some point in the future when all conditions for Jesus’ return have been met and he really could appear at any moment. So these passages will take on a special relevance at that time.