The Second Coming - 7
The Judge is at the Door
One of the frequently asked questions regarding the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is “Will the church go through the Great Tribulation?” This is not the same as asking ‘Will the church see no suffering?’ Jesus, the master of understatement, promised, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16 verse 33). Today in many parts of our world the church is suffering acutely. But will the church in the last days go through the Great Tribulation? I don’t believe she will, because the rapture – the snatching up of the caught away ones – precedes the Great Tribulation. Jesus ‘rescues us from the coming wrath’ (1 Thessalonians 1 verse 10). Churches are mentioned in Revelation chapters 1 to 3 and the refrain is “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (chapter 2 verse 7). Then the church disappears and is mentioned no more. In Revelation chapter 4 heaven is empty, but in chapter 5 heaven is full.
Another frequently asked question is “Will people be saved during the Great Tribulation?” Certainly! The rapture of the church will trigger off a wave of mass evangelism for people will say, “This is that which our Christian friends who’ve disappeared kept telling us about.” Suddenly the church moves out, when the trumpet is blown, and the born again are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Then the clock starts ticking for Daniel’s seventieth week, the seven years of Jacob’s trouble. Israel becomes God’s witness again. The Holy Spirit will be present in the world as in Old Testament times when He clothed and empowered certain people. 144,000 Messianic Jews are sealed as His witnesses (see Revelation chapters 7 and 14). Still the gospel net will be flung out far and wide to catch men, but then it will be a race against time. The countdown is on and only seven years remain until the bodily return of Christ Jesus to planet earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
God is righteous and His judgements are righteous. At the second coming He comes to punish wickedness. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 tells us what will happen when ‘the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power on the day He comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marvelled at among all those who have believed’ (verses 7 to 10).
Some people say, “I don’t like messages on judgement, sin and hell.” We’re not meant to like them, but to take heed of them and run to Jesus who alone can save us from the wrath to come. As Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Just as a physician cannot love health without hating disease and dealing with it, so God cannot love righteousness without hating sin and judging it.”
As James, the Lord’s half-brother, writes, “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming … stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near … The Judge is standing at the door!” (chapter 5 verses 7 to 9).
A holy God cannot leave sin unjudged. When God says, regarding His wrath, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay” (Romans 12 verse 19) He isn’t pretending. We read in Isaiah’s last chapter, “See, the Lord is coming with fire, and His chariots are like a whirlwind; He will bring down His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with His sword the Lord will execute judgement upon all men, and many will be those slain by the Lord” (chapter 66 verses 15 and 16). However much we may wish these verses were not in the Bible, they remain in God’s word.
The world is coming to an end, but that end is personal rather that impersonal. In fact the end is a person. Jesus is the end. As David Pawson has written, “Christians are really the only ones who are longing for ‘the end’ to come, every generation hoping that this will happen during their lifetime.” They are eagerly awaiting Him, the King in His beauty.