Why Christians Should Not Be Expecting Christ's Second Coming

Christians often say that Jesus could return at any moment. I agree with the “at any moment” part, but the event we are waiting for I believe needs clarification.

There are two main “return of Christ” events laid out in the Bible: Christ’s physical return to earth to reign as king over all, the Day of the Lord; and the great “catching away,” often referred to as the rapture, which not every Christian believes in. But those who do know it to be a separate event that precedes the Second Advent of Christ, where the church is removed from this world.

The catching away is imminent, meaning it could happen at any moment. The Second Advent is not.

We should not be expecting the prophetic Second Advent, when He returns visibly to the earth in judgment to establish His kingdom, to happen any day now. It happens on a very specific day. Scripture places it after the Tribulation, along with key events and signs that must happen first including the abomination of desolation, the reign of the man of sin, and the signs in the heavens:

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light… And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven” — Matthew 24:29-30

The Church today has been given a different hope. We are waiting for Christ to descend from heaven and transform the living saints, and catch us up to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18; 1 Corinthians 15:51–53).

“Descend from heaven sounds a lot like a second coming.” On the surface, perhaps. Let’s walk through it.

For this article, Second Coming means Christ’s prophesied return to the earth at the end of Daniel’s seventieth week. The catching away refers to the mystery revealed through Paul concerning the removal of the Body of Christ.

We are expecting Christ according to the revelation given to us.

God’s Purpose in Heaven and Earth

The distinction begins with the scope of God’s purpose.

Genesis 1:1 opens the Bible with two realms: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Sin and rebellion later entered both. Satan and the spiritual powers corrupted the heavenly places, while mankind’s fall brought sin, death, and disorder into the earth.

God’s purpose in Christ includes both realms. One Savior, two equal, but distinct, purposes.

Paul writes that God will “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are in earth” (Ephesians 1:10). Colossians 1:20 speaks of Christ reconciling all things to Himself, whether in earth or heaven. The Bible is essentially both the story of God’s unfolding plans to reconcile heaven and earth back from its corrupted state, along with instructions for the key agents in each plan. By key agents, I mean the people through whom God elected beforehand to work his plan for both their benefit and the benefit of those around them, including creation itself. For the earth, the key agent was revealed to be Israel, a nation completely created by God; for heaven, the key agent was revealed through revelation given to Paul to be the body of Christ, a new creature distinct from Israel.

Through prophecy, God made known His plan to reclaim the earth through a nation and a kingdom, ruled by a King. Israel was promised tangible, physical things like a land, a throne, national restoration, and blessing among the nations. God told Abraham that “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). He called Israel “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). The prophets described Jerusalem exalted and Messiah reigning in righteousness (Isaiah 2:1–4; Jeremiah 23:5–8).

Israel’s hope was not to leave the earth permanently and inherit a heavenly hope. Their hope was earthly restoration, and life in God’s kingdom on earth under their Messiah. Heaven or paradise (Abraham’s bosom) was but a temporary holding place for faithful Jews awaiting resurrection into an earthly kingdom at the appointed time.

The Body of Christ was not revealed in that prophetic program. Paul describes the Church as blessed “with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3) and seated together there in Him (Ephesians 2:6). Our “conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour” (Philippians 3:20).

Israel’s promised inheritance and the Church’s heavenly position belong to two parts of God’s larger purpose in Christ. I have other writings that go deeper into this framework, which this article will only summarize.

The Second Advent Belongs to Prophecy

Christ’s return to the earth was not hidden from previous generations. The prophets spoke about it repeatedly.

Zechariah described a future day when the nations would gather against Jerusalem. The Lord would go forth and fight against those nations, and “his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives” (Zechariah 14:4). Joel described the Day of the Lord with darkness, judgment, and cosmic signs (Joel 2:1–11, 30–32). Isaiah wrote of the Lord coming to punish the world for its evil (Isaiah 13:9–13). Malachi described the day that would burn as an oven, followed by healing and deliverance for those who feared the Lord’s name (Malachi 4:1–3). These are all pointing towards the same event.

Jesus continued the same line of teaching during His earthly ministry. Matthew 24 records a list of warnings and prophecies from Jesus speaking to his disciples that will precede the visible appearing of the Son of man when he comes “in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). Again, the same event from the prophets.

There is nothing secret about that appearing. It is both a public and catastrophic event, impossible to miss.

Acts 1 also connects Christ’s future return with His departure from the Mount of Olives. The angels told the apostles that Jesus would “so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Revelation 19 later describes heaven opening and Christ descending as a conquering King to judge and make war.

The prophetic Second Advent has a known setting, a specific place that we can pinpoint on the map even today. Mount Zion will be the literal epicenter of this day and the beginning point of the millennial kingdom. The prophets did not know the date, but they revealed the events surrounding it.

The Second Advent was never the mystery revealed to Paul.

Daniel’s Seventieth Week Has Not Been Fulfilled

Daniel 9:24–27 gives the prophetic framework often called the seventy weeks of Daniel. The passage tells us who and what the prophecy concerns:

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city” — Daniel 9:24

Daniel’s people are Israel and his holy city is Jerusalem.

After sixty-nine weeks, Messiah would be cut off. The final week (7 years) would include some type of a covenant made with Israel and then its breaking soon after in the midst of the week (the 3.5 year mark).

Jesus referred to this prophecy when He warned about “the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet” (Matthew 24:15). Many theologians tie this event to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, but that does not line up with prophecy in Scripture. This event is still yet future.

That final week did not reach its prophesied conclusion after the cross. Israel’s kingdom was not established nor did Jerusalem become the capital of Messiah’s government. The nation did not enter the promised New Covenant restoration that Peter was pleading for in Acts 2 and 3. The events Jesus placed before His return did not occur in their full prophetic sequence.

Early Acts still presents Israel with national repentance and refreshing. Peter told the men of Israel to repent so their sins could be blotted out, “when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord,” and so God might send Jesus Christ (Acts 3:19–21). He was speaking the language of Israel’s prophets and promised kingdom.

Israel continued in unbelief and the nation’s fall became the occasion for salvation to go to the Gentiles apart from Israel’s rise (Acts 7; Romans 11:11–15).

God then revealed through Paul “the dispensation of the grace of God” and “the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God” (Ephesians 3:2, 9). Paul preached Jesus Christ “according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began” (Romans 16:25).

The present dispensation is not Daniel’s seventieth week stretched across two thousand years or a spiritual form of Israel’s kingdom. God is forming the Body of Christ by grace, without distinction between Jew and Gentile. When this dispensation is complete, He will resume what He promised to Israel. Daniel’s final week will run its course, the Day of the Lord will come, and Christ will return to the earth as the prophets said.

The Catching Away Was Revealed as a Mystery

Paul revealed something about the Body of Christ that had not been made known before:

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” — 1 Corinthians 15:51

Some believers will never die. The dead in Christ will be raised incorruptible, and living believers will be changed in a moment. Paul gives more detail in 1 Thessalonians 4:

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” — 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

There is that descent again. But don’t confuse this with the prophesied Day of the Lord when Christ will fulfil prophecy by touching down on earth for the second time. Paul was actually trying to clear this up for the Thessalonian church who were mixing doctrines and prophecies meant for Israel in a different dispensation.

Christ descends from heaven, but the passage does not take Him to Jerusalem or the Mount of Olives. Instead, the saints are caught up to meet Him in the air. Paul says nothing about judging the nations or rescuing Jerusalem or the regathering Israel, or establishing a throne—all key events surrounding the Second Advent. The subject is the reunion of Christ with His Body.

This fits the Church’s identity. Our position is in heavenly places. Our citizenship is in heaven. The catching away removes the Body of Christ from the earth before God resumes the program through which He will reclaim the earth.

The word rapture is sometimes mocked because it does not appear in the King James Bible. Neither does the English word Trinity. “Caught up” translates the Greek harpazō, which carries the idea of being seized or snatched away. I prefer the Bible’s language, “the catching away”.

First Thessalonians 4 and 5 Describe Two Different Expectations

The Thessalonians were worried because they had people in their assembly who died, and they feared those saints would miss when Christ came back in the Day of the Lord.

In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul reveals the “catching away” and finishes this section of the letter with a hope and a comfort that comes from this mystery.

“Wherefore comfort one another with these words” — 1 Thessalonians 4:18

He then turns to “the times and the seasons” and the Day of the Lord. That day comes “as a thief in the night.” When they say, “Peace and safety,” sudden destruction comes upon them, “and they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:1–3). He is referring to events and signs of a time stored up for a dispensation not our own. The Thessalonians are worrying about an event that is outside their destiny as the Body of Christ.

Paul addresses these saints differently:

“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” — 1 Thessalonians 5:4

The catching away is comfort for the Body of Christ. The Day of the Lord brings sudden destruction upon the world. Paul does not tell the Thessalonians to prepare for the judgments and wrath of Revelation. He tells them that “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

Second Thessalonians follows the same distinction. Paul speaks of “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him” before correcting their fear that the Day of Christ was already present (2 Thessalonians 2:1–3). They had been shaken because they thought they were inside the prophetic day of judgment (many still carry this fear today and, unfortunately, many of them are “dispensationalists” who err in their doctrine).

The Church is removed before the prophetic program resumes and brings the world to the visible return of Christ. This was the comfort given to the Thessalonians. That Day they were afraid of is not a Day they are appointed to, and neither are we. We take comfort in the Day of Christ, which is our blessed hope, where we are removed from this world to our final destination: heaven.

The catching away of the church will be sudden, and yet will not overtake those in the body of Christ because we are prepared. The Day of the Lord also will not overtake us, because we won’t be around for it. Both Days fit in this passage.

Why This Matters to Your Daily Walk

First, this doctrine frees us from trying to read God’s prophetic calendar in every news cycle. Wars and treaties will wax and wane, new technologies continually develop, and politicians gain and lose power, all part of natural freedom given by God. When these types of events occur, many Christians immediately ask whether prophecy is being fulfilled. That habit places the Body of Christ inside signs given to Israel’s future remnant.

Current events can be serious without being signs for us. Our faith rests in what God revealed, not in deciphering world events to prophetic symbols. We do not need to place ourselves in Matthew 24 in order to walk faithfully today.

Second, it corrects our expectations for life in this world. Israel was promised national restoration and an earthly kingdom. The Body of Christ has not been promised that our nations will become righteous or that Christian faithfulness will result in earthly control. We are ambassadors during the day of grace (2 Corinthians 5:18–21). An ambassador represents his home country while living in another. He does not confuse the embassy with the homeland.

We can labor for what is good, care for our neighbors, raise families, build businesses, and serve our communities without pretending these efforts are the arrival of Christ’s kingdom. Grace teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world (Titus 2:11–12).

Third, the catching away gives us an urgency to minister without panicking. Paul connects resurrection hope with steadfast labor:

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” — 1 Corinthians 15:58

We preach reconciliation because the dispensation of grace is still open. We teach sound doctrine because believers need to grow. We serve the members of Christ’s Body because our labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Fourth, this hope changes how we face death. Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians 4 because believers were grieving over saints who had died. The dead in Christ will rise first. Living believers will not have an advantage over them. We will be gathered together, changed, and forever be with the Lord. That comfort rests on Christ’s completed work alone.

Finally, right division keeps our attention on the instructions God has given us now. Our instructions are to grow up in Christ, understanding the mystery and foundation Paul laid for the church, redeeming the time and making known the gospel of grace (Romans 12:1–2; Ephesians 4:20–32; Colossians 4:5–6). We should not be interpreting signs or looking for prophetic fulfillment today.

Saying that Christians should not expect the Second Coming does not mean Christ will never return to the earth. Every promise concerning His judgment, Israel’s deliverance, and the earthly kingdom will be fulfilled. Right division tells us which promise is ours.

The catching away should turn our eyes upward and put our feet to work. We are not meant to assemble together to endure through the coming trial of fire, awaiting the return of our king to be established as a nation of priests. That will be the hope of the remnant of Israel—the Hebrew assembly spoken to in the book of Hebrews—awaiting the fulfillment of Matthew 24. For us, we look for when Christ will gather His Body that was built during this Dispensation of Grace.

Until then, we have clear instructions and useful work to do.