By Pr Sam Namatiiti
The world is changing so rapidly that one can hardly know what is happening next.
Therefore, if you and I keenly take time to observe, even just our environment, we are likely to sense that things are not as they were a short while ago.
If someone who died about five years ago or so were to rise again, they would not cope with the speed at which things are changing today.
I believe that the world is in its final days, and so do many Bible believers and teachers.
We are living in the end days. The Bible clearly states that our Lord, Jesus Christ said that once we begin seeing such happenings, as we are seeing these days, it would be wise for us right away to begin looking up to Heaven with anticipation because the Lord may abruptly appear in the sky.
Recently, Rev Simon Peter Emiau, leader of the Evangelical Fellowship of Uganda (EFU), was invited to minister to a group of pastors.
He accepted the invitation and deliberately came with a message to awaken us to the current neglected reality of the imminent second coming of our Lord Jesus. Jesus is coming to receive and take His body, the Church.
In His teaching, while on earth approximately 2023 years ago, The Lord, Jesus Christ said: “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. In my father’s House, are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you so. I am going to prepare a place for you.
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that is where I am; there you may be also” (John14:1-3).
Are you ready?
Rev Emiau titled his message: “The road map of the second coming of Christ”.
He alluded to Zecharia 14:4 which says: “On that day, his feet (Jesus’ feet) will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east.
“And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west; half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south.”
Amid pessimism, gloom, and frustration, there is one hope: the promise of Christ, who said He went to prepare a place for us and would come back again (John 14:3).
The return of Jesus Christ to this earth in glory has been the polestar of the Church through all the centuries.
The Bible is filled with promises of that coming day of glory. John, writing from the Island of Patmos, said in Revelation 1:7.
“Behold, He cometh with clouds, and everyone shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him”.
Jesus told His disciples that there would be signs for which they could watch, but He warned them to be aware of setting dates.
“But about that day or hour, no one knows—not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36).
He also warns in Acts 1:7 that “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His authority.
We are living in exhilarating days. It is as if a drama is about to begin and the stage is being prepared.
The director is positioning all the players and seeing that all is in order before he signals the curtain to be opened.
God is aligning world situations and events to ultimately trigger the series of climaxing in the coming of the Lord.
Those whose hearts have been transformed by Jesus Christ and whose minds have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit will be able to read the signs of that day and warn the people as Noah did.
Jesus’ return from Heaven will be personal, visible, and glorious, a blessed hope for which we should constantly watch and pray (Zechariah 14:4, Acts 1:11, Titus 2:13, Revelation 1:7).
Rapture
Before He establishes His kingdom on earth, Jesus will come for His Church, an event commonly referred to as the “Rapture.”
At that time, the dead in Christ will be raised, and living Christians will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and be with Him forever. (1 Corinthians 15.:51–54; I Thessalonians- 4:14).
In this resurrection, those who have died in Christ will have their redeemed souls and spirits united with a body similar to Christ’s glorified body.
Christians living at the time of this event will not die, but will be changed to be like Christ (1 John 3:2).
After the rapture of the Church, people will be brought before the judgment seat of Christ and He will reward them based on the work they have accomplished (Romans 14:10–12; 2 Corinthians 5:10).
This is not a judgment to determine their salvation but a reward for labor on Christ’s behalf.
The rapture will also inaugurate a period that the Bible characterizes as the “great day of His wrath,” “the great tribulation,” and the “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Revelation 6:1, 7:14, Jeremiah 30:7).
This time of unprecedented difficulty will affect Israel and all nations. Its purpose will be to prepare Israel for her Messiah.
At the end of the tribulation, Jesus Christ will return with the hosts of Heaven as well as the Church to establish the Messianic Kingdom on Earth and His kingdom will last for a thousand years (Revelation 20:2, 4-6).
At this Second Coming, the Antichrist will be cast into the lake of Fire, and Satan will be bound for a thousand years (Revelation 19:20; 20:1-3).
My prayer is that the day of His coming may not fall on us unaware. No one knows that day or the time.
Doubtors of 2nd coming
There are many people today who doubt the Second Coming and it is our responsibility as believers to rectify these doubts, for if left unchecked, seeds of doubt can come to the full fruition of disbelief.
The doubt of the second coming is not merely doubting the coming of the Lord but also doubting the Lord Himself.
Those who doubt it are also skeptical about many other things they cannot imagine.
Here are four ways people doubt the second coming, knowing or unknowingly. According to 2 Peter 3:4–7, here is a fourfold defense against the doubters:
Fools say no God
The Bible says a fool says there is no God (Psalm 14:1, 53:1).
If there is no God, therefore, He cannot and will not come. Such doubt builds false confidence and redirects the attention of people to different centers.
The Gospel that God is coming back to hold everyone and everything accountable is dismissed by the doubt of His existence.
The truth, however, is that God is actively involved. In 2 Peter 3:5-7, Peter reminds us that God was active in the past.
He points to the flood of Noah’s day—God has intervened in the world, and He’s active now as well.
Peter says the world is “stored up” and “kept” by God even now for the day of judgment (Colossians 1:17, Hebrews 1:3).
This means we can never say God is not active in this world or our lives. Neither can we say He is not coming back.
Doubters of the end
According to believers the second coming marks the end of this sinful world and the beginning of a new era. To those who doubt, there is no end.
The reason they install this doubt is because they already doubt that God is beginning.
To them, the world has evolved and was not created, so, since it has no Creator it cannot be ended by one.
To doubt the second coming is not only to doubt that this universe begun and that it will end.
Today, the Gospel is preached throughout the world. More and more people are hearing the good news of God’s work through Christ, and more and more people are responding with repentant faith.
For that to continue, God’s judgment is delayed (Acts 17:30). It is delayed because God is patient.
Failed prophecies
Doubters also front the failed predictions and prophecies of the second coming and the end of the world by many religious leaders and groups as a defense of their doubt.
These failed predictions and prophecies of the second coming by false teachers and preachers have become a reason for the doubters to dismiss the second coming.
When is Soon?
Those who doubt the second coming use the argument of time.
They argue that since they were born, they have heard this ‘Jesus is coming’ message but He has never come.
They scoff at the Word of God by saying that it says ‘soon’ and they ask “When is that soon?”
These doubters subject Jesus’ second coming to their human-made clocks and assume their timing is God’s timing.
They forget that ‘soon’ is no time because God told us that no one knows the time or day but Himself.
They forget that ‘soon’ means that you can die any time and die a non-believer. We are finite, but God is infinite. So, who are we to judge His timing?
