Jesus Is Coming Back to the Earth
If your church has been telling you that your objective as a Christian, your goal, is “heaven,” I believe they have been making the Bible a confusing book for you! If at funerals they have been dispatching the dead to heaven, alive and glorified, they have been offering you a pagan, philosophical concept, not the teaching of Jesus.
The fact is that the Bible says nothing about going to heaven as a “soul” when you die. Nothing at all. What Jesus and the Bible do teach is that everyone who dies as a successful Christian will be brought back to life again at what is called the resurrection. And that resurrection is going to happen when Jesus comes back to begin his new government or Kingdom on earth. You can establish this simple system and program once and for all by reading I Corinthians 15:22-28. Paul is here discussing the sequence of events in regard to the resurrection. Only one person has been already resurrected, brought back from death to permanent life. That is Jesus. The Christians of all the ages will be resurrected at Jesus’ future coming. Here are Paul’s words: “In Christ all will be made alive, but each one in proper order: Christ the first fruits; then, at his [second] coming, those who belong to Christ” (1 Cor. 15:22, 23).
The plan for resurrection is not complex: Those who are Christians will be raised to life, resurrected, at the coming of Jesus.
I think you will not find it hard to understand that it is fearfully confusing to point you in one direction, “heaven at death,” when the Bible points you in a completely different direction. We all know how devastatingly frustrating it is to be told that a certain event is going to happen at a particular place and time, when that event is to be held at a different time and at a different place. While Jesus points you towards the Kingdom of God to be established on earth when he comes back, the church has been promising you a place in “heaven” the moment you die. The place is wrong. You are not going to heaven. The timing is wrong. You are not going anywhere, alive, the moment you die. You are going to be asleep in the grave for however much time elapses between your death and the future arrival of Jesus to bring in the Kingdom on earth.
This is the biblical program from start to finish. This is the framework of the whole Bible story, the outline of God’s great Plan. You are alive now. If you are a true believer when you die, you will “go to sleep” in death and rest in the grave until Jesus comes back. The R.I.P statement is correct. The dead are “resting in peace.” When Jesus comes back he will bring all the faithful dead out of their graves, making them alive again and giving them immortality and a place in his royal government — the Kingdom of God, the subject of his Gospel.
This is essentially a simple and comprehensible story. It is confirmed throughout the Bible. Try reading the New Testament with this “model” in mind and see if it does not make perfect sense. I believe that all the New Testament writers shared this straightforward account of God’s immortality program.
When Job asked the great question about “life after death,” he said: “If a person dies, will he live again?” Notice he did not say, “If a person dies, will he go on living?” That is quite a different question. Job did not expect to go on living after he was dead. This would be a confusing contradiction. A person who is continuing to live does not have to be “made alive” at the resurrection (I Cor. 15:22). But the Bible teaches that the dead are to remain dead until they are made alive at the resurrection which Jesus will bring about when he returns. This is a simple and coherent program of events. We all need to live in the certain knowledge that this is what God intends to do, using Jesus as His human agent.
“The dead know nothing at all,” says Scripture (Ecc. 9:5). “The dead Lazarus is asleep and I am going to wake him up and call him out of his tomb,” says Jesus (John 11:11, 14). But churches have demonstrated their impatience with Jesus and his viewpoint. They have wanted to “jump the gun” and promise their adherents an immediate conscious presence in heaven the moment they die and not a moment later!
The survival of an “immortal soul” is not a biblical teaching at all, but rather an import from pagan philosophy. Paul warned against philosophy in Colossians 2:8: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy.”
You can see what happens when the Bible’s hope is replaced with a non-hope invented by church tradition. If we are to go to conscious glory the moment we die, what possible sense is there in Jesus coming back to restore the dead to life? And what need is there for a Kingdom following that resurrection? Resurrection means “standing up again from the condition of death.” Why would we need to come back to life if we are already alive before that time? It makes no sense at all. ...
The most spectacular event of the whole of human history will be the Second Coming of Jesus. Jesus was here once. He was born the Son of God, by a miraculous generation and conception in Mary. He died in his thirties. He now sits with God in heaven (the only one who has gone to heaven). Jesus is now immortal, the pioneer and forerunner of the whole of God’s immortality program. Jesus is waiting now at the right hand of God, a position of supreme authority next to God, until he is given the signal to leave heaven and return to the earth. Angels said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven.”
And when he comes he is going to bring the faithful dead back to life, back to life from death. They are going to live again, and when they do, for them it will seem as if no time has passed since they closed their eyes in death. Together with the Christians who survive until Jesus comes the resurrected Christians will be united with Jesus forever and they will take part in restoring sanity to our shattered world.
I Thessalonians gives us one of Paul’s clearest descriptions of the future return of Jesus to raise the Christians who will have died before then: “And now, brothers and sisters, I want you to know what will happen to the Christians who have died so you will not be full of sorrow like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus comes, God will bring back [“bring to life,” NEB] with Jesus all the Christians who have died. I can tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet him ahead of those who are in their graves. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. So comfort and encourage each other with these words” (1 Thess. 4:13-18).
The picture here gives us the following facts. Jesus is going to reappear in the sky and the dead Christians will be resurrected back to life. Together with the Christians still alive they will be caught up (“raptured”) to meet the Lord Jesus in the air and then escort him down to the earth where he will take up his position as rightful ruler of the Kingdom of God.
The popular idea that Jesus will come back secretly seven years before he comes back in power and glory has no foundation in the Bible. It is an invented myth. When Jesus arrives the event will be spectacular and visible. Jesus is returning to the earth. He is certainly not going to snatch the Christians away to heaven! This would not be a second coming at all, but a sort of “drive by.” When someone says that they are going to the store and “will be back in a few moments,” we have no difficulty understanding plain words. Nor should we have any problem with Jesus’ promise that he is going to come back to the earth and reside here. If he does not, then there will be no real second coming and no Kingdom on the earth with Jesus as King in Jerusalem.
I am sure you can see how important it is to know that the dead Christians are not now alive! If we know that the dead are presently unconscious, in their graves, peacefully “asleep,” we immediately concentrate our attention on the future wonderful moment when Jesus reappears in the sky and comes down to the earth. And once we concentrate on that mighty event, we immediately center our entire interest on the Kingdom of God which is going to begin on earth worldwide when Jesus comes back.
“Going to heaven when we die” is simply a clever diversion, which confuses and distracts us from the biblical story and Jesus’ Good News about the Kingdom. “Heaven at death” makes intelligent Bible reading almost impossible because our church story is not the story of the Bible. There are two incompatible stories, which cannot be harmonized. The whole great Kingdom plan becomes a huge muddle in the minds of churchgoers, once the ultimate goal, the Kingdom at Jesus’ return, is abandoned in favor of a “comforting” promise that our souls are with Jesus long before the Kingdom comes.
Paul gave a strong warning against any who taught that one can be alive before the resurrection. He even named two men: “Their teaching will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are an example of this. They have wandered away from the truth by saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they have overthrown the faith of some” (2 Tim. 2:17, 18).
Churches have proposed a similar mistake, by claiming that the dead are alive before the future resurrection.
But it is cold comfort to offer someone a hope which is not in the Bible. The hope of going to heaven is absent from Scripture. It is a later invention of man and of churches. The church’s story contains a dreadful dislocation of the Bible’s story. Jesus had learned the Bible story very well. He looked forward to the Kingdom of God, of which he is to be the King, when he comes back. At that moment of future arrival in triumph, Jesus will call back to life all those who have died following him. It will be one huge collective return to life, every one of the believers together in one mass. Not individual departures of “souls” to heaven, but a collective coming back to life of all the faithful at one wonderful moment.
Try reading the Bible and especially the New Testament with that sequence of events in mind. See how beautifully it will fit and how it will make sense of the whole Bible story from Genesis to Revelation. In this way you will be grasping the Christian hope and believing the Gospel about the Kingdom which “God promised to those who love him” (James 2:5).
When Jesus comes back to raise the dead and reward them for their service in his Kingdom Gospel mission, the world will gradually experience a wonderful restoration. A major factor in that new age coming is that Satan, who is currently deceiving the whole world, will be put out of commission. At the arrival of Jesus to rule in his Kingdom an angel will arrest the Devil, bind him and imprison him for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3).
At that time the faithful will begin to reign with the Messiah on a renewed earth. Here is one of the clearest and most important Bible verses outlining God’s great Plan for you and for the world: “They sang a new hymn: ‘Worthy are you [Jesus] to receive the scroll and to break open its seals, for you were slain and with your blood you purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue, people and nation. You have made them to be a Kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth” (Rev. 5:9, 10).
The event of the Second Coming means a severe judgment on those who have refused to take part in God’s immortality program through Jesus’ Gospel of the Kingdom. I advise you to consult the amazing words of the great prophet Isaiah. In his Kingdom vision he saw what God intends to do to our present evil governments and people. Let me rehearse these words for you. You have here an advance picture of the state of affairs which accompanies the future intervention of Jesus at his second coming:
“Look! YAHWEH is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland. See how He is scattering the people over the face of the earth. Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors — none will be spared. The earth will be completely emptied and looted. YAHWEH has spoken! The earth dries up, the crops wither, the skies refuse to rain. The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted the instructions of God, violated His laws, and broken His everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse consumes the earth and its people.
“They are left desolate, destroyed by fire. Few will be left alive. All the joys of life will be gone. The grape harvest will fail, and there will be no wine. The merrymakers will sigh and mourn. The clash of tambourines will be stilled; the happy cries of celebration will be heard no more. The melodious chords of the harp will be silent. Gone are the joys of wine and song; strong drink now turns bitter in the mouth. The city writhes in chaos; every home is locked to keep out looters. Mobs gather in the streets, crying out for wine. Joy has reached its lowest ebb. Gladness has been banished from the land. The city is left in ruins, with its gates battered down.
“Throughout the earth the story is the same — like the stray olives left on the tree or the few grapes left on the vine after harvest, only a remnant is left. But all who are left will shout and sing for joy. Those in the west will praise YAHWEH’s majesty. In eastern lands, give glory to YAHWEH. In the coastlands of the sea, praise the name of YAHWEH, the God of Israel. Listen to them as they sing to YAHWEH from the ends of the earth. Hear them singing praises to the Righteous One! But my heart is heavy with grief. I am discouraged, for evil still prevails, and treachery is everywhere. Terror and traps and snares will be your lot, you people of the earth.
“Those who flee in terror will fall into a trap, and those who escape the trap will step into a snare. Destruction falls on you from the heavens. The world is shaken beneath you. The earth has broken down and has utterly collapsed. Everything is lost, abandoned, and confused. The earth staggers like a drunkard. It trembles like a tent in a storm. It falls and will not rise again, for its sins are very great. In that day YAHWEH will punish the fallen angels in the heavens and the proud rulers of the nations on earth. They will be rounded up and put in prison until they are tried and condemned. “Then YAHWEH Almighty will mount His throne on Mount Zion. He will rule gloriously in Jerusalem, in the sight of all the leaders of His people. There will be such glory that the brightness of the sun and moon will seem to fade away” (Isa. 24:1-23).
This is a vivid picture straight from the pen of one of the great Bible prophets, Isaiah. You will see that he describes a calamity and catastrophe of which we have seen the like in our days. We all know about the destructive tsunami and the terrifying hurricanes which destroyed so many people, so much property. ... The Second Coming of Jesus is compared in the prophets to an earthquake and a powerful storm. We are meant to learn from what we are now seeing: that God can and will express His displeasure at sin and bring us to our knees. He will do this deliberately on what is called the Day of the Lord. A vast depopulation of the world will occur. This is the future and final intervention of God when He sends His beloved Son back to earth. That day is described in the long passage we just cited above. There will be international confusion, destruction and despair. It will affect all types of people.
But note the piece of positive news. “A few persons will be left,” when the Day of the Lord is over. Isaiah 24:6 says this expressly. Please take careful note of the fact that not every human person will be wiped out. That would leave the world vacant and there is actually a large denomination which has misleadingly taught that not a single person will be left alive on earth. That is plainly not true. There is an exact parallel here with the flood of Noah’s time. A tiny fraction of the human population emerged unscathed from the protective ark. Noah and his wife and three sons and their wives escaped death at that time. The rest of mankind was drowned in a colossal judgment event, which Jesus said is parallel and similar to his own coming. Listen to the words of Jesus: “As in a thunderstorm the bright light coming from the east is seen even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man” (Matt. 24:27).
That is the good news. But what about the bad news which precedes it? Jesus said: “In those days before the Flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the Flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes. Two men will be working together in the field; one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill; one will be taken, the other left. So be prepared, because you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. Know this: A homeowner who knew exactly when a burglar was coming would stay alert and not permit the house to be broken into. You also must be ready all the time. For the Son of Man will come when least expected” (Matt. 24:37-44).
Paul’s most vivid and powerful description of the Second Coming of Jesus is found in II Thessalonians 1:7, 8: “God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
I think you are getting the picture of the future clear. First the bad times, the destruction of the careless and unprepared, then the survival of a few, and then the Kingdom of God which will reconstruct humanity beginning with the surviving remnant.
Remember that your part in this process is to prepare in advance for the Kingdom, to escape the judgment (not by being taken to heaven!) and then to gain immortality and rule with Jesus in the Kingdom he is going to put in place when he comes.
The above was taken from
chapter 3 of The Aims and Claims of Jesus: What you Didn’t Learn in Church
from
Focus On The Kingdom Vol. 8. No. 3
Some editing has been done e.g. replaced "The LORD" with "YAHWEH"
