The New Testament's Teaching of a Very Near Second Coming
Looking at the New Testament (hereafter denoted as NT), Jesus in c. AD 30 said that the generation that was listening to Him would not pass away before His Second Coming took place (Matt. 24:33-34; Mark 13:29-30; Luke 21:31-32), a biblical generation being approximately forty years (Num. 32:13). Paralleling this, Jesus said that some of His listeners would still be alive to witness His Second Coming.
For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Matt. 16:27-28 cf. Rev. 22:10-12
Jesus held out the possibility that John would still be alive when He returned (John 21:18-23). Jesus told His disciples that they would “not have gone through cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes” (Matt. 10:23). He told them that as long as He was in the world He was the light of the world, and that when He was taken out of the world it would be night (John 9:4-5). Alluding to this, Paul, in his letter to the Romans (c. AD 58), declared that “the night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Rom. 13:11-12), meaning that the time of Jesus’ return was drawing near (cf. Rom. 16:20).
Paul told the Corinthians (c. AD 55-56) that the time was short (1 Cor. 7:29), that the end of the ages had come upon them (1 Cor. 10:11). He warned the Philippians (c. AD 58-61) that “the Lord is at hand” (Phil. 4:5). He fully expected that a number of the Thessalonians would remain alive to witness the Second Coming (1 Thess. 4:15). The author of Hebrews (c. AD 67) informed his audience that Jesus would come in “a little while” (Heb. 10:37). He said it was the “last days” (Heb. 1:2) and that the end of the ages had arrived (Heb. 9:26). What had arrived were the last days of the old covenant age.
Moses had prophesied that Israel would break the covenant in the “latter days” and “be devoured” (Deut. 31:16-17, 29). Although the cross made the old covenant obsolete, it would not fully pass away until the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (cf. Dan. 9:24-27). This was when the kingdom would be taken from God’s unfaithful old covenant people and fully given to His new covenant people (Matt. 21:33-45, Dan. 7:21-27; cf. Mark 8:38-9:1).
To say, as many futurists do, that the “last days” have been in existence for almost 2000 years makes absolutely no sense. Consistent with the idea that the last days were happening in the first century, Peter (in the early AD 60s) proclaimed that “the end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7). James, in his epistle (c. AD 48-62), wrote that “the coming of the Lord is at hand. . . . Behold the Judge is standing at the door!” (James 5:8-9). Jude told his readers (c. AD 61-62) that they were living in “the last time” (Jude 18). By the time that John wrote his epistles (c. AD 60-65),9 it was not merely the last days, but rather the last hour. John clearly taught that the Antichrist was about to come: “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18). John then went on to say the spirit of Antichrist was "now already in the world" (1 John 4:3). One can either say John was right or he was mistaken; what one cannot say (at least with intellectual credibility) is that he was talking about someone who would come thousands of years in the future.
At the beginning of the book of Revelation (c. AD 65) John told his first-century audience that the time was near for the fulfillment of the prophecies contained in the book. He said that Revelation concerned “things which must shortly take place,” and that the time was “near” (Rev. 1:1,3). Consistent with this emphasis on immediacy, each of the seven churches of Revelation were told that the events associated with the Second Advent would happen to them, for good or ill.
The church at Ephesus was told that if they did not repent that Jesus would come quickly and remove their lampstand (Rev. 2:5). The church at Smyrna was told that it was about to experience tribulation, a reference to the soon coming great tribulation (Rev. 2:10; cf. 3:10; 7:9-14). The church at Pergamum was told that if they did not repent that Jesus would come quickly and fight against them with the sword of His mouth (Rev. 2:16). This is a reference to the Second Coming, the time when Jesus would come and battle against His enemies (Rev. 19:11-21). The church of Thyatira was told to hold “fast what you have till I come” (Rev. 2:25), another reference to the soon-to-happen parousia.
The church at Sardis was likewise told to hold fast and repent or Jesus would come upon them as a thief (Rev. 3:3), a clear reference to Revelation 16:15, which speaks about the Second Advent: “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garment, lest he walk naked and they see his shame” (cf. Matt 24:42-44). The church at Philadelphia was told that Jesus was coming “quickly,” and if they remained faithful they would be kept from the hour of trial that was about to come on the world (Rev. 3:10-11), a reference to the great tribulation which would immediately precede the Second Advent (cf. Dan. 7:21-22). The church at Laodicea was told that Jesus was standing “at the door” (Rev. 3:20). This “door” is often interpreted as the door of one’s heart, but it is more likely referring to the door of heaven; (Rev. 4:1; cf. James 5:9). God was warning the Laodicean church that the Second Coming was about to occur (cf. Matt 24:33, “When you see all these things, know that it [the Second Coming, v. 30] is near—at the doors!”)
Consistent with the first-century audience of Revelation being told that they would be alive when the parousia occurred, they are also told that they had the ability to calculate the number of the beast (Rev. 13:18). This is a reference to the soon-coming Antichrist, a first-century figure (cf. 1 John 4:3), not someone who would arrive on-scene thousands of years in the future (I will be naming my candidate in my book; for now let me just say that he is not Nero). That the beast was a contemporary of the recipients of Revelation is another indicator that the Second Coming was about to happen. All that was standing between the seven churches to which John was writing and the soon-coming Antichrist was the short reign of one ruler (Rev. 17:10-11). The beast was about to come when Revelation was written:
The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come. Rev. 17:8 NASB
If the beast was about to come, then the Second Advent (when he is defeated, Rev. 19:11-21) was about to happen.
At the end of Revelation, John again reminds his audience that the things in it were to happen shortly (Rev. 22:6-7). It is important to note that this included the prophecies of Revelation, not just the events of the first three chapters: “And he said to me, ‘Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand’” (Rev. 22:10). The prophecies of the end of the old covenant age that were in the distant future when Daniel wrote (cf. Dan. 12:9) were now at hand when John wrote. The Second Coming was so close at the time of the writing of Revelation that there was very little time left for a person to change his or her ways. John’s first-century readers were told: “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still. ‘And behold, I am coming quickly and My reward is with Me to give to every one according to his work’” (Rev. 22:11-12). Revelation ends with Jesus saying one more time that He was about to come: “Surely I am coming quickly . . .” (Rev. 22:20).
The New Testament’s expectation of a first-century Second Coming is not just taught by one of its writers. The verses I quoted above are the words of Jesus (as recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke), Peter, Paul, James, John, Jude, and the author of Hebrews. Every writer in the New Testament wrote that Jesus was about to come in their day. As I have said, this time element that speaks of Jesus’ Second Coming as a first-century occurrence is consistently minimized or ignored by conservative Christians. The main reason for this is because it threatens the concept of the inerrancy of Scripture. If the parousia did not happen in the first century (as most Christians assume), then the authors of the NT were wrong for teaching that it was about to happen. To say the biblical authors were wrong in terms of the Second Coming’s timing is to throw the inerrancy of Scripture out the window. One cannot say that the Bible is without error except for its mistaken teaching that the Second Advent was about to happen. If the Bible is wrong on such a key subject, it can not be trusted on anything else.
If you have any questions or comments I can be contacted at Duncan@peoplepc.com
