Titus 2:12b-13
…live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ…
God alone is judge, and God alone condemns (James 4:12, John 8:15-16, 2 Timothy 2:19b “The Lord knows those who are his.”) and all will stand before Christ in judgment (John 5:22, Acts 17:31, Romans 14:10-12, 2 Corinthians 5:10, 1 Peter 4:5)
The question we will be asked at the moment of our death is "Do you know God as Father, have you surrendered to the Risen Christ as both Lord and Savior and know Him as Friend and Brother, have you been born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, and what did you do about it?" (Matthew 25:35-40, James 2:17, 1 John 3:18)
“Or did you reject the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins and the free offer of salvation?” (Matthew 23:37, John 5:40, 12:37)
What can we KNOW from Scripture regarding the Second Coming?
We KNOW that at the moment of death the soul/spirit of the saved/elect go to heaven; the lost go immediately to Gehenna, a place of punishment, eternally separated from God (Luke 16 Lazarus narrative and the words of Jesus to the thief on the cross Luke 23:43).
We KNOW Jesus is coming back (Hebrews 9:28, 2 Peter 3:1-13) with a judgment of those living; the saved to eternal life and the lost to eternal punishment (Matthew 13:40-42, 49-50, 25:46).
Luke 9:26, Mark 8:38
For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
We KNOW there will then be a (General) resurrection of the bodies of the saved who have died, with new “imperishable” bodies (1 Corinthians 15)
1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 (NIV)
The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
The Judgment Seat of Christ (Bema/tribunal) (Romans 14:10-11 & 2 Cor. 5:10) will be a place of reward for the saved, and the reward will be proportional. (James 1:12, 1 Peter 5:4, Revelation 3:11)
We KNOW there will also be resurrection of the lost, judgment before the Great White Throne, and eternal punishment.
We’re not sure when the Great White Throne judgment occurs. I favor at the Second Coming (Matthew 25:31-34), but it may be after the millennium (Revelation 20:11-15).
John 5:28-29
Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.
Acts 24:15b
…there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.
We also KNOW that punishment in hell will be proportional (Matthew 10:15, Matthew 23, Luke 12:48, 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9) and that God is just. (Psalm 9:8, Job 34:12, 1 Peter 1:17)
If God wanted us to understand that principle fully, the Holy Spirit would have made it clear in Scripture. He did not.
What Am I To Do With These Truths?
C.H. Spurgeon
Matthew 24:44 "For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will."
This is our glorious hope, for we shall share His joy. Today we are in our concealment and humiliation, even as He was while here below; but when He cometh it will be our manifestation, even as it will be His revelation. Dead saints shall live at His appearing. The slandered and despised shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Then shall the saints appear as kings and priests, and the days of their mourning shall be ended. The long rest and inconceivable splendor of the millennial reign will be an abundant recompense for the ages of witnessing and warring.
On Philippians 3:21
But our Savior, the LORD Jesus, shall change all this. We shall be fashioned like His own body of glory. This will take place in all who believe in Jesus. By faith their souls have been transformed, and their bodies will undergo such a renewal as shall fit them for their regenerated spirits. How soon this grand transformation will happen we cannot tell; but the thought of it should help us to bear the trials of today and all the woes of the flesh. In a little while we shall be as Jesus now is. No more aching brows, no more swollen limbs, no more dim eyes, no more fainting hearts. The old man shall be no more a bundle of infirmities, nor the sick man a mass of agony. "Like unto his glorious body." What an expression! Even our flesh shall rest in hope of such a resurrection!
C.H. Spurgeon Sermons on the Second Coming
G. Campbell Morgan
To me the second coming is the perpetual light on the path which makes the present bearable. I never lay my head on the pillow without thinking that perhaps before the morning breaks, the final morning may have dawned. I never begin my work without thinking that He may interrupt my work and begin His own. This is now His word to all believing souls, 'Till I come.'
"The Second Advent" on Hebrews 9:28 "Christ...shall appear a second time..."
Think what it would mean if the whole Church still lifted her face toward the East and waited for the morning, waited as the Lord would have her wait - not star-gazing and almanac examining, but, with loins girt for service and lamps burning, waiting as she serves. If the whole Christian Church were so waiting she would cast off her worldliness and infidelity and all other things which hinder her march to conquest. It is because we have lost the bloom of hope that our songs are so poor. If we may but hear again the promises of the New Testament, the assurances of the Word that He Who came is coming, then there will be strength in service and new fortitude for suffering, and new hope for all the world in its sin and its sorrow and its sighing.
George Muller The Second Coming of Christ
A.W. Tozer
The Knowledge of the Holy
We know that God will fulfill every promise made to the prophets; we know that sinners will some day be cleansed out of the earth; we know that a ransomed company will enter into the joy of God and that the righteous will shine forth in the kingdom of their Father; we know that God's perfections will yet receive universal acclamation, that all created intelligences will own Jesus Christ Lord to the glory of God the Father, that the present imperfect order will be done away, and a new heaven and a new earth be established forever.
Whatever Happened to Worship?
I have read that John Wesley was asked at one time how he would react if he knew that Christ was coming that very night. His instant reply was ‘I don’t think I would change any of my plans.’
C.S. Lewis The World's Last Night
https://archive.org/stream/worldslastnighta012859mbp#page/n9/mode/2up
The doctrine of the Second Coming has failed, so far as we are concerned, if it does not make us realize that at every moment of every year in our lives Donne's question "What if this present were the world's last night?" is equally relevant. ("Holy Sonnets" XIII)
J.C. Ryle
Practical Religion, 1878
https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/ryle/Practical%20Religion%20-Ryle.pdf
The Creed which we repeat and profess to believe, continually declare that Christ is coming again. The early Christians made it a part of their religion to look for His return. Backward they looked to the cross and the atonement for sin, and rejoiced in Christ crucified. Upward they looked to Christ at the right hand of God, and rejoiced in Christ interceding. Forward they looked to the promised return of their Master, and rejoiced in the thought that they would see Him again. And we ought to do the same.
“The Great Gathering”
https://www.gracegems.org/Ryle/great_gathering.htm
Visibly, in the body, (Christ) will return. And the very first thing that Christ will do will be to "gather" His people. "He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other." (Matthew 24:31) The manner of this "gathering" is plainly revealed in Scripture. The dead saints will all be raised, and the living saints will all be changed. It is written, "The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them." "The dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." "We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." (Revelation 20:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17; 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52)
Old Paths "The Heart"
Let me entreat all right-hearted readers to look onward and forward to the day of Christ’s second coming. A time draws near when Satan shall be bound, and Christ’s saints shall be changed –when sin shall no more vex us, and the sight of sinners shall no more sadden our minds–when believers shall at length attend on God without distraction, and love Him with a perfect heart. For that day let us wait, and watch, and pray. It cannot be very far off. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Surely if our hearts are right, we ought often to cry, "Come quickly–come Lord Jesus!"
Coming Events and Present Duties
Charles Wesley, “Our Lord, Come Quickly!”
Lo, He comes with clouds descending
Once for favored sinners slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending
Swell the triumph of His train:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
God appears on earth to reign.
Now redemption, long expected,
comes in solemn splendor near;
all the saints this world rejected
thrill the trumpet sound to hear:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
See the day of God appear!
Those dear tokens of his passion
still his dazzling body bears,
cause of endless exultation
to his ransomed worshipers;
with what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture
gaze we on those glorious scars!
Yea, amen! let all adore thee,
high on thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the power and glory,
claim the kingdom as thine own:
O come quickly! O come quickly! O come quickly!
Thou shalt reign, and thou alone.
Octavius Winslow Daily Walking With God
"What is the nature of Christ’s blessing before His ascension in Luke 24:50?"
The richer anointing of the Spirit to fit us for our work;
A larger measure of grace to shield us in temptation, and to uphold us in trial;
Increased light in the understanding of the spiritual nature of His kingdom, and the meaning of the Holy Scriptures of truth;
A deeper discovery of His own pardoning love, a fuller assurance of our personal acceptance in Himself, and a richer bestowment of the “peace of God, which passes all understanding.” (Philippians 4:6)
A sure confidence in His promise to return. (Acts 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 4:15)
"Glorious Day"