I have written many times about how mistaken we are if we thought Christians would literally see the bodily return of Christ. This would be impossible.
In my last post I wrote about the error which the famed scholar C S Lewis made. Lewis blatantly said Jesus was mistaken! He said Jesus failed to come back in the End times as he said he would. (See his book “The World’s Last Night”).
Many others, liberal scholars, atheists and Islamic writers have assumed that since Jesus was never seen by human eyes optically, that he never appeared.
Interestingly, Lewis never resorted to twisting Jesus’ words like so many modern teachers and scholars do in claiming that Jesus meant that “this generation” meant some far-in-the-future generation!
Shame on those manipulators of the sacred scriptures!
But why should any human eyes see the Lord who after his ascension and glorification dwells in light at the Father’s right hand? Whose face was like the sun in all its brilliance? Whose eyes were like flames of fire? (Rev 1:14-16).
It is a huge mistake to think you could see Jesus’ coming in His bodily form with human eyes. Paul wrote he “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16).
Jesus warned the disciples that they could be deceived by reports of sightings of his appearance at his coming (Mat 24:23-26; Luke 21:8).
The apostles expected Jesus to return within their lifetimes. Just how they would experience his coming they were not told. There is one exception to this in Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians:
He told them how Jesus would pay them back for their suffering by the apostate Jews. 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, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thes 1:7-8)
The Second Coming is also described in In the Book of Revelation. There we read a vision. Jesus rides a white horse leading an army of angels on horseback on the clouds:
Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress. (Revelation 19:11-15)
We read also that Jesus told the disciples that when they would see Jerusalem surrounded by armies they must all flee from Jerusalem and Judea. “And when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that the time of its destruction has arrived. Then those in Judea must flee to the hills. Those in Jerusalem must get out, and those out in the country should not return to the city. For those will be days of God’s vengeance, and the prophetic words of the Scriptures will be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:20-22)
Now this statement of Jesus has puzzled many people. How can it be that when Jerusalem is completely surrounded, encircled with armies, then the people of God are told to flee the whole area of Judea and Jerusalem? Are they to surrender to the Roman armies? There would no way to escape through the Roman lines and walls the Romans had put up around the city.
But this is not what Jesus meant in his warning. What is the answer?
This prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled exactly in the period just before the war that destroyed Jerusalem. This was from A.D. 67 to 70. How do we know?
We know by reading the eyewitness account of the Jewish historian Josephus. He was the historian who saw or reported all that occurred in Judea within that three-and-a-half year period. This included what which took place in the skies above Jerusalem. Such a sight could not be identified as having its origin on earth.
This was clearly a “sign” from heaven. This was a fulfilment of what Jesus said would occur that is recorded in Luke 21:20. Josephus said this happened just before the war with Romans began:
“On the twenty-first of the month Artemisium [the last day of the 2nd Passover season in A.D. 66], there appeared a miraculous phenomenon, passing belief. Indeed, what I am about to relate would, I imagine, have been deemed a fable, were it not for the narratives of eyewitnesses and for the subsequent calamities which deserved to be so signalized. For before sunset throughout all parts of the country, chariots were seen in the air and armed battalions hurtling through the clouds and encompassing the cities.” (Wars, VI. 5. 3 or Loeb VI. 298).
The Roman historian Tacitus (c. AD 56-120) records the same event in his Histories:
“Prodigies had occurred, but their expiation by the offering of victims or solemn vows is held to be unlawful by a nation which is the slave of superstition and the enemy of true beliefs. In the sky appeared a vision of armies in conflict, of glittering armor. A sudden lightning flash from the clouds lit up the Temple. The doors of the holy place abruptly opened, a superhuman voice was heard to declare that the gods were leaving it, and in the same instant came the rushing tumult of their departure. Few people placed a sinister interpretation upon this. The majority were convinced that the ancient scriptures of their priests alluded to the present as the very time when the Orient would triumph and from Judaea would go forth men destined to rule the world. (Histories”, Book 5, v. 13)
Also we see what Eusebius of Caesarea (A.D. 263-339) says in his Ecclesiastical History —
“For before the setting of the sun chariots and armed troops were seen throughout the whole region in mid-air, wheeling through the clouds and encircling the cities.” (Book 3, Ch. 8)
The parallels between these three accounts and 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 are striking. In these three, Jesus is never identified as being at the head of this angelic army in the clouds. Yet he must have been, as we saw in Revelation 19.
So this miraculous angelic army was seen in the sky in A.D. 66 by thousands across the land of Judea. It was made known by Roman historians, unbelievers. Thus Paul’s prophecy in his second letter to the Thessalonians 1:7-8 was fulfilled!
Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus predicted that he would come on the clouds obscured among the presence of the heavenly host. And this coming within the lifetimes of those present during his ministry. (Matthew 10:23, 16:27-28, 24:34)
What will you with this amazing information?
Prove me wrong!
Ian Thomson 