IS HE REALLY COMING BACK?
The Second Coming of Christ is not wishful thinking on the part of Christian people, as some suggest, but it is a real event that has yet to happen. Because of the time that has elapsed since his departure from the world, many skeptics refuse to accept the reality of Jesus’ return. This is based on the notion that “two thousand years is a long time.” To which we would respond, to whom?
To whom is two thousand years a long time? To us, maybe. Our minds can comprehend only the physical, for that is all that we see. Certainly two thousand years is a long time to us—since that length would be somewhere in the neighborhood of over twenty times the average length of human life.
But what about someone who can see beyond the temporal? What about someone not confined by the fences of time? What about someone like God? Is two thousand years a long time to him?
Peter spoke of some who would begin to say, because of the time elapsed, that his coming will never happen: “First of all, you must understand that scoffers will come in the last days, mocking and following their own evil lusts. They will say, When and where is this return he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything continues on just like it has since the beginning of creation. But they willfully forget that long ago the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water, by God’s word. By these waters also the world of that time was flooded and destroyed. By the same word, the current heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being maintained for the day of judgment and ruination of the ungodly. But forget not this one thing, dear friends: to the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:3-8).
Is two thousand years a long time to the one to whom “a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day?” Not at all. We must try to keep our feeble minds reminded of this. That God is not confined to the sphere of the temporal, nor does he concern himself with the concept of “time.” There is no such thing as “a long time” to God.
No doubt, those who were living alongside Noah scoffed at his prediction that a flood was coming. Especially since it didn’t happen right away. One hundred and twenty years passed and still no flood. “Noah’s crazy. He keeps talking about a flood coming. He’s living in a fantasy world.” All those accusations were silenced forever, however, when the earth finally got baptized. The wicked people of the day—and their big mouths—were marinated in rain. And their mockery of the word of God ceased. God said the flood was coming and it came.
Remember, it hasn’t been nearly as long since Christ’s promise to return as it was between the promise of his first coming and its fulfillment in Bethlehem. God made the first prophecy of the birth of Jesus in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). And it was some four thousand years until it actually took place.
The passage of time—no matter how long—doesn’t reflect in the slightest on the truthfulness of God’s promises. When God says something is going to happen, it is just as certain as if it had already happened. Even if it’s been thousands of years. He is coming again. Stay ready.
Dewayne Dunaway
