The Lord was already talking about it many centuries before the Noahic flood (Jude 14-15). The Psalms often prophesy about the joy that it will bring to the earth. The Old Testament prophets wrote about the day the Messiah would come to reign over a gloriously restored Israel (as well as over all the nations). The grandeur of John’s description of the Second Coming in Revelation 19:11-20:4 stretches the limits of our imagination. It will be the most spectacular and earth-shattering event that the world has ever seen.
Even though I have studied Bible prophecy for decades, I’m increasingly caught up in the wonder of how God’s Word describes Jesus’ dazzling return to planet Earth. And to think that we will be there, riding behind Him on white horses. How can we even begin to imagine what we will feel?
John’s description of Jesus’ exaltation in Revelation chapters 19-20 is the high point of the book that magnifies the Savior from beginning to end. It’s a visual portrayal of what Paul wrote about in Colossians 1:15-20: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
During the past couple of years, I have become increasingly aware of how Jesus’ preeminence, especially as the apostle highlighted in these verses, dispels today’s popular beliefs of Jesus’ Second Coming and brings us back to a literal understanding of Revelation chapters 19-20.
A Distant End-of-the-Age Return Doesn’t Even Come Close
I have heard many pastors voice the belief that the next prophetic event is Jesus’ end-of-the-age return to judge sinners, wrap up human history, and inaugurate the eternal state. This view of Bible prophecy, Replacement Theology, teaches that God rejected Israel after Jesus’ crucifixion and transferred its kingdom promises to the church, albeit spiritually. John’s narrative of the last days mysteriously changes from an allegory to an eyewitness account with the White Throne judgment in Revelation 20:11.
I believe this teaching dishonors the Lord Jesus in at least two ways. First, it falls far short of the victorious return John describes in Revelation 19:11 20:10. Jesus will do so much more than simply wrap up human history; He will forever change it. Christ doesn’t end the story of mankind; He visibly inserts Himself into it and rules over all the earth for one thousand years.
Second, Replacement Theology changes the focus of believers from the Savior’s return to his or her future in this life. Jesus’ instruction for His followers to watch for His return is meaningless if nothing related to Bible prophecy can happen before one dies, which its proponents say. Where’s the hope in that? Does this not also negate the expectancy that Paul wrote about in Philippians 3:20-21?
He’s So Much More Than a Distant Observer
It’s perhaps the fastest growing teaching of Bible prophecy in the church today. This movement, often referred to as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) or Dominion Theology, teaches that the church will eventually triumph over the evil of our day and bring in a time of unprecedented peace, security, and prosperity for the world during which time it will reign, not the Lord.
As for Jesus, He will observe the church’s rule from a distance and return to the earth after its millennial rule.
Do you see how teachings of this group blatantly contradict what Paul wrote about Jesus’ preeminence in Colossians 1:15-20? Its proponents exalt the church’s role by making it the primary mover in Bible prophecy rather than Jesus. Such teaching greatly dishonors the Savior.
Jesus is the One who alone will destroy Satan’s stranglehold on the nations, triumphantly return to the earth in a dazzling display of splendor and power, and establish His thousand-year rule over the nations. 1 Peter 5:11 says, “To him [Christ] be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” The Bible never ascribes “dominion” to the church.
An AD 70 Return? I Don’t Think So!
Preterists claim that John wrote the book of Revelation in AD 65 and place the Second Coming way back in AD 70. Some of them say it was a spiritual return, while others attribute the Lord’s return to a vision that a few people saw in the sky while Titus attacked and destroyed Jerusalem that same year.
This group severely undermines Paul’s description of Jesus’ preeminence by teaching that the Second Coming was a nondescript event that happened long ago. They fail to consider the way Scripture clearly describes His return as an earth-shattering display of triumphant power and glory that everyone in the world will see. Everyone.
The words of Colossians 1:15-20 alone blow away the claims of the Preterists. In addition, their beliefs are light years away from how God’s Word describes the last days as well as Jesus’ return.
My growing realization of how Paul’s description of Jesus’ preeminence negates today’s most popular views of the Second Coming became one of the driving forces behind the writing of my latest book, Invitation to a Lavish Feast – Following Wisdom’s Path to the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Of course, I emphasize how the words of Scripture lead us to a literal understanding of Bible prophecy. But as I have learned in recent years, Jesus’ preeminence also leaves us with no other alternative than to accept that John wrote Revelation chapters 19-20 as an eyewitness of Jesus’ future return.
Furthermore, all the views of the end times that deny the futuristic interpretation of the entire book of Revelation in some way or another fail to exalt the Savior as Paul describes in Colossians 1:15-20 and as what we also see in Philippians 2:9-11 and Hebrews chapter 1.
