Prophecy · What Is Still Coming
The Second Coming
The New Testament mentions the return of Jesus Christ, by one count, more than three hundred times — about once every twenty-five verses. This page is about the event itself: not the quiet catching away the church watches for, but the visible, global, unmistakable arrival — heaven opened, a rider on a white horse with “KING OF KINGS” written on His robe, every eye seeing, all tribes mourning, and His feet standing, as Zechariah said five centuries before Bethlehem, on the Mount of Olives — the exact hill He ascended from, to which the angels promised He would return “in like manner.”
Heaven Opened
— Revelation 19:11-16 — the New Testament's fullest portrait of the returnThe first coming ended with heaven receiving Him out of sight; the second begins with heaven itself opening. Every detail of John’s vision answers something from the first coming: the donkey of the triumphal entry becomes a war-horse; the crown of thorns becomes many diadems; the robe dipped in blood; the mouth that said “Father, forgive them” now carrying the sharp sword; and the placard Pilate nailed up in mockery — “King of the Jews” — replaced by a title no one voted on: KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Then I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. With righteousness He judges and wages war. He has eyes like blazing fire, and many royal crowns on His head. He has a name written on Him that only He Himself knows. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is The Word of God.The armies of heaven, dressed in fine linen, white and pure, follow Him on white horses. And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. And He has a name written on His robe and on His thigh: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.And behold a white horse - Many little regarded Christ, when he came meek, "riding upon an ass;" but what will they say, when he goes forth upon his white horse, with the sword of his mouth? White - Such as generals use in solemn triumph. And he that sitteth on him, called Faithful - In performing all his promises.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on Rev 19:11
Identifying Him with the Son of man similarly described, Re 1:14. many crowns--Greek, "diadems": not merely (Greek, "stephanoi") garlands of victory, but royal crowns, as KING OF KINGS. Christ's diadem comprises all the diadems of the earth and of heavenly powers too.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Rev 19:12
The armies which were in heaven - Angels and saints over whom Jesus Christ is Captain, Clothed in fine linen - All holy, pure, and righteous.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Rev 19:14
The Two Appearings
— the distinction this site's frame draws — and the other reading, named
THE CATCHING AWAY
THE RETURN IN GLORY
He comes…
FOR his saints — “I will come again, and receive you unto myself” (John 14:3)
WITH his saints — “the armies which were in heaven followed him” (Rev 19:14)
How far He comes
to the air — “caught up… to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess 4:17)
to the earth — “his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives” (Zech 14:4)
Who sees it
the church — the world sees an absence
“every eye shall see him” (Rev 1:7); “all the tribes of the earth mourn” (Matt 24:30)
What follows
the church presented, the marriage supper prepared
the nations judged, the kingdom established
His Feet on the Mount of Olives
— Zechariah 14:3-4; Acts 1:11 — the geography of the promiseProphecy rarely gives coordinates; here it does. Zechariah names the hill — east of Jerusalem, opposite the temple — and describes it splitting under the weight of the arrival. Five centuries later, on that same hill, two angels stood beside the disciples watching Jesus ascend and made the promise that governs this entire page: this same Jesus… shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go. Bodily, visibly, and — the fathers noticed — to the same ground. The scene of His agony, as JFB puts it below, shall be the scene of His glory.
Then the LORD will go out to fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half the mountain moving to the north and half to the south.“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”the angels' promise — same Jesus, same manner, same mount.
(Verse 3, 4.) And the Lord shall go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
Jerome· Commentary on Zechariah (420), on Zech 14:3-4
He shall probably "come from the east" (Mt 24:27). He so made His triumphal entry into the city from the Mount of Olives from the east (Mt 21:1-10). This was the scene of His agony: so it shall be the scene of His glory.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Zech 14:4
Every Eye Shall See Him
— Matthew 24:29-31 — public beyond any denyingJesus’s own description of the event insists on its publicity — sun and moon darkened so that His glory is the only light in the sky, the sign of the Son of Man, all tribes mourning, angels gathering the elect from one end of heaven to the other. Whatever else the traditions debate, no school reads the second coming as quiet. It is the one event in the Bible’s future that no one on earth will need explained to them. And the mourning fulfills the strangest promise in Zechariah: “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.”
Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’ At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And He will send out 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.Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.'me whom they have pierced' — the speaker is the LORD.
(Verse 30) And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. Let us understand this sign, either as the cross, so that the Jews may see the one they crucified (according to Zechariah (Zech. XII) and John (John XIX)); or as the banner of triumphant victory. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Those who did not have citizenship in heaven will mourn, but they are written in the earth.
Jerome· Commentary on Matthew (420), on Matt 24:30
Rest for the Troubled, Fire for the Troublers
— 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 — the return as justicePaul’s fullest second-coming passage was written to a persecuted church, and its logic is judicial: the same day does two opposite things, because it is righteous. To the troubled, rest; to the troublers, vengeance in flaming fire. The return is not an appendix to the gospel — it is the day the gospel’s justice becomes visible, when He comes “to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.”
and to grant relief to you who are oppressed and to us as well. This will take place when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.At the revelation of the Lord Jesus, from heaven, with the angels of his power, in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall suffer punishment, even eternal …
Cosmas Indicopleustes· The Christian Topography, Book 5 (c. 550), on 2 Thess 1:7-10
And to you who are troubled - That is, it will be a righteous thing for God to give to you who are persecuted rest in the last day. As it will be right and proper to punish the wicked, so it will he right to reward the good. It will not, however, be in precisely the same sense. The wicked will deserve all that they will suffer, but it cannot be said that the righteous will deserve the reward which they will receive.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on 2 Thess 1:7
Where It Points
— the day's own family of pagesThe return stands at the center of everything this site’s prophecy shelf holds: the tribulation precedes it, Armageddon collapses at it, the millennium flows from it, and the church’s oldest prayer — maranatha, “our Lord, come” (1 Cor 16:22) — is aimed at it. No date attaches to it, by Jesus’s own ruling; every generation’s duty toward it is the same one: watch.
Closing
He came once in weakness, and the world barely noticed for thirty years. He returns in glory, and no one will miss it: heaven open, every eye, the mount splitting under His feet, and the name on the robe settling every question of rank forever.