He Will Come Again in Glory
Jesus will come again. We all know this. He said so. During my lifetime I have heard many theories about when and how he will come. In the Protestant Tradition, there seems to be three theories that have gained ground during my life regarding the Second Coming. There is the Pre-Tribulation Rapture theory, the Mid-Tribulation Rapture theory and the Post-Tribulation Rapture. What each means is pretty obvious. Christians will either be raptured before the Great Tribulation, sometime during it, or after it. Of the three, I always preferred Pre-Trib. Not because I thought it was more theologically correct than the others, but because I am a wimp. I have been through enough “trib” in my life, thank you very much, and if I can avoid “great trib” I’m all for it.
The reality is different. According to any careful reading of Scripture, we’re going to go through the Great Tribulation. If we’re alive at that time, individually, we will go through it. The Church, the body of Christ, will go through it whenever it happens. (In case you are wondering, it probably won’t be December 21, 2012.) “The Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.” (CCC 675) Exactly how that will play out in the world, what it will look like, isn’t specified.
I know the great temptation here is to start comparing today’s world with all the various prophecies and start making charts and graphs to see where we are in the eternal timeline. Please don’t. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is this: do you know your faith? Do I know my faith? Do we know it well enough to recognize “religious deception” should it come along? If we don’t know what it True, how can we tell when something is false? Jesus himself asked the question, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8)
Jesus could come back tonight. He could come back tomorrow. He could come a thousand years from now. It really doesn’t matter. What matters is this: do we love him? Do we love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength? Do we love our neighbor as ourselves? Are we daily growing that relationship with him, not because we fear being “left behind” but because He is the dearest person in our lives? That’s what matters.
Even so, come quickly, Lord. My heart yearns to be where you are.