In order to understand what the Bible says about the return of Christ, we are going to start by looking at the literary element of setting in two different contexts. First, we’re going to think about what the world was like in biblical times and how that affected what biblical writers understood. Then, we’re going to discuss what the Bible tells us about circumstances surrounding Christ’s return. By investigating these two contexts, we will set the stage for understanding the characters who will be involved in the return of Christ, the sequence of events (plot) leading to the new heaven and new earth appearing (Revelation 21:1), and the themes of this glorious drama.

     Have you ever thought about the vast differences between the biblical world and our world today? Sometimes it’s easy to make some assumptions that, because we are so familiar with circumstances of biblical times, the reverse would be true: the biblical writers must have been familiar with the circumstances of our world today. Think about it–isn’t that what we do when we try to make a literal interpretation of what biblical writers said about the return of Christ? We are inferring that those writers knew exactly what they were talking about. Even if God had told them directly what was going to happen, would they have had the vocabulary to be accurate in their descriptions? Reflect on the last ten years–how many words have we added to our vocabulary since the year 2000?  For example, “twitter” and “tweet” were terms strictly related to birds while “podcast” didn’t make its appearance until mid-decade.  

     I have an analogy that can help us in our thinking. In the musical world, many artists write their songs for particular performers, and they match the keys of those songs to the performers’ voices. However, once a song becomes popular, other singers want to sing it. What happens when the keys of the songs don’t match the keys of those singers’ voices? Musicians transpose the songs–they rewrite the music by putting it into different keys. Now, let’s try to look at circumstances surrounding Christ’s return from God’s point of view. He wanted to make sure the human race knew what was going to happen in the days prior to his return. By interacting with the biblical writers in terms they could understand, He was (and is) prepared to transpose what they wrote into a different “key” so we can understand what’s happening. God has to do this because our world is so much different than the world of the biblical writers. This is why it’s so important for us to look beyond the literal meaning of what they wrote to work out the underlying meaning of their words.

     Now, let’s consider what the Bible tells about the setting of Christ’s return and start with Matthew 24 (NKJV) which relates what Christ himself said about his second coming. I know that there has been much written about a one-world government led by the anti-Christ which creates the Great Tribulation. I propose that this scenario is not quite what the Bible talks about. In Matthew 24:37-42, Christ compares and contrasts what will happen just prior to his return with the days of Noah. You see, Satan tried to wipe out the human race in Noah’s time, and that is exactly his purpose in the time prior to Christ’s return. By “creating” great tribulation (John 10:10), our enemy wants to drive us away from God and destroy God’s creation. So, let’s take a look at how the “end-time” is similar to and different from Noah’s day.

     First, verses 37-39 say, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” Everyday life. That’s what it was like just prior to the flood. Other than the sight of Noah building an ark–easily dismissed as the work of a fanatic–there was nothing in life to suggest that anything devastating was coming up. There had been no political upheavals at all. Until the rain started, people were just going on with their lives. 

     Notice that Christ said that the flood took them all away. His next words provided the contrast between the days of Noah and the days before Christ’s return. Do you remember that, after the flood waters receded, God made a promise to Noah that all flesh would never be destroyed by a flood again (Genesis 9:8-17). That promise has never changed, so Christ acknowledged that as he went on, “Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will taken and the other left” (Matthew 24:40-41). Unlike the wholesale destruction that the flood brought to the human race, the destruction preceding Christ’s return would appear to be random by victimizing some people and leaving others alone.

     Next, let’s backtrack in Matthew 24 and take a look at verses 15-22. Christ focuses on the main thrust of Satan’s plan to eliminate the human race. Listen to verse 15, “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place…” Now, here comes a place where we need to transpose from biblical times to now. Before Christ died on the cross, the Hebrews were separated from God by a veil thus creating a holy place in their temple. The thought of defiling that place was anathema to the Hebrews, and that is exactly what Daniel saw happening in one of his visions (Daniel 11:31). To see the daily sacrifice being eliminated by this “king” tore Daniel’s heart because those daily sacrifices were how the Israelites dealt with their sin. No sacrifices, no forgiveness of sin.

     The new covenant that God made with the human race through Christ did away with a physical temple and the holy place within it. As believers came to God through the new birth and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, their bodies became the temple and their hearts the holy place (I Corinthians 6:19, Hebrews 8:10). So, the abomination of desolation that Daniel saw transposes to Satan’s thrust to replace God in our hearts. As we go on, we will see how Satan tries to do that.

     Now, before I close this post, I want to look at what Christ said to do when we see the abomination of desolation. Matthew 24:16-17 says, “…then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. And let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.”   One day, I was thinking about these two verses and I noticed something–the mountains were made by God and the houses were made by humans. I believe what Christ was saying was when we see these things happening, we need to drop everything and hightail it into the Secret Place of the Most High. We need to find our places in Him because no human being can give us what we need to overcome Satan’s onslaught; only God can. He is our fortress and strength.

     As we proceed with this discussion of Christ’s return, let’s remember two things–Satan is the troublemaker and God is the very present help in time of trouble!

     All scripture passages are taken from the NKJV. Please feel free to comment–just keep it respectful.

     ©2009-2010 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.