The Second Coming Of Christ
Cannot Occur Until
The Great Commission Is Fulfilled

Timing is everything when it comes to our understanding of the second coming of Christ! Timing effects almost everything else in life as well.

Robert E. Lee lost the Battle of Gettysburg because his key generals failed to show up in the proper place at the proper time. The fate of a nation hung in the balance.

Lee instructed General Longstreet to attack at dawn, “as soon as practicable,” which led him to delay 3 or 4 critical hours while union troops consolidated on the high ground. General Stewart’s cavalry missed the battle completely. Better never than late – at least they lived to fight another day.

Prophetic Timing

Timing is also critical when it comes to the study of eschatology. This shows up even in the definition of the word eschatology – the study of last things.

What time exactly is implied by the word last? The course of history hinges on that question.

Is it referring to the last days of Israel as a political entity or does it refer to the end of time. Does it refer to the second coming of Christ in judgment on the nation of Israel in 70 A.D. or does it refer to the second coming of Christ in the final judgment? Or is it referring to two different aspects of the Second Coming of Christ? The writer of Hebrews told his first Century readers that they were living in the “last days” (Heb. 1:2).

Our interpretation of the Bible and of history depends on the answer. Our understanding of the outcome of history governs the way we act in the present. Timing is everything!

Where's Waldo?

The Bible exhorts us to be alert for the second coming of Christ, but most Evangelicals are more concerned about the coming of the Anti-Christ. The Anti-Christ is a major growth industry among Evangelical Christians.

It’s like a cosmic game of “Where’s Waldo?” As the panorama of history unfolds before their eyes they scan every detail for the Anti-Christ. Where could Anti-Christ be hiding? He is long overdue.

Surely he is alive somewhere in the world today, speculates the wide-eyed Evangelical. Perhaps he is a little boy now growing up in the Middle East -- biding his time until that fateful day.

Consider just a few of the many historical figures who have been identified as the Anti-Christ by Evangelical Christians in the 20th Century. The test of time revealed that none of them measured up (or down) to the Anti-Christ profile:

• Adolf Hitler
• Ronald Reagan
• Henry Kissinger
• Mikal Gorbachav
• The Pope

All these failed prophecies make the church look foolish, superficial, and turn many away from the faith. Meantime, what is the Devil doing while Christians are distracted by this game? For one thing he’s busy winning the hearts and minds of their youth via control of the education and entertainment industries.

Christians have willingly co-operated in his plan by turning their children over to the government schools. These are schools from which God has been outlawed, but hey we can live with that as long as our kid gets into a good college. The colleges are apostate too, but hey we can live with that as long as our kid gets a good job

According to I John, the Anti-Christ is not an individual at all, but rather is the spirit of apostasy (I Pet. 2:19). So while Christians have been preoccupied scanning the horizon for a tyrannical political leader, the real Anti-Christ has been busy under their very noses leading their children into apostasy.

Thy Kingdom Come

This kind of childish date-setting would not be so rampant if Christians understood that most of the prophecies in the New Testament are pointing to the second coming of Christ in the destruction of Jerusalem. Most of the prophecies in the New Testament have already been fulfilled

The Beast of Revelation (not Anti-Christ) had to be known to John’s contemporaries and is therefore most likely Nero. John's first century readers had to be able to calculate the number of the Beast (Rev. 13:18). If the Beast was Adolf Hitler -- or any other 20th Century demogogue -- could they have done this? The name Caesar Nero is numerically equivalent to 666. This is demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt by Ken Gentry in his book, “The Beast of Revelation.”

If true, this means that there is no Anti-Christ in our future -- ding-dong the wicked Beast is dead (long dead). It means that the Lord will not return until the church has fulfilled the Great Commission and converted all the cultures (nations) of the world to Christ (Mt. 28:19,20). It means that American Christians must give up their childish date-setting and move forward into the cultural battlefield.

That means not only winning souls to Christ, but bringing every realm of culture – education, politics, media, etc. – under submission to the rule of Christ the king. The second coming of Christ cannot occur until that task is complete. It cannot come until Jesus' prayer that "Thy Kingdom Come" is a reality "on earth as it is in Heaven." Roll up your sleeves, let's get to work.

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