What does the Church teach about the Second Coming of Christ?
In the Divine Liturgy, before reciting the Creed, the priests exchange the Holy Kiss - as did the faithful in ancient times - and one says to the other: “Christ is with us and among us,” and he responds: “He was, is, and will be.”
Christ, then, comes, as he promised his disciples (John 41). He comes to take us to him so that his beloved may be where he is. He comes to judge the living and the dead because the Father has given all judgment to the Son. He comes in glory (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21). He comes, according to the biblical expression, in the clouds or in the clouds, and the clouds and the clouds refer to the divine presence as in the Book of Exodus (34:5) and the Book of Numbers (11:25). And as the disciples saw him with their bodily eyes as he was lifted up from them (Acts 1), so when he comes again “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him” (Revelation 1:7). And his coming will be bright like lightning that comes from the east and flashes to the west (Matthew 24:27 and elsewhere). He does not come, then, in secret nor will he be in one place and not in another. When He comes, He will send His angels to gather His elect “from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:31). Then all nations will be gathered before Him, “and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates his sheep from his goats” (Matthew 25:32). “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (25:46). Because Christ’s sheep await their Shepherd, as a bride awaits her Bridegroom, the Church calls out to Him in her prayers at all times and says to Him: “Lord Jesus Christ, come” (Revelation 21).
Before that, the Lord Jesus is not far from us. He said, in every case, that where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. And as he said to his disciples when he was about to be taken up from them, “Behold, I am with you always, even to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:20). This is why we know and repeat that Christ is with us now and at all times. But after his ascension, and until the end of the age, we know him by the Holy Spirit and not by the flesh, even though the disciples knew him in that way in their days.
As for when the Lord Jesus Christ will come in the fullness of His glory, when the Kingdom of God will come with power, this is a subject that the Lord Jesus did not discuss, although He gave slight indications about it, as in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. He Himself warned us that of that day and hour “no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matthew 24:36) and that the Kingdom of God “does not come with observation, nor do they say, ‘Look here’ or ‘Look there’; for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). But the Lord Jesus called for vigilance and preparation because, as He put it, “you do not know what hour your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42), and He blessed the faithful and wise servant who does the will of his Master (45). The Apostle Paul repeated this teaching of the Lord Jesus and forbade believers from being preoccupied with times and seasons when he said to the Thessalonians that there was no need to write to them about them because the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. He called them, in contrast, to be watchful and sober, “putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (5).
Although this teaching is clear and explicit, and is what the Holy Church has been and continues to repeat to this day, some intruders lacking in understanding refuse to do anything but distract themselves from repentance, vigilance, and doing good deeds with numbers and dates, mixing prophecies with each other, tampering with the divine word as they please, claiming to decipher its symbols and interpret its mysteries, and presenting to people appointments claiming that Christ will come in them. In doing so, they cause people to be disturbed, deceive the hearts of the peaceful, exploit the naivety and frustrations of the weak, confuse their minds, corrupt the faith of some of them, and spread strange satanic teachings among them that spoil their salvation and the true knowledge of the right faith. Among these are the group of Jehovah's Witnesses, who, since their inception between 1870 and 1874, have not ceased to play on the chord of Christ's second coming to deceive people with flattering words and Bible verses, which they use out of context, in times of trouble and hardship. But their error and deception do not go far. Their own dates and appointments belie them. Russell, the founder of the heresy, declared that the presence of the Lord had begun invisibly in October 1874 and added: “In the year 1914 the kingdom of Christ will begin on earth, the dead will rise, and the theocratic government of God will be formed in Jerusalem from Abraham and the other great men of the Old Testament” (for references see the book Public Debate with Jehovah’s Witnesses by Father George Attia). What is this idle talk that the presence of Christ began in October 1874? The Lord is with us, invisibly, at all times. Then what kingdom began in 1914, what dead rose, and what divine government was formed? Indeed, the year 1914 was the year of the First World War and its calamities.
Because Jehovah’s Witnesses are shameless, ignorant, and arrogant, they said that we had made a mistake in the calculations and that we should have said that “the beginning of the fulfillment of the promises is the beginning of the spring of 1918, but their actual fulfillment is in the year 1921” (The Ending Secret Book 68-75).
Although the Witnesses had reaped nothing but wind in 1918 and 1921, they returned in 1925 with their second leader, Judge Rutherford, and said: “We certainly expect the year 1925 to be the time of the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the ancient faithful prophets…restored to life and given full human personality…” (Millions of Those Alive Today Will Never Die, pp. 94-96 and 104). Rutherford promised that this would happen on April 1. April 1 came and what happened? Nothing. Just the April 1 of the Jehovah’s Witnesses turned into an April Fool’s Day.
My believing brother, my believing sister, you may not know this information, so we wanted to inform you of it so that you may be aware and not be deceived by deceivers from today. Therefore, we say to you, hold fast to the image of the correct speech that you have received from your church in faith and love (1 Timothy 1:13), and do not pay attention to what the strayers say, lest you fall into their error.
Sunday, December 13, 1992, Issue 50