Slower Than The Second Coming


By GR Gaudreau

We're all familiar with the expression "slower than the second coming," but where does it come from? It comes from the claim made in the Bible that Jesus would soon return and that even after 2000 years, or there abouts, he still hasn't made good on his promise. 2000 years may be but a blink in cosmic time, but to us humans it's a long time.
Matthew 16:24 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If any one desires to follow me, let him renounce self and take up his cross, and so be my follower.
25  For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it.
26  Why, what benefit will it be to a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? Or what shall he whole world but forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give to buy back his life?
27  For the Son of Man is soon to come in the glory of the Father with His angels, and then will He requite every man according to his actions.
28 I solemnly tell you that some of those who are standing here will certainly not taste death till they have seen the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom.'"
The above passage, quoted from the Weymouth New Testament, is one of the many passages which speaks of the soon return of Jesus, that is, a passage in which Jesus, or whoever put these words in Jesus' mouth, promises to return within the lifetime of his first century disciples.
The passage begins with Jesus saying that if one desires to be his disciple, he must "renounce self and take up his cross." In the next verse, Jesus use the conjunction "for," from the Greek "gar," meaning that v. 24 is united to whatever Jesus says in the next verse, which has to do with saving one's life or loosing it; the premise being that if one looses his life, that is, if one follows Jesus, one gains his life. Not following Jesus is equated with loosing ones life.

Jesus then states that even if one were to gain the whole world, it would not compensate for the loss of his life; life being eternal life in the Kingdom of Jesus. V. 24-26, then, are an introduction, and thus the basis for what Jesus will say in the next two verses, i.e., an introduction to the judgment which is preceded by the coming of Jesus in his Kingdom.

V. 27 again begins with the conjunction "for" indicating that the above verses are tied into the proposition which follows: "For the Son of Man is soon to come in the glory of the Father with His angels, and then will He requite every man according to his actions."

There are four items worthy of notice in the above verse:
1) The Son of man, Jesus, was soon to come.
2) He would come in the glory of his Father.
3) He would come with his angels.
4) He would requite (render to, reward) every man according to his actions.
Let's look at all four of these points and see what they mean in this context. We will also compare this passage with others in the NT which clearly speak of a soon return of Jesus, that is, a return within the lifetime of his first century disciples.
V. 27 is a very important verse in this passage because it declares that Jesus was "soon to come" or, as the Greek puts it, was "about to come."
27 mellei gar o yios tou anthropou erchesthai en te doxe tou patros autou meta ton angelon autou kai tote apodosei ekasto kata ten praxin autou (Byzantine Text)
Notice also the use of the word "mellei," which comes from the word "mello." This word is important, as seen in Strong's definition below, taken from The Online Bible with Strong's Lexicon, v. 8.01.05:
3195 mellw  mel'-lo
a strengthened form of 3199 (through the idea of expectation); ; v
AV-shall 25, should 20, would 9, to come 9, will 7, things to come 4, not tr 3, misc 33; 110

1) to be about
1a) to be on the point of doing or suffering something
1b) to intend,  have in mind,  think to
(all emphasis mine)
The idea is that there is an emphasis placed on "soon to come," or, "about to come," which gives it an air of immediacy or imminence. How would Jesus come and what would he do when he came?
V. 27 tells us that he would come "in the glory of his Father," i.e., in the glory if YHWH. He would be accompanied by angels and he would requite, or reward, every man according to his works, or deeds.

This verse, in a nutshell, couldn't say any more clearly what Matthew 25 tells us about Jesus' return and the judgment of all men. The "second coming" of Jesus at end of the world and the judgment of all the living and the dead are clearly enunciated in this passage.
Matthew 25:31 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then will He sit upon His glorious throne,
32  and all the nations will be gathered into His presence. And He will separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;
33  and will make the sheep stand at His right hand, and the goats at His left."
In the above passage -- not quoted at length -- Jesus judges men according to their works after he has come "in his glory" and with "all the holy angels." The resemblance between Matt. 16:27 and Matt. 25:31 is unmistakable: This is the end of the world and the judgment. All of this happens when Jesus returns in his glory and with his angles. The elements found in Matt. 25 are in accord with what is promised in Matt. 16:27. The only conclusion one can draw is that the events are the same and that they would happen when Jesus returned.
Now we come to Matt. 16:28, the verse which demonstrates that the promise of a soon return was never accomplished:
Matthew 16:28 "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."
This verse, immediately following a declaration of a coming in glory, with angels and for a judgment, proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the promise of a soon return has never been accomplished. Jesus never came back within the lifetime of his first century disciples and he never judged all men in the presence of angels.
How do we know this? Well, the wording is unmistakable: " There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." How much clearer could it be? Some of those who were in the hearing of Jesus' words would not die before they saw Jesus coming with his angels, to judge all men, in his kingdom.

The most common defense, if one can call it that, offered by Inerrantists is that Jesus was talking about the event which follows this passage, the transfiguration. This is, at best, lame defense of this passage.
Matthew 17:1 "Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and the brothers James and John, and brought them up a high mountain to a solitary place.
2  There in their presence His form underwent a change; His face shone like the sun, and His raiment became as white as the light." (Emphasis mine)
Notice the very first words of v. 1: "Six days alter..." Six days after Jesus had promised to return in his glory, with his angels and to judge all men, he was supposedly transfigured on a "high mountain."
Frankly, this defense makes Jesus look rather stupid. This is tantamount to his saying "I solemnly tell you that some of those who are standing here will certainly not taste death till they have seen the Son of Man being transfigured in six days." The whole idea is ludicrous and shows the desperation of those who claim the Bible is inerrant.

What of the angels and all men being rewarded according to their works? Does the transfiguration scenario have any of these? No! Why do I ask this? Because v. 27 and v. 28 are connected and cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be treated otherwise without seriously doing injury to sound hermeneutic principles. But what Inerrantists would have us believe is that between v. 27 and v. 28, there is a gap of almost 2000 years. And what is their reason for putting up this defense? Well, Jesus obviously hasn't come yet, so itmustbe referring to the transfiguartion, right? This is nothing but circular reasoning, i.e., assuming as proof that which needs to be proven.

That Jesus, or more likely, those who put the words in his mouth, made false predictions concerning his soon return, is so evident as to baffle the mind of any thinking person that one would deny it. But Inerrantists do this on a daily basis, demonstrating thw old saying, "any port in a storm."

There are many passages in the NT which speak of a soon return of Jesus, all of which have never been accomplished, as I will soon demonstrate. What does this say of Jesus, or, more to the point, thos who put these words in his mouth? It says, according to the very "Law" he was supposed to have upheld and accomplished (Matt. 5:17-20), that he was a false prophet!
Deuteronomy 18:20  "But the prophet, that shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, whicspeak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.
21  And if thou say in thy heart, How shall we know the word which Jehovah hath not spoken?
22  when a prophet speaketh in the name of Jehovah, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which Jehovah hath not spoken: the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him." (ASV)
Should we fear the words of Jesus? Not according to Deut. 18:22. Should we fear the words of the NT authors? Not according to Deut. 18:22. Why? Because they too are false prophets, according the the very words they claim to uphold. Could Jesus be Israel's Messiah, the Saviour of the world? Absolutely not!
In conclusion, I would like to offer some of the many verses which state that Jesus' return, or as it's commonly called, "the second coming," would occur in the first century, while some of his disciples were still alive. All emphasis are mine.
Matthew 10:23 "Whenever they persecute you in one town, escape to the next; for I solemnly tell you that youwill not have gone the round of all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes." (Notice to whom Jesus is talking)
Matthew 26:64 "'I am He,' replied Jesus. 'But I tell you that, later on, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Omnipotence, and coming on the clouds of the sky.'" ("You" were the members of the Sanhedrin questioning Jesus. Again, notice to whom Jesus is talking.)

1Corinthians 10:11 "All this kept happening to them with a figurative meaning; but it was put on record by way of admonition to US upon whom the ends of the Ages have come ."

James 5:8 "So you also must be patient: keeping up your courage; for the Coming of the Lord is now close at hand."

1Peter 4:7 "But the end of all things is now close at hand: therefore be sober-minded and temperate, so that you may give yourselves to prayer."

Hebrews 10:36 "For you stand in need of patient endurance, so that, as the result of having done the will of God, you may receive the promised blessing.
37  For there is still but a short time and then 'The coming One will come and will not delay.'"

1John 2:18 "Dear children, the last hour has come ; and as you once heard that there was to be an anti-Christ, so even now many anti-Christs have appeared. By this we may know that the last hour has come." (The last hour? Now that's close!)

Revelation 1:1  The revelation given by Jesus Christ, which God granted Him, that He might make known to His servants certain events which must shortly come to pass: and He sent His angel and communicated it to His servant John.

Revelation 1:3 "Blessed is he who reads and blessed are those who listen to the words of this prophecy and lay to heart what is written in it; for the time for its fulfillment is now close at hand ."

Revelation 3:11 "'I am coming quickly:' cling to that which you already possess, so that your wreath of victory be not taken away from you."

Revelation 22:7 "`I am coming quickly.' Blessed is he who is mindful of the predictions contained in this book."

Revelation 22:12  "'I am coming quickly; and My reward is with Me, that I may requite every man in accordance with what his conduct has been.'" (Requite? Sound familiar? Cf. Matt. 16:27-28)

Revelation 22:20 "He who solemnly declares all this says, '`Yes, I am coming quickly.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."
Could there be any doubt that Jesus promised to return "soon," "quickly;" that his coming was "at hand," and "near?" I think not. Did he promise to return within the lifetime of his first century disciples? He most certainly did! And has this promise been accomplished? It most certainly hasn't! Were conditions right, according to NT authors, for the return of Jesung to NT authors, for the return of Jesus? Judge for yourselves:
Matthew 24:14 "And this Good News of the Kingdom shall be proclaimed throughout the whole world to set the evidence before all the Gentiles; and then the End will come."
Colossians 1:23 "if, indeed, you are still firmly holding to faith as your foundation, without ever shifting from your hope that rests on the Good News that you have heard, which has been proclaimed in the whole creation under Heaven, and in which I Paul have been appointed to serve."
The Good News, the Gospel, had to be proclaimed to all the world before the end would come (Matt. 24:14) and Paul states that it had indeed been proclaimed "in the whole creation under heaven." (Col. 1:23) So why hasn't Jesus returned? Simple: For the same reason Santa doesn't slide down your chimney on Christmas eve.
One could argue, as do the Preterists, that Jesus actually did return but that his return was "in the clouds" (shades of Jehovah's Witnesses!), but that no one actually saw him, or his angels, and that the judgment was in the "spiritual realm." But then again that would contradict the following verses, wouldn't it?
Acts 1:11 "who said, 'Galilaeans, why stand looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into Heaven will come in just the same way as you have seen Him going into Heaven.'"
Revelation 1:7 "He is coming in the clouds, and every eye will see Him, and so will those who pierced Him; and all the nations of the earth will gaze on Him and mourn. Even so. Amen."
Jesus was to return "just the same way," and "every eye [would] see Him, and so [would] those who pierced him; and all the nations of the earth [would] gaze on him." Did this happen in the first century, as Jesus promised? No.
No matter how many hermeneutic tricks Inerrantists resort to, the problem remains: Jesus never fulfilled his promise to return! Their own Scriptures prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Jesus was not who he claimed to be. More to the point: He was not who his followers claimed he was, that is, Israel's Messiah, the Saviour. No way, no how!

So, next time someone keeps you waiting, just tell him he's slower than the second coming: You won't be far from the truth. And that's the bottom line.


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