Bible Commentaries
Revelation

PURPOSES OF HIS COMING

The church appears confused today over the purpose of Jesus' coming. We are often taught in the Gentile church as though his coming is solely for the benefit of Gentile Christians. Although we realize that he is returning to the Mount of Olives in Israel, we do not realize that his coming is for the purpose of delivering Israel from the rage of all the nations (Zechariah 14:1-5). While it is true that he is coming for Gentile saints, this is not his main purpose.

Jesus is coming to firmly establish his eternal kingdom on the earth. As we have seen before, his victorious saints will exercise authority and rule for him in this kingdom. His kingdom will be complete and it will never cease. Paul expresses it well in Philippians 2:10-11, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Second, his coming is designed to put a quick end to all other authority and especially the exceedingly evil kingdom of Antichrist (cf. Psalm 110:1-2). In 2 Thessalonians 2:8 we read, "And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming." Jesus' coming, as we have already seen, will also put a quick end to the work of both the Beast and the False Prophet.

A third purpose for his coming will be to permanently remove millions, even billions, of wicked and utterly rebellious people from off his earth. This is pictured by the harvest we saw earlier. Indeed, the whole tribulation period is one vast harvest of flesh and wickedness. John the Baptist spoke of the Lord's coming in this wise, "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:12).

In Matthew 24:38-39, Jesus tells us that the end-day will be like the days of Noah. Jesus says, "For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." In this passage we see all fleshly pursuits; a lot of eating, drinking and marrying, as if these were being done somehow to great excess. We must note again that it is always the wicked that are taken away from the earth.

In 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 we read, "…This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."

So the Day of the Lord will dawn for the wicked, bringing sudden disaster from on high. Ecclesiastes 9:12 states, "Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them."

There are several other purposes in his coming. He is coming to completely purge the earth of every sin and stain. He will in fact make a new heaven and a new earth. This probably does not mean that the present heaven and earth will be totally destroyed but that they will undergo more of a regeneration (cf. Psalm 78:69; Ecc. 1:4; Matthew 19:28).

The Greek word kainos, used in Revelation 21:1 for "new heaven" and "new earth" has the idea of "freshness" or "unused," as contrasted with the old. The same word is used in Galatians 6:15, which describes those converted as "new" creatures in Christ. Obviously they are still the same people, although their outlook and lifestyle have become totally changed. The Bible scholars, Pfeiffer and Harrison, here quote from the Greek scholar, Swete, who describes the meaning as, "fresh life arising from the decay and wreck of the old world."^(F1)

Jesus is also coming to institute the final judgment on people, nations, angelic beings, and the devil, as well as to fully save and reward his faithful people (cf. Isaiah 26:19-21).