The Second Coming According to Paul: A Case Study

The doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ is one of the most influential and defining beliefs in all of the Christian faith. It is second only to the cross and the doctrine of substitution and atonement on behalf of man by God. Paul often taught about this event as one that was to be looked forward to with a high level of anticipation.

This event was so foundational to the early church that Paul often had to correct errors and chastise the people for their misunderstanding.

1 and 2 Thessalonians are foundational texts for understanding the Second Coming of Christ, as are the many Old Testament prophecies that Paul makes references to throughout his letters. The main idea behind the Second Coming of Christ is the End of the Age and the bringing in of the Kingdom of God. Some people in Paul’s time thought that the Kingdom of God was some sort of allegorical reference to the groups of believers. Others thought that Christ may have already returned in their lifetime, albeit invisibly. However, in every single case, Paul had an admonition or a correction to offer those people that were in a serious state of wrong. To those who thought the time was near, he offered a timeline of events that would lead to the Second Coming. He also offered an example to follow with regard to how Christians are to live before the Day of Christ approaches.

Those men and women who thought that the Messiah would have a “spiritual coming” would be in for a rude awakening when Paul informed them that the Messiah would come visibly and bodily from His dimension to our own (1 Thessalonians 1:10). Not only would that mean a physical rule from Jerusalem, but the coming of the Messiah will put to shame those who denied the very gospel message that bought them.

Part of the appeal of the Second Coming had crept in among the masses with the idea that we could stop working and living normally because that day would come at any time. While their zeal would certainly be considered well, the disastrous results of this line of thinking was an idle body without the slightest inclination towards good works or making converts of others. What part of the Christian faith would have believers never try to convert others?

It didn’t line up with what Paul had to say for the churches and certainly didn’t line up with the admonition of the Messiah during His ministry that during the time of His return He would reward believers according to their works. Part of these works is converting others to the saving grace and faith in the Savior of the world. Good works cannot be done outside the spirit, but certain sects of believers didn’t believe in any work whatsoever.

Refusing to Work and the Error of the Thessalonians

Paul commanded that they work with their own hands; instead of remaining idle (2 Thessalonians 3:10) and doing absolutely nothing to care for themselves in self-sufficiency. This command was given in a specific context to a specific set of people, and that context was the Second Coming of Christ and the misunderstanding that it would happen at the time of those living with Paul in the community as believers.

If they would not work, then they were not to eat.

Why would the rest of the community have to suffer these men and women to still receive their food if they were not contributing to the society themselves? Paul was explaining that the Second Coming of Christ would not actually be in their lifetimes, nor would it be in the lifetimes of people generations after them.

The Timeline of the Second Coming and Paul’s References to Daniel

The timeline of the Second Coming is to be initiated during the reign of the man known as the Antichrist and Son of Perdition. As believers today, we know that this man will not be revealed until the near future, and we are two thousand years removed from their time.

As Christians alive today, we must understand that the Day of Christ will not come until the revealing of the Antichrist.

Once we see Antichrist, then we will know we are in the time of the end. Until this time, we are not by any means on the cusp of the Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 2:3). The doctrine of the Antichrist being revealed during the years preceding the return of Christ to Earth is actually a quote from the Old Testament book of Daniel. In this book, the Antichrist is symbolically represented as a little horn, and literally represented as a king that will arise at the End of Time.

The Book of Daniel states:

Daniel 8:23 “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.”

The Apostle Paul would have understood that the “latter time of their kingdom” would be a reference to the last days, not any time prior to them. This king would be able to understand dark sentences and be a king of fierce countenance.

There has not been a king in the history of the world between the time of Paul and our contemporary era that has practiced black magic and used it to succeed in his conquests.

In another place in 2 Thessalonians, Paul states that the coming of the Antichrist will be with “all power, signs, and lying wonders.” This fits perfectly with his quotation of Daniel 11:36 and the king of fierce countenance in Daniel 8:23. This never happened during the time in which Paul was writing his letters, so Paul is using these references to the Book of Daniel to prove his point that the Messiah had not yet come, nor would he come in a few generations.

Antichrist must be revealed first, and even then that happens on God’s timetable and not on our own ideas of the timeline. Antichrist will be the most pompous individual to ever walk the earth, literally claim to be above God and seek the worship of the world, and have the audacity to persecute Christians and Israelites that don’t bend to his will. This clearly did not happen in Paul’s time, and clearly has not happened to the modern Christian church.

Paul’s intent was clear in this letter.

The Second Coming of Christ means deliverance from the clutches of the Antichrist and the restoration of the body of Christ to a state of glory.

The Resurrection and the Rapture

Few ideas in Christianity are as hotly debated as the timing of the Resurrection and the Rapture of believers. This is for a very good reason, however, because it is one of the central themes of the Christian faith. The Thessalonians were highly unaware of the fact that mankind would be redeemed into a glorious kingdom, with new bodies to boot. Paul taught that we would be in the presence of the LORD at this time. Clearly, this also did not happen during the time that Paul was alive.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”

The fact that the Resurrection did not take place during the time of Thessalonica means that the Day of the Messiah did not arrive.

As stated earlier, the Messiah will return bodily, and in power to defeat the Antichrist. The blessed hope that all Christians await is this glorious meeting of Christ in the air. Paul clarified that the Christian man or woman will be caught up together in the clouds and then meet the Messiah in the sky.

When did this happen after 33 AD?

It simply was not an event that took place in any capacity.

This is also why Paul had to deal with those men and women who spiritualized the return of Christ.

The atonement of Christ on the cross and the substitutionary penalty placed upon Him means that His initial coming was a physical event and had physicality to it. The very same can be said about the Second Coming of the Messiah because the body in which He rose was also a physical body. In the Book of Acts, the Messiah rises into the heavens bodily and the angels proclaim that this is how He will return (Acts 1). The disciples would have clearly understood the event known as the Parousia in Greek to be a physical event. The Resurrection will also physically have an effect on believers.

Believers will be raised from the dead, and receive new bodies. Believers alive at the time of the Messiah’s return will also receive new bodies but not be resurrected from the dead to do so. In either case, physicality is a defining trait of this moment, and Paul utterly puts the issue to rest with this point by itself.

The Expectation of the Christian and the Second Coming

The mindset of the Christian believer is to be on things above and things of the heavenly realm, not simply the temporal matters of life on planet Earth.

The ultimate example of things above is obviously the Second Coming of Christ.

Paul was a man who converted and formerly persecuted the Christians in the cities around Israel, yet he transformed his life after an encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus.

This is very much a parallel to those people alive at the time of the Second Coming of Christ, who will have their own conversion experience upon seeing the glory of the LORD.

These men and women may have been wicked before but will soften their hearts and turn to the Messiah in the time before God’s wrath on the world. If these unbelievers will love the appearing of the Messiah and turn to Him (differing from outright wicked men), then the expectation of the believer is already one that must be exclusively and exceptionally strong by contrast. If a man or woman lives every step of their life with trust in God and faith in His Christ, then their ultimate reward is the transformation of their body and entrance into God’s kingdom during the time of the Millennium.

This means that the ultimate hope of Christians is the Kingdom of God and eternal life. The reward is related to such a hope, being the granting of a new body of glory after the manner of Christ, Adam, and Eve.

There will be benefits to the world at large as well. No more will the disease-ridden earth kill people in the thousands. Natural disasters will cease to be, and the violence that fills the world with war will be utterly stopped. The appearance of the Messiah a second time will destroy the system of government of man and the ramifications of sin upon the earth.

Many Christians want to live in a condition of Paradise and absolute prosperity upon the Earth and Paul gives us insight into the timeline of the Day of the LORD. While the Thessalonians were eager to spiritualize the nature of Christ’s descent to Earth, Paul stood firm and showed them that the future of the coming of the Lord would drastically alter the conditions of the world, especially the Christian world. We are to look forward to the Day of Christ as eagerly as a child waits upon his parents to return from a trip. In fact, this analogy is a perfect description of the message of Paul to the Thessalonians with regard to God and the manner of persons we ought to be before him (1 Thessalonians 3). This longing to see the LORD was apparent in Thessalonica, but it was taken in the wrong way.

We need to be careful as Christians not to fall into the trap of the Thessalonians, especially in spiritualizing the coming of Christ.

Great care must also be taken in thinking that God can come tomorrow because Paul made it clear to us that the Antichrist has to appear first before the Messiah can come. Christians are to be different from the Thessalonians in this regard because they decided to stop working and lived as though they didn’t need to provide a life for their families. Thessalonica was an example to us today, in that Christians need to understand the times in which we live, rather than live without understanding.

A lack of understanding of the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ leads to a lack of maturity in the faith.

Paul was trying to save the Thessalonians from error and life of complacency and in effect was doing them the greatest spiritual favor.

As believers of the contemporary age, we can use the example of these letters in our own faith lives. The Messiah cannot return until He is prophesied to return and we cannot live lives that betray that fact. We can’t keep thinking like the Thessalonians that He will return right now because world conditions aren’t quite up to par with the prophecies that Paul quotes just yet.

Neither can we simply ignore the idea of the Second Coming is a literal event. The Bible is clear that the Second Coming of Christ will be a literally earth-shattering event in which every person alive will know that it is happening.

Conclusions Drawn on the Second Coming

Paul was quite firm on the notion that the Messiah will come visibly before all and with great power, in order to destroy the oppression of the Antichrist and deliver His people once and for all.

The early churches were apparently in great error with rumors and ideas abounding that the day may have already come or that it would come in their lifetime. Paul described the conditions necessary for the return of the LORD, and the criteria that must have been met for it to be possible.

We do not even see all of the events necessary in our own era, and thus Christianity has become disillusioned with the thought that the Messiah could return soon.

Paul was very adamant that the Second Coming will happen and to watch for the coming of Christ, so even if all of the pieces of the puzzle aren’t quite in place that does not mean we can live carelessly as those in Thessalonica. Just because there are certain pre-requisites in place for the appearance of the Messiah again doesn’t give us a free pass to live as we please.

In fact, if anything at all can be gleaned from this idea it is the fact that God has a timeline, and should make the modern Christian realize the infinite mercy and grace of the LORD all the more.

There is a set time for the events sequentially leading up to the Battle of Armageddon and the restoration of all things. It may very well be laid out with enough time to save the very last man or woman that will come to Christ, and mercy will triumph. Paul certainly understood the need to be awake and aware, but also warned us not to get too comfortable.

The Second Coming of Christ is our blessed hope, and all would do well to heed the words of Paul in his letters.