Why Christ Must Return

Scripture predicted a time when skeptics would mock the very notion of Christ's return: "Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming?'" (2 Pet. 3:34). There is no shortage of voices raising that chorus today.

For example, one group of self-styled authorities on Scripture claims to have discovered (using the techniques of modern literary criticism) that Christ did not even actually say the great majority of things attributed to Him by the New Testament. The so-called Jesus Seminar, a group of 200 liberal Bible scholars, convened to try to reach a consensus about which sayings of Christ are "authentic." This was deemed necessary because these particular scholars had already concluded that most of the words attributed to Christ in Scripture are spurious additions to the Gospel accounts. Their collective final decisions about which sayings are authentic were made by majority vote. The Seminar's verdict was no surprise to anyone familiar with liberal theology's approach to Scripture. These "scholars" concluded that of the more than 700 sayings attributed to Jesus in the Gospels, only thirty-one are unquestionably authentic — and more than half of those are actually duplicate statements from parallel passages. So all told, according to the Jesus Seminar scholars, only about fifteen of the New Testament sayings attributed to Jesus represent words He actually said.

In addition to the few statements they accepted as authentic, the scholars of the Jesus Seminar listed several more sayings they regarded as questionable but possibly authentic. They flatly rejected more than 80 percent of the words of Christ in Scripture — including, of course, all the major passages in which Christ promised His Second Coming.

"Where is the promise of his coming?" According to the Jesus Seminar scholars, Jesus made no such promise in the first place.

That kind of hard-core skepticism under a scholarly veneer is being mass-marketed widely these days. And the doctrine of the Second Coming is a particular target. One author writes:

Jesus says: "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."

How could Jesus have been wrong about his return? A group of bible scholars known as the "Jesus Seminar" have studied the sayings of Jesus using the most recently discovered copies of ancient biblical manuscripts, other historical writings directly related to the times of Jesus and the early Christian church, scientific writing-style analysis, and other tools. After years of intense study and debate this group has come to the general consensus that over 80% of the words attributed to Jesus in the New Testament were not his words at all, but the interpretations and additions of early believers.

It is very important to remember that nothing Jesus said was written down for at least an entire generation after his death. Stories of his words and ministry were circulated solely by word of mouth. This historical fact of the Oral Period is not disputed by any reputable bible scholar. ... As difficult as it may be for bible-believers to accept, objective scholarly analysis has shown that the words of Jesus have been highly corrupted by the beliefs and words of early Christian believers.

In the first place, that author misrepresents and grossly overstates the significance of the Jesus Seminar's work. The Seminar's findings have absolutely no "scientific" authority. They are merely the pooling of liberal opinion — little more than sheer conjecture grounded in sinful unbelief and skepticism. And it is misleading in the extreme to suggest that the liberal conclusions of the Jesus Seminar are "not disputed by any reputable bible scholar." The statement itself betrays the circular reasoning and closed-mindedness that is so typical of liberal "scholarship"; any scholar who disputes their theories is automatically regarded as not "reputable."

Nonetheless, multitudes have bought such lies — and chiefly, it seems, many clergymen. A few years ago I read about a survey given to a group of Protestant pastors at a church convention in Evanston, Illinois. Ninety percent said they have no expectation whatsoever that Christ will ever really return to earth.

The result of all this skepticism from so many scholars and clergy is that a whole segment of society regards the hope of the Second Coming as unenlightened nonsense and mindless fundamentalist fantasy. The arrogance of the scoffers has practically gained the status of conventional wisdom.

But Scripture is neither vague nor equivocal on the promise of Christ's return. A large proportion (by some accounts, as much as one-fifth) of Scripture is prophetic, and perhaps a third or more of the prophetic passages refer to the Second Coming of Christ or events related to it. It is a major theme of both Old Testament and New Testament prophecy.

And regardless of what the scoffers say, Jesus is coming. World history is barreling toward a conclusion, and the conclusion has already been ordained by God and foretold in Scripture. It could be soon, or it could be another thousand years (or more) away. Either way, God is not slack concerning His promise. Christ will return!

One ironic thing is that we live in a time when even the scoffers are in a state of rather fearful expectation. The frightening potential of worldwide destruction exists on several levels. Even the most impassioned secularists must acknowledge the very real potential that the world as we know it could end at any time — through nuclear war, a nuclear accident, an energy crisis, various ecological disasters, new killer viruses like AIDS (or worse), or even a cosmic collision of some kind. In fact, most people recognize that this world cannot exist forever. And we face constant reminders of this. For nearly the whole of the twentieth century, an unremitting string of books, articles, scientific studies, and even Hollywood productions have assaulted the public consciousness, warning us that if we do not collectively change the way we're living, we're going to go out of existence along with our little planet. In fact, the most vocal doomsayers today are not people who expect the return of Christ, but secularists who have recognized that this world and all life on it inevitably will end someday. They are right. It will end, but not because of ecological irresponsibility or human destructiveness.

How will it end? Can we know? Yes, we can. The Bible gives a very clear, direct answer. The world as we know it will end with the return of Jesus Christ. The history of the world will climax in His literal, bodily return to the...