Shane Legler

A few weeks ago, someone asked if I’d heard about all the people who had gotten stirred up by a prophecy of Jesus’ coming. Apparently, some pastor in South Africa had posted on a social media site that Jesus was going to return at the end of September this year. Of course, his dates had already slipped, but the return date had been revised to early October, which has now passed without the Lord’s return. That this man was wrong about the day of Christ’s return wasn’t surprising to me in the least. However, it was a bit surprising that the post went viral because so many were willing to believe he knew the day of Christ’s return.

The Scripture is clear about this. Our Lord Jesus has told us “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man,” reads Matthew 24:36-39.

Therefore, if anyone should ever come along saying that they know the day or the hour of Jesus’ return, do not believe them. Is it not arrogance for anyone to say that the father has revealed to him what he did not reveal to either the angels of heaven or to the son himself? When anyone is willing to believe something flatly contrary to the Scripture, which cannot be broken, he is needlessly setting himself up for failure. This is exactly what our first mother did when she listened to the old serpent, who got her to question God’s word.

With that understood, there have been a multitude of Christians from the Ascension of Christ until now who have expected that Christ would come in their lifetimes, and that, in this pastor’s opinion, is as it should be. Only the father knows the day and the hour of the Lord’s return, but every Christian knows that he is coming again to judge the living and the dead. The last thing the Lord Jesus says to his bride in the Scripture is “Surely I am coming soon,” as stated in Revelation 22:20. Therefore, every single believer should live daily in the hope and sure expectation of the Lord Jesus’ sure return. 

That was the Lord’s intent for us, regardless of how much distance may be between us and the resurrection on the timeline. Of course, there are many worldlings that chuckle and laugh when a prophecy that was never true in the first place doesn’t come to be. There are many who mock Christ and the church saying, “where is he? When is he coming?” I pity those who speak this way. They know neither the Scripture nor the power of God. 

The Lord has already spoken of them saying, “scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming?’ For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation … But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed,” reads 2 Peter 3:3-4, 8-10.

If you are not in Christ Jesus, it is for you that he tarries. On the day that he comes, the wicked will remain wicked, and the righteous will remain righteous. The time for repentance and forgiveness will be over. That day will be pure joy for Christ’s own, but it will be a day of reckoning for all who refused to have peace with God through repentance and faith in Christ. Nonetheless, God’s people should yearn for that day. We should live in the hope that every day will be the day.

The Lord has admonished us to always live in the expectation of his swift return saying, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes,” says Matthew 24:45-46. If we are truly loving Christ and keeping his commandments, our hearts cry will be that of the bride of Christ in every age “Come, Lord Jesus!” And if we should find that we do not welcome his coming, then let us turn from our sin and seek his face while it is yet called today, for it is the father’s heart that we might be able to yearn for the day of Jesus’ sure return rather than tremble at it.

(Shane Legler is the pastor of Powell Church of God.)