Objection:
Christ’s second coming is not literal but spiritual. He comes to the Christian at conversion or at death.
Answer:
There is a sense in which Christ comes to us at conversion. When we accept Him, He comes into our hearts by His Spirit and guides our lives. The spiritual experience of the Holy Ghost’s coming into the lives of the apostles was dependent on Christ’s going away. Said the Master, “If I go not away, the Comforter [which is the Holy Ghost] will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” John 16:7; 14:26. Therefore this experience of spiritual connection with Christ through His Spirit is so far from being the second coming of Christ that the fellowship is dependent on Christ’s going “away.”
When Christ spoke of His going away, He told His disciples it was to prepare a place for them. Then He added, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (See John 14:1-3). Certainly, Christ did not come to take the disciples away to the heavenly land on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Yet when Christ comes again, an outstanding feature will be the receiving of believers unto Himself.
Said Paul to the Philippians, who were converted and had begun to walk the Christian way: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6. He spoke to the Thessalonians in a similar vein when he declared to them, “ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven…” 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10. In both instances, the people addressed by Paul were converted and were instructed to look forward, “to wait” for the coming of Christ “from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus.” Paul certainly did not believe that the coming of Christ was at conversion, but rather that conversion prepared us for the glorious future event of the appearance of a personal Being who had been raised from the dead.
When Christ came the first time, His advent was literal. He was a real being among men. Even after His resurrection, He said to His disciples, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see.” Luke 24:39. What ground is there for concluding that His Second Advent will be less real? If He came literally the first time, are we not naturally to conclude, unless there is clear evidence to the contrary, that He will come literally at the Second Advent?
Not only is there no Bible evidence to the contrary, but there is also specific evidence in support of this conclusion that His Second Advent will be literal. When Christ ascended, two heavenly messengers said to the disciples, “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11. Couple with this the statement of Paul: “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Not simply a spiritual influence will come again, but “this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven.” Not even a heavenly representative, literal and real as such a representative might be, but “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven.” Thus reads the scripture.
We also read that when Christ comes, the brilliance of that coming lights the whole heavens, and its blinding glory causes the wicked to flee in terror. Further, we read that when Christ comes, the dead are raised to life, and these, accompanied by the living righteous, are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. (See Matthew 24:27; Revelation 6:14-17; John 5:28-29; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18).
Only when a person is ready to spiritualize away the most literal and apparent value of words can he support the idea that the second coming of Christ is spiritual, not literal. But when words are deprived of their most natural meaning, then there is removed the whole basis of discussion about what the Bible teaches.
The very evidence that establishes the fact that the coming of Christ is literal and that it is not to be confused with conversion shows the fact that His coming cannot be at death. The wicked do not flee in terror at the death of a righteous man, nor are the righteous raised from the dead at their death, yet the fleeing of the wicked and the raising of the righteous will characterize the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
The Advent of Christ will be so real that every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him.” Revelation 1:7.
