“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to each according as his work is” (Revelation 22:12 MKJV).
What a carrot this false teaching of the Lord’s physical coming has been, dangled before the noses of the religious masses as a titillating and sensational prospect that masks the futility and barrenness of their empty professions of faith. How many have died waiting for Christ’s “soon” return, thereby missing present communion with Him on account of a pie-in-the-sky promise? They are “ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the Truth,” which Truth is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did the Lord come to give people vain hopes or abundant life presently? Do those who seek find, or has the Lord left everyone high and dry since His resurrection and ascension? Is the call to faith in Christ a game of musical chairs, a salvation lottery in which only a lucky few over the millennia get to experience the Lord’s appearing and presence? Not at all!
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1 MKJV).
“And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:20 MKJV).
How can the Lord fully save us, if He doesn’t come now and transform us into His image by His Spirit? So what is all this talk about Christ “returning soon,” as if He hasn’t returned and doesn’t come presently to those who look diligently for Him?
“And to those who look for Him He shall appear the second time without sin to salvation” (Hebrews 9:28 MKJV).
Does that mean He will appear only to those who look for Him and are lucky enough to be alive at the right time? Does the Lord play games? Of course not. His return hasn’t been delayed for going on two thousand years now, but took place fifty days after He rose from the dead, just as those who saw the Lord ascend were promised He would return to them:
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into the heaven? This same Jesus Who is taken up from you into Heaven, will come in the way you have seen Him going into Heaven” (Acts 1:11 MKJV).
“I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18 KJV).
The Lord returned at Pentecost, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. In this way, He came to not only be with His disciples, but to live in them. The disciples were immersed in His Spirit, made one with Christ as part of His Body.
Ephesians 5:30-32 MKJV
(30) For we are members of His Body, of His flesh, and of His bones.
(31) “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two of them shall be one flesh.”
(32) This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.
This return didn’t only apply to the disciples who knew Christ in the flesh, but to all who have been called by God ever since:
“Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ to remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all those afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call’” (Acts 2:38-39 MKJV).
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, which is He. Those baptized in the Spirit are baptized into Christ:
“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many as were baptized into Christ, you put on Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27 MKJV).
Christ returned to be present with and in His people, even as He said to Saul of Tarsus, who had been persecuting Him as he persecuted His people:
Acts 9:1-5 MKJV
(1) And Saul, still breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest
(2) and asked letters from him to Damascus to the synagogues; so that if he found any of the Way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
(3) But in going, it happened as he drew near to Damascus, even suddenly a light from the heaven shone around him.
(4) And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”
(5) And he said, “Who are you, lord?” And the Lord said, “I am Jesus Whom you persecute. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
Why should a believer pay heed to the perpetual talk of the Lord’s “soon” coming by those who haven’t experienced His present coming? These same carnal Christians who promote a physical return of Christ reject Him when He comes in His brothers and sisters who have received His Spirit, just like the carnal Jews rejected Him in His flesh and blood:
“For many deceivers have entered into the world, who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the anti-Christ” (2 John 1:7 MKJV).
Those focusing on the Lord’s “soon” coming have taken Satan’s bait, because, like him, they savor the things of man – the flesh and this world. By “waiting” for the Lord to return, they can keep their miserable lives in this world, rather than take up the cross to die and be raised to life with Christ now and forever:
“And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:26 MKJV).
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 KJV).
Satan has made Christ into a physical savior of the flesh, substituting this false Jesus for the Savior of men’s spirits and souls by the cross. The physical savior is the one of the “second coming” preached by men, and the true Savior is the One Who comes and empowers those who believe in Him to walk in the light.
Men have preached a literal coming of the Lord in order to perpetuate the lie that by “accepting” Christ as your Savior, you’re good with God. Instead of seeking Him for present deliverance from sin, you can look forward to an incorruptible body after death, or experience victory upon the Lord’s “soon” return to earth, when He comes to judge the world and delivers His people out of the mess of their own creation. In other words, you’re off the hook and can relax – all will be well.
Of course, this is wishful thinking, skipping the present necessity of putting away sins and taking up the cross, which the Lord accomplishes in those granted repentance, who go on by faith to receive His Spirit and overcome the sin nature by His resurrection life within. This is the keeping, in spirit and in truth, of the three mandated holy Feasts – Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. (Read The Three Degrees.)
The spiritual coming of the Lord, which is crucial for every believer, isn’t a historical event, but a personal one, promised to every child of faith:
“And may the God of Peace Himself sanctify you in all things: that your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23 DRB).
Without this coming, there’s no sanctification (setting apart to holiness), so how can He not come for us, unless He has lied, along with all the apostles who preach His true, present coming?
Having established, therefore, that the coming of the Lord applies to every true son and daughter of faith, we by no means deny the other momentous event that all saints have been eagerly looking forward to – the consummation of God’s Kingdom on earth. The disciples asked about this:
“And as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the world?’” (Matthew 24:3 MKJV)
We should first note that the disciples weren’t asking about a second coming, because they couldn’t receive or comprehend the death and resurrection of the Lord, which was to take place:
Luke 18:31-34 MKJV
(31) And He took the Twelve and said to them, “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.
(32) For He will be delivered to the nations and will be mocked and insulted and spat on.
(33) And they will scourge Him and put Him to death, and the third day He will rise again.”
(34) And they did not understand any of these things. And this saying was hidden from them, nor did they know the things which were spoken.
They were expecting something to happen more immediately:
“And as they heard these things, He added and spoke a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and because they thought that the Kingdom of God was about to appear immediately” (Luke 19:11 MKJV).
The Lord answered His disciples about the end of the world according to what they needed to hear and know about what would be happening in their lives (which principles apply to all believers):
“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34 KJV).
Nowhere did the Lord say He would appear physically to them, and He didn’t. He even warned them against those who preached His physical appearing:
Matthew 24:23-26 MKJV
(23) “Then if any man shall say to you, ‘Lo, here is Christ! Or, There!’ Do not believe it.
(24) For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders; so much so that, if it were possible, they would deceive even the elect.
(25) Behold, I have told you beforehand.
(26) Therefore if they shall say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the desert!’ Do not go out. ‘Behold, He is in the secret rooms!’ Do not believe it.”
After His resurrection and before He ascended into Heaven, the Lord confirmed that the physical establishment of His Kingdom with Israel wasn’t an issue for His disciples to be concerned about:
“Then, indeed, these coming together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, do You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?’ And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His Own authority‘” (Acts 1:6-7 MKJV).
The restoration of Israel was far in the future, as was the setting up of God’s Kingdom over all the earth, as spoken of in Daniel and Zechariah:
“You watched until a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image upon its feet, which were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces together. And they became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:34-35 MKJV).
“And the LORD shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be One LORD, and His Name One” (Zechariah 14:9 KJV).
So there is the coming all believers experience, the promise of the Father:
“The One testifying these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly. Amen.’ Yes, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20 LITV)
“Grace and peace be yours from God, Who is, Who was, and Who is to come…” (Revelation 1:4 GNB).
This is the Kingdom of God ruling within:
“But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom” (Matthew 26:29 MKJV).
And there is the consummation of the Lord’s work in His Body, His Kingdom come to rule forever without:
“For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was not willingly subjected to vanity, but because of Him Who subjected it on hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God”
(Romans 8:19-21 MKJV).
Here is a concise summary of this topic from another page on our site:
From David Owuor – Another Self-Exposed Fraud:
Nine: His site says, “The Lord has commanded him to preach Repentance and Holiness and completely return to GOD in order to prepare the way for the Second Coming of The Lord.”
Shouldn’t men repent of sin at all times, never mind with an imminent appearance of the Lord? Besides, men have been speaking of the Lord coming again ever since Paul, John, Jude, and Peter preached, nearly two millennia ago. They all seemed to think He was coming in their day. Did Jesus come, or were they mistaken? It so happens they were right; He did come, but not as men surmise.
Just before His death, Jesus Christ told His disciples He would leave them and then would return. He returned from the grave. He then ascended into Heaven and returned again at Pentecost, coming even to dwell in them.
Forty years later, He came again – an event commonly called Judgment Day or the Day of the Lord – when General Titus with his Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, as Jesus had prophesied.
He came to, and confronted, Saul of Tarsus, asking him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” How was Saul persecuting Jesus? Jesus Christ dwelt in each of the saints Saul was threatening, murdering, and casting into prison; He wasn’t removed from the earth.
Jesus came and came again. He continues to come, but not in a physical, literal body, as men expect in their carnal minds. Jesus Christ comes in His people, in His Body (that’s what’s happening here, as we expose a false prophet by His Spirit).
That isn’t what Owuor is saying about the Lord’s coming. If he was a man of God, he would know how Jesus comes, but Jesus has never come to him, so how could he know? And what does he know of holiness, to which he claims to be calling people, given all the things we have witnessed with him?
Consider the alternative to believing this doctrine: Instead of hoping and waiting for something that has never happened to any saint, you can seek and receive by faith what many saints have had, a fulfilling relationship with the Lord and Savior here and now. Then you will come with Him rather than miss His coming, or worse still, resist His Spirit in an empty profession of faith.
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