I love advent. There’s something very special about preparing to celebrate the coming of Jesus. Plus who doesn’t love 24-days of chocolate!? Especially if they are beer flavoured caramels from M&S… But this year it’s got me thinking about the second advent i.e. the time preceding the second coming of Jesus.
The Bible accurately prophesied the first coming of Jesus as a suffering servant (Isaiah 53:1-12), and it prophecies his next coming as a victorious King (Rev 19:11-16). Many people know a bit about what happened last time: angels, shepherds, wise men, and an apocryphal donkey; but what will be behind the doors of the second-advent calendar? What will it be like the next time that prophecy becomes history? Here’s how I read it:
Yet again the focus of the drama will involve that little strip of land in the Middle East known as modern day Israel (Dan 11:40-42). Only this time, the drama will be truly global. That little land will be warred over and Jerusalem captured by a multinational army (Zech 14:2-3). Its leader (aka the antichrist) will oppose following Jesus to such an extent that he will eventually claim to be God himself (2 Thess 2:3-4).
Every nation will take a side. The UN (if it still exists) will be part of the story. Russia, China and the USA will be involved. Europe and the Middle eastern nations will be, too. What part they will play is not yet clear, but every nation will play a part: some for good, others for evil. So what do we have to watch out for? What signs show that a society is heading the wrong way?
One is the rejection of Jesus. Wherever Jesus is rejected, the apostle John warns: there is the “spirit of the antichrist1” (1 John 4:2-3). Modern atheism is clearly a manifestation of this. So is Islam2. So is the multi-faith movement. Unity among those who love Jesus is a great thing, but unity that opposes him will be terrible (Ps 2:1-3; Rev 17:12-14; Ps 83:3-5). The last time the nations tried it, God had to confuse their languages to delay their degeneration (Gen 11:6-8).
Another is an increase of immorality (Matt 24:12). New age and the occult (Rev 9:21) will be common-place. So will religions that involve idol worship (Rev 9:20). Genuine self-sacrificial love will become rare (Matt 24:12), and selfishness will be the norm (2 Tim 3:2). Parents will be widely disrespected (2 Tim 3:2). Sex will be perverted and misused (Rev 9:21). Human trafficking will continue (Rev 18:13), and the persecution of Christians will become extreme and violent (Matt 24:9).
This moral decay will lead to an increase in global suffering (Luke 21:10-11). Natural disasters. Pandemics. Famines. All with scientific explanations as well as spiritual causes (e.g. Rev 6). Armed conflicts. Racial tensions. Genocide. These things will happen, particularly to those doing the persecuting. The climax will last for 42 months (Rev 13:5) after the antichrist demands that people worship him in Jerusalem (2 Thess 2:3-4). But in the midst of these trials something quiet yet beautiful will take place.
Some people will emerge that shine with genuine self-giving love (Dan 11:35, 12:10). Those who worship Jesus through persecution, will become like him (Rev 19:7-8); laying down their lives for one another. Many will stop following Jesus when the going gets tough (Matt 24:10), but others will persevere, praying for the second-advent: crying out day and night “Lord Jesus, come back soon!” (Rev 22:17; Luke 18:7-8) And as they pray, he will hear, and with tears of compassionate love in his eyes, he will come to rescue them.
When Jesus returns, it will be bad news for those that persecuted his people. Many will die (Rev 19:21). But just like their saviour, others who have died will come back to life (1 Thess 4:16)! When they do, the “UN HQ” will move to Jerusalem, and the man who once died there on a cross will lead it (Matt 5:35, Isaiah 9:7).
Every year the survivors from the nations that fought against Jerusalem will go up to worship Jesus (Zech 14:16-17), and he will decide their disagreements and teach them how to live in peace and harmony (Isaiah 2:4). The sequel to Christmas day will last for 1000-years (Rev 20:4), and the new year will be beyond our imagination (1 Cor 2:9), and last eternally (Rev 22:5).
Every day we open another window in the “second-advent” calendar. I wonder how many days we have left?
Footnotes:
1. Or spiritual power that usurps Christ. Antichrist means ‘in-place of Christ’. This word is used by the apostle John (1 John 2:18) to refer to a real man who will become a real international leader, and who will have real political and religious ideas that will oppose and replace Jesus as the Christ (God’s chosen King), seeking instead to take his place.
2. For example, the inscriptions on the Dome of the Rock explicitly deny that Jesus is the Son of God.