He is Coming, by Randall Smith

During Advent, we are preparing for Christmas, but the readings are mostly about the Second Coming of Christ.

Some scholars say there is ambiguity in the Scriptures about the Second Coming.  They claim that when St. Paul says that “we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord” in 1 Thessalonians 4:15, he believed he would not die before Christ’s return.  In 2 Corinthians 5, he suggests that he will not live till the Second Coming, but after His death, He will be with Christ in glory.  In either case, Paul says that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”

Some passages in the Scriptures suggest that the kingdom of God is not coming soon, but in the more distant future. In Luke 19, in the parable of the talents, Christ tells the story of a nobleman who goes into a far country “to receive kingly power and then return.” Luke tells us that Jesus told this parable, “because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately,” and He wanted to correct this error. …