Since He left in A.
D.
30, people have been trying to predict the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 24:36 clearly states that no one knows the day or the hour when Jesus will return.
Which return is being discussed here? You can predict the second coming of Jesus Christ if you know which coming Jesus is talking about in Matthew 24.
Actually, you can! No, I'm not trying to dispute the Bible, and I am no crank Biblical scholar trying to twist words and trick people into believing something that is not true.
You can predict the second coming of Jesus.
Let's discover how.
Since we're talking about the second coming, when was His first coming? Many believe that His first coming was at His birth; therefore, the next time He comes back will be His second coming.
This is a valid belief, and one that we will hold to in this article.
However, there are going to be two events that occur regarding Jesus' return to claim His Bride, the church and reclaim His earth.
The first event will not be a return to planet earth.
This event will occur in the second heaven, the stellar and atmospheric heavens.
The return here will not be His second coming.
Paul writes about this return in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel's voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air...
" Paul describes the "rapture" of the church, Christ's body.
That is the return Jesus is talking about in Matthew 24:36 of which no one knows.
This meeting in the clouds by the members of the Lord's church is the one Jesus is talking about in Matthew.
After all, He is speaking to the members of the first church when He makes the above statement.
Many theologians and uninformed pastors and lay people do not believe in the rapture.
However, there are many Biblical proofs that it will happen-this scripture being one of them.
So how can you predict the second coming of Jesus? It's easy, really! I want to look at one more scripture in Matthew 24 where Jesus talks about the Great Tribulation (vv.
15-28).
Here Jesus mentions the "abomination of desolations standing in the Temple" (v 15).
He goes on to explain that for the Jews, "those in Judea, on a Sabbath, the Temple," all things that pertain to Jews, to flee Jerusalem and go some place else.
For the Jews there "will be great tribulation, the kind that hasn't taken place from the beginning of the world until now...
"(v 21).
The Jews will experience persecution greater than they have ever experienced.
Greater persecution even than the persecution they suffered under Hitler.
That's why they need to get out of Judea and Jerusalem when they see the desolation about which Daniel warned them.
Now comes the predictable part I mentioned earlier.
In verse 29 of Matthew 24, Jesus says, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days: the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light; and the stars will fall from the sky, and the celestial powers will be shaken.
" When is this event to take place, right after the tribulation of that day! How long is the tribulation to last? Daniel tells us in chapter 9 that it will last seven years.
What will happen after these seven years? Jesus' second coming to Planet Earth happens! How do I know? Matthew 24:30 Jesus says, "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth will morn.
" Can you really predict the second coming of Jesus Christ? Yes because Jesus told you that immediately after the tribulation period that Daniel wrote about, I will be back.
You can learn all about Daniel's predictions in the first part of our study of Revelation.
Order your copy below.