Well, Advent is a season for waiting. Of course, we are not waiting for the birth of Christ any longer, but we are awaiting the second Advent of Christ, his return to Earth. And those two Advents are not far removed from one another, nor should they be. Christmas is a very fitting time to dwell on the return of Christ.

But will Christ return in the future one more time or two more times? That's a good question from a listener named Nick. Pastor John, thanks for this podcast. I know this is a huge debate, but I would love your thoughts. How many times is Jesus coming back? Is he coming back in the Rapture, according to 1 Thessalonians 4, 16-17, and then returning a second time to defeat Satan, according to Revelation 19, 11-21?

Pastor John, is Christ returning one more time or two more times? My understanding of the New Testament is that Jesus promised he would return, and that in this returning, he would do a final rescue for those who are trusting him, and a final judgment to those who are not believing in him.

I don't think there are two comings of Christ in the future, but only one. Most of those who believe that Christ will come twice believe that the first return, the first of the two, is the coming of the Lord to snatch away the Church out of the world, the Rapture in the question, to snatch away the Church back to heaven for seven years, usually, while the Great Tribulation happens on earth, and then a final, this is kind of the second stage, return of the Lord to establish his kingdom.

Now, I grew up in a home and a church that believed that view, called the Pre-Tribulation Rapture view, because there is a coming of Christ pre- or before the Tribulation, so that the Church is taken out and spared that time of great suffering from the Lord at the end of the age.

But the more I studied this for myself, even as a teenager I can remember thinking about this, I just could not find two comings in the future for the Christian Church. I asked once a very reputable Old Testament scholar, really scholarly Old Testament scholar, I asked him once, who believed this view, what's the most important text that persuades you that before Christ comes in judgment, he will come earlier to take the Church out of the world and then only return in judgment years later, seven years later, or three and a half, maybe?

His answer was unhesitating. He said, Revelation 3.10, which says this, "Because you have kept my word," Jesus is talking to the Church, "Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth." In other words, he thought that that verse taught that Christians would be taken out of the world before God brought a great trial or tribulation on the world.

But does it? God's promise to keep us from the hour of trial probably doesn't mean that we are taken out of the world, but rather that God will keep us from the faith-destroying effects of the hour of trial. He will guard us; he will protect our faith. In fact, 1 Peter says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you." I don't think it's a New Testament teaching that God rescues his people from trial but protects them through trial.

Now, that's not a good enough answer to the view. The passages that settled the matter for me were 2 Thessalonians 1 and 2 Thessalonians 2, and both of these chapters talk about the coming of the Lord, the second coming, in a way that makes two comings, one to rescue and one to judge, extremely unlikely, if not impossible, in view of what these verses say.

So here's 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 6 through 8. Now listen for how Paul treats the coming to give relief to Christians and the coming to give affliction to unbelievers as one coming, both relief for us and affliction at the same time. Here's what it says. I'll read it. Verses 6 of 2 Thessalonians 1.

"God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you." So there's the two things that are going to happen. He regards it as just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Now I think that's very clear and teaches that Christ is coming again, and when he comes, he will repay unbelievers with affliction, and he will grant relief to believers. And he says these two things happen "when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven." So this is one coming, not two.

That's the first text that persuaded me. Then the next chapter goes like this. This is chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians 1. "Now concerning the coming of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, and our being gathered together to meet him," or gathered to him, "we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come already." So someone had said to these Christians that the day of the Lord has already come, and Paul is arguing that can't be.

Now how easy it would have been for him to say, "It can't be because I'm still here. I haven't been raptured away." He didn't say that. That's not what he said. He said—this is verse 3 now—"Let no one deceive you in this way, for that day," the Lord's day that he just referred to, "that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction," verse 8, "whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by his appearance and his coming." So just like chapter 1, there is one coming, and Paul says it hasn't happened yet because the man of lawlessness, that is, the Antichrist, has not been revealed.

And when that happens, then he said the second coming will happen, and it won't be to snatch Christians away, but to kill the lawless one with the breath of his mouth and the appearance of his coming. Now Nick refers to the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4, wondering if that refers to a first of two more comings followed by a later one.

Here's the key verse, verses 16 and 17, "The Lord himself will descend from heaven with the cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be," here's the key phrase, "caught up," this is the rapture, "will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." That is sometimes called the rapture, and that's no problem.

I got no problem calling it a rapture. "And so we will always be with the Lord." Now my understanding of these verses, and I don't see any reason to think otherwise, is that yes, indeed, we will rise to meet the Lord in the air. That's what it says. "Like a great welcoming crowd, and then we will descend with him in his triumphant arrival." And I recall how stunned I was when I was, I think, 23 years old, maybe 22, how stunned I was when I first saw that the word "meet," "caught up to meet the Lord in the air," is used two other times in the New Testament, Matthew 25, 6, and Acts 28, 15, and in both of these places.

It is a group of people going out to meet someone and accompanying them back into the place you just went out from. So all my thoughts about this being a rising to meet the Lord in the air and then returning to heaven for seven years evaporated. That is not the intention of that verse.

It's a rapture in the sense that we rise to meet the Lord in the air, and then like a great band of welcoming, we come back with him for his established judgment and rule. So my answer is that there is one great, glorious, second coming of the Lord in our future.

He will come once more to give relief to his church and judgment to his adversaries and to establish his kingdom. And I say, and I'm sure we all do, with the early church, the next to last verse of the Bible, "Come, Lord Jesus." Amen. That is our prayer as we look ahead to 2019.

"Come, Lord Jesus." And such a desire is not far removed from the Christmas season, which is a perfect time to focus on the coming of our glorious Christ, for whom we wait as well. I know it's in those quiet moments in the season when I settle my heart and fix my eyes on God that I feel what it's like to live inside of a long wait.

Now for the second advent of Christ's return. It's a great way to celebrate the first advent of Christ in Bethlehem. Well, speaking of the season, December is a big month for us here at Desiring God. Nearly 40% of our annual budget comes to us in December alone. 40% from our generous ministry partners.

40% of the funds for our year-round work arrives in this last month of the year. And if you are blessed by the many resources we offer free of charge, like the Ask Pastor John podcast, would you consider donating this month? You can do so at DesiringGod.org/give. Thank you so much.

And I know a high proportion of our financial partners listen to the podcast every day, so let me just say thank you to each of you for making this podcast and the ministry of Desiring God possible. And again, to become a financial partner, you can do that at DesiringGod.org/give.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you next week. Bye until then. . . . . . .