When Will Jesus Come Back?

The short answer: Nobody knows the date, and Jesus said so Himself. Christians disagree about the order of events at the end of history, but they all agree on the main thing: Jesus will return in person, visibly and gloriously, to raise the dead, judge the world and make all things new. The right response isn’t to calculate the date but to be ready.

Maybe you’ve seen the videos: a war, an earthquake or a strange sign in the sky, with a voice explaining that it all fits a prophecy and the end is just weeks away. Maybe they scared you. Maybe they made you roll your eyes. Over the centuries, many people have announced the date of Jesus’ return. Every one of them has been wrong.

What Jesus said

He was strikingly clear: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36). When His disciples pressed Him, He said, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority” (Acts 1:7). Anyone who claims to know the date is claiming to know more than Jesus said He knew while on earth.

Where Christians agree

The fact of His return is not in question. When Jesus ascended, angels told His watching friends, “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). It won’t be secret or symbolic: “every eye will see Him” (Revelation 1:7). “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Every major Christian tradition confesses this in its creeds: He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Where Christians differ

Much of the debate centres on Revelation 20, which speaks of believers who “reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4). Faithful, Bible-believing Christians read it in different ways:

• Premillennial. Jesus will return before a literal thousand-year reign on earth. Many who hold this view also believe in a “rapture,” when believers are “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17) before a time of great trouble. Others in this view think the church will go through that time.
• Amillennial. The “thousand years” is a picture of the present age, in which Christ already reigns from heaven. One day He will return once, the dead will be raised and the final judgement will take place.
• Postmillennial. The gospel will spread so widely that the world will see a long age of flourishing, and after that Christ will return.

Each view has thoughtful defenders who love Jesus and take the Bible seriously. You can hold your view with conviction and still have warm fellowship with Christians who hold another. This is one of those secondary questions.

Why the delay?

People sometimes mock: “He said He’d come soon, and it’s been two thousand years.” Peter answered that long ago: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8). And then: “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The waiting is mercy. Every day He hasn’t returned is another day for someone to come home.

How to live while you wait

Jesus never told His followers to work out the timetable. He told them to be ready: “you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44). Being ready doesn’t mean nervously watching the news. It means living today as someone who belongs to Him: trusting Him, obeying Him, loving people and telling them about Him.

The return of Jesus isn’t meant to frighten His people. Paul calls it “the blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). John says, “when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). If end-times videos make you anxious, switch them off and talk to a Christian adult you trust. Then make the Bible’s last prayer your own: “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

Think about it: If you knew Jesus would come back tomorrow, what’s one thing you would want to put right today?

Go deeper: The Key Teachings of Charles H. Spurgeon — shows how Spurgeon, a man in constant pain, looked forward to Christ’s personal return and the resurrection of the body, and notes that he refused to set dates: the fact of the return mattered more to him than the timetable. Start with chapter 23, “For Ever with the Lord”.