Christ’s Second Coming in the Psalms

This is the 12th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com. 

The second coming of Christ often is linked with the moral struggle between God and his creatures. Psalm 2 is a good example. The psalmist describes the world’s rejection of God’s sovereignty, and then declares God’s purpose: 

“I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” I will declare the LORD’s decree. He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with an iron scepter; you will shatter them like pottery.”

Ps. 2:6-9

God fully intends to respond to the nations’ rebellion against him. He installs his Son as king of the earth. Consequently, the kings of the earth are exhorted: 

So now, kings, be wise; receive instruction, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling. Pay homage to the Son or he will be angry and you will perish in your rebellion, for his anger may ignite at any moment. All who take refuge in him are happy.

Ps. 2:10-12

Another prophecy of the second coming is Psalm 72, likely a coronation prayer used when one Davidic king dies and another comes to power. But it’s more than that. It looks forward to the ultimate Davidic king – Messiah – and his reign on earth. Messiah’s dominion is “from sea to sea” (v. 8). Kings and nations serve him (v. 11).

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Satan: Master of Disguise

The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

The apostle Paul writes: “For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no great surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works” (2 Cor. 11:13-15, emphasis added). 

Paul continues to expose the “super apostles” in Corinth for what they are: deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. They present a triple threat to the church as they proclaim “another Jesus,” “a different spirit,” and “a different gospel” (2 Cor. 11:4). And yet, the church welcomes them with open arms. That’s because the “super apostles” successfully disguise themselves as true apostles. They don’t necessarily oppose the apostle Paul, but they claim to have eclipsed him in spiritual gifts and public ministry. 

For example, their speaking skills are far superior – or so they say – and their boldness in the church projects a contagious confidence that Paul seems to lack, as evidenced by his humility and self-inflicted poverty (2 Cor. 10:10; 11:5-10). If that isn’t enough, Paul’s physical presence is “weak” (2 Cor. 10:10), no doubt in part from the beatings, stoning, shipwrecks, and other hardships he faced as he carried on his apostolic ministry.

The “super apostles” likely are physically fit and attractive, while Paul, if alive on earth today,  would never make it on Christian television. In all of this, the false apostles are rotten to the core but come wrapped in the clever disguise of eloquent purveyors of the gospel.

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He Will Judge the Nations

This is the 11th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com. 

The second coming of Jesus is implied in hundreds of Old Testament prophecies that center on future judgment of the world and a coming kingdom of righteousness. Jesus and the New Testament writers elevate these ancient prophecies and apply them to the unfinished but guaranteed future work of the Savior.

One challenge of messianic prophecies is their compressed view of the future. We see predictions of a Suffering Servant who is despised, rejected, and sacrificed for our sins (Isa. 53), along with visions of a Davidic king who comes in power, judging the world and setting things right (Ps. 110). 

Are the Suffering Servant and Davidic king separate individuals, or are they one person conducting two major campaigns to redeem a sinful and fallen world?

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Satan: A Cunning Seducer

The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

The apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians: “But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be seduced from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if a person comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit, which you had not received, or a different gospel, which you had not accepted, you put up with it splendidly” (2 Cor. 11:3-4, emphasis added).

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul depicted Christ as the last Adam and second man in order to show how Jesus’ death and resurrection reversed the effects of the Fall and secured a glorious future for us (1  Cor. 15:45-49). Borrowing from that analogy in his second letter, Paul now likens the church to a second Eve. As Adam and Eve became one flesh (Gen. 2:24), Christ and the church are joined in a covenant relationship. 

The image of salvation as betrothal between Christ and his followers is consistent with first-century Jewish marriage customs involving two separate ceremonies: the betrothal,  and the nuptial ceremony that consummates the marriage. Usually, a year separates the two events, yet the betrothed young woman legally is regarded as the man’s wife and obligates herself to remain a virgin. The contract is binding; only death or a formal bill of divorce may end it. If the betrothed woman cheats on her husband, she is considered an adulteress. She may be banished under Roman rule or stoned under Old Testament law (Deut. 22:23-27). 

Since Paul spent considerable time planting the church in Corinth, he feels a personal responsibility, as spiritual father, to ensure the church’s faithfulness to the Lord. But in his absence, Corinthian believers have welcomed seducers into the church – self-proclaimed “super apostles” who teach “another Jesus,” “a different spirit,” and “a different gospel” (2 Cor. 11:4-5). 

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The Testimony of Angels

This is the 10th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com. 

Angels proclaim the return of Jesus in at least two New Testament passages. In the first, “two men in white clothes” tell the apostles Christ’s return is to be a mirror image of his ascension, which they have just witnessed. In the second, an angel flies high overhead, announcing to the earth’s inhabitants that God’s hour of judgment has come.

Acts 1:10-11 – While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven.”

Jesus has instructed his apostles to remain in Jerusalem until they receive the Father’s promise of the Holy Spirit. Thus empowered, they are to be Christ’s witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Then, Jesus ascends into heaven with a cloud taking him out of their sight (Acts 1:4-9). 

In the apostles’ minds, this may harken back to the ascension of Elijah in 2 Kings 2. After the prophet’s dramatic exit in a whirlwind, accompanied by blazing horses and a chariot of fire, Elisha receives a double portion of Elijah’s spirit to carry on the prophetic ministry. 

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