To the first person (Click Here for the first article: Does Jesus’ Return Matter For Us To Study?) — some of the most common questions and statements I hear sound like this.
- Why are there so many interpretations of Jesus' return?
- It's way too complicated to understand.
- I don't even know where to start on the subject to better understand it.
- Isn't just knowing that he's coming back enough?
I have a lot of sympathy for your average Christian who wants to know more — but doesn't know where to start and I genuinely want to help. We will create as many resources as we can to help better understand this topic — so — stay with us and you'll start to get a better footing over time.
More often than not — the few times people have tried to understand this they see their relative posting on social media how President Obama is the anti-christ, the Catholic church is the beast in revelation, and how we need to buy packs of ammo to prepare for the apocalypse that the global elites are trying to initiate while they shame anyone who would dare to question them.
So, I would like to humbly present an alternative approach to this that brings clarity, a reasonable place to start, and doesn't require you to take a "trust me bro" approach.
I'm not here to tell you what to believe — I am here to convince you that the subject is important and point you in a direction of where to start better understanding it for yourself.
Why It's Important
There's many ways to approach answering this question — but I want to keep it simple.
The easiest, most concise, and clear answer on why it's important to understand this is because Jesus said so and I trust Jesus.
Simple enough.
There are more reasons that I could list out around how it's directly tied to the strength of your hope, discernment, love, and ability to navigate increasingly spiritually tense times — but ultimately there is no greater reason than simply saying, "If Jesus said to do it that's enough for me."
You could line up every pastor, priest, and pope throughout history and if everyone of them said to me "This subject doesn't matter so much — don't waste your time on studying it. It's a secondary issue — and we really shouldn't divide over it." and it wouldn't change what Jesus said.
Ultimately — we are all Christians before we are Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Reformed, Lutherans, Charismatics, or my personal favorite — non-demnominational.
So — what does Christ say?
Jesus directly talks about his return in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 as the most explicit passages.
In all of them he leads with saying:
"See that no one leads you astray"
on the topic of his return. Well — how do you avoid being led astray?
He continues to say —
"Let the reader understand"
and warns us that the very reason he told us these things beforehand is so we would not be led astray or deceived. He's relying on his disciples to read, understand, and obey what information he goes over in regards to his return.
I promise you — the more we trust Jesus, listen to what he says, and obey what he commands the better it will go for us. There are great blessings in the understanding that comes with studying truth and living according to it.
I could write a much lengthier article providing practical, inspirational, and really thought provoking reasons why this is important in the hope to grab your imagination in a way that spurs it into obedience — but truth be told — the older I get the more I'm happy to take Jesus at his word and obey. If that's not enough — I'm not sure we should be relying on any other type of motivation.
As the Psalmist says and Paul echo's —
"We believe — so we speak"
I believe Jesus is telling us to understand this subject for our own good and so I speak about the importance of it. It's that simple.
Where to Start
Ok — you may be thinking — "I believe it's important — but I genuinely have no idea where to start. Help?"
And I say to you — "Happy to!"
Ultimately this subject is one that could spiral into a hundred different directions and very quickly justify why people are hesitant to study it in the first place. In this article I am not laying out what my framework or conclusions are — that will come later — what I want to do for you is point you to a flow of Scripture to read on this subject that helps you have your initial footing placed in a logical place to better understand this.
Jesus 2nd Coming Scriptural Road Map
- Start with Matthew 24 — read it first without stopping then read it again while taking time to really break down the major warnings and events Jesus talks about.
- Read Mark 13 and Luke 21 after this to simply reinforce and fill out the context more — as the majority of the themes are repeated.
- After you've read and had initial exposure to these chapters — move to Revelation 6 and try to see what similarities you see between what Jesus said in the gospels and the vision he gave John in Revelation 6. Both messages are from Jesus — and it's helpful to show consistency and coherency between his messages.
- After this read 1 & 2nd Thessalonians — as these were both Epistles written to a group of people specifically about this subject. Key in on 1 Thes 4-5 and 2 Thes 2.
- Wrap it all up by reading 2 Peter 3.
After you've done this — it's important to really pray over and meditate on the message given in 1 Thes 5. Our job as Christians is to stay alert, to stay sober, to have discernment. There's a reason that Jesus told the parable of the 10 Virgins in Matthew 25 (if you aren't familiar with this passage I would recommend reading it.) right after he discussed the events around his return.
Don't assume just because you are a "Christian" you aren't a sleeping Christian.
Our desire here at Breachpoint is to wake up as many Christians up as we can — and there's no more effective topic at doing that than the message that there is that God fixed a day when Jesus would come back and judge the world in righteousness and because of that we should be living holy lives as a result.