Responses to "Do we really want Jesus to return?"

There were two notable responses to "Do we really want Jesus to return?". One was an objection to what my original post implies and the other was a personal reflection.

Here is the objection:

This type of thinking drives me nuts, especially since I come from a tradition that has bought into it hook, line, and sinker. Absolutely, we must take the Gospel to all peoples in the world, but if our motivation in doing so is to somehow force Christ to return, we are missing the boat. Back before WWII, they thought that through working for social justice, they could create Heaven on earth and thereby force the Second Coming. Hence, all of the parachurch organizations that started in the late 1800's and early 1900's. They were wrong, and I truly believe that this new approach is wrong as well. Again, we must evangelize, but our motivation needs to be pure in doing so.

Here's my response to the objection:

It was never about forcing Jesus to come. And no where in my post was there the mentioning of creating a heaven on earth.

It is about Jesus waiting for us help complete the task of fulfilling the Great Commission.

The problem that I am pointing out is that a lot of Christians sit around speculating on date and time of Jesus' return and NOT participating in the Great Commission.

That's why I quoted from Acts 1:6-8. The disciples are all excited about finding out when Jesus would establish His kingdom. To which, Jesus reply "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority... be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth".

Jesus has already instructed them (in Matthew 24:14) that "this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."

So, Jesus was basically telling the disciples, stop wasting your time concerning yourself with when the end would come. It is not for you to know. Concern yourself with doing what you are called to do: fulfilling the condition that God had set. The end would not come until that condition is fulfilled.

This post is about yielding to Jesus' call and not just sit around and speculate on the date and time of His return.

Here is the response to my response to the objection:

You may not have explicitly stated it, but the implication is definitely there: "We can affect the time of Christ's return through our actions." I then mentioned the Social Gospel movement as an example of this type of thought. They were wrong then, and those who think that we can affect the date of Christ's return through mass evangelism are wrong now.

Absolutely we must reach out to those who have never heard, but there are many (not you, perhaps) who seem to think that the moment a group of people from the last unreached people group accepts Christ, He will return. This type of cause and effect thinking is rather dangerous, but it seems to be growing in prominence. This may not have been what you meant to say with your post, but the message is there. We must be very careful in how we think, say, and write. I applaud the message quoted above, and, if you had posted that message with that Scripture alone, there would have been no mixed signals.

My final response to the objection:

I stated that a condition must be met before Christ return. I did not state that meeting the condition would invoke Christ to return. To draw that conclusion would be an application of flawed logic.

e.g., There must be sufficient oxygen in the atmosphere before a fire can be started. It DOES NOT mean that as soon as there is sufficient oxygen in the atmosphere there would be fire.

It DOES mean that there WOULD NEVER BE fire as long as there is insufficient oxygen.

Like wise, Christ WOULD NOT return before there are believers among all the nations.

I'm simply urging the fulfillment of that precursor condition.

I believe that we agree on this issue. Our only disagreement is in how it is communicated. For some reason you believe that my statement imply that the fulfillment of that condition would force the return of Christ.


I wanted to post the response with the personal reflection because I believe there are many that share this sentiment. Here is the response:

Heck yeh I want Jesus to return to bring forth a new world without suffering, corruption, sin, rape, murder, etc.. put an end to the chaos.

However, I want to be ready When He comes back I do not to be in sin or struggling with the same strong hold sins.

I looking forward to the savior coming back.

I like the message and I do want to get involved.

Here's my response:

LOL! I hope He doesn't wait until you are not in sin and not struggling with sin before coming back. Then, He'd never come back because none of us would ever reach that state.

1 Corinthians 15:51-53
Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Luckily, we will all be changed (perfected) when He returns.

Yes, we are to pursue becoming more like Him. However, we do so by yielding to His call.

We sin because we lack the faith that He would provide for us and we grab whatever we think we need or want for ourselves.

It is by getting to know Him in which our faith is built up.

He does not need us to reach the world. He can do it Himself.

He invites us to participate in this activity with Him so that we would walk more closely with Him and get to know him.

Knowing Him more results in having faith in Him more.

Having faith in him more results in we not being as desperate and grabbing whatever we think we need or want for ourselves. Thus, we sin less.

Haven't you noticed that the ones, who throw themselves into following His call, mature much more quickly?

The cause and effect is: following His call yields maturity; not the other way around.

Actually, it's more like a chicken or egg cyclic process. Following His call yields greater maturity which yields more following His which yields greater maturity, etc.

However, the initial bootstrap step is following His call.

One can not obtain spiritual maturity on one's own; one can study on one's own to get a lot of head knowledge but that's not the same as spiritual maturity.