The Signs of Christ’s Coming (Part 3)

 

4.  The Strength and Glory of the Lord

with power and great glory. (24:30b)

As already seen in the cataclysmic events that will shake the heavens and earth at the end time, Christ’s return will be accompanied by incredible demonstrations of His divine power over the universe, including Satan and his demons. He will demonstrate

• His power to protect His chosen people,
• His power to redeem the elect,
• His power to restore the devastated earth, and
• His power to establish His rule on earth.

In His great power the Lord will conquer and destroy all His enemies, including ungodly men who followed and worshiped the beast, by casting them into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20). He will also “make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness” (Dan. 9:24).

In the restored and purified earth the destructive nature and instincts of wild animals will be radically reversed to make them docile and harmless. No animal will attack or molest another animal or any human being, and the carnivorous will become vegetarian.

The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze; their young will be down together; and the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isa. 11:6-9)

By His power Christ will eliminate drought, floods, crop failures, and starvation.

“And it will come about in that day” declared Zechariah, “that living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter” (Zech. 14:8).

Along with those overwhelming demonstrations of Christ’s divine power will be equally spectacular manifestations of His great glory.

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne” (Matt. 25:31).

Adam and Eve had a glimpse of God’s glory as they walked and talked with Him in the Garden of Eden.

• The children of Israel had glimpses of it in the pillar of fire that led them through the wilderness, and
• Isaiah had a glimpse of it in his heavenly vision.
• Peter, James, and John had a glimpse of Christ’s glory on the mount of transfiguration, when “His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light” (Matt. 17:2).

Many years later, Peter was still awed by that experience, declaring,

“We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased’ — and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain” (2 Pet. 1:16-18).

But no human being has yet seen the full unveiled glory of God in Christ, and no one will ever see it until Jesus appears at His second coming and all mankind sees Him at once. At that time no one will have to ask who He is, for He will be perfectly recognized by every human being on earth. There will be no mistaking His identity then as there was when He came in His incarnation. All mankind will see the Son of Man in His full glory and immediately recognize Him as God—though all will not honor Him as God.

5.  The Selection by the Angels

And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. (24:31)

After the unrepentant ungodly have been judged and destroyed, and the repentant mourners have trusted in Christ and been saved, He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect. Among their other responsibilities, angels are God’s gatherers. In that day they will be used to gather unbelievers for judgment and punishment (Matt. 13:41, 49) and believers for reward and glory.

In ancient Israel, as in many ancient lands, the trumpet was used to announce important convocations, and the sound of the angel’s great trumpet will signal the assembling all of God’s saints on earth, from wherever they might be, from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. Many of them will doubtless still be hiding in caves, fearful for their lives.

The gathered ones will include the 144,000 Jewish witnesses, their converts, and the converts of the angelic preachers. They will include the Old Testament saints, gathered out of their graves and joined with their redeemed spirits. Those will all be assembled together before Christ and ushered into the glory of His eternal kingdom.