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“He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom shall have no end.”
Part One
In certain liturgies (communion services) after the Words of Institution, the celebrant and assembly proclaim:
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
And I know of no such liturgy that does not allude to the return of Jesus Christ — “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (I Cor. 11: 26).
But since the passing away of the first generation of believers, the notion of Christ’s return has often been difficult to hold onto: “First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!”[1]
Of course, this verse emphasizes “the last days” not “now.” The return of Christ has not yet happened, obviously, and we are some 1900 years past those words. Eschatology, the study of the Last Things (from Greek eschaton) has several conflicting schools of thought: even what “apocalyptic” means is contested. Doubts such as those expressed by “the…
