“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, and they also who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him …”
— Revelation 1:7
Have you ever noticed how different people perceive the same event as either good news or bad news depending on their perspectives? Well, when Christ comes again, that’s exactly what will happen.
When Jesus came the first time, He brought good news for all the world. He came to prepare a way for us to spend eternity with Him in Heaven. Freely He offered Himself to us, even unto death on the cruel cross. And through these twenty centuries, He has continued to reach down from Heaven with His pierced hands to lift up human souls.
But when Christ comes again, the time of grace will have ended. All who have given their lives to Christ will rejoice, for they shall finally go to their true home, Heaven. But all who do not belong to Christ will experience the most awful disaster possible. They will lose everything in that hour. Nonbelievers even now realize they will have no hope when faced with the end of the world as we know it. “The best we can hope for,” said the unbelieving British philosopher Bertrand Russell, “is unyielding despair.” The French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre echoed, “Unyielding despair, and upon this foundation, we must build our lives.” Nobel Prize-winning scientist and evolutionist Harold Clayton Urey said, “I am a frightened man myself. All the scientists I know are frightened—frightened for their lives— and frightened for your life.”
In that day when the stars begin to fall, the unbeliever’s fear will be justified; for destruction and everlasting fire will descend upon those who did not believe in Christ. But today the sun of His grace still shines in the sky, and the offer of salvation still stands: “Come unto me,” He says, “and I will give you rest.” I encourage you to share this offer of salvation with friends and family who have yet to believe. Strive that, in that moment that Christ returns, all around you may experience His coming as good news.
“What death is to each man, the Second Coming
is to the whole human race.”
C. S. Lewis