"I will come again."

"I will come again." What a promise from our Lord! Yet there has been a consistent blindness from the very beginning to the true meaning of these words—a blindness even going back all the way to those who first heard this comforting pledge from His own lips. The indisputable fact is that when Christ made this startling declaration on the eve of His betrayal, not one of His astonished disciples understood what He meant. Even John the Baptist, though chosen by God to introduce the Messiah to Israel, was as ignorant as were Christ's sworn enemies, the rabbis, of the momentous truth that two Messianic comings had been prophesied.

Blindness to Old Testament prophecies created great confusion concerning Christ’s identity and the purpose of His first advent. If we are to gain accurate insights into the Second Coming, we must go back to discover the reasons for the misunderstandings when Christ first came. We must also make certain that we do not fall prey to a similar confusion.

The problem was not skepticism concerning the prophesied coming of the Messiah. Almost everyone in Israel in Christ's day was looking for that promised One- today. But that He should come twice was and still is unthinkable heresy to a Jew. Surprisingly, a similar prejudice against the thought of two comings of Christ being yet future is growing even in the evangelical Church.

The Mystery of Two Comings Remains

Christians have no problem with two comings of Christ, if one is in the past and one in the future. He came once, and will come again as He promised. That there are yet two comings still in the future, the Rapture and the Second, Separated by seven years, is not generally accepted in the Church. Yet we will see that the Bible indicates that Christ's promise, "I will come again," refers not to one event but two, seven years apart. The rejection of this fact in our day is creating a severe misunderstanding among many Christians, a misunderstanding similar to that which caused such confusion at Christ's first advent.

For the Jews in Jesus' day, the thought of two comings had serious implications. It could only mean that the Messiah would be rejected the first time, perhaps even killed. Otherwise, why would He have to come again? At the very least, it would mean that His mission would be aborted and the Kingdom not established. Yet the Kingdom was the very reason for the Messiah’s coming. It had to be established! That He would come twice was, therefore, unthinkable!

The same view prevails among Jews today. Visit Israel and ask any Israeli if he or she is expecting the Messiah. Almost without exception the answer will be in the affirmative, some even declaring with conviction that He is somewhere on the carth already, waiting to be recognized. And what about two comings?

No, it couldn't be possible that He has already come - certainly not that Jesus was the rejected, crucified

The ultimate purpose of the Messiah's coming is clearly stated in Scripture: establishing a Kingdom of everlasting peace. Jesus didn't do that. It is, therefore, reasoned that He couldn't have been the Messiah. Whoever establishes peace in the Middle East and throughout the world—and it will be established temporarily—will be hailed as the long-awaited Messiah by Israel and the world. That man, for whom the entire world waits, will, in fact, be the Antichrist. "Him ye will receive," said Christ (John 5:43), all for a lack of understanding what the prophets have said!

Truth by Implication

There is absolutely no excuse for such ignorance today. Nor was there any excuse when Jesus came the first time. The Hebrew prophets, whose utterances concerning Messiah's advent comprise a major part of Scripture, had clearly indicated that He would come twice. After coming to Israel through a lowly virgin birth, He would leave this earth. Then, after a period of great persecution for Jews worldwide and their return to their homeland, He would come again in glory and power to rescue His chosen people at Armageddon and rule the world from Jerusalem. It was all there in the writings of the prophets for anyone who had eyes to see. Oddly, however, the meaning was hidden even from rabbis who read the Hebrew prophets daily.

Of course, the specific words “two comings of the Messiah” or “Messiah will come twice” were not to be found in the pronouncements of the prophets. The truth was there by implication only. All that the prophets had revealed concerning the Messiah obviously could not occur in one-time frame and one event. There were seeming contradictions, which could be reconciled in no other way than by two comings. For example, He would be "cut off out of the land of the living" (Isaiah 53:8) yet He would "prolong His days [forever]" (53:10); He would be rejected and killed (53:3,9) yet would reign forever (Isaiah

9:7). The deduction was inescapable. The Messiah had to come twice. It was as simple as that.

Despite the most diligent study of the Scriptures, not one rabbi in Israel at the time of Christ’s first advent comprehended the two comings of the Messiah. Rabbi Nicodemus, in contrast to the other religious leaders, believed that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God. Yet even he did not understand that the Messiah had to be rejected and slain.

Surely had he understood, he would have attempted to point out the relevant prophecies to his colleagues, but he did not.

How was such blindness possible? Even more important, could it happen again? Astonishingly, a prophetic ignorance of equal magnitude characterizes our own day. This is true among both Jews and Christians, making a book such as this not only necessary but urgent.

A lack of interest in the Rapture and the Second Coming (the distinction between the two will be examined later), and the ignorance that inevitably accompanies indifference, have settled like an obscuring fog over the Church. Few, indeed, are the Christians today who could point out and explain the meaning of the key Old Testament prophecies of which Christ's contemporaries were so tragically ignorant. This is true even among those who pride themselves on their general knowledge of God's Word.

"I will come again!" After nearly two millennia, that wonderful but as yet unfulfilled promise remains shrouded in misunderstanding. What should be one's attitude today concerning this solemn promise made by Christ to His disciples and to each of us? If the promise is to be taken literally, then why such a long delay?

Yes, a long time has passed since Christ pledged to return. No matter how many centuries have come and gone, however, the One who conquered death must be taken seriously— both as to His promise and the warnings He uttered — lest His return take us by surprise and find us uninterested and unprepared.

Unfortunately, the same prophetic illiteracy which contributed largely to the rejection of Christ the first time He came is still with us and could have equally serious consequences upon His return. Our purpose is to clarify the misunderstandings and bring Christ’s promise into focus again. It is, of course, axiomatic that without a proper understanding of Christ's first coming one could hardly expect to have any real insight as to His Second Coming.

Jewish Lineage of the Messiah

Genesis 3:15 gives us the first promise of the Messiah's coming and explains the purpose: to destroy Satan and to rescue mankind from God's judgment. Nine chapters later we learn that the virgin-born

descendant of Abraham (12:3). How else could a blessing come to "all the families of the earth" except through the Messiah?

Next we learn that through Isaac's lineage all the world will be blessed (Genesis 26:4); then we are told it will be through the sced of Jacob (28:14). The Messiah's ancestral line is further narrowed down to the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10), then the family of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1) and finally to the house of David

(2 Samuel 7:12-16; Psalm 89:3,4,28-36; Jeremiah 23:5).

No wonder the New Testament begins with the genealogy of Jesus. It is traced through Joseph in Matthew 1:1-16 (though not His father, he was head of the house), and through Mary, his mother, in Luke 3:23-38, beginning there with Joseph's father-in-law, Heli. That Jesus descended from David was essential, for the Messiah had to fulfill every relevant prophecy and His lineage was foundational. As Christ emphasized to His disciples: Numerous and very specific are the Old Testament references to the coming Messiah: That He would be born in Bethlehem (the city of David), that He would be called out of Egypt, that He would live in Nazareth, that His own people would hate and turn Him over to the Gentiles, who would crucify Him. Many more details were prophesied, as we shall see. Why? A major reason, of course, would be so that the Messiah, when He came, could be identified beyond any shadow of doubt.

Any honest investigator cannot deny that Jesus of Nazareth’s life, death, and resurrection fulfilled all of the requisite prophecies to the letter. The evidence establishes beyond question that Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Messiah.

His first coming to carth is an indisputable fact of history. As Peter declared in his second sermon in Jerusalem to thousands of Jews who had been eyewitnesses and knew the facts about Jesus:

(Acts 3:18

Acts 3:18 KJV 1900

18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.

As Christ's first advent fulfilled God's promises to His people—promises which the Hebrew prophets recorded centuries earlier in the Old Testament—so His second advent will fulfill in equally precise detail numerous additional prophecies. Therein lies the only source of information we have concerning Christ's return.

The genealogical records were destroyed with the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Since that time, therefore, it has been too late for any would-be Messiah to prove himself to be a descendant of David. Such inability, however, will not inhibit the Antichrist, for, as we shall see, he will be received, even by Israel, without regard to the Messianic prophecies.

That the Messiah would be a Jew and that His coming would be first of all to His own people is a matter both of history and prophecy fulfilled. That He must come again specifically to His genealogically related people, the Jews, is also plainly stated in the Scriptures. Thus we must come to an understanding of the Messiah's relationship to Israel, and of the role of Israel in both advents, or we cannot gain an accurate insight into either the Rapture or the Second Coming.