In Acts 1, a group of Jesus’ closest followers watched him ascend into heaven, into the presence of God himself. They were promised that he would return in the same way they’d seen him go.
From their later writings it seems clear that they were expecting this to happen very soon, at least within their own lifetimes.
And yet here we are, nearly 2000 years since that moment on the Mount of Olives in Acts 1. Jesus still has not returned.
Why not?
What is God waiting for? What is he doing? Is he doing anything? Is he simply watching?
Why has he allowed 2000 years of suffering and injustice to go by? Why did he (apparently) sit idly while two world wars ravaged the human race, while communist regimes killed people in the tens of millions, while poverty and starvation continue to devastate the global south, and while viruses and sickness continue to spread across the world?
A few weeks ago I argued that God isn’t morally or legally obliged to save us from any of these things, whether they are caused by our own mistakes or whether they’re natural phenomena, so I’m not going to ask that same question again.
This week I’m simply going to ask: if God promised to send Jesus back, why hasn’t he already done so?
What is he waiting for? Are there things that need to happen first? Is there a fixed “date” God has in mind? If so, when might it be and why? Or does the world need to reach a particular state or condition before Jesus will return?
What does the Bible say about the return of Jesus?
The date is unknown
Jesus himself said: But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father (Matthew 24:36).
I’ve known many people who have tried to pinpoint the exact date of Christ’s return by using a combination of time periods mentioned in the Bible, significant events in history, and sometimes the art of numerology.
(Note: if you’re unfamiliar with the term ‘numerology’, in the context of Bible study it’s the idea that numbers mentioned in the Bible have some sort of meaning associated with them. For example, the number 7 is often said to be associated with completeness or perfection. While there are certain numbers that crop up repeatedly in Scripture and may be intended to carry an implicit meaning alongside their simple numerical value, there are very few cases in which I think this can be taken seriously).
I think these efforts at calculating the date of Jesus’ return are ultimately misguided and unwise. Jesus himself said that he didn’t know. If it was possible to work it out through careful examination of numbers and time periods in the Bible, don’t you think Jesus would have worked it out himself? Don’t you think the angels would know?
The way Jesus spoke in the verse above strongly suggests that this is something that can only be learned by revelation from God himself – and God has not chosen to reveal it to his own son, nor the angels, let alone you or me.
The concept of time may not even matter to God
In the context of “the day of the Lord”, a way of referring to Jesus’ return, Peter wrote: But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day (2 Peter 3:8).
We can only speculate as to what the passage of time looks like from God’s perspective, but we can reasonably assume it’s very different from our own. God may not even experience the concept of time passing or of having to wait. Even if he does, the 2000 years we’ve been waiting for Jesus to return probably doesn’t seem like a very long time to an eternal being.
It seems like a long time to us because most of us won’t live even 100 years. Most animals don’t live even as long as that. Domestic cats and dogs, for example, will be lucky to reach 20 years. To them the wait might seem even longer, if they could grasp the concept.
Within the Bible, dates are always recorded using human measurements. For example, an Old Testament narrative might say that a certain battle or event took place “in the Xth year of king so-and-so”. That’s how it worked – dates were considered relative to the life of the currently reigning king or queen.
Even our concept of measuring years by “AD” stands for “Anno Domini”, in other words “the year of our Lord”. The year AD 2025 is literally “the 2025th year of King Jesus”.
My point is that nowhere in the Bible do we see any dates recorded from God’s point of view, for example “X number of years since the world was first created, such-and-such happened”. This suggests his purpose isn’t necessarily bound to definable points in time the way we typically understand.
Is it conditional on the state of the world?
Could it be that Jesus hasn’t yet returned because there are certain things that God has said must happen first?
For example, many people I know would argue that God promised the Jewish people they would once again return to their homeland and re-establish their ancestral nation BEFORE the return of Jesus. One could point to the re-establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 as a fulfilment of this promise.
But 1948 happened and over 75 years have passed. Jesus still hasn’t returned.
What else needs to happen?
What does the Bible say about the state of the world when Jesus returns?
Jesus again: As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man (Matthew 24:37–39).
What should strike us here is that Jesus doesn’t predict anything out of the ordinary. Quite the opposite – people will be going through the normal motions of life such as eating and getting married.
What’s notable is that these are only things you would do if you thought tomorrow was going to continue just like today. If you were going through some earth-shattering apocalyptic crisis, you might eat and drink, but you probably wouldn’t sit down to enjoy a meal. And you’d almost certainly put off marriage until a more appropriate time.
In other words, Jesus will return when people think they have everything under control and there is no reason to expect the world to change overnight.
Paul wrote: …you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3).
Some people might suggest that the return of Christ won’t happen until the world is in such a state of utter despair and imminent destruction that God has no choice but to intervene. Perhaps a Third World War begins, this time with nuclear and biological weapons. Or perhaps climate change begins to cause irreparable damage to our ability to survive on this planet. Or perhaps a pandemic far worse than Covid 19 sweeps the globe.
However, the words of Jesus and Paul would suggest this is not what will provoke the return of Christ. Both of them foresaw life going on as normal without people worrying that there wouldn’t be a tomorrow.
What else could there be?
Here’s one possibility.
In Romans 11:25-26, Paul wrote: I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved…
This is in the context of a discussion about what’s going to happen to the Jewish population who have not become Christians. Paul teaches that God hasn’t cast them off entirely, he still considers them to be his people, and one day they will be reunited with him through faith in Jesus.
However, Paul seems to be suggesting this won’t happen “until the full number of the Gentiles has come in“.
Could that imply that instead of a set fixed date for the return of Christ, God is waiting until the full number of people he knows will accept his message have done so?
Does that mean that with each man or woman who is baptised to become a new Christian believer, one more name is crossed off that list?
This is only speculation on my part and I’d love to know your thoughts. Perhaps this can give us a little extra incentive to teach God’s word to anyone who might be willing to listen. Perhaps with each soul who listens and embraces God’s offer of eternal life, we are one step closer to Jesus returning to the earth?
Nihilist to Christian 