What is the Second Coming of Christ?
The short answer
The Second Coming is the Church's belief that Jesus, who rose and ascended, will return at the end of history in glory — to raise the dead, judge the world, and bring God's kingdom to its fullness. We don't know when, and the Church warns against anyone who claims to. It is the completion of a victory Christ has already won.
Full explanation
At the heart of the Creed is a line we say so often we may forget how startling it is: "he will come again in glory." The same Jesus who lived, died, rose, and ascended is not finished with history. He will return — not quietly and hidden as at Bethlehem, but openly, in glory, to bring everything to completion.
The key to understanding this rightly is the phrase "already, but not yet." In his death and resurrection, Jesus has already won the decisive victory over sin and death. The outcome of history is no longer in doubt. But the victory is not yet fully worked out in the world we see, where evil and suffering still rage. The Second Coming is the day that finished victory becomes visible everywhere at once — when, as Scripture puts it, every tear is wiped away and God is "all in all." Until then, the Church lives in the in-between, working and watching.
What will the return involve? Scripture and the Creed tie several things together: Christ appearing in glory, the dead rising, the Last Judgment, and the final coming of God's kingdom in a renewed creation. The Church also soberly acknowledges that before the end, God's people may face a final great trial of faith. But the tone of Christian hope is not dread — it's expectation. The earliest Christians prayed, simply, "Come, Lord Jesus."
One thing the Church is firm about: no one knows the day or the hour. Jesus himself said so plainly. Every attempt to crack a code, read current events as a secret calendar, or name a date has been wrong, and Christians are warned not to play that game. The point of "be ready" was never "calculate the date"; it was "live each day as someone who belongs to Christ, so that whenever he comes you are found loving and faithful."
Why this matters
Belief in the Second Coming keeps Christian hope from shrinking into mere private comfort. It says history is going somewhere — toward Christ — and that good will not be quietly defeated in the end. That fuels two attitudes at once: patience, because the final setting-right is God's to bring, not ours to force; and urgency, because we're called to live now as people ready to meet him. It also guards against two opposite errors — despairing that the world is beyond hope, and arrogantly trying to engineer the end ourselves.
Myth Common misunderstanding
The biggest distortion is treating the Second Coming as a puzzle to be decoded — matching headlines to prophecy and predicting dates. The Church rejects this flatly; Jesus said no one knows the time. A second misunderstanding is imagining Christians should therefore disengage from the world while "waiting for the end." The opposite is true: precisely because Christ is coming, we're meant to work for justice, love, and the good now, building what will last.
Scripture connections
- Acts 1:11 — at the Ascension, the promise that "this same Jesus" will return as he was seen going.
- Matthew 24:36 — "about that day and hour no one knows," the clearest warning against date-setting.
- Matthew 24:42-44 — "stay awake," because the Lord comes at an unexpected hour; readiness, not prediction, is the point.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 — Paul's vivid picture of the Lord's coming and the raising of the dead.
- Revelation 22:20 — the Bible's closing prayer, "Come, Lord Jesus," the posture of Christian hope.
Church teaching references
Reflect
If you genuinely lived as someone expecting to meet Christ — not in fear, but in readiness — what is one thing you would start doing, or stop doing, this week?