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Jesus Walking The Streets
Will Jesus “Walk the Streets” When He Returns?
By Bob Ditm
“Bible Answer Man” Hank Hanegraaff was asked
on his broadcast, “What does it mean
that Jesus will actually come back?” adding, “Will I see him on the street?”
Hanegraaff, who
is president of the Christian Research Institute, said the caller would know of
Christ’s return because the second coming will “put all things right.”
Christ’s restorative power
would be seen in the universe being delivered from decay and the resurrected
bodies of believers.
Hanegraaf
said Christ’s second coming will be physical, “Jesus appears physically - of that there is no doubt. The Christian
faith is not platonic, it is physical. That is one of the reasons God used
physical objects on this Earth to point to spiritual verities.”
Whether Jesus will be seen
walking the streets is not the typical question asked about the second coming,
most deal with the various views of eschatology and how Christ’s return relates
to the tribulation.
John MacArthur was
asked a similar question, “What does it
mean that Jesus will come in the clouds?” (Revelation 1:7)
“Some have tried to allegorize Revelation
1:7 by assigning various figurative meanings to the ‘clouds.’ But there is
no need to look for hidden meanings here, for the passage means just what it
says, as do the two passages it quotes. There is nothing more to make of the
statement that ‘He comes with the clouds.’ It simply means that Jesus will
appear to all people as He comes to earth out of the heavens.”
John Stott, the late
theologian, said of Christ’s return;
“He
will return personally, for the one who is coming is ‘this Jesus’ whom the
apostles saw ascend into Heaven.” (Acts
1:11)
“He will return visibly, so that ‘every eye will see him.’” (Revelation
1:7)
“So differently from the first time, he
will return in power and glory. These words are borrowed from Jesus Himself.” (Mark
13:26)
“He
will return to complete his salvation and judgment.” (John
5:21-29, Hebrews 9:27-28)
Gavin
Ortlund, a research fellow at
the Carl F.H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity Evangelical
Divinity School envisions a similar return;
“The second coming of Jesus Christ is the
personal (He won’t send an angel in His place), visible (every eye will see Him),
physical (He will come in the body in which He was crucified, raised and
glorified) return of Jesus to this earth to consummate the salvation of His
people (Philippians 3:20-21;
Hebrews 9:28; 1 John 3:1-3), to
be glorified in them (2
Thessalonians 1:10), and
to inflict vengeance on those who have defied Him and the gospel of grace” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).
N.T.
Wright has a different view, noting “the American
obsession with the second coming of Jesus - especially with distorted
interpretations of it - continues unabated,” adding with his dry, British
wit, “Little did Paul know how his
colorful metaphors for Jesus’ second coming would be misunderstood two
millennia later.”
Wright
believes Paul’s reference to “the Son of Man coming on the clouds” (Mark 13:26, 14:62, for example) are about Jesus’ vindication, his “coming” to heaven from earth. The
parables about a returning king or master (for example, Luke 19:11-27) were originally about God returning to Jerusalem, not about
Jesus returning to earth. This, Jesus seemed to believe, was an event within
space-time history, not one that would end it forever.”
Paul’s
description of Jesus’ reappearance in 1 Thessalonians 4 “is a brightly colored version of what he says in two other passages, 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 and Philippians
3:20-21: At
Jesus’ ‘coming’ or ‘appearing,’ those who are still alive
will be ‘changed’ or ‘transformed’ so that their mortal
bodies will become incorruptible, deathless.”
Wright
says Paul’s “rich metaphors” are not
to be understood as literal truth but rather “as a vivid and biblically allusive description of the great
transformation of the present world of which he speaks elsewhere.”
Whether we see Jesus walking
the streets following a dramatic return to earth a second time is debated, but
there is one thing on which all agree; believers
will one day walk with Him on streets of gold.
Bob Ditmer has
worked in Christian media for more than 20 years including positions with Ravi
Zacharias International Ministries and Focus on the Family.
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