Good magicians can be especially successful in their craft if they are able to divert the attention of the viewers away from where the real action will take place to some glimmering, though unimportant, object.  In a similar way, when some Christians talk about the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ, which is important in and of itself, they almost immediately direct attention away from its scriptural context, through which it is properly understood, to other attention-grabbing matters that spark the curiosity and interest, though which in the end leave believers unmoved, even uninterested, in terms of such weighty matters as grace, faith and holiness.  

The path for this shift in attention, this diverted interest, was paved in the early twentieth century by the publication of one of the most popular Bibles of all time, namely, the Scofield Reference Bible, which first appeared in 1909. Among other things, this Bible championed the teachings of John Nelson Darby, an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher, who is considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism. Darby reconfigured the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ in two key ways. First of all, he divided the doctrine into two, with Christ coming at one point secretly in the clouds to gather up the saints and take them to heaven, otherwise known as the rapture, and then coming once more, which looks like a third time, in power, glory and triumph with these (and presumably other) saints to judge the earth. Second, the rapturing of the saints, being caught up with Christ in the clouds of heaven, was now presented by Darby as if it were a huge secret, a mysterious and elusive matter, and not as Scripture views it, that is, as an event that is climatic and therefore both public and undeniable. Consider the words of the Gospel of Matthew: “For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt 24:27 NIV). There’s nothing secret about that. 

These odd theological moves became enormously popular among American evangelicals since they were championed by the wildly successful book, The Late Great Planet Earth, written by Hal Lindsey in 1970 (over 35 million copies sold), and by a series of books (over 80 million copies sold), along with a popular film, a quarter of a century later, otherwise known as the Left Behind Series, produced by the Evangelicals Tim Lahay and Jerry Jenkins. With the popularity of these works in place, the attention of believers was directed to idle speculation, looking-glass timetables of the future, and a burgeoning curiosity, even an excitement, about awe-evoking events that in this schema were not always seen as the truly cataclysmic events that Scripture everywhere portrays them to be. Who celebrates judgment? Who delights in condemnation? Surely not the people who have been taught by their Lord to love their enemies.

If Christian believers turn around and orient themselves not to what is popular and vain, but to truth and sheer goodness, by focusing unswervingly on what Scripture has to say about the Second Coming of Christ, then a much different picture will emerge. Now the emphasis will be not on speculation but on transformation, not on an intellectual head game, but on personally challenging repentance, not on a fleeting and empty curiosity, but on the substance, the genuine good, of lasting Christian formation in holiness beginning right here and right now. But the misdirection, oddly enough, is even far more extensive than this. To be sure, it is not simply the case that the scriptural context of this salient doctrine is in fact a clear and unequivocal call to serious Christian discipleship today, but it is also much more than this, a “more” that may help to explain why Dispensationalists among others have, by and large, ignored it. What is this “more,” this further call of the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ, deeply rooted in Scripture, that has so often been neglected in a sea of very popular misdirection? It is none other than a momentous and ongoing clarion call for nothing less than heart purity or entire sanctification, yes entire sanctification, precisely in order to be prepared for the astounding and overwhelming realities of that glorious day when Christ comes again.

If you doubt this basic, though often neglected truth, consider the clear biblical evidence which has often been either ignored or outright repudiated. First of all, the Apostle Paul, in reflecting on the Second Coming of Christ, offers a prayer that believers may be entirely sanctified, what John Wesley in his own day had referred to as Christian perfection, precisely in preparation for this climatic event: “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thess 5:23-24 RSV).

Second, Paul continues in this vein in the Pastoral Epistles, in his letter to Titus in particular, in which he not only refers to the glorious appearing of Christ, a commonplace by now, but he also teaches that Christ, himself, will purify his people and sanctify them entirely. He writes: “while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:13-14 NIV).

These connections between eschatology, on the one hand, and entire sanctification or Christian perfection, on the other hand, however, are not simply a Pauline teaching. Beyond this, John the Evangelist, in his First Letter of John also connected the scriptural truths of the glorious return of Christ to the earth and the reality of heart purity among genuine believers when this climatic event occurs. Consider the following evidence: “But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). Put another way, in affirming the blessed hope, believers prepare themselves, obviously through the rich grace and ministrations of God, for this coming awesome reality, that is, for the revelation of who Christ is in beauty, power and glory, by “purifying themselves, just as he is pure.” Eschatology then becomes an invitation not to a speculative, date-setting head game, but to robust Christian discipleship today even to the extent of heart purity in preparation for all that is to come.

Second, John connects heart purity, entire sanctification, with the very confidence that believers will have when Christ comes in the day of judgment as revealed in the following: “In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17 RSV). Observe the standard, or better yet the promise, of what is actually being offered here. Believers will be so like the One in whom they have believed, in a perfection of holy love, that they will have confidence, strong, bold and free, and will therefore not turn away in shame when Christ appears. However, curious head games, uncovering mysteries, heated late night dorm room debates over end time chronologies, all leave the self utterly at the center of its own life unperturbed, for such preoccupying concerns have driven out the far more important narrative of real lasting holiness. It’s now clean gone; it’s nowhere to be seen. 

Ah, but there is at least one last retreat for those who do not want to face the clear biblical teaching on this salient issue and who instead would like to switch out holiness for vain curiosity. Indeed, when some Christians stumble upon the biblical reality of heart purity or entire sanctification that other Christian traditions have repeatedly affirmed (Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Methodism, for example) they immediately try to explain away the necessity of such a change for all believers with the comforting bromide that such a teaching, if it can even be acknowledged at all, is actually only for those great saints, those exceptional ones among us, and clearly not for the majority of people sitting in pews on Sunday mornings. Once again, however, such an evasion of clear scriptural teaching falls flat on its face in terms of eschatology in general and of the Second Coming of Christ in particular.   

Who then will be at the Second Coming of Christ? Will it just be for the spiritual marathon runners among us, if you will? To answer this pertinent question the earliest writing of the Apostle Paul must be considered, that is, his First Letter to the Thessalonians. In this work, observe which Christian believers will actually be with Christ as the Lord descends from heaven with a loud (not a silent or secret) command: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; NIV).  

Did you catch that? The dead in Christ will rise first. In other words, every genuine Christian believer from the past who has died in sanctifying graces will be there whether it be Augustine, John of Damascus, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Sienna, Catherine of Genoa, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Susanna Wesley, John Wesley or William and Catherine Booth. All of these precious saints, and so many others, will be there with Christ in glory. Add to this great cloud of witnesses those believers who will yet be alive at Christ’s coming. What will happen to them? They will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so they will ever be with the Lord. 

In light of Paul’s teaching, then, every real Christian, every saint, whether dead or alive, who has ever lived upon the earth, and time makes no difference here at all, will undoubtedly be at this climatic event. In other words, every saint will be at this earth-shattering happening in the proper order as established by Christ himself. Accordingly, the Second Coming of Christ is every real Christian’s future. And it’s a future that’s unavoidable. It’s coming, regardless of what people think about it or whatever late night debates they have had; it simply cannot be stopped. It should therefore be on everyone’s personal and prophetic calendar who are and remain in Christ for who knows when his appearing will be? Indeed, at this stupendous event, which causes the wicked to flee and to hide behind the rocks, the saints will then see the beautiful and glorious Lord, no longer hidden in suffering, in the form of a servant, and no longer seen through a glass darkly, but now seen face to face in radiant glory, the glory of the divine presence. Imagine then what it will be like to look into the face of Jesus unabashed and unafraid because believers in anticipation of this encounter have already been transformed in being by the power of the Holy Spirit. They have been like the wise virgins who had trimmed their lamps (Matt 25:1-13). Perfect love casts out all fear: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18 NIV).   

Since these truths are richly attested by Scripture, how then should Christian believers live today? Ah, now that’s the right question! There’s no evasion here. Should they continue to roll the dice and play the end time board game or perhaps they should make the effort and buy a few cards and play Second Coming bingo, and thereby trifle away their time, graces and talents in idle speculation and empty curiosity. Remember anyone can play; just bring your cogitating intellect. Or maybe they should buy any number of Second Coming scratch offs, so to speak, and see how it will all play out. And if they’re lucky enough, they might even end up with a card that lets them off the hook, in which suffering and tribulation will always be for the other guy, but of course never for them. Wouldn’t that be just wonderful? After all, the saints, the chosen of God, do not suffer, right? Is this what heaven looks like? Add to this odd mix any number of books and films that will create the right kind of atmosphere, a fictional account much of which will never actually happen. Such materials as used by some may not only enhance the overall experience by making it both fun and exciting, real, pass-the popcorn entertainment, but they may also soon take the form of just another commodity to be consumed in any number of formats and of course easily available online. Isn’t salvation both fun and exciting?

However the Scriptures cited above paint a much different picture. They clearly associate heart purity with the serious preparation necessary in order to see the glorious Christ face to face. In other words, the Second Coming of Christ itself is an awesome motivating factor, a genuine impetus, for earnest Christian believers to finally embrace all of the grace that God has in store for them, even their entire sanctification. Therefore, all who have the hope of his coming, if they are wise, will heed this prudent counsel, for “all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).   

The Second Coming of Christ then, when the smoke and mirrors are swept away, is nothing less than one of the greatest engines of motivation for serious Christian discipleship that there ever was. Beyond this, it underscores the necessary, not optional at all, of entire sanctification for every Christian believer in this life. Indeed, among the saints, where it has been warmly embraced, such a call has done its sanctifying work in the past; it is currently doing this same work today, and it will with undoubtedly do such work in the future. Again, the Second Coming of Christ is an gracious invitation to that holiness apart from which no one will see the Lord (Heb 12:14) “But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Who knew?