We believe in the second coming of Christ.
We believe in the literal second coming of the Lord.
Jesus comes to us at conversion, empowers us through His Spirit, and lives with us through His teaching and the sacramental life of the Church. However, Jesus will also come again “in like manner as we have seen Him go” (Acts 1:11). The Second Coming is thus a literal event that will occur in an actual space and time.
When Jesus returns, He will rule the earth. The “kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of the Lord and His Christ” (Revelation 11:15).
Jesus already rules His kingdom, which He began to govern during His incarnation. The prophets said that the government would be given to Him and of the “increase of his government there shall be no end” (Isaiah 9:7). This is already a reality, and all Christians acknowledge it, which sometimes brings them into conflict with the kingdoms in which they live. However, the Lord will one day rule visibly and literally.
The ancient prophet’s vision will be fulfilled when a day arrives in which “men will beat their swords into plowshares...and neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4). This government of peace already exists in part but will someday become fully visible to all nations.
We also believe in the resurrection of the dead, the central hope of all humanity. Christians believe that death, our last enemy, will one day be destroyed.
Someday, the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more. Someday the land and sea will give up their dead. Someday the redemption of our mortal bodies will become a living reality.
Some of the resurrected dead will live forever in the presence of the Lord. Some, sadly, will be resurrected to an eternal separation from God.
Finally, we confess that history is marching toward a divinely appointed goal. The ultimate end of time and space as we know it does not depend on men and women, kingdoms, or the capricious whims of natural events. The end will come about based upon the predetermined plan of God.
Jesus told us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth even as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). One day that prayer will be answered, for the future is securely in the hands of the eternal King who rules His eternal kingdom.
Christ Church recognizes the various ways in which Christians explain the prophetic teaching of the Bible and does not view any particular school of prophetic interpretation as a test of biblical orthodoxy. We attempt to give freedom for reasonable differences while confessing together the clear message of Scripture that Jesus will return and that time will one day be no more.