The Bible is the straight-edge by which all doctrine and controversy is to be compared. This is an effort to study references to the return of Christ as carefully as possible, within the context in which they appear. The sequence of verses is that in which they appear in the New Testament.

As each one is evaluated within the context of the surrounding text, repetitive patterns emerge, and consistent unifying doctrines can be considered.

One of the tools that help identify whether or not a reference even relates to this topic is to list features that accompany the return of our Lord, and see if any of them are present with the verses being studied. We will be looking for things like angels, voices, trumpets, etc.

Jesus, in a parable where someone had corrupted a field with weeds, tells the servants to first gather, bind, and burn the weeds, and then to harvest the wheat.

The field is the world and the good seed are the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 13:39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 13:40 As the weeds are collected and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 13:41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers. 13:42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

For then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen. 24:22 And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Although the verses previous to these may have had a historical fulfillment, these verses describe a period unique to human history, and therefore can only relate to the final 3-1/2 years. The sequence in this discussion is then unbroken through verse 31

During this period of tribulation people are looking for Jesus to return, so obviously He did not arrive at the outset. In this verse he merely states that his return will be unmistakable.

“Immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken.24:30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 24:31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

The sequence couldn't be clearer: Immediately after this tribulation period He has been speaking about, unmistakable signs in the heavens take place. And then Jesus appears. The fact that His elect are gathered at this point defines this event as the rapture.

For in those days there will be suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, or ever will happen. 13:20 And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved. But because of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut them short.

But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; 13:25 the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 13:26 Then everyone will see the Son of Man arriving in the clouds with great power and glory. 13:27 Then he will send angels and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

As in Matthew, major celestial signs appear after the tribulation, and then Jesus appears to rapture His elect. It is very unlikely that there was any confusion about what Jesus was saying here, since Matthew and Mark were very different people, and yet they heard and recorded exactly the same thing.

21:25 “And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth nations will be in distress, anxious over the roaring of the sea and the surging waves. 21:26 People will be fainting from fear and from the expectation of what is coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 21:27 Then they will see the Son of Man arriving in a cloud with power and great glory.

Luke does not specifically refer to the conditions leading up to the end as the very worst time in history, as do Matthew and Mark, but there are enough similarities in verses 22 & 23 to make this obvious. He does however place the celestial disturbances and the return of Jesus in the same literary sequence.

This is an example of many scriptures that reference the second coming, but contain few clues about the timing. It is interesting however, that “last” trumpet is specified, indicating that there are earlier trumpets. In Revelation 11 the coming of Christ is associated with the last of seven trumpets (after severe plagues associated with the previous six trumpets)

For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. 4:16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 4:17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.

There are none of the features associated with the return of Jesus mentioned in this entire chapter (other than a single word incidental to the benediction).

This chapter begins with a subject change to a more general discussion on times and seasons, rather than the event of Christ's return described in detail in chapter 4. In this discussion “day of the Lord” is used instead “coming of the Lord”.

In over a third of the times it appears, the word translated as “day” refers to a period of time, rather than to a specific event. Coupled with the topic heading that introduces “times and seasons”, the absence of the word coming, and the absence of any of the other key words associated with the return of Jesus, it becomes a real stretch to apply this chapter to the second coming.

None-the-less, verse 2 is a cherished “thief in the night” verse. Verse 4 makes a distinction with a “but you, brothers and sisters are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would.”

Since we understand that no man knows the day nor the hour of Christ's return, we can see that this “day of the Lord” is most likely the period of the tribulation. This is further evidenced by the reference to “sudden destruction” mentioned in verse 3. Furthermore, by the time Christ returns, “Sudden destruction” will have thoroughly taken place.

Now regarding the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to be with him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2:2 not to be easily shaken from your composure or disturbed by any kind of spirit or message or letter allegedly from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. 2:3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion comes and the man of lawlessness⁷ is revealed, the son of destruction.

In order to reassure the readers that the day of the Lord has not yet come, Paul in verse 3, cites two events which must happen first and be observable: The apostasy – or falling away, and the revealing of the man of sin – or lawlessness. In the context, as well as within the verse itself, the current historical absence of these two sign-posts is used as evidence that the day of the Lord (His coming and our being gathered to Him in this case) has not yet happened.

Based upon this, we are being told that Christians will see both the falling away and the rise of the Antichrist, before the coming “day of the Lord.” This correlates with Daniel 11:32-35, in which the falling away is related to the rise of the Antichrist.

For the hidden power of lawlessness is already at work. However, the one who holds him back will do so until he is taken out of the way, 2:8 and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord¹⁷ will destroy by the breath of his mouth and wipe out by the manifestation of his arrival.

Verse 7 is an extremely poor translation, suspiciously tailored to reflect the dominant popular scenario. The doctrine built upon this skewed interpretation is that the “one” (which is not in the Greek) is the Holy Spirit, which is removed from Earth when Christians are raptured at the outset of the tribulation.

If you do no more than take each Greek word and translate it into its most literal English equivalent, you come up with something like: “ For the mystery of lawlessness is definitely at work only closely held back until coming out of among

It would appear that it is “the mystery of lawlessness” that is being held back until it is taken from the midst of (presumably humanity), exposed, and slain. It is not even implied that the entity that will expose and kill this lawless person is the subject of that which is being removed.

In simplest of terms, this verse merely states that there will be a point in time when this Antichrist will become identifiable from the rest of humanity.

Since all these things are to melt away in this manner, what sort of people must we be, conducting our lives in holiness and godliness, 3:12 while waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God? Because of this day, the heavens will be burned up and dissolve, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze!

Peter speaks of how we should live until the day Christ returns. He then describes this time as accompanied by extreme cosmic disturbances. All such other references place these only at the conclusion of the period of tribulation – indeed, after this there would be nothing left to “tribulate”.

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying:“ The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” 11:18 The nations were enraged, but your wrath has come, and the time has come for the dead to be judged, and the time has come to give to your servants, the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints and to those who revere your name, both small and great, and the time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

Rev.11:18 speaks of the time of the dead being judged and the saints being rewarded. In backing up to verse 15, we find hat the context and timing of this is during the sounding of the seventh (and last) trumpet. In verse 15 , we see God's kingdom established upon the earth and He himself ruling the earth forever after. Therefore, in later chapters of revelation where the rise and rule of the Antichrist is being described, we may assume that it is reiterating an earlier time in order to bring to light different aspects of that period – a common practice. The events of Rev.11:18, for example are repeated in greater detail in Rev20:12-15. The timing in both of these cases takes place after God's physical Judgment upon the earth.