Question
How many times does Jesus come back, 2 or 3 times?

Answer
I believe the correct answer is once. His first coming inaugurated the Kingdom and his second coming will consummate the Kingdom. There have been many bottles of ink spilt on many hundreds of pages discussing this topic. In today’s popular theology (i.e., The Left Behind series with LaHaye and Jenkins in this timeframe and The Late Great Planet Earth with Hal Lindsey in ’70s of the last century) it is believed that there is only one coming but in two parts. Part A of the second coming is the rapture of the church. Part B is the actual coming of Jesus. This theology came from England in the middle 1800s. It is not a historic belief of the church.

You can read both sides of the subject in two older books (easy to read) that will give you enough material to make a clear decision for yourself: The Blessed Hope by George Ladd and The Rapture Question by John Walvoord.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 31st, 2005 at 7:23 am and is filed under Bible, Bible Q&A, Eschatology, New Testament.