What Will Happen When Jesus Returns?

The Second Coming of Christ will be a glorious, worldwide event like nothing we’ve ever seen before. It’s the culmination of what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross.

In the context of eschatology, it’s important to remember that the Second Coming isn’t necessarily the end of everything. It marks a transition from who humanity was, and who we can become if we choose Jesus Christ as our Savior.

Given the magnitude and significance of this event, it’s no surprise that many questions surround it.

What leads up to this? How can we tell when it will happen? Will we be able to see it? Who can be saved? What happens to those who have already died? What about Satan and His angels?

Like any heavy topic, it’s best if we take it in piece by piece:

Do we know for sure Jesus will return?

We know there will be a Second Coming of Christ because it was told to us in the Bible as His “first coming”—when He came to the earth as a baby, lived a sinless life, ministered to those around Him, and died for the penalty of sins so we could have a chance to be redeemed.

When His earthly ministry was finished, He had to depart from them and be carried up into heaven (Luke 24:51). His disciples watched as He was taken up and a cloud received Him out of their sight (Acts 1:9).

“…While they [the disciples of Jesus] looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven’” (Acts 1: 10, 11, ESV).

Jesus is coming again. He said it Himself.

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3).

Just as the disciples, “through the Holy Spirit, would receive power to be witnesses for Him to the ends of the earth“ (Acts 1:8), so are we called, to not only look forward to His return, but to hasten the coming of the day of God by spreading this wonderful message (2 Peter 3:12).

The promise is sure and recorded. He will return!

What will the Second Coming be like?

Christ’s return will be a truly global event. Like nothing the world has ever seen.

While the world has experienced events that affect every part of the globe, this will be an event the entire world population will experience together.

His Second Coming will be literal, global, and glorious. A joyous occasion as Jesus comes back for us.

And we can know that this signals the end of an age of a sin-riddled world. As described in the book of Titus, this is “the blessed hope…”

“It will be said on that day,

‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, that he might save us.

This is the Lord; we have waited for Him;

let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation’” (Isaiah 25:9, ESV).

A literal, physical event

The Second Coming will be an actual event everyone will experience. No one will be able to miss Him “coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him” (Revelation 1:7, ESV).

Matthew 24:27 describes it as similar to how “lighting comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (CSB).

This isn’t a metaphorical event to represent a spiritual achievement or awakening. And it isn’t a phenomenon that happens secretly, or on some different plane of reality. This is Jesus physically doing what He promised He’d do when He ascended back to heaven after His earthly ministry.

What we will hear

1 Corinthians 15:52 tells us that “the trumpet will sound.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16 describes Jesus descending from heaven “with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God.”

We may hear shouts of praise, wonder and adoration, as the Apostle Paul quotes Isaiah when talking about the Day of the Lord, “every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God” (Romans 14:11, CSB).

What we will see

It will be like nothing we’ve ever seen before. And like the verse we just read in Revelation 1:7, “every eye will see Him” as He will appear “in the clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:26, CSB, see also Matthew 24:30).

All around us, the “dead in Christ” will be resurrected as “God brings with Him those who have fallen asleep [those who died as believers]” (1 Thessalonians 4:14-16, CSB).

And Jesus will stay visibly “in the air” (1 Thessalonians 17) as He calls us to come with Him to heaven. His feet will not touch the earth at this time.

What we will experience

It will be sudden. It will be the most pleasant surprise we ever experience!

We are told in several verses of the Bible that Jesus will simply “appear” (1 John 2:28; 3:2; 1 Timothy 6:14; 1 Peter 5:4). He will come “like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-4), and right up until that time, people will be going about their daily lives without a clue (Matthew 24:37-39).

(That’s why it’s so important not to get caught up in the rat race of the world and keep our eyes fixed upon God and His ultimate plan that transcends anything playing out here on this sin-corrupted earth [1 Thessalonians 5:6-8]).

1 Corinthians 15 also tells us that we will be “changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (verse 51, 52) when we are given new bodies that are “incorruptible” and “clothed with immortality” that can only come from God (verses 52-54, CSB).