The last book of the Bible begins with the curious and inspiring sentence, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1, ESV, emphasis mine). The third sentence includes “for the time is near” (Rev. 1:3). Just as amazing are the last recorded words of Jesus at the end of the book, in Rev. 22:20 (ESV), “Surely I am coming soon.” Jesus instructed all of His followers to be perpetually ready for His return, as in Matt. 24:42 (ESV), “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” God clearly presents the Lord’s return as imminent.
Why then, has He not returned after more than 2,000 years since His visible departure from the Mount of Olives? Jesus said He was coming soon, so what does “soon” mean? (It certainly cannot now mean a total period of time less than two millennia!) I would like to outline two reasons that I believe Jesus told us His reappearance to earth would happen quickly. This, then, is not an exhaustive discussion, but one to help us with our biblical confidence.
The first reason you may find to be less riveting than the second, but it needs to be pointed out. God is timeless. He exists completely independent of time, because He is the Creator of time. To God, as the Bible says, “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8, ESV). Mathematics enters into the picture. We need to grasp that infinity is not a number, but rather the concept that there is no last number. We can count and count and count, but there is always the possibility to add another number. Maybe we don’t have a name for the number because it is so distant, but the number still exists. This concept of infinity – or boundlessness – helps us understand God. Whether we look backward in time or forward in time, He exists. There is never a point that He didn’t exist, even before creation. Ps. 90:2 (ESV) declares, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
If you tried to tell the number three to imagine what it feels like to be as far away on the number line as five million, “he” could hardly conceive of it. But try asking three to keep traveling forever until he reaches infinity, and he can’t. He will never reach infinity. And neither can we grasp timelessness – the infinite nature of God. For God to tell us that His return is soon may not mean what we take for granted on our timescale. Perhaps that’s exactly why the Bible proclaims, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness” (2 Pet. 3:9, ESV). We tend to perceive His timing from our limited perspective, but God “is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9, ESV). God has a divine and timeless perspective, with a heart toward salvation.
Nonetheless, Jesus did tell us finite humans that He is coming soon. With the backdrop of His timelessness, we still seek to understand His reason for using the term, knowing our limited nature. Let’s, then, discuss the second, fascinating reason God may have expressed Himself this way. If an exasperated mom wants her child to get out the door to an appointment for which they are already late because the child has been dilly-dallying for twenty minutes, the mom may exclaim, “Get over here; we must leave soon!” In this case, when the mother says “soon,” she means “right now.”
If a dad wants his teen to get serious about studying for his permit for a driver’s license, the father might firmly remind his son two months before his eligibility date, “You better be preparing for your permit test; you’ll be taking it very soon.” In this case, when the dad says “soon,” he means “in a couple of months.”
If a mother is trying to foster preparedness in her daughter, she might say to her while the teen is still a high school freshman – “Take your classes seriously, because you’ll be going to college soon.” In this case, when the mom says “soon,” she means “in four years.”
“Soon” must be applied in context. In the first scenario with the distracted child, it is interpreted as “in that very minute,” whereas in the second case it implies a more distant time down the road. However, the third college situation is the one in which the most planning is needed. Many years of serious study and responsibility are necessary to reach the goal. In the last case, “soon” calls us to recognize that much preparation must be made, because the coming event is elaborate and weighty.
Jesus tells us that He is coming quickly because His coming is the most important thing in the universe – the one event for which each Christian is aiming. Everything we do and say and are is invested in the eternal future to which He will usher us when He returns. The one event we cannot miss and must not be ill-prepared for is the coming of Jesus Christ to earth again to remake this broken, sinful world into His perfect kingdom.
His reappearance could be immediate – this very minute. It could happen this year. It could also happen in hundreds or thousands of years. In any case, our knowing that it is soon is utterly appropriate, because this is the event to end all events. This is the hope of every believer. This is the one thing for which you want to say, “I am ready!”
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ… (Titus 2:11-13)