Various New Testament verses, such as Acts 1:11 and Matthew 24:30, give us the wonderful promise that Jesus Christ WILL return to earth to assert His authority. There are no verses promising exactly when this will be, but the Bible does contain a number of prophecies that need to be fulfilled before our Lord’s return.
Many people wonder: is it possible to know when Jesus will be back? Can we calculate a timeline on the basis of the prophecies?
First of all: WHY, HOW and WHERE will Jesus return?
Jesus will return because He said so.
He Himself spoke of His return in Matthew 24:27; 24:36-44; Luke 21:25-28; John 14:3; 14:18; 14:28 and 21:23, and His disciples affirmed His words in Acts 1:11; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3; Hebrews 9:27-28; 2 Peter 3:10 and Revelation 1:7. From these verses, we can derive that “every eye will see <..> the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory <..> with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God <…> in the same way as [the disciples] saw Him go into heaven.”
His return will be for the benefit of all who believe in Him. “We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52); He will come “not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him.” (Hebrews 9:28)
No person on earth will be able to overlook Jesus’s return. If He returns in exactly the same way as He ascended into heaven, as announced by the angels in Acts 1:11, we know where this will be: the Mount of Olives.
Jesus’s actual return to earth
About 500 years before Jesus came to earth for the first time, the prophet Zechariah wrote about the second time: “On that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives <..> and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley. <..> On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. <..> On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. And the Lord will be King over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and His name one” (Zechariah 14:4-9).
WHEN will it be – according to Jesus and the disciples
This amazing occurrence, which will mark the end of a wicked and sinful world, full of suffering and disease, will come when “the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:25).
However, that verse does NOT give us a specific date, year, or even century, and it is not possible to derive this from any other information supplied in the Bible. But we do know this:
When Jesus spoke about this moment with His disciples in Matthew 24, He answered two questions: “When will these things be?” (referring to the destruction of Jerusalem), and “What will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”
The destruction of Jerusalem took place just 40 years after Jesus spoke, but the “end of the age”, fortunately, takes longer. That is because God longs for as many of the Gentiles as possible to find faith in Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” He also remarks in verse 8 that to God, “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” emphasizing that God’s timing is not our timing. But the fact that Jesus has waited until now, most certainly doesn’t mean that He isn’t returning, at all.
When will this “fullness of the Gentiles come in”? Well, not before the Gentiles have heard the Gospel. In Matthew 24:14, Jesus says this will be when “this Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations”.
WHEN will it be – according to the prophets and Jesus
Before the Lord Jesus returns, the Jews will return to their country, as prophesied: “I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24, Isaiah 11:12). After the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, the Jewish state ceased to exist. But Jesus will return to a Jewish nation and Israel will be restored (Amos 9:11-15)[1]. Ultimately, as mentioned above, Jesus’ feet “shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east” (Zechariah 14:4).
This ‘gathering of the Jews from all the countries’ is understood by many to refer to the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948. Thus God’s promise was fulfilled in part. If so, the only remaining prophecy to be fulfilled is the proclamation of the Gospel to all nations. With the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the 21st century, this may be achievable in years, rather than centuries.
Jesus predicted “nation [rising] against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, <..> famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places <..> you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold,” (Matthew 24:7-12, NKJV). Jesus could have been referring to another turbulent period in the history of mankind. But, given the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the events of which He spoke strongly suggest the imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ at the present time.
Will Jesus’s return be for both Jews and Christians?
The full consequences of Jesus’s victory on the cross will only be revealed when He returns – when “He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him” (Revelation 1:7).
At the time, the Jewish people will see Him, as prophesied in Zechariah 12:10: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on Me, on Him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him”.
Both Jews and Gentiles will be saved through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:29-30) The period of waiting will come to an end for the Jewish people, as indicated in Romans 11:25-26, “a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved”.
[1] More on the Jewish perspective for the restoration of Israel in this article, specifically on the Third Temple.