Near the end of a letter written in Greek, Paul suddenly drops in a word in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke: Maranatha, "Our Lord, come" (1 Corinthians 16:22). He did not translate it, which suggests his Greek-speaking readers already knew it. A few decades later a church manual called the Didache places the same word in its prayers at the Lord's Supper. Among the very oldest Christian prayers we have, then, is a request for Jesus to come back.

That hope made it into the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, which Christians still recite: he will come again to judge the living and the dead. It is also one of the most misunderstood beliefs in the faith, used to sell books and to set dates that came and went. At its heart, though, it is quiet and hopeful.

What the Bible says

The promise begins on the day Jesus returned to heaven. His disciples stood watching him go, and two messengers told them that this same Jesus would come back in the same way they saw him leave (Acts 1:9). The rest of the New Testament writers keep the promise in view. Paul writes to a young church that grieved for loved ones who had died, and tells them their grief does not have to be hopeless, because Jesus will return and the believers who have died will not miss out (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

Jesus himself spoke of it in the last week of his life. He described troubles, false claims and a good news that would reach the nations before the end (Matthew 24:4). And on the night before he died, he told his friends he was going ahead to get a place ready for them, and that he would come back for them (John 14:1).

Nobody knows the day

This is the most important thing Jesus said on the subject: the timing is known to the Father alone, not to the angels and, Jesus added, not even to the Son (Mark 13:32, Matthew 24:36). So when anyone announces a date, Christians have good reason to be skeptical, and history has proved them right many times. The best-known case: thousands of followers of the Baptist preacher William Miller waited through October 22, 1844, for a return that did not come, a night remembered as the Great Disappointment. What Jesus asked for instead was readiness. He compared it to a homeowner who would have stayed up had he known which night a burglar was coming (Matthew 24:42). He told a story of ten bridesmaids waiting for a groom who was late, some prepared and some not (Matthew 25:1). And he simply told his followers to stay awake and keep at their work (Mark 13:32).

Readiness in these stories is not fear. It is ordinary faithfulness: doing what you were given to do, treating people well, keeping your heart open to God.

Why it takes so long

Two thousand years is a long time to wait, and people have always noticed. One early Christian letter answers the question directly. It says that God does not measure time as we do, and that the delay is patience, because he wants people to turn to him rather than be lost (2 Peter 3:8). Christians read the wait as a mercy, and as a reason to share the good news, not as a sign that the promise has failed.

What happens when he returns?

The Bible describes the return with images of victory, judgment and renewal. The final chapters of Revelation picture a new heaven and earth, with God making his home among his people, drying their tears, and putting an end to death and pain (Revelation 21:1). Most Christians hold that this is not an escape from the world but its healing. The Bible's last book closes with the same prayer Paul wrote in Aramaic, asking the Lord Jesus to come (Revelation 22:20).

The letter to Titus says God's grace teaches believers to live self-controlled, upright lives now, while they wait for Jesus to appear (Titus 2:11). Hope about the future is meant to shape how we live today.

Where Christians differ

The Bible is not a timetable, and Christians read some of its symbolic passages differently. You will hear terms like the rapture, the tribulation and the millennium. Some hold that these are events in a specific sequence. Others read the same passages as pictures of spiritual realities. The thousand years of Revelation 20:1 is the classic example. Premillennialists expect Christ to return and then reign on earth for a thousand years. Amillennialists, a common view in Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and Reformed teaching, read the thousand years as a symbol of the present age between his first and second coming. Postmillennialists expect the gospel to bring a long era of flourishing before he returns. Christians who love the Lord disagree here, and most churches do not make it a test of faith.

What nearly all agree on is the center: Jesus will return, personally and visibly. He will judge with perfect justice and mercy, and he will make all things new.

How this hope can shape an ordinary life

If you are new to faith, you do not need to solve every question about the end times. A few simple points are worth holding:

  • Do not be afraid. Jesus told his friends not to be shaken or anxious about what lay ahead, because he was coming back for them (John 14:1).
  • Do not chase dates. Anyone who is sure of the day is going against what Jesus said.
  • Live well now. Love your neighbor, forgive, give, tell the truth. That is what being ready looks like.
  • Carry hope. Suffering and injustice are real, but they are not the last word.

Many Christians find the promise most meaningful in hard seasons, at a graveside or in a long illness, because it says that the story is not over and that the one who loved us intends to finish what he started.