Does Scripture Tell Us When Christ Will Return?

We often think references to Jesus’ coming mean just one thing: the future Second Coming at the end of the world. 

On this point, Scripture does not tell us when Christ will return. On the contrary, Jesus tells us that “it is not for you to know times and seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority” (Acts 1:7). And again: “Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matt. 24:36). Thus, the Catechism teaches:  

The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming (1040). 

However, although we don’t know the date of Jesus’ definitive Second Coming, there are other comings which he spoke of, and many that have taken place already.  

For example, Jesus’ prophecy of “coming soon” may have been fulfilled symbolically in the events of A.D. 70. The background needed to understand this reading of the text is found in the Old Testament, where Scripture uses the image of God riding the clouds like a chariot, coming in judgment on those who have done wrong (Ps. 104:3, Isa. 19:1–2, Jer. 4:13–14, Ezek. 1:4, 26–28).  

Likewise, when Caiaphas asked him whether he was the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus replied: “I am; and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62). Jesus was not prophesying that the Second Coming would occur during Caiaphas’s lifetime. His statement referred to Daniel 7:13–14, where the Son of Man is brought before God in heaven to receive his kingdom. The prophecy thus refers to his Ascension into heaven (Acts 1:9), to receive the kingdom (Acts 7:55–56) where he now reigns (1 Cor. 15:24–26).  

Theologians also have explored the idea of an adventus medius (“middle advent”) of Christ prior to the Second Coming. This is a spiritual “coming” of Christ in which he is preached to the world and to his people in word and sacrament. A beautiful homily by St. Bernard that speaks of this middle coming is read each year during Advent: 

At his first coming the Lord was seen on earth and lived among men, who saw him and hated him. At his last coming all flesh shall see the salvation of our God, and they shall look on him whom they have pierced. In the middle, the hidden coming, only the chosen see him, and they see him within themselves; and so their souls are saved. The first coming was in flesh and weakness, the middle coming is in spirit and power, and the final coming will be in glory and majesty.ccclii 

This is the explanation for passages such as when Jesus says, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23) or “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20). These refer to spiritual comings of Jesus, not to his Second Coming.  

And these comings are happening as we speak. 

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