In the last 50 years, the growth of evangelism throughout the world has been breathtaking.
In the Muslim nation of Indonesia, more than 20 percent of the population has accepted Christ.
Despite decades of dedicated missionary efforts, by 1900, only 3 percent of Africans had become followers of Jesus Christ. However, by 2000, over 45 percent of the 5 hundred million people living in Africa had accepted Christ.
While Christianity was almost unknown before World War II, up to 40 percent of the South Korean population now follows Christ. In only 60 years, the number of Christians
throughout the world has grown by 1,300 percent.
The evangelical church has grown from only 40 million in 1934 to more 540 million today.
Meanwhile, the world’s population has grown only 400 percent.
In China there were fewer than 1 million Chinese Christians at the time of the communist take over in mainland China in 1949. However, the lowest estimates suggest that there are more than 100 million followers of Christ in the underground church in Communist China today. As many as 25,000 people accept Christ in China every day.
In Every Home for Christ we have witnessed almost 114 million people wanting to receive Christ or asking to know more.
Yes, Matthew 24:14 is happening now!
“This gospel of the Kingdom is being preached
in all the world as a witness to all nations.”
The Bible says “then the end will come.”
This brings us to the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The overwhelming importance of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to the writers of the scriptures is demonstrated conclusively by the fact that up to one verse in every 25 verses
in the New Testament (over 300 verses in all) deal with the return of Christ.
In the Old Testament the Prophets understood that God intended to establish a literal kingdom
on earth under the rule of the Messiah. The word Kingdom is used 342 times throughout
the entire scriptures, appearing 127 times in the Gospels alone.
Jesus is coming again and so very few Christians know anything about the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth. So few have ever been taught what will happen when
Jesus Christ comes again and most don’t even know He is coming.
Yes, occasionally we hear someone say that Jesus Christ will return to the earth or we may hear someone say the times we live in could easily usher in the coming of Christ, but what does this mean and where is it to be found in the Bible? Almost no one really knows.
No one discusses it even though there are 300 verses in the New Testament that are concerned with Jesus Christ coming again.
Jesus said in John 14:2- 3 ” I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again, that where I am you may be also.”
In Matthew 24:27 Jesus said “For as the lightening cometh forth from the east and is seen unto the west so shall the coming of the Son of man be.”
This will be a dramatic moment; not just Jesus quietly coming to meet you and take you to heaven when you die, but the event will be as lightening that is seen from the east to the west. Even if every Christian is secretly taken away, every person on earth will obviously be aware that something has happened, that thousands of people are missing and it will be as lightening from the east to the west.
Dramatic and quick “in the twinkling of an eye”. 1 Corinthians 15:52.
No sooner do we begin to look at the Lord Jesus Christ coming again than all manner of questions arise in our minds. How will He come? Where will He come? When will He come? What will happen when He comes? And what happens after He has come? There are answers for all these questions but we won’t be able to talk about them all now but know there no new questions.
The obvious question would seem to be … how will Jesus come? 1 Thessalonians 4:16 &17 says “…the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Here we learn Jesus Christ comes and gathers every true believer miraculously into the clouds – the dead and the living.
In Revelation 16:15 Jesus said “Behold I come as a thief, ” quietly like in the middle of the night. It is a secret catching away of the believers into the clouds.
But right here there seems to be a contradiction because Revelation 1:7 says “Behold he cometh with clouds: and every eye shall see Him, and they also which have pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.”
The seeming contradiction is on one hand we learn Jesus is coming as a thief, quietly and on the other hand we are learning when he comes even those who pierced and hated him shall see him. In fact all the kindreds of the earth shall wail.
It would seem there must be two stages of His coming.
The first stage of His coming is only for believers. They will hear the shout, the voice and the trumpet of 1 Thessalonians 4:16. At this time the believers are gathered in heaven with Jesus.
The second stage of Jesus Christ’s return to the earth is when all the believers return to the earth with the Lord Jesus Christ and “every eye shall see Him, and they also that have pierced Him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” Revelation 1:7. This will be a public moment when every eye shall see Him coming from heaven to Jerusalem and Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who is not only king of kings and Lord of Lords of heaven but also of the earth and he will set up an earthly throne in Jerusalem. I describe this moment to you very briefly but there are many bible prophecies to indicate this incredible truth.
The next important question is found in Matthew 24:3 when the disciples ask Jesus “What shall be a sign of your coming and the end of the age?”
Read Matthew 24 for yourself and look for the signs of His coming and you will find in everything Jesus told them it would seem His coming is very near.
In the meantime we will continue to preach the Gospel in all the world. Matthew 24:14.
Thank you for making the preaching of the Gospel possible with your prayer and gifts .
Thank you too for helping the “poor” as this makes the Gospel believable.
But before you think of what you can do for the Lord Jesus Christ…stop reading…and get on your knees and give your life again and again and again to Him!
He’s worth it!
He’s coming soon!
Eric Leach
