The Final Day

The coming of Jesus will mark the end of the present order and age, and the commencement of the age to come. Jesus will return to the Earth at the “end” of the present age. His glorious “arrival…on the clouds” will result in the judgment of the ungodly, the resurrection of the righteous, the arrival of the New Creation, and the termination of death. It will be an event of great finality.

In his Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, Jesus portrayed the “Son of Man” arriving at the “end of the age” when he will divide humanity into two groups - The just and the unjust. The “wheat” will be gathered in his “barn,” while the “tares” will be tied into bundles and burned. The “wheat” represents the “sons of the kingdom,” the “tares” symbolize the “sons of the evil one,” and the “harvest” of both occurs at the “end of the age” - (Matthew 13:24-30).

[Photo by Richard Pasquarella on Unsplash]

Likewise, the Parable of the Sheep and Goats pictures all nations gathered before the Son of God for judgment. “Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.” The “sheep” will inherit the “kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” but the “goats” are cast into "everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The first group receives everlasting life, and the second suffers “everlasting punishment” - (Matthew 25:31-46).

His angels will accompany him when the “Son of Man” comes according to Jesus. All nations will mourn when he appears. He will then send his angels to “gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” - (Matthew 24:29-31).

In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul states that at Christ’s “arrival,” dead Christians will be resurrected and gathered along with those still alive to “meet him in the air” as he descends from heaven. His “arrival” will be heralded by “the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God,” and from that point forward, believers will be with him “forever” – (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

God has appointed believers to attain “salvation” through Jesus rather than “wrath.” In contrast, the “Day of the Lord will arrive with sudden destruction” upon the unprepared, and “they will certainly not escape.” That day will bring salvation to the faithful but destruction to the wicked - (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 5:1-7).

THE DAY OF THE LORD

The Apostle wrote that the righteous will be vindicated when Jesus is “revealed from heaven with his angels.” However, the persecutors of the Church and all “who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” will pay the ultimate penalty - “Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.” On that Climactic Day, the righteous are vindicated and the wicked are condemned – (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).

Paul labels this event the “arrival” or ‘Parousia’ of Jesus, the “Day of the Lord,” and the “Revelation of Jesus from Heaven.” Regardless of which term he applies to it, Jesus is portrayed as gathering his saints and judging their persecutors, including the “Man of Lawlessness” - (2 Thessalonians 2:1-9).

Paul instructed the Corinthians that at Christ’s “arrival,” the righteous dead will be resurrected, the Kingdom of God consummated, and the “Last Enemy, Death” will be terminated. He categorized all this under the term “THE END,” singular (“then comes the end”). That is the great day when the saints inherit the Kingdom and receive “immortality” - (1 Corinthians 15:20-57).

Similarly, the Apostle Peter linked the judgment of the wicked, the dissolution of the existing creation, and the arrival of the New Creation to the “arrival” or ‘Parousia’ of Jesus, events that all occur on the “Day of God” - (2 Peter 3:3-13).

The Book of Revelation also connects the judgment of the wicked to the coming of Jesus. On that day, “every eye will see him” and “all the tribes of the earth will wail because of him,” echoing the words of Jesus from his ‘Olivet Discourse.’

The “Day of the Lord” will be the day of His “wrath” against the wicked. It will be characterized by great celestial and terrestrial upheaval, and the victory of the “Lamb” will culminate in the New Heavens and New Earth. The redeemed of the Earth from “every nation, tribe and tongue” will populate the city of “New Jerusalem,” whereas, those whose names are not found in the “Lamb’s Book of Life” are cast into the “Lake of Fire” – (Revelation 1:7, 6:12-17, 11:15-19, 16:12-21, 19:17-21, 21:8, 21:27).

The New Testament tells a consistent story. The future “arrival” of Jesus will mean the final judgment, the resurrection of the dead, terrestrial and celestial upheaval, the consummation of God’s Kingdom, the end of death, the complete overthrow of all God’s enemies, and the New Creation wherein righteousness prevails forever. That day will unfold and end on a grand note of finality.

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SEE ALSO:

• The Day of the Lord - (Jesus will arrive to gather his people on the Day of the Lord. In the New Testament, this event becomes the Day of Christ)

• The Death of Death - (The arrival of Jesus at the end of the age will mean the end of the Last Enemy, namely, Death - 1 Corinthians 15:24-28)

• Then Comes the End - (The arrival of Jesus “on the clouds” will be an event of great victory and finality that will result in the resurrection and the New Creation)