The modern religious landscape is haunted by a ghost—a bloodless, bodiless, and ultimately powerless “spirit” of Christ that has been conjured to replace the physical King of Glory. These modernists, draped in the robes of intellectualism, suggest that the Return of the Lord is merely a gradual shift in human consciousness or a social evolution toward a better world. They treat the clouds of heaven as metaphors and the Mount of Olives as a literary device. But the Word of God does not trade in poetic shadows; it speaks of a Man. This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. The “manner” of His departure was physical, visible, and literal; therefore, the manner of His arrival must be nothing less. To spiritualize the Second Coming is to perform a forensic erasure of the Gospel’s conclusion, leaving the believer with a hollow hope and a king who never actually takes his throne.
We are warned that in the last days scoffers would come, walking after their own lusts and questioning the promise of His coming. These scoffers are not always found in the ranks of the atheists; they are often found in the pulpits, using sophisticated language to deny the physical reality of the judgment to come. They prefer a “return” that stays safely tucked within the human heart, for a physical King demands a physical account of our deeds. If Christ does not return in the body, then the resurrection was a mere philosophy and the promise of our own glorified bodies is a lie. But we know that in my flesh shall I see God. The King we look for has nail-scarred hands that can be felt and a garment dipped in blood that can be seen. He is not a “vibe” or an “influence”; He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, the Almighty, who shall break through the fabric of time to reclaim His creation.
The danger of the spiritualized return is that it lulls the church into a fatal slumber, making the “Blessed Hope” a matter of sentiment rather than a matter of survival. When the Return is moved from the clouds to the “inner light,” the urgency of the midnight cry is silenced. Why watch if the King is already here in a metaphor? Why occupy if there is no literal kingdom to inherit? We reject this deception and stand upon the unyielding authority of the Bible, which declares that every eye shall see him. The King is coming to judge in righteousness and to rule with a rod of iron. This is the physical reality that the world fears and the Remnant adores. We do not look for a spirit; we look for the Son from heaven, who delivered us from the wrath to come.
Stand fast, for the Lord’s Return