Christ’s secret coming will be a reward to the watching believers (2:28; Matt. 24:42, 44). Revelation 2:28 says that Christ will appear as the morning star, and Malachi 4:2 reveals that He will appear as the sun. There is a great difference between the appearing of the morning star and the appearing of the sun. If you would see the morning star, you must rise up very early in the morning. If you sleep late, you will miss it. However, no matter how late you sleep, you will not miss the sunshine. Do you expect to meet Christ as the morning star or as the sun? The appearing of the morning star is secret, but the appearing of the sun is open. The Lord promised us that if we are watchful and wait for His coming, He will appear to us as the morning star. This is a promise of a reward. But if we are sloppy, we shall surely miss the morning star.
Do not think that Christ’s coming back is a simple matter of His leaving the throne and coming immediately and directly to earth. He will be in the air for some time. The early overcomers will be raptured before the sixth seal which will be a preface, a warning, of the coming great tribulation that will last for three and a half years. No one can tell when Christ will leave His throne in the heavens and come down to the air. However, it should be somewhat before the great tribulation. There will be an interval between Christ’s descending to the air and His descending to the earth. During this interval, He will complete the rapture of the saints and exercise His judgment upon all the saints to select the overcomers who are to be His army to fight against the army of the Antichrist.
As we have seen, in the secret aspect of His coming again, Christ will come as a thief. But in the open aspect, He will come with power and great glory to be seen by all the tribes of the land (1:7; Matt. 24:27, 30). Revelation 1:7 says, “Behold, He comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, those also who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the land shall wail over Him. Yes, Amen.” The Lord will appear as lightning which flashes across the sky from east to west. What a difference between this and His secret coming as a thief. Revelation 1:7 mentions “all the tribes of the land.” The Greek word rendered land in this verse may also be translated earth. This has bothered the translators of this verse, for they have been uncertain whether to translate it as land or earth. Some versions say earth and others say land. After much study, I have concluded that in this verse the Greek word should be rendered land. In other verses it may be translated earth, but here it should be the land, referring to the Holy Land. All the tribes of the Holy Land shall see Him. The basis for saying this is Zechariah 12:10-14, which says that they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced and that the land shall mourn for Him. The tribes mentioned in 1:7 are the tribes of those who have pierced Him. Revelation 1:7 surely is a reference to Zechariah 12. According to the context of Zechariah 12, the tribes are not all the nations of the earth but the twelve tribes in the Holy Land. Based upon this, we may say that the tribes in 1:7 are the twelve tribes in the Holy Land. When the Lord appears as lightning, coming with power and glory to be seen by all in the Holy Land, the twelve tribes will behold Him and will weep.
While the day and hour of Christ’s coming in its secret aspect are unknown (Matt. 24:36), the time of His coming in the second aspect is clearly revealed. It is at the last trumpet (the seventh trumpet), at the end of the great tribulation (18:1; Matt. 24:15, 21, 27; 1 Thes. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:52; 2 Thes. 2:1-4, 8). Matthew 24:15 says, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place.” The “abomination of desolation” is an idol, the image of the Antichrist. According to Daniel 9:27, the Antichrist will make a covenant with the nation of Israel for seven years. In the middle of these seven years, he will break this covenant and begin to persecute the Jews. The Antichrist will be absolutely against God and will set himself up as God, putting an image of himself in the temple and compelling people to worship it. In the eyes of God, this will be the abomination that will cause great destruction. This will take place in the midst of the last of the seventy weeks mentioned in Daniel 9. In Daniel 9, a week denotes seven years. In Matthew 24:15 the Lord Jesus indicates that the Jewish believers will see this. As Matthew 24:21 reveals, this will mark the beginning of the great tribulation: “For then there shall be great tribulation, such as has not occurred from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be.” Hence, the great tribulation will begin at the time the Antichrist erects his image in the temple and forces people to worship it. By these verses we can see that the Lord’s open coming will not precede the great tribulation. It must occur some time after the beginning of the great tribulation. According to the verses in Revelation, it will be very close to the end of the great tribulation. According to the New Testament, the Lord Jesus will leave His throne in the heavens and descend to the air before the great tribulation. From there, close to the end of the great tribulation, He will come down openly to the earth.
When Christ comes openly from the air to the earth, it will be at a time when the Antichrist will be attempting to exterminate the whole nation of Israel. For this purpose, the Antichrist will gather his army to a place called Armageddon (16:16). This will be according to God’s purpose, for God’s plan is to assemble all the earthly armies together at Armageddon and there destroy them and rid the earth of them. The intention of the Antichrist will be to use his army to exterminate the nation of Israel. Israel will be surrounded by his army and have no way of escape. At that juncture, when escape is impossible, the Lord will appear as a flash of lightning and set His feet upon the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4). Before this time, the nation of Israel will not believe in the Lord Jesus, but the threat of the army of the Antichrist will force them to repent. When the Lord Jesus puts His feet upon the Mount of Olives, it will split in half. This will provide a way of escape for the persecuted Jews who will then repent, weep, and confess what they have done in crucifying the Lord.
If we put all the verses together, we can see that the Lord’s open coming will probably be near the end of the great tribulation. As long as the temple in Jerusalem has not been rebuilt, it is impossible for the Lord Jesus to come back openly. Although we have some idea about the time of His open coming, we do not know the time of His secret coming. The Bible says that no one knows this. However, the New Testament reveals clearly that Christ’s open coming will not precede the great tribulation, that is, it will not precede the time when the Antichrist will force people to worship his image. But we are not waiting for the Lord’s open coming; we are waiting for His secret coming. The Lord is very wise in this matter, knowing that it will cause us to be watchful.