Can We Hasten The Second Coming Of Christ?

But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. 1 Peter 4:7

G. Campbell Morgan, that great expositor of Bible prophecy and the Word of God, wrote, “I never lay my head on the pillow without thinking that perhaps before I awake, the final morning may have dawned. I never begin my work without thinking that He may interrupt it to begin His own. And every night before we go to sleep, we ought to say, ‘He may come tonight.’ Every day when we get out our tools and go to work, ‘This may be the last day’s work I'll do.’”

The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is imminent—it could occur at any time. Peter would not have told the early Christians (v. 7) to watch, had the coming of Jesus Christ not been something that could occur at any moment. From the very founding of the Church, Christians have been told to look for and long for the coming our Lord.

But is there anything we can do to hasten it? Could Jesus’ return happen more quickly because of anything we might do? Listen to Peter again:

Therefore…what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 2 Peter 3:11-12. (emphasis mine)

Is it possible? Can we hasten His return? For the answer to that, I studied what Greek scholar Dr. Marvin R. Vincent and others said about this passage. He and a number of Greek scholars agree that these words of Peter state that by our actions the Church can hasten the Day of the Lord:

I'm inclined to adopt the transitive meaning [the transitive meaning of this verb] “hastening on,” that is, “causing the day of the Lord to come more quickly by helping to fulfill those conditions without which it cannot come…

We are causing the day to come more quickly today when we fulfill the conditions without which the day of the Lord will not come.

…that day being no date inexorably fixed, but one the arrival of which it is free to the church to hasten on by faith and prayer. See Matt 24:14: The gospel shall be preached in the whole world, “and then shall the end come.” Compare the words of Peter in Acts 3:19, “Repent and be converted…that so there may come seasons of refreshing.”

That makes a lot of sense. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ isn’t a time chiseled in stone that can never, ever be changed. Peter says we’re to be looking for—and hastening—the coming of the day of God. Through our prayers we can cause Jesus Christ to come more quickly than He would have come.

We have been taught that God’s Kingdom is going to come. But how did Jesus teach us to pray in Matthew 6:10? “Thy Kingdom come.” We’re told to pray for the coming Kingdom.

We know that one day there will be peace in Jerusalem. But there will never be peace in Jerusalem until Jesus, the Prince of Peace, rules upon the throne of David. There won't be peace in the world until there is peace in Jerusalem. When is that going to be? When He comes.

So what does the Bible tell us to do? Psalm 122:6 says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” And when you’re praying for the peace of Jerusalem, you’re really praying for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so Peter says, “Watch and pray.”

Do you remember what the aged apostle John prayed on the Isle of Patmos? God gave him a revelation of all the glories and wonders that would take place when Jesus Christ comes as King of kings and Lord of lords. Then John closes Revelation with these words, the last prayer in the Bible: “Even so, come Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

I long for the Lord Jesus Christ to come. I was talking about the work of the ministry with another pastor, and I said, “Bob, just think about it. Jesus Christ is really coming, and we’re going to see Him.” Then my eyes filled with tears and so did his.

You see, we got happy thinking about the fact that this is not some fairy tale. Friend, I'm talking to you about reality. As surely as God made little green apples, at any moment, Jesus Christ is going to come.

If we as the children of God love Him, we long for Him to come. I have Him in my heart—but I long to see Him. To walk with Him and talk with Him, “whom, having not seen, we love” (1 Peter 1:8). Peter continues in that verse to say, “Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”

One day we’re going to see Him—not as He was, but as He is, in all of His majesty, all of His power, all of His glory.

The passage in Matthew where Jesus tells his Jewish followers that the gospel will be preached in the whole world and then the end will come is not referring to the church but to the witnesses and the angel who will preach the good news of the coming akingdom, the millennial reign whensatan is imprisoned for 1000 years and the world is repopulated under the Reign of Christ. Mattew 23 through 24 and into 25 is givern to the Jews not the church and refrences the time of Jacob's Troubles not the Church. The effects of the judgments coming from the opening of the seven sealed scroll are world-wide but the focus Jesus was making for His disciples was answering their questions for Israel and the Temple. That is why we see in The Revelation that the antichrist goes tot he Temple, not the UN or Babylon, Jerusalem and the rebuilt Temple.

When Jesus gave the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 23-25), He had not yet revealed The Church Age which Paul was given task to expound upon. It is not until later in that same week that He reveals the Church Age during His Upper Room Discourse on the night He was betrayed (John 13 and 14)

And some languages don’t even have a written form. It’s believing in the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ by the grace of God that saves.

Knowledge continues to increase and accelerate every day. Many of the things prophecy reveals will be at work in the Tribulation now exist though they were completely unknown only a few years back.

I agree. I used to worry that someone might be in hell because I missed my opportunity to share the gospel with them. But now I realize that it's the job of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement and He will get the truth to anyone who sincerely and diligently seeks to know it. In most cases He uses believers to evangelize - and that is the Great Commission - but He can get the truth to anyone and anywhere if they want to know it.

A common criticism I've heard is that God would be unjust to condemn a person to hell if they never had the opportunity to hear the gospel. Some people think that the "savage in deepest, darkest Africa" who never had a missionary tell them about Jesus would still be saved by God's grace in spite of their unbelief. But there are too many places in Scripture that disprove that idea. I now understand that God is not solely dependent on us humans to reach the lost for Christ. He is perfectly able to overcome any and all obstacles standing in the way of a person who seeks Him. How one responds to the light determines how much more he is given. I was just as lost as that "savage" living right here in America even though I was raised in a religion. But I asked God to show me the truth and He did. It is God's will, after all, that ALL be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. No one will be in hell who can claim they never had a chance to hear the truth.

Some people think that the "savage in deepest, darkest Africa" who never had a missionary tell them about Jesus would still be saved by God's grace in spite of their unbelief.

Paris Reidhead, an evangelist and missionary, in a resounding sermon entitled "Ten Shekles and a Shirt" had it out with God in prayer over his discovery that those savages weren't poor lost heathen just waiting for someone to congee tell them how to be saved, but "they were monsters of iniquity living in defiance of fat more knowledge of God then [he] ever dreamed they had." If you've never heard that message, look for the link to it on the home page at sermonindex.net; it's art the top of the Recommended..." list on the right sidebar. If you're using a mobile device, you may have to view the page landscape to see it.

About 1/4 of the world’s population, some 1.98 billion people, are in Frontier People Groups nearly unreached by any witness for Christ; 33 of these groups excede 10 million people; roughly the population of the U.S., taken together.

And how many of those unreached groups already worship a "god" or "gods"?

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen. (Romans 1:18-25)

"What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace?

This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself. [Pascal, Pensees #425]

Why would we want to?

Perhaps:

I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time. Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see? But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:18-25)

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having been prepared as a bride having been adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them as their God. And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more nor mourning nor crying nor pain; they will be no more, because the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)

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