1. When the Lord Comes Again Most of the world today does not believe in the Lord or that He will come again. But when that event occurs, all doubt will be completely blown away like dust in the wind. The whole world will be impacted.

2. Even before the first century ended, there were those who scoffed and did not believe. “Knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For from the days that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Pet. 3:3-4).

3. Nevertheless, the Bible assures us that it will happen. When Jesus ascended into heaven, the angels told the apostles, “This Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye behold him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

4. There will be absolutely no warning whatever, no little ripples, no whispers of warning. “The day of the Lord will come as a thief” (2 Pet. 3:10).

5. “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape” (1 Thess. 5:2-3).

6. Based on the analogies of the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of various nations throughout history, it may be that wickedness will be rampant, but how many times through history has that been true? So rampant wickedness will not necessarily signal the Lord’s coming.

7. When the Lord does come, the first thing that will occur is that He will descend from heaven (1 Thess. 4:16). He will be revealed with the angels of His power in flaming fire (2 Thess. 1:7). “Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they that pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him” (Rev. 1:7).

8. He will descend with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and there will be a trumpet blast (1 Thess. 4:16). Jesus will bring those who fallen asleep with Him (1 Thess. 4:14). At that trumpet sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible (1 Cor. 15:52).

9. All that are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29).

10. The sea will give up its legions of dead, and the very realm of the dead, Hades itself, shall yield up its dead, and both death and Hades will be cast into the lake of fire to be destroyed (Rev. 20:13-14).

11. And, in the twitching of an eye, we who are alive will be changed (1 Cor. 15:52). “We that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17).

12. Meanwhile the physical universe will be disintegrating with a great noise (2 Pet. 3:10). The very elements shall be dissolving with fervent, intense heat, and the earth and all its works shall be burned up (2 Pet. 3:10).

13. The heavens themselves will be on fire, and the elements will melt with the heat (2 Pet. 3:12). But with the dissolution of the old order, there will be new heavens and a new earth (2 Pet. 3:13).

14. All the nations of men will come before the glorious Christ to give account of their deeds, and Jesus will divide them into the sheep on His right, and the goats on His left (Matt. 25).

15. The saints He will bid enter the home that has been prepared for them, but to the disobedient He will say, “Depart into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41).

16. The thing we need to be aware of is: “Seeing ye look for these things, give diligence that ye may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in his sight” (2 Pet. 3:14).