Every Eye Will See Him: Coming on the Clouds of Heaven

By Russel Bell

Most Christians know that Jesus Christ promised to return following his death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven. Still, our understanding of the nature of his coming can widely vary. Some believe it occurred already when the Holy Spirit descended to indwell believers on the day of Pentecost. Others understand it as a spiritual presence or a consciousness that brings Christ to earth in a mystical sense. No matter what we think or believe, it is important to know what Jesus meant when he made that promise.

In a spiritual guidebook, pastor Russel Bell provides a fresh perspective on Christ’s second coming through scriptures and personal observations based on his years of Bible study in order to help both believers and nonbelievers understand this important prophecy. Using Jesus’s words and his personal views, Bell addresses how Jesus is coming, what his coming means, all the reasons why he is returning to earth, when he is coming, and the potential troubles on the horizon. Included is a list of pre-tribulational objections as well as a short study guide on the Day of the Lord.

Every Eye Will See Him is an inspirational guide that provides important Christian messages and a pastor’s personal insight on the second coming of Jesus Christ. This fresh perspective should challenge your thinking and encourage you to be ready for this majestic and momentous event!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973660828

Russel Bell

Russel Bell is a pastor-teacher in a small fellowship in Loveland, Colorado. Together with his wife Cindy, he has raised three believing children. Russ grew up in a Christian home and benefited from the opportunity to participate in ministry activities from an early age. After attending a Brethren church throughout his elementary years, he attended Colorado State University, where he received a BS degree in botany and plant pathology. After graduation, he lived briefly in northern Virginia, where he met and married Cindy. Russ is a passionate student of the Bible and a believer in lifelong learning. He served as a deacon and elder with two Evangelical Free Church congregations before choosing to pursue church planting and house church networking.

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 Russel Bell.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Unless otherwise cited, scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6081-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6083-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6082-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019905007

WestBow Press rev. date: 5/13/2019

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 Jesus Is Coming Again!

A Literal Coming?

Jewish Description of Two Messiahs

Chapter 2 Words Translated Coming in the New Testament

Erchomai—Coming

Apokalupsis—Revelation

Epiphaneia—Manifestation

Phaneroō—Appear/Manifest

Parousia—Presence/Visitation/Advent

Chapter 3 Scoffers Will Come

Chapter 4 How Is Jesus Coming?

In Jesus’s Own Words

With Awesome Power and Glory

Suddenly

The Sign of His Coming

The Day of the Lord

The Entire Book of Revelation

Coming in the Clouds

Every Eye Will See Him

No More Delay

Physical Descent to the Mount of Olives

Chapter 5 What Christ’s Coming Means

For Unbelievers

For Believers

Chapter 6 Why Is Jesus Coming Back?

1. To Reveal Himself in Glory

2. To Judge the World

3. To Raise the Dead

4. To Slay the Lawless One

5. To Save His Elect

6. To Rescue Israel

7. To Establish His Millennial Kingdom on Earth

8. To Reward His Saints

9. To Deliver and Cleanse Creation

Chapter 7 When Is Jesus Coming?

Dangers of Date Setting

Undue Emphasis on the Rapture

Daniel’s Seventieth Week

The Feasts of the Lord

Prerequisites for the Day of the Lord

After Great Tribulation

In Conjunction with the First Resurrection

Chapter 8 Trouble on the Horizon

The Great Tribulation

Avenging the Blood of the Saints

Chapter 9 What’s the Big Deal?

Are You Prepared for His Coming?

Behavior Consistent with His Coming

What Will You Do?

Appendix A Pre-Tribulational Objections

Appendix B The Day of the Lord (Jehovah)

Endnotes

About the Author

In loving memory of

my father, Thomas H. Bell, who is now in the presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and who will accompany him when he returns in glory.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank everyone who encouraged me to stay with this project, particularly my amazing wife, who showed great patience through the whole process. I am especially indebted to Kathy Brush and Donna Wichelman, who provided valuable editing support.

WestBow Press deserves a great deal of credit for providing a fantastic publishing program at reasonable cost that allowed me to publish my heartfelt work without interference and get it into your hands. They checked back with me regularly throughout the project and encouraged me time and again. I could not have done this without their assistance.

Most of all, I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for his great faithfulness. I hope that I have truthfully and accurately portrayed the majesty of this exciting future event. To him be the glory!

INTRODUCTION

M ost Christians know that Jesus Christ promised to return at some future time following his death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven. But our understanding of the nature of his coming can vary widely. Some people think it occurred already when the Holy Spirit descended to indwell believers on the day of Pentecost. Others understand it metaphorically or allegorically as a spiritual presence or a Christ consciousness that brings Christ to earth in a spiritual or mystical sense.

Like most evangelicals, I believe in a literal and physical return of Jesus that is yet to come. In the final analysis, it’s not really up to us. What you or I believe doesn’t change what Jesus promised. But I am convinced that it is vitally important to know what Jesus meant when he made that promise. One day each of us will bow a knee before Jesus Christ and be individually accountable to him, whether believer or unbeliever, as the apostle Paul states in the book of Philippians:

So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10, emphasis added)

I didn’t originally set out to write a book about the Second Coming of Jesus. My plan was to write generically about prophecies of the last days, but along the way my focus sharpened. Some ten years ago I began a serious personal study of the end-times or last days described in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. My intent was to sort out what the Bible teaches about various events like the rapture, the Great Tribulation, and the millennium kingdom and to create a detailed chronology of end-time events.

I hoped that my chronology would settle many arguments about the pre-Tribulation, mid-Tribulation, post-Tribulation, and pre-wrath rapture doctrines by compiling end-time prophecies and events into a sort of harmony of the end-times. The effort would be similar to the Harmony of the Gospels created by Augustine of Hippo in the fifth century. I spent many hours repeatedly reading through the primary prophetic passages in both the Old and New Testaments and meditating on them with the idea of carefully matching up key events among the different passages.

While the outcome of this exercise was less definitive than I had first hoped, the study was immensely rewarding and worth every hour invested. In the process I saw amazing integrity between the various prophetic passages testifying to the divine inspiration of scripture. I also discovered some important sequencing of a few key events that has truly significant consequences. With these observations in hand, I set out to document my findings and share them with others by writing a book.

Yet as I began to write, I had to ask myself if there was a compelling reason to write one more book about the end-times. Aren’t there enough already? What could I say that hadn’t already been said before, maybe dozens of times before? Chances were high that my best effort would be disparaged by theologians of a different persuasion without even reading it seriously. Too often I’ve seen this subject handled in a harsh and contentious way. Someone might pick up my book, look at my apparent lack of credentials, and dismiss it on that basis. Others might briefly skim through the material to discover my view on a specific matter like the millennium or the timing of the rapture for the singular purpose of critiquing it on that basis alone, without a genuine interest in my perspective.

How typical, while claiming to be truth-seekers, that we cling to our own presuppositions, unwilling to consider other views. I would need to prepare for fierce criticism about why my position could not possibly be correct! Hmm, wrangling about details and quarreling among brethren. Not a great reason for a book, I thought. There must be a stronger and more significant reason for me to continue. Bickering over this or that fine point of doctrine would not be a worthy goal for such an undertaking. I would need something more compelling in order to continue my effort.

If you are reading this, you can see that I did decide to keep writing, so I must have found a better reason. I did! The light finally came on. What motivated me to continue? For one thing, I saw that much modern Christian literature focuses on specific yet minor eschatological details, frequently losing sight of what I consider to be the main point of Jesus’s return.

You see, I love the big picture. I like to fly at the thirty-thousand-foot level to survey the forest before zooming in to examine individual trees. Much was written about this detail or that, but so little was written about the forest itself. And too often the material was presented in a hostile or argumentative way, even questioning the motives of others—a sad commentary on the blessed hope of all true believers.

With this new and greater perspective in mind, one of my tasks would be to survey the current literature on the subject and compare it with what I read directly in the Bible. Again, I was flying at the thirty-thousand-foot level before diving down into the details. What key ideas were prevalent? What terminology was used, and how accurate was it? Did it adequately address the subject?

Asking these questions proved to be a valuable exercise. It caused me to conclude that much ongoing debate is the result of careless terminology, resulting in confusion and creating unnecessary discord. Too many assumptions are made without carefully defining key terms, resulting in some unfortunate misunderstandings, inaccurate conclusions, and much dissension in the process.

Few writers stop to consider the big picture that the Bible clearly presents. I appreciate the way that Alistair Begg phrases it in his blog: "In