By Water & Blood

On the second appearing

Concerning the second appearing of our God and Savior.

And these things will be after the second appearing of our Savior. For thus he also promised the apostles: “I go away and I come to you.” And again: “I will come again to you and will take you to myself.” And in another place: “Then you will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven in his glory, and all the holy angels with him. Then he will sit upon the throne of his glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will set the sheep on his right, and the goats on the left.”

And the divine Daniel also beheld this appearing of his. “I was watching,” he says, “until thrones were set, and the Ancient of Days sat; his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head as pure wool; his throne a flame of fire, his wheels burning fire; a river of fire was flowing and drawing before him. A thousand thousands were serving him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court sat, and books were opened. And behold, upon the clouds of heaven one was coming like a Son of Man, and he came as far as the Ancient of Days, and authority and the kingdom were given to him. His authority is an eternal authority, and his kingdom will be unto the age.” And: “The rule of the beasts was removed, and the kingdom was given to the saints of the Most High.” So great is the harmony of the evangelical proclamations and the prophetic oracles. For both these and those words are of one God.

Concerning this fire Isaiah the prophet also says: “Who will announce to you the eternal place?” And at the end of the prophecy he says: “Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched.” And the divine David, prophesying this appearing, said: “God, the Lord of gods, has spoken and called the earth, from the risings of the sun as far as the settings. From Zion is the goodliness of his beauty. God will come openly, our God, and will not keep silence. Fire will burn before him, and round about him a mighty tempest.” And in another psalm: “Cloud and gloom are round about him; righteousness and judgment are the establishment of his throne; fire will go before him and will flame round about his enemies. For he has come to judge the earth, to judge the inhabited world in righteousness, and peoples in uprightness.” And through Malachi the prophet the God of all himself: “Behold, I send you Elijah the Tishbite, lest I come and strike the earth utterly.”

And the divine Apostle, writing to the blessed Titus, set the second appearing also alongside the first appearing of our Savior: “For the saving grace of God has appeared to all human beings, training us that, having denied impiety and worldly desires, we should live soberly and justly and piously in the present age, awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” And through these things he also showed that the first appearing took place for the sake of the second. For for this reason, he says, he appeared: that, freeing us from impiety and lawlessness and training us in every virtue, he might prepare us to await the second appearing with gladness.

And he also marvels at the Thessalonians, that having been freed from the error of the idols they chose to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the coming wrath. And writing to the Hebrews he indicated this presence, using a prophetic testimony: “For yet a very little while, and the Coming One will come and will not delay.” And these things he also taught the Philippians: “For our citizenship,” he said, “exists in the heavens, from which we also await a Savior, the Lord Jesus.” And likewise also the Thessalonians: “For the Lord himself,” he says, “with a shout of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first,” and what follows.

And it would be easy to bring forward still other testimonies proclaiming the second appearing of our Savior, but these also are enough to persuade even those who are exceedingly contentious.