As far as I know, most varieties of Christianity (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant denominations, etc.) hold that Christ will come to Earth again (except maybe the Mormons who believe he’s already been back - in North America).
Do the various branches of Christianity hold any beliefs about the specifics of His return, and do these specifics differ among the branches? Some of the specifics I’m talking about are:
Do any of them believe He will return in a certain year or range of years, or do they believe he will return only when a certain set of circumstances or events have taken place?
Do they believe He will return to Jerusalem where he left, or to some other specific geographic place?
Do they believe He will return as a flesh and blood human born again as an infant of a human woman (perhaps even a virgin), or just appear suddenly as a mid-thirties male human? Or as some sort of apparition visible to all humans or perhaps on to a select few?
This thread is not meant as a debate, nor as a forum for individual beliefs. I am interested in what might be in the official doctrine of any of Christianity’s various subdivisions regarding how the second coming would play out in the real world here on Earth.
Some believe in Pre-Tribulation Rapture; that Jesus will return before the beginning of Tribulation.
Some believe in Mid-Tribulation Rapture; that Jesus will return at some point on the midst of Tribulation.
Some believe in Post-Tribulation Rapture; that Jesus will return after the end of Tribulation.
I don’t know which denominations believe what on this issue.
I am not aware of any denomination that believes that Jesus will return as an infant.
Mormons await a(nother) second coming. They don’t count the Book of Mormon story of Jesus visiting the Native Americans, nor Jesus’s visits to Joseph Smith Jr and Oliver Cowdery, as THE second coming.
AFAIK, they expect the return to be in Jackson County, Missouri (a.k.a. Zion) or possibly Daviess County, Missouri (a.k.a. Adam-ondi-Ahman, a.k.a. The Garden of Eden). Then again, it’s also said that the triumphal return will be through the large east door of the Salt Lake Temple.
They do not expect him to return as an infant. They believe that he is already resurrected with a perfect adult body, so when he returns he will not need a new infant body.
They’ve never declared a specific date, but they gave a fairly narrow range. In Joseph Smith’s autobiographical History of the Church 5:366, he prophesies: “There are those of the rising generation who shall not taste death till Christ comes… I prophesy in the name of the Lord God, and let it be written - the Son of Man will not come in the clouds of heaven till I am eighty-five years old.” That puts it in the range of 1890 to 1960.
The Wikipedia page on the topic seems to reflect current views, although it ignores how those views have changed over time. E.g., the page doesn’t seem to resolve the multiple theories on the location and the failed prophesy of the date range.
A common belief in my church is that Jesus came to earth the first time as a suffering servant and he will return in the second coming as the conquering king.
Expect divine retribution, sinners laid waste by heavenly forces, an unstoppable spirit of judgement.
It’s never something I’ve actually heard being preached on in anything other than the vaguest terms so I’m assuming that the Church of Scotland has no official position on what it will be exactly.
You missed out on the Shia Twelvers who also believe in the second coming of Christ
From Wikipedia (Euggh!)
The Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will rule for seven, nine or nineteen years (according to differing interpretations) before the Day of Judgment and will rid the world of evil. According to Islamic tradition, the Mahdi’s tenure will coincide with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (Isa), who is to assist the Mahdi against the Masih ad-Dajjal (literally, the “false Messiah” or Antichrist). Jesus, who is considered the Masih (Messiah) in Islam, will descend at the point of a white arcade, east of Damascus, dressed in yellow robes with his head anointed. He will then join the Mahdi in his war against the Dajjal, where Jesus will slay Dajjal and unite mankind.
FWIW, approximately half of Americans respond “yes” to questions like “Do you believe Jesus is coming back and it will happen during your lifetime?”
There are multiple texts (canonical and noncanonical gospels alike) which record someone asking Jesus “When will we see God’s Kingdom on Earth?” or words to that effect, and Jesus’s answer was “Some of you standing here will see it before you die.” which the many Christians interpreted to mean that Jesus would be coming back within in a few decades, certainly less than a century. There is a crackpot theory that because of this so-called prophecy, one of those people who heard Jesus’s answer is STILL ALIVE, wandering the planet, twenty centuries old and physically incapable of dying until Jesus comes back.
All the Baptists I ever met believed that Jesus would come back at an unspecified time and that nobody could predict it based on the calendar or even based on world events. It would be a surprise, “like a thief in the night”. But most of them believed it would happen during their lifetime.
If you think Jehovah’s Witnesses qualify as Christian then they believe he returned in 1917.
Seventh Day Adventists grew out of a movement which specified the date but when it passed I believe they stopped doing that.
Every protestant denomination I am familiar with believes that no one knows the date or hour and believes it might happen soon or in a thousand years. During the 1970s there was big eschatology fad centered around the book the Late Great Planet Earth. I never read it but know many people who have and it states that the reestablishment of the country of Israel was the first step in the sequence of events that would lead to Jesus’s return. Most of those who believe in that version of events believe that it will not happen until the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is destroyed and a Jewish temple rebuilt.
We’re probably not allowed to post jokes in GQ, but I can’t help myself.
The head Cardinal comes to the Pope one day and says, “Holy Father, you have a phone call. I’m afraid it’s good news and bad news.”
The Pope says, “What’s the good news?”
The Cardinal says, “It’s Jesus Christ. He’s on the phone and he wants to talk to you.”