In my travels through the Scriptures I have discovered something that must be addressed before we proceed to descriptions of the eternal earth. This is an example of how religious influence can cause you to miss truth when you see it or make assumptions because of what you have been taught previously. It has come to my attention that some of the passages I assumed were speaking of Christ’s 2nd coming are really references to the Father’s coming.
Let me explain, and then show you the references. We know that Christ came the first time when He was born (John 1:18, “the only begotten Son”, from monogenes, the “uniquely born”, the only One ever born as a result of the union of the Holy Spirit and a human mother, Luke 1:35 and Matthew 1:20 and you can find a detailed explanation of this in my article “The Plan of God” about half way through Point Two – God Condemns Us when I start explaining the genetic perpetuation of the sin nature). And we know He will return a second time (as promised in Acts 1:9-11 and described in Revelation 19:11-16); and that the Scriptures abound with references to these events in both the Old and New Testaments.
Now, let’s get to the point. The Scriptures also predict a first and second coming of the Father. The first is found in Daniel 7. In verse 9 we see a description of the “Ancient of Days”. Then in verses 13-14 the Ancient of Days is distinguished from the Son. “In my night visions I looked and saw coming on the clouds of the heavens One like the Son of Man, and as He approached the Ancient of Days was led into His presence.” So, we can safely conclude the Son of Man and the Ancient of Days are not the same and the Ancient of Days is a clear reference to God the Father.
I remembered this reference to the Ancient of Days from the time I used it when writing the article “The Shape of God” several years ago. Then recently while studying the Book of Daniel for some lessons I was writing on the tribulation period and the Antichrist I noticed verses 21-22 that says, “As I looked, this horn (the antichrist) made war with the saints and was prevailing over them until the Ancient of Days came. Then judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” The timing of these verses is clear. This is the end of the tribulation, the return of the saints with Christ, when authority is given to the saints and they possess the kingdom He establishes at the beginning of His 1,000-year reign. But look at it. The verse is obvious, the Ancient of Days, God the Father came, as well!
Now, my task was to find references to support this. Zechariah 14:5b says, “and the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with Him.” In this verse “God” is Elohim, a plural noun. Again, the timing is obvious. The second coming of Christ is assumed. But the noun is plural, so Christ is not alone; the Father is with Him.
Then we go to Titus 2:13. “Waiting for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearance of the great God and of our Savior Jesus Christ.” Again, if you simply read the verse, it describes the appearance of two distinct personages, “the great God” and “our Savior Jesus Christ”. The context is the 2nd coming. We could assume it is just a reference to the appearance of Christ, but that would be a supposition on our part. And, if that’s not clear, consider that “God” is Theos, the Greek equivalent to the plural Elohim. The verse must be describing the appearance of more than just Christ alone.
And in Jude 14 we see, “It was about these people (the apostates described in verses 8-13) that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied when he said, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all and to convict the ungodly of their ungodly deeds, which they have committed in an ungodly way and of all the abusive things the ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” Here, we see something different. The word translated “Lord” is Kurios and is used in the New Testament by several writers to indicate a singular Lord and plural Lord, meaning, God. Jude is one of those writers. In verse 4 it is “our only Lord (Kurios), Jesus Christ” a singular use. Then in verse 5 it is “the Lord (again, Kurios) delivered a people out of the land of Egypt”, a plural reference to God. Then, after setting this precedence, he then continues this usage in verses 9 and 14 to designate the plural “Lord”. So, back to verse 14 above, “the Lord (plural) comes with ten thousands of His saints”.
So, from this we can conclude that when Christ came the first time He established the Kingdom of Heaven as He describes it with the parables in Matthew’s gospel. And from that time forward to His 2nd coming true believers and religious pretenders both inhabit that kingdom dominated by religious deception coming from the spirit realm (Matthew 15:7-9, Colossians 2:16-23, I Timothy 4:1). Then, at Christ’s 2nd coming (when He returns at the end of the tribulation with redeemed saints and angels) the Father will accompany Him. At this point the Father turns over the kingdom to the Son (Daniel 2:37-38), the Son reigns until all His enemies are put down (I Corinthians 15:24-28), He restores everything back to the way they were before the rebellion started with Lucifer and continued with Adam (Ephesians 1:10) and then the Father returns a second time with the Heavenly City the New Jerusalem to dwell on the earth forever with men (Revelation 21:1-7).