[EGW editor’s preface:  These two questions, “When is Jesus coming back again?” and “Why is He taking so long?”, were asked me by a friend of mine during a group bible study I was leading.  Curiosity about Jesus’ second coming is something we might naturally expect on the part of anyone who considers themselves to be a Christian or who is thinking about becoming one.  After all, Jesus’ promised return is one of the key elements and motivators in the core teachings of Christianity as revealed in the Bible.  For centuries, ever since the early days of Christ’s church and even before Jesus ascended back to heaven, there has been much speculation about when He will be coming back.  And, for almost just as long, there has been a lot of confusing and even misleading information taught by so-called prophets attempting to win followers for themselves by forecasting the timing of this return.  I’d like to share with you here the answers my friend and I discussed from the Bible.  As with any question concerning what we hope to learn from the Bible, we must always strive to apply good hermeneutics and to let the Bible interpret itself.
     (For more tips on good Bible-reading skills, click the subjects Hermeneutics and Bible study)]

     1) Question:  When is Jesus coming back again?  Quick answer:  Only God the Father knows, no one else, not even Jesus.
     In Matthew chapter 24, verses 1 & 2, the disciples point out to Jesus the buildings of the temple there in Jerusalem and Jesus tells them that will all be torn down and destroyed.
     In verse 3, they later privately ask Him when that will happen and they also ask Him, “what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?”
     For the next several verses Jesus talks about the coming destruction of the temple and even a little bit about the establishment of His church / kingdom.
     Then in verse 36 Jesus addresses His coming and tells them, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.  For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

     2) Question:  Why is He taking so long?  Quick answer:  The Father’s conditions for gauging the appropriate time aren’t fulfilled yet.
     Ephesians 1:1-14 (esp. v.10) and Galatians 4:1-7 (esp. v.4) describe God the Father sending Jesus to enable salvation “as a plan for the fullness of time” and “when the fullness of time had come.”  It stands to figure that when He sends Jesus to enact judgment, it will be when the fullness of time for final judgment has come.
     In Revelation 14:6-12, as part of John’s symbolic vision of that time, we see that the timing of this final judgment by God depends upon the cup of His wrath & anger being at full strength, i.e. He’s at the end of His patience and that’s all He’s going to stand for.  Which suggests to me that the “cup of His anger” is not yet full.
     In Rev. 6:9-11 is another criteria provided about God’s timing of the final judgment.  In v.10 the martyred Christians (i.e. Christians who have been killed by God’s enemies for practicing and teaching the word of God) ask about when God will judge and avenge them upon their enemies.  They are told to “rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.”  Which suggests to me that not all the people throughout all time whom He believes would die while serving the word of God (and thus die for the sake of obeying Christ, John 12:44-50) have died yet.
     In 2 Peter 3 we are told that there are mockers who say Christ is never going to return again and who are not believing what the word of God has to say about that.  Then in verses 9-13 we are told, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.  Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!  But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”  Which suggests to me that not everyone throughout all time whom God believes would repent & turn to obediently serving Christ have repented yet.
     I’m thinking that when 1) God is fully fed up and His anger is at full strength, 2) when God believes the last person who would be willing to live & die for the word of God has died, and 3) when God believes the last person who would be willing to repent towards God has repented… when all three of those criteria are met… only then, and not a moment before then, will Christ return to pronounce final judgment on the world.