Best News Ever: Jesus Returns!

What has been the most important news headline in history?

Some might argue for “VE-DAY—IT’S ALL OVER” at the end of World War II. Or “THE FIRST FOOTSTEP” of man on the moon. Or any number of other earthshaking events proclaimed by oversized headlines.

But whatever historical milestone you pick, it will soon be trumped by a news story of epic proportions: JESUS RETURNS!

There is no headline font size big enough for that news!

The pivot point of human history: the return of Jesus Christ

Today all the signs point to humanity rapidly approaching the brink of destruction by many avenues at once. The nuclear threat has morphed from a two-way cold war to an unpredictable multiplayer game likely to soon include terrorist organizations as well as totalitarian regimes.

Throw in chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, conventional arms races, pandemics, food shortages, water scarcity, natural disasters, financial meltdowns, cyberattacks, racial hatreds, governmental corruption and the breakdown of family—and you get a distressingly bleak picture.

God will intervene

But an incredible thing will happen on the way to our global genocide. God promises to intervene.

Jesus Christ, who left the Mount of Olives through the clouds, will come back the same way (Acts 1:11). 

He will save us from self-destruction (Matthew 24:22)!

(That is, after He swiftly defeats the misguided armies of the world who will attack Him. But that’s another story.)

Jesus is coming! What will He do when He returns?

After the horrendous events prophesied for the time just ahead of us—the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord—this world and its decimated citizens will need a massive relief effort and lots of tender loving care.

And that’s what Jesus Christ and those who have prepared to assist Him will provide.

End-time crisis management

In the aftermath of wars and disasters, many immediate needs must be cared for first. The starving and thirsty will be given healthy food and drink. Injuries will be tended to. Sanitation systems will be set up and agriculture restarted. 

Everyone will come to see and know that God truly is “the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort” since His followers will “be able to comfort those who are in any trouble” with the comfort they have received from God (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

The refugees and survivors will learn to cast all their care on God for, as Peter wrote, “He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

God will fulfill both physical and spiritual thirst: “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring” (Isaiah 44:3). He will bring people into a new and refreshing relationship with their Maker. And He will provide food and refuge and will save those “who are about to perish” (Isaiah 27:13; 25:4).

Christ will heal bodies and minds

God will hear the cry of the hurting and will heal their wounds and bruises (Isaiah 30:19, 26). And He has even more incredible miracles planned.

“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and tongue of the dumb sing” (Isaiah 35:5-6).

No injury or disability will be too difficult for the Creator of our eyes, ears, legs and tongues to heal.

Jesus will cure human hearts

But there is an even more important miracle that the survivors will need—even if they themselves don’t recognize it at first.

On the deepest level, all these other changes would be worthless if an even more fundamental change wasn’t part of God’s plan. So many times through human history we have experienced dreadful evils and recoiled for a time. But without an essential change to our heart of hearts, we have soon returned to the actions that led to trouble in the first place.

Thankfully everything else in God’s plan is designed to lead up to this very point. God is in the business of providing the kind of heart transplants we so desperately need.

“Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God” (Ezekiel 11:19-20).

This new heart, led by God’s Holy Spirit, is essential to the New Covenant. As Hebrews 10:16-17 reminds us, “‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’”

With the help of God’s Spirit, people will truly be able to internalize God’s good and beneficial laws that will bring both physical and eternal spiritual blessings.

Best news ever: everyone will be taught the way of peace

Instead of studying the way of war in military academies, people will learn and practice the way of peace. Consider this beautiful vision of that future peaceful Kingdom:

“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’

“For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

This way of peace, which has eluded humanity for thousands of years, will finally be taught and practiced throughout the world. “But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken” (Micah 4:1-4).

God’s ways—His laws—lead to real, lasting peace. God’s laws teach us how to show unselfish, godly love to everyone around us. This way of peace, which has eluded humanity for thousands of years, will finally be taught and practiced throughout the world. There will be no more fear and no more destruction. 

All this will be only the beginning of a beautiful future beyond human imagination! Jesus Christ will truly establish the utopian world that humanity has always longed for.

“Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:7).

This is the best news ever!

What will you be doing when Jesus comes?

It almost seems too good to be true, but this promised kingdom of peace is coming. And God is currently training people to assist Jesus Christ in this intervention and transformation process.

What does He ask His followers to do to prepare for that time of good news? 

Jesus pronounced a blessing on those whose “master, when he comes, will find so doing” (Matthew 24:46). What must we do now so that Christ will find us “so doing”? 

• Pray. Jesus’ outline for prayer begins, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10; learn more in our Life, Hope & Truth article “Thy Kingdom Come”).
• Repent and believe God’s promises. At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel [good news]” (Mark 1:15). To repent means to change—to put off the old ways that got humanity into this mess in the first place. Those who repent and believe are told to be baptized and receive the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit that allows us to grow to think and act more like God. Read more about this process of conversion in our free booklet Change Your Life!
• Put God’s Kingdom and His laws first. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33; learn more about these top priorities in our article “Seek First the Kingdom of God”).
• Support the preaching of the good news. Jesus commissioned His Church to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Christ’s followers will want to help spread that message to prepare for Christ’s return.
• Practice the way of peace. In preparation for teaching others the way of peace, Christ’s followers must choose to live that way now. “The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever” (Isaiah 32:17). The Bible connects peace with righteousness and obeying God’s commandments of love (Psalm 119:165, 172; Romans 13:8-10). Study more about this in the article “The Way of Peace.” 

Looking for and hastening the coming of Christ

When we understand how urgently this world needs Christ’s return and how wonderful the Kingdom of God will be, we will want it to come soon (2 Peter 3:12).

Thankfully Jesus tells us, “Surely I am coming quickly” (Revelation 22:20).

And we, with the apostle John, can fervently respond, “Even so, come Lord Jesus!” (verse 20).