The Second Coming As Foretold In The Book of Acts
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A METAPHOR FOR NT ESCHATOLOGY
When constructing an eschatology of the New Testament, you will need to do so in layers, kind of like a house begins with a proper foundation, then successive levels get added, one on top of the next, until finally you can put the chimney and shingles on and live in it.
THE FOUNDATION: OLD TESTAMENT ESCHATOLOGY
In that sense, the foundation of New Testament eschatology, the critical understanding that lies under the surface of the New Testament text, is the manifold witness of the Old Testament. If we do not get our eschatological underpinnings from the men of old, or if we do not understand what they were saying rightly, we could waste a lot of energy and effort constructing an eschatological edifice that will not stand. And while many Old Testament passages have been appealed to in our study so far, a fuller Old Testament eschatology is still forthcoming.
As a reminder, however, of what we have covered so far, the eschaton (the final age of man) was already defined by God in the first age of man. God defined man's purpose in creation as filling the world with joyful working worshippers (Genesis 1:28). While the first man fell in that task, the rest of the Old Testament is about how a coming man will succeed and have that global Kingdom. While more could be said, that is the point of eschatology in the Old Testament.
THE FIRST FLOOR: THE ESCHATOLOGY OF JESUS
On top of that foundation, however, is the next level of New Testament eschatology developed by Jesus within the Gospels. There, you may have been surprised to learn that Jesus' teaching on the topic did not concern events long into the future but events that would take place soon after His ascension. This is demonstrated most perfectly in Christ's Olivet discourse (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21) and the chapters leading up to it (Matthew 21-23), where Jesus predicts 2 significant events will happen. The first will be that great woes will fall upon the Jewish people for not correctly stewarding the Old Covenant's mysteries. The apostate Jews will be removed from their station to make way for Jesus' new bride, the Church, which is made up of Jews and Gentiles who follow Christ.
The second cataclysmic event Jesus prophesied was the end of the Old Covenant order. This means with His coming, the Jerusalem temple would be destroyed, the Levitical priesthood would be severed, the sacrificial system ended, the festivals repealed, and everything existing within the Old Covenant that served as a type and shadow for the coming of Jesus would be moved from the mantle to the museum. All of this would be done to make way for Jesus' end-time Kingdom, manifesting on earth through the Church as He reigns over it at the right hand of God in heaven. This Kingdom, unlike the one of old, would conquer the world that Adam lost and, through the true and better Adam, deliver back to God a world that is finally and fully filled with worshippers. Jesus predicted this Kingdom would be taken away from the apostate Jews and given to the bride of Christ (Matthew 21:43). He indicated that these earth-shattering events would happen within a single generation (Matthew 24:34). And all throughout that forty-year window of time, as the downfall of the Old Kingdom and the rise of the New is happening, Jesus would provide incredible evidentiary signs and wonders to showcase the truthfulness of His claims.
In previous episodes and blogs, we outlined those Olivet signs and wonders and demonstrated how they do not prove a future eschaton but confirm to His disciples what He said. Again, these were near-term events that actually happened in the disciple's lifetime and would have been a source of incredible comfort and assurance to them as they walked through these events. The signs Jesus gave them to be on the lookout for were the rise of false messiahs in Judah, the uptick in wars and rumors of wars in the ordinarily peaceful Roman Empire (Pax Romana), a marked increase in large earthquakes and famines, a blistering period of persecutions that Jesus called "tribulations," "signs of the times" (which included a moral collapse of the Judean people, a period of great evangelism throughout the Roman world, and a great apostasy from increased tortures and persecution), an abomination of desolation in the Jerusalem temple before it was destroyed, a period of great tribulations for the Christians just before Jerusalem was destroyed, a judgment coming of Christ to bring God's wrath upon the apostate city and temple through the Roman armies (Part 1 and Part 2), and apocalyptic signs and wonders in the heavens to confirm what Jesus was saying. These teachings from Christ in the Gospels encapsulate the first level of New Testament Eschatology that is built upon the witness of Moses and the Prophets.
THE SECOND FLOOR: THE ESCHATOLOGY OF ACTS
After constructing a foundation for eschatology from the Old Testament and the first story that was given to us by Christ in the Gospels, we have now made our way up the staircase to the second story of our end-times building, which is provided by Luke in the book of Acts. While many do not think of Acts as an eschatological book, it is the only book in the New Testament that details the earliest days of the Christian Church. And in that sense, it is critical to confirm whether we have understood the Old Testament passages and Jesus rightly.
Think about it like this, a derelict builder may construct a shoddy foundation, with a piss-poor, jerry-rigged first floor, without too many people noticing. The building stands, its flaws can be covered up a bit, and many uninformed consumers will jump on the discounted price, being none-the-wiser. But, the higher a building goes, the more exacerbated foundation-level issues will become. An inconspicuous error on the ground floor of a building, every cockeyed brick or wonky beam, will become a catastrophe on a higher level (as anyone who has ever played Jinga can attest). In this way, the higher floors confirm a foundation's trustworthiness and faithfulness. This is precisely what the book of Acts does for the eschatology we have been teaching. It proves that we have understood the Old Testament correctly and that Jesus' prophecies were coming true in the time frame that He has given.
For instance, when it comes to Acts confirming the eschatology of the Old Testament, the book gives several fascinating details. It begins with Jesus going up to heaven with the clouds, fulfilling Daniel 7. Jesus also tells His disciples that He has all authority in fulfillment of Psalm 2 and that His disciples are to take His Kingdom to the ends of the earth, fulfilling Daniel 2, Isaiah 9, and Zechariah 7. We also saw how the coming of the Holy Spirit mirrored God's coming on Sinai, how speaking in tongues reverses the curse of Babel, and how prophecies like Joel 2 were fulfilled before the onlooking Jerusalem crowd's eyes at Pentecost. This is a brief sketch, but it does demonstrate how the book confirms a near-term first-century inauguration of the final eschaton.
In the same way, the book of Acts confirms many of the details that Jesus prophesied in the Olivet Discourse and the Gospels. It affirms that the false messiahs Jesus predicted had already begun popping up in Judah (Prediction: Matthew 24:4-5, 11; Fulfillment: Acts 5:36-37). Luke confirms the beginnings of the wars and rumors of wars that would upset the Pax Romana in Rome, which was the hundred-year peace ushered in by Augustus Caesar. In Acts, Luke reveals the homicidal actions of Herod Agrippa, turning against his own citizens making war with all those who believe in Jesus (Prediction: Matthew 24:6-7a; Fulfillment: Acts 12:1-3). If you take extra-biblical examples, there are other instances of rumors of war, along with actual wars, like civil wars in the city of Rome and the grisly bloody battle to destroy Jerusalem, which was abnormal for a time characterized by peace. Jesus predicted the peace of Rome would end. Acts and extra-Biblical sources confirmed it.
The book of Acts also confirms that earthquakes occurred during those days (Prediction: Matthew 24:7; Fulfillment: Acts 16:25-26). It tells us that famines plagued the empire under the reign of Claudius (Prediction: Matthew 24:7; Fulfillment: Acts 11:27). Luke tells us that the tribulations Jesus announced (Matthew 24:9) were happening to the early Church in the first arrest of the apostles in Acts 4, the beating of the apostles in Acts 5, the killing of Stephen in Acts 7, a great tribulation that broke out in Acts 8:1-3, where Saul was violent prosecutor (Acts 8-9), where King Agrippa killed countless believers including the leader of the early Church, James in Acts 12:1-5, where the Jews ran the apostles out of regions in Acts 13:50, where the convert Paul was stoned and left for dead by the Jews in Acts 14:19, where they arrested and flogged him in Acts 16:16-24, where the Jews beat a man named Jason and caused a mostly-peaceful protest in Thessalonica (sarcasm intended) in Acts 17:5-9, and where Paul is arrested and brought before the Roman proconsul on trumped up charges in Acts 18:12-17. Jesus said that they would undergo fiery tribulations (Matthew 24:21), that they would be delivered over to the Jewish authorities (Matthew 10:17-18), who would kill them thinking they were offering service to God (John 16:2), and the book of Acts confirms all of this was happening.
The book confirms the moral collapse of the people along with Jewish apostasy (Prediction: Matthew 24:10, 12; Fulfillment: Acts 7:51-53; 28:25-28). It demonstrates the heightened period of evangelism where the Gospel would go out in power (Acts 1:8) into the entire Roman world (Oikoumene), which is just what Jesus said would happen (Prediction: Matthew 24:14; Fulfillment: Acts 13:1-14:28; 15:36-18:22; 18:23-21:17).
Finally, the book confirms that near-term judgment is coming by the hand of Jesus against the Jews (Acts 17:31). In that coming, He will return to bring wrath upon the apostate Jewish state for the war crimes they were committing against His covenant people, the Church. And He would turn the city of Jerusalem into a wasteland where only the vultures would ever dare enter, and only to peck at the corpses (Predicted in Matthew 24:27-28). As we close out our look at the eschatology of Acts, I want to end by looking at how Jesus views His second coming and how the book of Acts confirms this critical aspect of Jesus' prophecy.
THE "SECOND" COMING ACCORDING TO JESUS
When I say that the second coming occurred during the same time described in the book of Acts, I am sure to provoke a few knee-jerk reactions. Today, we have been conditioned to believe the second coming happens in the future when Jesus raptures away the Church from the world. This event, as the left behind novels describe it, will leave the pagan world to sort through millions of piles of clothing, surgical implants, and dentures from the vaporized saints Jesus took away to heaven in their birthday suits. This is not what the Bible teaches and can only be described as an insane and laughable reading of the text.
According to Jesus, He will not rapture away a future Christian church but will instead sweep away the wicked Jews in first-century Jerusalem (see rethinking the rapture for more). This first-century judgment-coming by our Lord is described using Jewish apocalyptic language in Matthew 24:27-31, Gentile language in Luke 21:20, parabolic language in Matthew 22:7 and Matthew 24:32-33, and the time frame Jesus gives for His second coming is a period of forty years (Matthew 24:34). Knowing these thing, we have legitimate grounds to stop referring to the return of Christ, at the end of human history, as the second coming. His second coming was a past event that already happened, not a future expectation we are looking forward to.
Don't get me wrong here; I am not claiming Jesus will fail to return. He will return at the end of history, and it will be glorious. He will separate the wheat from the chaff (Matthew 3:12). He will divide the lambs from the goats (Matthew 25:32). And He will usher us into the final state, His new heavens and new earth Kingdom, where we will live with Him forever (Revelation 21:1-4).
But, to claim the final coming of Christ is the second coming is wrong-headed. The second coming already occurred when Jesus returned in judgment against Jerusalem. Jesus Himself confirmed how central this interpretation was to Him when He said that heaven and earth would pass away if any of His words did not come true (Matthew 24:35). Last time I checked, the heavens and the earth were still standing.
THE "SECOND" COMING CONFIRMED IN ACTS
After a period of awful persecution that began with Stephen (Acts 7), caused the Jewish Christians to scatter (Acts 8:1), and the rejection of Paul's Gospel preaching by the Jews in local synagogues (Acts 13:45), Paul declared that he would from that moment onward take the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 18:6). In one of the most famous sermons that he gave to Gentile audiences, on the Areopagus at Mars Hill, Paul confirms the near-term eschatological coming of Christ by saying:
"because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." - Acts 17:31
At first glance, this passage refers to the end-time judgment that will happen in eternity. But notice what Paul is saying. He tells those men that judgment is coming and gives them the resurrection of Christ as the observable proof that it would happen in their day. It was as if he were saying: "If you don't believe God is bringing this judgment soon, travel back to Jerusalem with me, and I will show you the empty tomb, and I will introduce you to the 500 eyewitnesses who saw Him alive after His resurrection."
Paul told these men that a world-altering judgment was coming upon the cosmos, and it would happen in their day. No longer would Paul tell them to go to the temple and offer sacrifices. Jesus was coming in judgment on that temple. He was providing a way for Gentiles to know God without a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, without standing at a distance and hoping the Lord would hear them without a sacrifice, and without enduring the racial hatred from the Jews, who clearly believed you were not welcome. God has dealt with these things and opened the pathway to the Father through the beloved Son, the only Righteous one.
And in case you are not convinced by this argument, I invite you to look beyond the English text, which fails to see this nuance. The Greek text does not say: "He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world" (period full stop). Instead, it says: "He has fixed a day in which He is going to soon bring judgment on the world."
The verb that your English Bibles are translating as a future tense verb (μέλλει⸌ κρίνειν "He will judge") is not a future tense verb at all. It does not look forward to someday in the long-distance epochs of time when God will judge the world. It is a present, active, and continuous verb in Greek, communicating ongoing urgency in the present. And by present, I do not mean our present tense moment. I mean that the apostle Paul, the one who spoke the word, did not believe this judgment was future because he did not use a future tense verb. He thought that it was imminent, urgent, and getting ready to happen, which is why he chose the exact construction that he did!
Paul, a master of the Greek language, could have told us that a future judgment at the end of history was coming. He did not do that. He relayed to those men of Athens that a near-term, end-of-the-ages kind of judgment was coming and that they would live long enough to see the evidence that it happened. They would live long enough to see God destroy Jerusalem, end Old Testament Judaism, and make way for the nations to come to Him through a relationship with His one and only Son!
CONCLUSION
As we close our eschatological study on the book of Acts, we have seen that it confirms the Old Testament vision of a near eschaton. It establishes the veracity of Jesus Olivet prophecy, that these events have arrived in His incarnation and would be completed very soon. We saw numerous Old Testament passages fulfilled in the early Church, prophecies of tribulations, earthquakes, famines, and apostasy come true in its pages, and for that reason, the book of Acts is a powerful apologetic for the eschatological system we have been putting forward.
We believe that Christ will be victorious and that He is building His worldwide global Kingdom (Postmillennialism). We also believe this Kingdom was ushered in through a turbulent age where the Old Covenant Kingdom was put down (Partial-Preterism). Acts indeed confirm these two suppositions and overturn the lies of dispensationalism at every turn.
At some point, we will reenter New Testament eschatology, moving from the book of Acts to the third story of our eschatological house, which consists of the writings of Paul and the other epistolary literature. Until then, may God bless you as you live in the Kingdom of His Messiah. May you never waste your days trying to figure out blood moons, marks of the beast, or the identity of the Antichrist. May you, instead, spend your ever-waking moments serving the King who brought this end-time Kingdom to the world. You belong to His Kingdom as a soldier of Christ because of Christ and Christ alone. Now, use your fleeting days to serve and praise Him!
