The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end. The curtain may be rung down at any moment: say, before you have finished reading this paragraph. ~ C. S. Lewis

The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is primarily a Christian concept regarding a future return of Jesus to Earth after his "first coming" and ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago.

Quotes

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand. ~ William Butler Yeats
What is necessary is for the cosmic wisdom and divine perception of Jesus to speak again through each one's own experience and understanding of the infinite Christ Consciousness that was incarnate in Jesus. That will be his true Second Coming. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda
And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. ~Jesus in Matthew 28:20
  • We are moving into a period of climax, leading to events which will fundamentally alter life as we know it. Tremendous changes are taking place in all departments of life, preparatory to the establishment of entirely new modes of social living and relationship, based on sharing and co-operation. To some people, this portends the Second Coming of the Christ. To others it is the realization that only through a profound inner change and readiness for a new direction in our political, economic and social life can humanity survive. Is it not possible that both of these approaches are correct?
    • Benjamin Creme, in The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom, Introduction, p. 19, (1980)
  • There is a growing awareness that a new spiritual age is dawning, under the guidance of the Spiritual Hierarchy of Masters of Wisdom. They are men who have gone ahead of us in evolution; Who have perfected Themselves; Whose energies and ideas have been the stimulating factors behind our evolution; and Who are beginning to emerge from Their ancient retreats to guide us into the Aquarian Age. They do not come alone. Under cyclic law, and in response to humanity's need, They are returning to outer work in the world with Their Head and Leader, The World Teacher, the One we in the West call the Christ. ...Soon we shall see this man of extraordinary qualities. Recognize Him by His spiritual potency; His wisdom and breadth of view; His inclusiveness and love; His grasp of human problems and ability to indicate the solutions to man's dilemma - political and economic; religious and social.
    • Benjamin Creme, in The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom, Introduction, p. 19, (1980)
  • The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end. The curtain may be rung down at any moment: say, before you have finished reading this paragraph.
  • The doctrine of the Second Coming has failed, so far as we are concerned, if it does not make us realize that at every moment of every year in our lives Donne's question "What if this present were the world's last night?" is equally relevant.
  • I come to certain points in which I do not believe that one can grant either the superlative wisdom or the superlative goodness of Christ as depicted in the Gospels... there one does find some things that do not seem to be very wise. For one thing, he certainly thought that His second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all the people who were living at that time. There are a great many texts that prove that. He says, for instance, "Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come." Then he says, "There are some standing here which shall not taste death till the Son of Man comes into His kingdom"; and there are a lot of places where it is quite clear that He believed that His second coming would happen during the lifetime of many then living. That was the belief of His earlier followers, and it was the basis of a good deal of His moral teaching. When He said, "Take no thought for the morrow," and things of that sort, it was very largely because He thought that the second coming was going to be very soon, and that all ordinary mundane affairs did not count. I have, as a matter of fact, known some Christians who did believe that the second coming was imminent. I knew a parson who frightened his congregation terribly by telling them that the second coming was very imminent indeed, but they were much consoled when they found that he was planting trees in his garden. The early Christians did really believe it, and they did abstain from such things as planting trees in their gardens, because they did accept from Christ the belief that the second coming was imminent. In that respect, clearly He was not so wise as some other people have been, and He was certainly not superlatively wise.
    • Bertrand Russell, Why I am not a Christian (1927), "Defects in Christ's Teaching"

  • Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

    The darkness drops again but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

  • In titling this work The Second Coming of Christ, I am not referring to a literal return of Jesus to earth. He came two thousand years ago and, after imparting a universal path to God's kingdom, was crucified and resurrected; his reappearance to the masses now is not necessary for the fulfillment of his teachings. What is necessary is for the cosmic wisdom and divine perception of Jesus to speak again through each one's own experience and understanding of the infinite Christ Consciousness that was incarnate in Jesus. That will be his true Second Coming.
  • Many sects, many denominations, many beliefs, many persecutions, many conflicts and upheavals have been created by misinterpretations. Now, Christ reveals the consummate message in the simple words he spoke to an ancient people in a less-advanced age of civilization. Read, understand, and feel Christ speaking to you through this "Second Coming" bible, urging you to be redeemed by realization of the true "Second Coming," the resurrection within you of the Infinite Christ Consciousness.

See also

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