Why does Christ tell the churches he's coming "soon" in Revelation?

Achilles6129

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I'd like you to consider the following passages:

"16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth." Rev. 2:16 (NIV)

"24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’" Rev. 2:24-25 (NIV)

The above passage is extremely interesting because Christ is clearly talking personally to the historical church of Thyatira (though it may also represent the church universal) due to the fact that he has personal things to say to that church that could only apply to it historically. Yet here he is telling the church to hold on until he comes. This is a very interesting passage.

"3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you." Rev. 3:3 (NIV)

"11I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown." Rev. 3:11 (NIV)

Exactly what "coming" is Christ referring to? Several of the passages (Rev. 3:11, Rev. 2:24-25) seem to be referring to his second coming, though the others might be able to be taken has a coming in judgment or something like that. We then have the fact that at the end of the book of Revelation Christ clearly says he is coming soon (Rev. 22:12). Regardless, the passages are perplexing.

Thoughts?
 
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topcare

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I'd like you to consider the following passages:

"16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth." Rev. 2:16 (NIV)

"24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’" Rev. 2:24-25 (NIV)

The above passage is extremely interesting because Christ is clearly talking personally to the historical church of Thyatira (though it may also represent the church universal) due to the fact that he has personal things to say to that church that could only apply to it historically. Yet here he is telling the church to hold on until he comes. This is a very interesting passage.

"3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you." Rev. 3:3 (NIV)

"11I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown." Rev. 3:11 (NIV)

Exactly what "coming" is Christ referring to? Several of the passages (Rev. 3:11, Rev. 2:24-25) seem to be referring to his second coming, though the others might be able to be taken has a coming in judgment or something like that. We then have the fact that at the end of the book of Revelation Christ clearly says he is coming soon (Rev. 22:12). Regardless, the passages are perplexing.

Thoughts?
Just what it says, He was coming soon and as you picked up it was in judgment in 70 AD
 
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Albion

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Exactly what "coming" is Christ referring to? Several of the passages (Rev. 3:11, Rev. 2:24-25) seem to be referring to his second coming, though the others might be able to be taken has a coming in judgment or something like that. We then have the fact that at the end of the book of Revelation Christ clearly says he is coming soon (Rev. 22:12). Regardless, the passages are perplexing.

Thoughts?

This is a question that has produced a range of speculations, but no one really knows.
 
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Noxot

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he is always coming. when he says he comes like a thief it has the same kind of spiritual application as when we stumble over Christ due to disobedience. it is a spiritual reality in that if our soul is attached to the flesh rather than God we can not understand God as we ought. Christ is constantly coming in a process of glory to glory which in specific times he comes to us and destroys the old and gathers that which can endure the fire. it is like in our journey in the wilderness we go through many different places and Christ comes to us in each instance and depending on what we have become is the kind of manner that God will met us with.

for instance if many of us are in a position of spiritual sickness in a certain place God comes with certain remedies and depending on our own selves we shall either be fools and reject his good remedy and stay in a kind of painful situation or we shall perhaps have grown tired of our folly and take the remedy he has provided on that occasion and then we become better. in this sense for some he is as a thief and for others he is come as a kind of reward but he being God is unchanging and always giving the good to us without a shadow of turning but due to our freedom and the condition of our heart we may reject or accept the goodness of God and then that which God meant for our good has become to us as an attack of the adversary who is said to "steal, kill, and destroy" for if sin is ruling inside of a man it uses that which God intends for good and it uses it to create in us all manners of evil. if we truly did cling to God even as our only possession what would occur is a great increase in all the constant instances Christ comes to us and we wax strong in the Spirit as the flesh day by day is decaying and there comes about a transformation due to our willingness to be filled with the grace of God.

but for those who are hard Jesus brings hard seeming words which are really full of his goodness and life because only God is good and rains upon all the good rain and gives to all his measureless love forever and he must employ this or that different kindness depending on what kind of condition we fall into so as to save us and move us into a better condition for God wills eternal spiritual life for all. thus sometimes the best thing that can happen to us is that we become cast into a sickbed for this evil spirit called the harlot had grown up inside of some people and if she did not die then the rest of the person would have rotted away into an ever greater hell and so God tells all to preserve that which they can and let go of the evils so that they may instead of destroying themselves in the evils of non-being they might instead taste the sweetness of God and live in everlasting joy and love with him.

what some people call the second coming of Christ other saints refer to as the third coming of Christ.
 
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ShouldaWouldaCoulda

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Scripture tells us no man knows the coming of the Lord.

It also reminds us that our timetable is not like unto that of God. That for us a day is a day. But for God it is not so.
 
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Erose

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My opinion on this matter is that there are two "Coming of The Lord"s. Obviously His physical coming sometime in the future which will mark the coming general judgement; but also His coming at our deaths. I think both of these get a good bit of overlap in many passages.

Another position is what St. Peter pointed out, which is our understanding of soon, and God's understanding of soon, is probably not the same thing. Anyway, I am glad that He is delaying, if not none of us would exist today. So thank God!
 
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Jipsah

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Poor paraphrasing in some versions and an over emphasis on linking such terms to a clock or a calendar.
It'd hard to do anything with "soon" that doesn't involve chronology one way or the other. Not in English, anyway.
 
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Jipsah

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Scripture tells us no man knows the coming of the Lord. It also reminds us that our timetable is not like unto that of God. That for us a day is a day. But for God it is not so.
So you're saying that when our Lord said "soon" there it didn't really mean anything at all, right?
 
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Jipsah

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Soon is a relative term....how long is a day or two to the Lord?
So once again, the response is that "soon" didn't really mean anything at all in that context. Reckon why He said it at all, then?
 
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Johnnz

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Coming soon can have the meaning "at the door". As the church believed the 'last days' had begun at Pentecost, in fulfilment of Joel's prophecy, and Paul in his earlier letters seemed to believe Jesus' return was immanent we should see that phrase in a more general sense that within a 1st Century, shorter time frame.

John
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Mama Kidogo

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My opinion on this matter is that there are two "Coming of The Lord"s. Obviously His physical coming sometime in the future which will mark the coming general judgement; but also His coming at our deaths. I think both of these get a good bit of overlap in many passages.

Another position is what St. Peter pointed out, which is our understanding of soon, and God's understanding of soon, is probably not the same thing. Anyway, I am glad that He is delaying, if not none of us would exist today. So thank God!

I like your opinion rather than "another position". Explaining it away with God's timetable being different is like saying God doesn't understand our timetable and was speaking over our heads. Odd. The book is called Revelation not confusion.
 
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SolomonVII

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I think he said it because he believed that the end was coming soon, before the passing of a generation even.

I think that most early first generation Christians believed as much as well.

But as it turned out, only the Father knows.

It was a big challenge, I think, for the early Christians to come to terms with the idea that the Second Coming was not going to happen in their lifetimes.
 
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Achilles6129

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Notice also what Christ says at the end of the book:

"20 The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”" Rev. 22:20 (NRSV)

Notice also that these are the very last words of Jesus Christ in Scripture, that is, his very last words ever.

So what exactly is going on here? I find it very strange that Christ would warn the historical churches about some sort of coming, but I also find it plausible that God's standards of time may be different from ours (note Einstein's theory of relativity). I think that when Christ says "soon" he is referring to "soon" by God's standards, but still it is very puzzling that he would warn the historical churches of an imminent return.
 
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squint

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Notice also what Christ says at the end of the book:

"20 The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”" Rev. 22:20 (NRSV)

Notice also that these are the very last words of Jesus Christ in Scripture, that is, his very last words ever.

So what exactly is going on here? I find it very strange that Christ would warn the historical churches about some sort of coming, but I also find it plausible that God's standards of time may be different from ours (note Einstein's theory of relativity). I think that when Christ says "soon" he is referring to "soon" by God's standards, but still it is very puzzling that he would warn the historical churches of an imminent return.

God in Christ comes for each of us, at the end of our lives.

That is soon for everyone.

s
 
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LittleLambofJesus

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Just what it says, He was coming soon and as you picked up it was in judgment in 70 AD
The time was nigh and He would be coming in swiftness........
One could be a time factor while the other is a duration?

Luke 21:
20 "Whenever yet ye may be seeing Jerusalem being compassed by armies, then be ye knowing that NIGH/hggiken <1448> (5758) is the desolating of Her"
31 "Thus also ye whenever ye may be seeing these becoming, ye are knowing that NIGH/egguV <1451> is the Kingdom of YAHWEH

1 Peter 4:7
Of All-things yet the end has come NIGH/hggiken <1448> (5758);
be sane! then and be sober! into the prayers,

Reve 1:3
Happy the one reading and the ones hearing the Words of the Prophecy and keepings in it having been Written,
for the Time is NIGH/egguV <1451>. [Reve 22:6,10]
Revelation 22:10
And he is saying to me "no thou should be sealing the Words of the Prophecy of this Scroll,
that the Time is NIGH/egguV <1451> " [Revelation 1:3]

Revelation 1:1
An un-covering of Jesus Christ, which gives to him, the God, to show to His bond-servants, which-things is binding to be becoming in swiftness.

Revelation 22:6
And said to me "these the words faithful and true. And Lord, the God of the spirits of the holy Prophets, commissions the Messenger of Him to show to the bond-servents of Him which-things is binding to be becoming in swiftness. [Revelation 1:1]​

The Destruction of Jerusalem - George Peter Holford, 1805AD

"I consider the Prophecy relative to the destruction of the Jewish nation,
if there were nothing else to support Christianity, as absolutely irresistible."
(Mr. Erskine's Speech, at the Trial of Williams, for publishing Paine's Age of Reason)​


..
 
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Mama Kidogo

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So once again, the response is that "soon" didn't really mean anything at all in that context. Reckon why He said it at all, then?
Come on now. You seem to have a thought you're not sharing in those questions.
I believe truth was spoken, a warning was given and it occurred. But then, I don't read history as a future event.
 
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Achilles6129

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God in Christ comes for each of us, at the end of our lives.

That is soon for everyone.

s

Come on now. You seem to have a thought you're not sharing in those questions.
I believe truth was spoken, a warning was given and it occurred. But then, I don't read history as a future event.

It is very interesting that Christ says at the end of the book of Revelation that he is coming soon (or quickly) three times (Rev. 22:7, 12, 20).
 
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