Dimensions (8) Second Coming

The second coming is not Jesus coming back down from way up there, like a bungee jumper on a sky hook. The Greek word used for the second coming is “parousia”. It means to appear. It is speaks about our seeing. What is actually going to happen is an opening up of the spiritual realm, so that people on earth can see into the spiritual dimensions of reality. The Greek word used is epiphaneia, which means “manifestation” (2 Thes 2:8). The spiritual dimensions will be blown open for everyone on earth to see.

Everyone will see Jesus seated on the throne at the right hand of God, (whatever that means given that it is an imperfect physical analogy for a far greater spiritual reality). Those who have not been born again will be almost destroyed by the sight. Those who are evil will be totally powerless before his glory.

The spiritual realms will be so glorious that the physical world will shrivel in comparison. It will seem like earth and sky are collapsing and disappearing, but it will just be that everything is coming into it correct perspective. When we can see clearly into the spiritual realm, everything in earth and space will fade away under the comparison.

The elements will seem to be dissolving before our eyes. The stars will seem to be rolling up like a scroll. It is not that they will be disappearing. Rather, the beauty and wonder of the spiritual realms will be so wonderful, that the earth and sky, as we know them, will fade into insignificance.

Some of this is captured y this woodenly literal translation of 2 Pet 3:10,12.

The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The spiritual world will come near with a booming, the orderly arrangement of things will be loosed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be exposed…. That day will bring about the releasing of the spiritual dimensions by fire, and the order of things will liquefy in the heat.

The words give a sense of the spiritual world intruding into the physical world. Such a dramatic event would produce plenty of heat and light.