How sudden will Jesus Christ’s return be? “As the lightning strikes in the East and flashes to the West, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” “In the twinkling of an eye.” But like pregnancy there will be “birth pangs”. Pregnancy and birth are not sudden but are phased in. You get more and more sure the birth is near. Then when it comes to the actual birth you might find it sudden on some occasions. When it comes to the coming of the Son of Man it will be very sudden but will come at the culmination of several occasions when it will be as if He is just about to come but doesn’t. The birth pangs. You will find many have experiences of Him which mirror His final full coming. In these experiences they will perceive Him coming in the clouds of heaven but it will not His final complete coming, just a foretaste. “Men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven.” These foretastes lead up to the full coming which will spread like lightning from one end of the earth to the earth such that all see it almost simultaneously. That will be very, very sudden. And the dead will rise, many of them, to become judges throughout the earth, and many living will join them after being made immortal suddenly. Nobody knows exactly when this will happen, not even Jesus, the Son of Man Himself. The birth pangs will make clear it is on its way though, like in the final stages of pregnancy which can be mistaken as the birth itself, except by those who know better and know it is not necessarily imminent, just approaching.
