The Second Advent
The Second Advent
- Jesus clearly foretold of his return (Matt. 16:27). Yet he added that no one knew of the day and hour of his return (Matt. 24:36).
- Nevertheless, we can deduce from the Scriptual verse, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).
- That God, who knows the day and hour, will surely reveal all secrets about the Second Advent to His prophets before He carries out His work.
- We call the time of Christ’s Second Advent the Last Days. As it was already explained, we are living in the Last Days today.
- We can thus understand that today is truly the time of Christ’s return.
- Christ is to return at the end of the 2000-year-long New Testament Age, the Age of the Prolongation of the Providence of Restoration, which has been restoring the previous age through substantial parallel conditions of indemnity.
- We can thus conclude that the period of the Second Advent began soon after the end of the First World War.
- God reveals well in advance all the essential matters of His Will in parables and symbols.
- In order that people living in any age can understand the demands of the providence for their time and for the future according to the level of their intellect and spirituality.
- In interpreting the Bible, therefore, the most important matter is to find the right perspective.
- In Luke 17:25, Jesus made a prediction about the Lord at his return: “But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.”.
- If Jesus were to return literally on the clouds of heaven, would he not readily be accepted and honored, even by this sin-ridden world?
- Jesus foresaw that at the Second Advent, when he is born in the flesh, he is likely to be persecuted and condemned as a heretic.
- That is why he foretold that the Lord would suffer and be rejected by his generation.
- Hence, this prophecy can be fulfilled only if Christ returns in the flesh.
- In Luke 18:8, Jesus said, “When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”.
- All Christians will have faith at the Second Advent of the Lord if he literally comes on the clouds of heaven.
- Jesus grieved after foreseeing that at the Second Advent, when Christ returns to earth as a man of humble origins, he may find no faith, as was the case in Jesus’ day.
- Hence, this prophecy also cannot be fulfilled unless Christ returns as a child born on earth.
- In Matt. 7:22-23, Jesus said: “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’.
- And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’”.
- At the Second Advent of Christ, those Christians who expect his miraculous and glorious appearance will almost certainly reject him if he comes in the flesh of humble birth.
- Then, no matter how faithful they may be, the Lord will be left with no choice but to abandon them because they will have transgressed against God.
- Hence, this prophecy also suggests that Jesus cannot come on the clouds.
- There are several reasons in the Principle why Christ must return as an earthly man.
- God created both the incorporeal world and the corporeal world.
- Then God created human beings with the aspects of both spirit and flesh, intending for them to rule over the two worlds in fulfillment of His blessings.
- Thus, the returning Christ must come as a human being and grow to perfection in both spirit and flesh.
- Then, by engrafting all humanity with himself both spiritually and physically, he is to guide them to perfection both in spirit and flesh and make them qualified to be the lords of both the spiritual and physical worlds.
- Some Christians expect that Christ will come again among the Jewish people, based on such passages as Rev. 7:4, Matt. 10:23, and Matt. 16:28.
- But in Matt. 21:33-43, Jesus clearly conveyed that he would not come again to the people who persecuted him.
- God will take away the mission previously entrusted to them and give it to another people who can produce its fruits upon Christ's return.
- Rev. 7:2-4 indicates that the seal of the living God will be placed on the foreheads of the 144,000 in the East, where the sun rises.
- Rev. 14:1 says that these chosen ones will accompany the Christ at his return.
- We can thus infer that the nation which will inherit the work of God and bear its fruit for the sake of the Second Advent is in the East.
- Since ancient times, the nations in the East have traditionally been considered to be the three nations of Korea, Japan and China.
- Japan entered the period of the Second Advent as a fascist nation and severely persecuted Korean Christianity.
- China at the time of the Second Advent was a hotbed of communism and would become a communist nation.
- Thus, both nations belonged to Satan’s side.
- Korea, then, is the nation in the East where Christ will return.
- The First Israel suffered 400 years of Egyptian slavery in order to fulfill a dispensation of forty for the separation of Satan in the national course to restore Canaan.
- The Second Israel had to prevail over the 400 years of Roman persecution in the worldwide course to restore Canaan.
- As the Third Israel, Korean people had also to suffer under a nation on Satan’s side for a period which fulfills the number 40.
- Thereby, they could fulfill a dispensation of 40 for the separation of Satan as required to commence the cosmic-level course to restore Canaan.
- This was the 40-year period during which Korea suffered untold hardships as a Japanese colony.
- At the fall of the first human ancestors, God's side and Satan's side parted ways from a single point.
- These divided realities consolidated separately into the Cain-type and Abel-type worlds, which eventually matured to form the democratic world and the communist world.
- When these two worlds came into global conflict, it was centered on the Korean peninsula.
- Religions, ideologies, political forces and economic systems all came into conflict and caused great confusion in Korean society, which then had worldwide impact.
- To become the object partners of God’s Heart, we must first walk a path of blood, sweat and tears.
- The nation qualified to stand as the object partner of God’s Heart must be a people of goodness.
- The Korean people, a homogeneous race with a four-thousand-year history, rarely invaded other nations.
- The Korean people are by nature endowed with a religious character.
- They have evinced a strong desire to worship God, and always revered the virtues of loyalty, filial piety and chastity.
- The Korean people have believed in the prophecy that the Righteous King will appear and found a glorious and everlasting kingdom in their land.
- This messianic idea was revealed through the Chonggamnok, a book of prophecy written in fourteenth-century Korea.
- Among the faithful of every religion in Korea are those who have received revelations that the founders of their religions will return to Korea.
- Revelations and signs are being given to spiritually attuned Christians testifying to the Second Coming of Christ in Korea; they are sprouting in profusion like mushrooms after a rain.
- Hence, many are receiving clear revelations that the Lord will come to Korea.
- The spiritual and material aspects of civilization developing from religion and science, which have flourished all over the world, will be embraced and harmonized in Korea as guided by the new truth.
- Then they will bear fruit in the ideal world of God’s deepest desire.
- First, the essences of all civilizations which developed on the land should bear fruit in Korea.
- Next, the essences of civilizations born on the shores of rivers and seas should bear fruit in the Pacific civilization to which Korea belongs.
- Last, civilizations born out of different climate zones should bear fruit in the temperate-zone civilization of Eden, which is Korea.
- The period of the Second Advent is parallel to the time of Jesus, and the two periods have many similarities.
- When people receive revelations about Christ at the Second Advent or hear his words, they will respond in ways similar to the way the Jews in Jesus’ day responded.
- Both in Jesus’ day and at the Second Advent, many devout believers who set out on the path of faith with the hope of entering Heaven may actually find themselves in hell.
- If human beings had not fallen, we would have formed one global family, which may be likened to a body whose members are all interlinked with each other with God as their head.
- Then all would have shared a common language; there never would have risen a profusion of tongues unintelligible to one another.
- If we are to realize the ideal world of one global family which can honor Christ at the Second Advent as our True Parent, surely our languages must be unified.
- If Christ does indeed return to the land of Korea, then he will certainly use the Korean language, which will then become the mother tongue for all humanity, and all people should learn to speak it.
- All of humanity will become one people and use one language, thus establishing one global nation under God.