Are you worrying about the Second Coming?

War has been at the forefront of many minds in the past fifteen months. War has impacted us all, no matter how close or far we are from the front lines. Of course, Jesus said we can expect to hear of "wars and rumours of wars" and that "nation will rise against nation," which are "but the beginning of the birth pains" (Matthew 24:6–8). Jesus said this in the context of his return to earth and what we can expect before he comes again.

Matthew 24:6–8 mentions that war makes many appearances, especially in the book's second half. 

My question is for Christians -do you have a healthy expectation that the second coming might actually bring stability to a person's mind who is feeling psychologically fragile and vulnerable and off-balance — maybe because of personal circumstances, losses, tragedies, pain, or because of upheavals in society that disorient people and pull them this way and that and make them feel fragmented and shaky, maybe even agitated and frenzied.

Stability and the Second Coming

What surprised me about the question was that it seemed counterintuitive. In other words, I think many people would perhaps mistakenly say, "Well, the second coming is not a solution to that problem — it contributes to that problem." They would say, "Wouldn't it add to the vulnerability, shakiness, and fragility of mind if you stir something as cataclysmic as the second coming into the mix of all the social and personal upheavals of our time?"

So I had to really step back and ask, Does the Bible present the hope of the second coming in a stabilizing or destabilizing way? Is it really presented explicitly in connection to this problem? Or do I have to manufacture relationships with this problem of instability? And frankly, I was surprised. I mean, the question was, "Did anything surprise you?" I was surprised.

So in the hope of helping folks who feel like this (and we all do from time to time) — off-balance, wobbly, agitated, fretful, racing mind, can't quite grab hold of peace of mind — let me show you what I saw and just draw attention to some of these fantastic explicit connections between second-coming thoughts in the Bible and stability of mind that we all need in these shaking times.

Beware of Being Shaken

So here's 2 Thessalonians 2:1–2. Paul said, 

“Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind.” Now, the text jumped out at me after I heard this question because a literal translation is even more surprising. It says, “We ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken from your mind” or “out of your mind.”

In other words, Paul saw that people in Thessalonica were going out of their minds. They were no longer able to be rational or reasonable. You couldn't reason with them. The upheavals around them and shaking them loose from their minds were causing them to lose their stability. And a kind of hysteria or frenzy was taking control of them. And it had to do with a combination of social circumstances and misinformation about the Second Coming.

Paul's solution — this is amazing, I think; for many people, it would seem impressive — to their frenzy was to teach the truth about the second coming rather than neglect the second coming. He didn't say, "Wow, you folks are overthinking about the Second Coming.

You need to stop thinking about it and get a grip on reality, like where you live now. Go to work." What he did, in fact, was the opposite. He spent a whole chapter dealing with that instability by teaching about the second coming.

And so that's what I take away. Paul believed that a proper understanding of the second coming would not add to life's frenzy or instability. In fact, it would be part of the remedy. So that's my first text.

Set Aside Alarm

The second one is from Jesus, and I think it's where Paul got his thinking on this because the language is so similar. I've got a whole section in the book on the similar language between Matthew 24 and the Thessalonian epistles, which I think is just massive with implications for how they understood Matthew 24. Jesus said in Matthew 24:5–6, "Many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars." And then he says, "See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet."

“One remedy to our instability and anxiety is solid biblical knowledge about the second coming.”

So Jesus recognizes that the world will be destabilizing, scary, and anxiety-producing. False Christs, wars — the following two verses talk about famines, earthquakes, and endless difficulties as the end draws near (Matthew 24:7–8). And he realizes that it is natural for people to look around and be alarmed, frightened, uncertain, off-balance. So what's his solution? His solution is to give the proper instruction about the second coming. Most of the chapter is for that purpose.

So one remedy to our instability and anxiety is not ignorance or disregard of the second coming, but solid biblical knowledge about the second coming so we can be expectant and hopeful but not be alarmed or fretful.

Guarded Hearts and Minds

Here's another example of the connection between the second coming and the stability of our minds.

The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:5–7)

Most of the time, most of us connect between the guarding of the hearts and the guarding of the reasons with prayer. "Let your requests be made known to God," and it will guard you. But the preceding verse says, "The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious. . . . The peace of God . . . will guard your hearts and your minds." So there's a connection between a proper grasp of the nearness of the Lord and the Christian heart and mind being guarded against

 anxiety and instability in fretting about the world.

Unsurprised in Stress

Here it is again in 1 Peter 4:12–13: "Beloved, do not be surprised" — in other words, don't be alarmed and thrown off-balance and anxious — "at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange was happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed." 

In other words, the correct perception, proper anticipation of the glory of Christ's appearing and our joy on that day is a stabilizing force to keep us from being surprised, alarmed, or thrown off-balance at the end-time stresses and sufferings that are coming.

"A right anticipation of the glory of Christ's appearing and our joy in that day is a stabilizing force."

Let me give one more example.

You yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. (1 Thessalonians 5:2–5)

In other words, Paul's remedy to fretfulness, alarm, and instability in the last days is right and proper and balanced teaching about the second coming and who we are in Christ as we eagerly wait for him.

I had seen all those texts but had not seen them in the light of that particular question of current frenzy or instability. This is, I think, a perfect example of how we keep on learning and growing and how the Bible is an inexhaustible reservoir of help for every kind of human problem.

John Piper