It may be helpful to beginners in Bible study to consider, briefly, the various theories which are sometimes put forward to oppose the scriptural doctrine of the personal, bodily second advent of Christ.

1. Where Christ is now
   1. The Christ, Jesus, as a Man, is now at the right hand of God
      • Acts 7:55,56 - "Saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God"
      • Hebrews 1:3 - "Sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high"
      • Colossians 3:1 - "Christ sitteth on the right hand of God"
   2. Christ's onmiscience and omnipresence
      • Matthew 18:20 - "There am I in the midst"
      • Matthew 28:20 - "I am with you alway"
        It is blessedly true that, even though Christ is bodily in Heaven, He is with us always, even unto the end of the age.
   3. The return of the Lord
      Our Lord, by virtue of His divine attributes, is really present with His Church now, but He will be visibly and personally upon the earth at His second coming.
      • Zechariah 14:4 - "His feet shall stand... upon the Mount of Olives"
2. False theories on the Lord's return (addressed in the negative)
   1. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was not the second coming
      1. The prophecies concerning the return of the Lord were not fulfilled by the descent of the Holy Spirit
         • John 14:16 - "Another Comforter." Someone other than Jesus would comfort the disciples.
         • John 16:7 - "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you"
      2. The inspired writers of Acts, the Epistles, and the book of Revelation (all written after Pentecost), always mention the return of the Lord (more than 150 times), as a future event.
         • 1Thessalonians 3:13 - "At the coming of our Lord"
      3. None of these events, predicted to accompany the second advent of Christ, occurred at Pentecost:
         • 1Thessalonians 4:16,17 - "The Lord Himself shall descend... the dead in Christ shall rise." The resurrection of the saints.
         • 1Corinthians 15:51-54 - "We shall be changed." The "change" of living believers, by which they "put on incorruption" and their bodies are changed.
         • Matthew 24:30 - "All the tribes of the earth shall mourn." (see Revelation 1:7). The mourning that will occur because of the visible coming of the Lord.

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