Prophecy Quiz

True or False: The following passage is describing the Second Coming of Christ:

Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. (Rev 19:11-16)

Most people would answer that the above passage is indeed a picture of Christ’s glorious Second Coming. However, many of these same individuals believe that His Second Coming will be both bodily and visible because of the words of the angel in Acts 1:11:

"Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."

If Jesus is to return in the same manner He was taken up, why was there no white horse in the ascension? Where was the robe dipped in blood? Where were the heavenly armies following on white horses? We cannot deny these discrepancies between the ascension and Second Coming accounts above. Perhaps we have misapplied the term “in like manner.” Instead of applying the words to how Christ ascended into the air (sky), what if we apply them to how He ascended from the air into heaven (the spiritual dimension)? In what “manner” did that occur? “A cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). He left in the clouds and He would return in the clouds (Rev 1:7). The Old Testament describes several “cloud-comings” of God—and yet God was never seen physically (Isa 19:1; Joel 2:1-2; Nah 1:2-3). In light of this Old Testament precedent, how would the New Testament generation have understood Christ’s “coming on the clouds”?