It has been said that man can live some 40 days without food, 3 days without water, but not at all without hope. God, responding to this great inner need of man, built into His holy Scriptures many messages of hope. Truly, the Bible has addressed this great need! It has proven to be the most unique book of hope down through the ages for all generations and under countless circumstances!

The Bible's messages of hope have included the basic message that Jesus has provided for the forgiveness of our sins to all who place their faith in Him; that nothing happens in the world without the Lord's divine attention; that the Lord will comfort us in death, minister to us in times of trouble, and countless others. Perhaps the fact that the Bible has so many messages of hope explains why it continues to be the best selling book of this century.

Although the Bible is full of messages of hope, there is one that is most emphasized by the Bible itself. It is the message of the return of Jesus Christ! In fact, no other single subject in the Bible dominates as much space and attention as this one. All the other messages contained in the Bible are dwarfed by this one single subject! Let's consider some interesting Bible facts in this regard.

There are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled at Jesus Christ's first coming to earth. As important as they were and are, there are over 500 prophecies in the Old Testament about Jesus' second coming to earth. In this one fact alone, God has emphasized one over the other!

To look at it another way, according to the research of Dr. Ralph Smith, a Baptist pastor from Austin, TX, there are 260 chapters in the New Testament containing 7957 verses. Out of those verses, one in every 25 speaks of the second coming of Christ in some way. Also out of those 7957 verses, 9 speak of the new birth, 22 speak about baptism, 70 talk of repentance, but 318 talk specifically about the Lord's return! These numbers speak loud and clear that God is very interested in the return of Jesus Christ and is willing to emphasize this subject over all others!

In the light of these Bible facts, it is amazing that even though God is so interested in the return of Christ, most churches and Sunday School classes are not! Most churches and Sunday School classes never speak about the subject. One would think that because of the sheer volume of prophetic Scriptures in the Bible, 30% of it, that at least 25% of our time would be devoted to understanding the prophetic Scriptures! Sadly and tragically, this is not the case. Most churches have turned their backs on Bible prophecy and in so doing, they are depriving their people of being taught about the greatest hope offered in the Bible, the glorious return of Jesus Christ!

Yet even the churches turning their backs on Bible prophecy can be viewed as a hope that the return of Christ is near. The Bible reads, "in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming?" (II Peter 3:3-4). In other words, we would hear people in the church say things like, "Well, we shouldn't get too excited, every generation has thought that Christ was coming in their lifetime". This type of response does not reflect an intellectually honest survey of current events and how they relate to the Lord's return. It reveals a bias against the subject. Most churches simply choose to ignore the subject, in spite of all the "signs" around the world. All this amounts to "mockery" toward the coming of the Lord because we are told emphatically in the Scriptures to know the signs (Matt. 16:1-3) and know that His coming is near (Luke 21:31). After all, Jesus is coming in somebody's lifetime! Why not ours?

The story of Jesus Christ coming to this earth as the blessed Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world is without question the Bible's greatest message concerning man's sin! It has been referred to as "the greatest story ever told". Why would it be then that God would emphasize the return of Jesus Christ over this wonderful blessed story? The answer is obvious to many. As wonderful as the story of Jesus coming and dying for the sins of the world is, the plan of God does not stop there. God has desired since ages past to, not only redeem man from his sin, but to redeem His entire creation from it!

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God lost something very dear to Him, namely, the beauty of His creation unstained by sin. Not only did Adam and Eve receive a curse, but the entire creation was cursed as well (Genesis 3:17-19). This curse included the ground, the plants, and the animals. According to many of the Scriptures, God is going to one day restore all of the creation to the way it was before this curse took place. This redemption or restoration of the entire creation is scheduled to take place when Jesus Christ returns.

When Christ returns, God will reclaim His beautiful creation. The curse will finally be lifted! The book of Romans declares that all of creation is groaning, waiting for this redemption that will occur at the return of Christ (see Romans 8: 18-25). This is why God Himself is looking so forward to this great event. God's beautiful creation will return to what He originally intended.

To many students of Bible prophecy, it is no surprise then why the whole creation longs for the return of Christ. The reason is because many of those prophecy students know that the greatest conditions known throughout history will exist when the Lord returns! God has revealed many of those conditions in the Scriptures. Here are just a few:

Worldwide peace and justice - "for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."  (Micah 4:2-3)

Longevity of life - "No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his days; for the youth will die at the age of one hundred and the one who does not reach the age of one hundred shall be thought accursed." (Isaiah 65:20 NAS)

Harmony in nature - "The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the Lord (Isaiah 65:25 NAS)

Truth and Peace - "Thus says the LORD, 'I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.' "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age. 'And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.' (Zech. 8:3-5 NAS)

Political Fairness and Purity - "But with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, ........... They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea." (Isaiah 11:4-9 NAS).

So, why is it that the return of Jesus Christ should be considered a great message of hope? Because these Scriptures and many more reveal that when Jesus Christ returns the greatest time of blessing known to mankind will begin! They reveal that in the light of all the gloom we see in current events, there is a great light at the end of the tunnel. They reveal that one day, probably soon, crime will be almost non-existent, death and dying will be rare; war will not exist; justice will reign supreme throughout the Earth; crooked politics will cease to exist; those who take pleasure in wickedness will cease to exist; and knowledge of the Lord will fill the Earth. All of these conditions will be under the direct supervision of the Lord Jesus Himself. What a time it will be!!!

The greatest times of history are ahead of us, when Jesus Christ returns. We, more than any other generation can see the Kingdom of Christ drawing near. God has reserved a place in Christ's coming Kingdom for everyone who would like to be there. The question is, do you want to be there? Do you want to be part of this coming time of great blessing? Do you want to be part of Christ's Kingdom when He comes? Remarkably, God has left your participation in this Kingdom entirely up to you. Jesus was talking to a man named Nicodemus one night about what to do about this issue. He said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God". What was true for Nicodemus is true for us. If we want to be part of this coming Kingdom, we have to be born-again. If we are not born-again, we will never even see the Kingdom!

If you are not born-again today, you are living on borrowed time with no hope. Why not change that? Ask Jesus to come into your heart today. You will become born-again when you do and you can begin to look forward to the greatest hope ever offered to mankind, "that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13), and the establishment of His Kingdom.

Maranatha, come Lord Jesus!!!