This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.
– Acts 1:11

Thoughts on Today’s Verse…

After reading this verse, many brothers and sisters think that the Lord Jesus rose up into the sky, and would descend on a cloud when He comes again in the last days. Therefore, for two thousand years, many pious Christians have watched the sky everyday longing for the Lord Jesus to descend on a cloud and bring them to the kingdom of heaven. Now is the end of the last days, and the day of the Lord is soon coming, but nobody has seen that the Lord descends on a cloud to bring us to the kingdom of heaven. What’s going on with this? In fact, there are many prophecies about the second coming of Jesus in the Bible. If we only hold on to the prophecy that the Lord will descend with the clouds and ignore other prophecies of His second coming, we will easily walk down the wrong path and be abandoned by the Lord. If we carefully study the Bible, we will find that there is actually not just the “descend with the clouds” prophecy in the Bible. There are also many prophecies like that the Lord will come as a thief and descend secretly. For instance, Revelation 16:15, “Behold, I come as a thief.” Matthew 25:6, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him.” And Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” All these prophecies refer to the Lord descending in secret. In the last days, the Lord Jesus has returned to the flesh as the Son of man and descends secretly among men to utter and speak, performing the work of judgment, perfecting all those who hear His voice and return before His throne and making them into a group of overcomers. Then God brings about the great disaster, refining and chastising all those who don’t accept God’s work of secret descent. Afterward, God shall descend with the clouds to openly appear before all men. That would then completely fulfill the prophecy in Revelation 1:7: “Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” When God works in a hidden way, the true believers who love the truth in all denominations and sects, after hearing God’s voice, have welcomed the Lord. They are wise virgins who are taken before God’s throne to attend the wedding banquet with God, and have gained the chance to be made into an overcomer by God. As for those who only hold on to the notion that the Lord will descend with the clouds but don’t seek or investigate God’s work of the last days, they are considered the foolish virgins. Especially those who furiously resist and condemn God’s work of the last days, they are the Pharisees and antichrists exposed by God’s work in the last days. They are enemies of God that hate the truth. When God appears openly on the clouds, they know that the One they resisted and condemned is the second coming of Jesus. So that’s how the scene of “shall all the tribes of the earth mourn” will appear. Just as God says, “When you see Jesus descend from the heaven upon a white cloud with your own eyes, this will be the public appearance of the Sun of righteousness. Perhaps that will be a time of great excitement for you, yet you should know that the time when you witness Jesus descend from the heaven is also the time when you go down to hell to be punished. It will herald the end of God’s management plan, and will be when God rewards the good and punishes the wicked. For the judgment of God will have ended before man sees signs, when there is only the expression of truth. Those who accept the truth and do not seek signs, and thus have been purified, shall have returned before the throne of God and entered the Creator’s embrace. Only those who persist in the belief that ‘The Jesus who does not ride upon a white cloud is a false Christ’ shall be subjected to everlasting punishment, for they only believe in the Jesus who exhibits signs, but do not acknowledge the Jesus who proclaims severe judgment and releases the true way of life. And so it can only be that Jesus deals with them when He openly returns upon a white cloud.”