Christ returning in glory is the hope of the Church. Jesus said, “I will come again” (John 14:3). This promise will be fulfilled. The return of Christ is the event that will finally release the people who love God and seek to honor Him from Satan's earthly rule:

To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation (Hebrews 9:28 NKJV).

Although Jesus did not tell us every detail about His Second Coming, His Word does give us some clues about how He will return. When Jesus left to go back to heaven after His resurrection, two angels stood by the disciples and gave them important information about Christ’s Second Coming:

…while [the disciples] beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they look stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven (Acts 1:9-11 emphasis added).

We can glean three vital pieces of information from the Scriptures:

1. Christ will come in the clouds with His angels.

Jesus was taken up into heaven by a cloud, and He will return in the clouds. The clouds symbolize the angels of God that will surround Him, as can be seen in Hebrew parallelism:

The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as is Sinai, in the holy place (Psalm 68:17).

…who maketh the clouds his chariots; who walketh upon the wings of the wind (Psalm 104:3).

Jesus Himself promised that He would return with the clouds:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30).

The glory of Christ's coming will surpass anything we can imagine. He will return in the glory of His angels, and the Godhead: “when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26).

For further information see Matthew 25:31 and 26:64; Mark 13:26 and 14:62; Revelation 1:7; and 2 Thessalonians 1:7.

2. The Second Coming will be audible and universally visible.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matthew 24:31).

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him (Revelation 1:7).

When Christ returns, every person in every nation will see Him. In fact, Christ warned against false comings of Christ that would not be universally visible:

Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be (Matthew 24:26-27).

3. The Lord will not come down to the earth, but will await the redeemed in the sky.

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other (Matthew 24:31 NIV).

At the Second Coming, Christ will call forth the dead and send forth His angels to gather the elect, and together they will meet Him in the air. Christ Himself will not come down to the earth—His feet will not touch the earth. He commands His angels, “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice” (Psalm 50:5).

See the next article to discover what will happen when Christ returns.