The Contemporary Church Has a Giant Blind Spot to the Return of Christ
Events keep occurring that remind me how little we think about Christ’s second coming.
When I say the contemporary church has a giant blind spot to the return of Christ, I’m not just pointing the finger at other churches. Recently, I did a deep dive into all the lyrics of all the songs we sing on Sundays, and I wrote about how rarely our church sings about Christ’s return.
The reality of our blind spot hit me again last week in a different context. I’ll explain.
Our church evaluates potential members for our pastor-elder team through several steps, one of which is an extensive theological examination. The test consists of almost seventy questions that cover a variety of topics, ranging from classic trinitarianism and the age of the earth to the practice of spiritual gifts and Reformed soteriology. We also ask about contemporary issues such as marriage, sexuality, and systemic racism. Some of the questions have what we consider to be right and wrong answers, as when we ask about the inerrancy of the Scriptures. Other questions tend to fall into the category of philosophy of ministry, which help us assess ministry alignment and, therefore, are less about right and wrong and more about wisdom and passion.
Anyway, as I spoke with another staff member about a potential pastor-elder joining our team, the conversation arose about his particular view of the end times, which, from the top of our minds, we didn’t know. “Oh,” I said, “I have his theological survey right here. Let’s check that to see.”
So we did. We read all the questions and all his answers. And we still had no idea of his views on the end times from our theological survey, because, apparently, we didn’t consider it necessary to include a question on that topic.
And my oversight is even worse than it sounds. Not only did we not ask a single question, but neither of us even realized that we hadn’t asked. After a decade of using the theological survey, I hadn’t even noticed.
This is what I mean when I say we, not just the contemporary church, have a giant blind spot to the return of Christ. We tend to think so little of the end times that we don’t even ask a single question about it on a theological exam ostensibly created to explore important topics and surface potential disagreements. Perhaps because many of us grew up in a culture of end-times excess we have subconsciously swung the pendulum the other way.
My anecdote isn’t to complain or shame. One of my best friends wrote the original draft of the theological exam, and I talked about this with him before writing. My hope in this post is to be part of the solution. Rather than the return of Christ remaining in our blind spot, I want the blazingly bright promise of the victorious rider on the white horse to become one of our guiding lights along the path of obedience. Certainly other lights guide our way too, but without the return of Christ, the path of obedience will only be darker and more precarious. And I know I need all the resources God offers. You probably do too.
I recently submitted a book manuscript to a publisher about the return of Christ. It won’t be released until the summer of 2026, so this is not a promotion for the book. I simply bring up the writing context to say that during the process I spent over a year ransacking the Bible for all the passages that discuss the end times in general and the return of Christ specifically. The final iteration of my list of end-times passages had nearly seven thousand words. I printed the list despite the size, and many mornings before my daily prayer and Bible reading, I’d spend a few minutes reading a page from the list and pondering the truths.
A list of verses that long could seem a bit overwhelming, so I refined it, aiming to make the list as focused as possible on those passages that seem to have the most direct encouragement. I’ve put the list of forty-nine Bible passages below.
I also compiled the verses into a short ebook, so that you can easily have them in one place. If you’d like a copy, sign up below, and I’ll send it to you. I’m calling the booklet Lord, Haste the Day: 49 Bible Passages to Fill You with Hope about the Return of Christ.
As you and I store up truth about the return of Christ in our hearts, God will strengthen our faith and equip us for every good work as we await that glorious day.
Obedience always demands effort. But following God gets more hopeful and less precarious when additional light shines on our path.
“Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).
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49 Passages about the Return of Christ:
Matthew 24:29–31
Matthew 26:64
John 14:1–3
Acts 1:11
Acts 17:30–31
Romans 8:18–24
Romans 14:10–12
Romans 16:20
1 Corinthians 1:7–8
1 Corinthians 4:5
1 Corinthians 11:26
1 Corinthians 13:12
1 Corinthians 15:50–58
1 Corinthians 16:21–22
2 Corinthians 1:14
2 Corinthians 5:8–11
Philippians 1:6
Philippians 2:9–11
Philippians 2:16
Philippians 3:20–21
Colossians 3:3–6
1 Thessalonians 1:9–10
1 Thessalonians 2:19
1 Thessalonians 3:12–13
1 Thessalonians 4:15–18
1 Thessalonians 5:23–24
2 Thessalonians 1:6–10
2 Thessalonians 2:8–10
1 Timothy 6:13–16
2 Timothy 4:1–8
Titus 2:12–14
Hebrews 9:23–28
Hebrews 10:24–25
James 5:1–10
1 Peter 1:3–21
1 Peter 4:7, 12–13
1 Peter 5:1–5
2 Peter 1:16–19
2 Peter 2:9
2 Peter 3:1–13
1 John 3:2–3
Jude 1:17–21, 24–25
Revelation 1:1–20
Revelation 11:15
Revelation 19:11–16, 20
Revelation 20:1–10
Revelation 21:1–4
Revelation 22:1–5
Revelation 22:12–20
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* Photo by Tobias Stonjeck on Unsplash
I Reviewed All the Lyrics Our Church Has Sung This Year and Noticed a Troubling Pattern
When I looked at all the lyrics we’ve sung so far this year, I noticed a troubling pattern: we don’t sing very much about the return of Christ.
Recently, I wrote about the music that most churches sing on Sundays and how it has changed over the years. And I don’t mean that music has changed in obvious stylistic ways. I mean in terms of the content of our songs, specifically that today we do not often sing about the return of Christ.
Matthew Westerholm, a professor of worship, did his doctoral research comparing extensive collections of worship songs from our era and previous eras. “Among many similarities,” he notes, “one difference was striking: Our churches no longer sing about Christ’s second coming as much as we used to.”
While reading D. A. Carson’s book about prayer, I noticed he made a similar point back in the early 90s (Praying with Paul, 27–29). He asks rhetorically how many congregations sing with fervor and with anticipation about Christ’s second coming? The implied answer is not many. Then, to prove his point, he quotes at length two old hymns explicitly about the second coming. Not only had I never sung the hymns that he highlights as well-known examples, but I had never even heard of them.
This got me thinking not so much about the broader church in America and beyond, but about our own church here in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. How much do we sing about the return of Christ?
I asked our worship pastor for the list of all the songs we’ve sung together this year. The number stands at fifty-eight different songs. Some songs we sang frequently, such as “His Glory and Our Good” by CityAlight, which became somewhat of an anthem for us as we preached through 1 Corinthians last year. Several others we only sang once.
When I looked at the list, about two-thirds of the songs we sang were written in the last fifteen years. I thought fifteen years would serve well enough as an arbitrary time marker for what constitutes a “new” song. The rest of our songs were older. The modern classic “In Christ Alone” is more than twenty years old. Other songs, like “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy,” are almost two hundred years old.
When I think about the indictment made by Professor Westerholm that most churches do not sing about the return of Christ as much as they used to, I checked to see if our modern songs followed that trend. Upon reviewing all the lyrics, I found out he is right. Our church hardly sings about the return of Christ, at least explicitly.
If you broaden the criteria to include songs that generally speak about a Christian’s death and resurrection, as well as our bright future with God and his people, then we actually sing a number of those. Consider the song, “Abide,” which goes,
When I pass through death as I enter rest,
I depend on You, I depend on You
For eternal life to be raised with Christ,
I depend on You, I depend on You.
(written by Aaron Williams, Aaron Keyes, and Jake Fauber)
These lines clearly lift our eyes toward eternity. Also consider “Behold the Lamb.”
When the age of death is done
We’ll see Your face, bright as the sun
We’ll bow before the King of Kings
Oh God, forever we will sing
(written by Kristian Stanfill, Melodie Malone, and Phil Wickham)
The modern hymn “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death” by Keith and Kristyn Getty and Matt Papa is filled with lyrics centered on eternity and celebrates the well-known first question of the Heidelberg Catechism. Sandra McCracken’s song “We Will Feast in the House of Zion” certainly looks toward our eternal feasting. Additionally, the songs “On That Day” and “Yet Not I but Through Christ in Me,” both by CityAlight, emphasize the theme of eternity. We sang all of these multiple times.
Also worth mentioning is “The Lord Is My Salvation” by Keith & Kristyn Getty, which has clear lines about the hope of resurrection.
And when I reach my final day
He will not leave me in the grave
But I will rise, He will call me home
The Lord is my salvation
(written by Nathan Nockels, Jonas Myrin, Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty)
However, when I examined the lyrics, I noticed that very few of the modern songs we sing on Sunday at our church have the explicitness about the return of Christ found in “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” by Edward Mote from the 1800s. “When he shall come with trumpet sound,” the hymn goes, “O may I then in him be found.” Or consider the lines, “Lord, haste the day” from the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul.”
Indeed, out of the thirty-six modern songs we have sung this year, I found only three that include lines about the return of Christ. The hymn “Christus Victor (Amen)” by the Gettys, Bryan Fowler, and Matt Boswell contains some wonderful lines, such as,
O Most High, King of the nations
Robed in praise, crowned with splendor
On that day who will not tremble?
When You stand, Christ the Victor
Who was, and is, and is forever
The language of “on that day” is biblical shorthand for the return of Christ (see 1 Cor. 3:13; Heb. 10:25).
The song “O Praise the Name (Anástasis)” by Hillsong also has overt lyrics about the second coming. Anástasis, by the way, is the Greek word for resurrection.
He shall return in robes of white,
The blazing Son shall pierce the night.
And I will rise among the saints,
My gaze transfixed on Jesus’ face
O praise the name of the Lord our God
O praise His name forever more
For endless days we will sing Your praise
(written by Benjamin Hastings, Dean Ussher, and Marty Sampson)
Our church has also enjoyed singing “Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery,” which speaks explicitly of the second advent.
What a foretaste of deliverance
How unwavering our hope
Christ in power resurrected
As we will be when He comes
(written by Matt Boswell, Michael Bleecker, and Matt Papa)
If the Bible had little to say about the return of Christ, then it would make sense for churches to sing little about it. However, the Bible has much to say about the return of Christ; I would guess that we could find over one hundred references to it in the New Testament. Part of what it means for a Christian to grow in maturity must involve consuming a well-rounded theological diet, not only through personal Bible reading and preaching but also in our Sunday singing.
Let me come back to D. A. Carson again as he writes about a passage in 2 Thessalonians 1. “We are losing our anticipation of the Lord’s return, the anticipation that Paul shows is basic to his thought.” Then he adds, “Even though we do not disavow central truths, for many of us their power has been eviscerated. The prospect of the Lord’s return in glory, the anticipation of the wrap-up of the universe as we know it, the confidence that there will be a final and irrevocable division between the just and the unjust—these have become merely creedal points for us, instead of ultimate realities that even now are life-transforming” (Praying with Paul, 27).
I do not expect my blog post to have much effect on those singers and songwriters who will shape the next generation of the church because I don’t know many of them. However, I encourage anyone reading this who possesses these skills and aspirations to serve the Lord and the church by providing us with more songs and hymns that celebrate Christ’s return.
We cannot completely blame the worship leaders and pastors of our church for not singing much about the return of Christ. Our leaders thoughtfully select the best theological songs that can also be sung congregationally. Unfortunately, there simply are not that many new songs available that cover this territory.
But as much as the worship leaders and pastors of our church (and other churches) have influence over the theological diet in our preaching and singing within our local contexts, let us approach this with a focus on preaching and singing about all that God has said in his Word. May it never be that the promise of the return of Christ becomes for us, as Carson puts it, a mere creedal point, something we might acknowledge , yet also something that causes us to yawn.
* Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash
When He Shall Come with Trumpet Sound
They don’t make songs like they used to.
Today we speak less often about the return of Jesus than we did in the past. This neglect in Christian conversation and in Christian preaching affects our singing on Sundays. And our singing on Sundays certainly affects our living on all the other days.
I doubt any of us know definitively and exhaustively the reasons why, but I suspect part of our aversion to discussing the return of Jesus stems from an overreaction to perceived end-time obsession. Some Christians see every detail about the end times as crystal clear. That’s all they seem to talk about. Other Christians, myself included, look at this certainty and feel that the answers are too clean and tidy, maybe even a little contrived. This can lead to mistakenly overcorrecting by hardly ever talking about the second coming of Christ.
Perhaps our neglect also stems from the relative affluence of the Western world. In our wealth, we forget that we need a second coming to usher in heaven on earth. We try not to even think about our death. This is a relatively new phenomenon. “Throughout the history of the church, from the desert fathers to the Puritans, Christians have used the practice of meditating on death,” writes professor Kelly M. Kapic. “That is partly because the question was not about the possibility of pain but how to live with it.” Building on the work of a historian, Kapic notes, “Prior to modernity the question was not ‘a choice between pain and sickness or relief, but between a willing and a reluctant endurance of pain and sickness,’ since all were constantly in some level of physical discomfort” (Kapic, Embodied Hope, 60). To say it differently, only in our modern era has the desire for perfect health been anything but a fairytale. And the fairytale can cause us to neglect looking to the hope that God will bring in the end.
The experience of the cloud of witnesses, whether in the Bible or from the first century to modern times, was strikingly different. And this neglect of the afterlife and second coming has influenced the worship music we sing together when we gather. So many of the classic hymns so cherished by older generations of Christians featured climactic final stanzas that lifted eyes to the promise of heaven.
Consider the classic hymn “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” by Edward Mote from the 1800s. After a few verses that explore the trials we experience in this life and how Christ remains a rock and anchor for believers, the hymn celebrates the return of Christ with a trumpet. “When he shall come with trumpet sound,” we sing, “O may I then in him be found.” These lines celebrate a theme Paul writes about often, as in 1 Corinthians 15:51–52. “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (see also 1 Thess. 4:13–18).
Matthew Westerholm, a professor of worship, conducted his doctoral research on this subject, comparing extensive collections of worship songs from our era and previous eras. “Among many similarities,” he notes, “one difference was striking: Our churches no longer sing about Christ’s second coming as much as we used to.”
I do not want to argue with anyone about the musical beauty of hymns compared to modern worship songs. And I do not want to dictate what churches should or should not sing. But when examining the lyrics of most modern songs, many churches that sing for thirty minutes during their weekly gatherings include few songs, if any, whose lyrics explicitly direct believers to the hope of the end. This should not be.
To shift focus to God’s blessings now, to the exclusion of his blessings at the end, we do not lose a part of Christianity; we lose Christianity. Consider the analogy of the human body. In a tragic accident, a person might lose a finger or an arm and still remain very much alive. We cannot, however, lose the function of vital organs, such as our brain, heart, or lungs, without dying.
When the apostle Paul considers the implications of losing the doctrine of the physical resurrection of believers—the event that happens upon the return of Christ and when the trumpet sounds—Paul states that without the future resurrection, Christian preaching becomes in vain and misrepresents God, while the Christian faith becomes meaningless and futile, leaving us to perish forever in our sins and become the most pitiable of people (1 Cor. 15:12–19). The stakes could not be higher.
Of course, rather than complete avoidance of the indispensable doctrine of the return of Christ and the life everlasting, something more partial typically happens. We may not turn off the faucet completely, but we should not be surprised by our thirst when we only allow a trickle.
To quote Kelly Kapic again, “When the homes of believers are hit by chronic pain or mental illness, they often find the contemporary church strangely unhelpful, even hurtful” (38).
Perhaps songs that major on God’s blessings in the here and now, coupled with little emphasis on God’s blessings in the end, contribute to why suffering believers often find the church so unhelpful. Indeed, from a biblical perspective, to be the most helpful to believers suffering in the now, we must remember that the truth we regularly confess about the end—and the truth we regularly sing about the end—changes how we live today and every day. We must believe it all, and sing it all, to have it all.
* Photo by Madison Oren on Unsplash
In Heaven Even Their Evil Footprints Shall Not Be Known
This quote from pastor J.C. Ryle has become one of my favorites about heaven.
I’m nearing the final stages of completing a full rough draft for my next book. It’s about how the promise of the return of Christ brings hope to every believer, especially to those who are suffering. Unfortunately, it won’t be for sale until June of 2026.
In the meantime, I wanted to share that the project gave me the blessing of reading over and over the passages in the Bible about the end of everything. I also had the blessing of reading a bunch of good books on the topic. A British pastor named J.C. Ryle has become one of my favorite writers from the past, and I loved his collection of remarks about the hope of heaven.
In one place, he writes about God’s complete removal of the various types of evil from heaven such that “even their footprints will not be known.” What a sweet promise. Here’s the quote in it’s fuller context.
There are many things about heaven revealed in Scripture which I purposely pass over. That it is a prepared place for a prepared people; that all who are found there will be of one mind and of one experience, chosen by the same Father, washed in the same blood of atonement, renewed by the same Spirit; that universal and perfect holiness, love, and knowledge will be the eternal law of the kingdom—all these are ancient things, and I do not mean to dwell on them.
Suffice it to say, that heaven is the eternal presence of everything that can make a saint happy, and the eternal absence of everything that can cause sorrow.
Sickness, and pain, and disease, and death, and poverty, and labor, and money, and care, and ignorance, and misunderstanding, and slander, and lying, and strife, and contention, and quarrels, and envies, and jealousies, and bad tempers, and infidelity, and skepticism, and irreligion, and superstition, and heresy, and schism, and wars, and fightings, and bloodshed, and murders, and law suits—all, all these things shall have no place in heaven.
On earth, in this present time, they may live and flourish. In heaven even their footprints shall not be known. (J.C. Ryle, Heaven: Priceless Encouragements on the Way to our Eternal Home, 8).
* Photo by Anya Smith on Unsplash