What does the biblical passage saying Christ will come on the clouds signify?

Chapter Second Advent

Jesus clearly spoke about the Second Advent (Matt. 16:27). But he said that no one knew of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven (Matt. 24:36). Therefore, up to the present, it has been thought reckless even to try to know when, where and how the Lord would come.

By examining the words of Jesus, "Only the Father knows." (Matt 24:36), and the verse, "Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7), we can understand that God, who knows of the day and hour, will surely let His prophets know all the secrets concerning the Second Advent of the Lord before actualizing it.

Therefore, Jesus said that Lord would come like a thief (Rev. 3:3), while, on another occasion, he said that, for those in the light, the Lord would not come as a thief (I. Thess. 5:4). It was true that Jesus came as thief to the chief priests and scribes, who were in darkness, but, to the home of John the Baptist, which was in light, God revealed Jesus' birth beforehand. At the time of his birth He revealed the fact to the wise men of the east, Simon, Anna, and the shepherds. Again, Jesus warned the people, telling them to watch at all times, praying that they might have the strength to escape all those things that would take place, because the day of the Second Advent would come upon them suddenly like a snare; so, it is evident that He will reveal it beforehand to the saints who are in the light, so that they may prepare for the coming day of the Lord.

From the examples appearing in the course of the providence of restoration, we can see that God always did things after having revealed the facts to His prophets beforehand; for example: the judgment in Noah's time, His destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Messiah's coming. Therefore, it is evident that, at the Second Coming of the Lord, God will speak to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see so that they may be enlightened by the saints about what would take place, as He promised that in the Last Days He would pour out His Spirit (Acts 2:17).

Section II

In what manner will Christ come again?

3. What does the biblical passage saying Christ will come on the clouds signify?

If the Second Advent of the Lord is to be realized by a birth on the earth, we must know the significance of the Biblical passage saying that he will come on the clouds. To know this, we must first understand the meaning of the word "clouds". We read in Revelation 1: 7:

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, every one who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, Amen.

From this we know that all men will surely see Christ coming again. Meanwhile, at the time when Stephen was martyred, only the saints whose spiritual eyes were open could see Jesus sitting at the right hand of God (Acts 7:55). Consequently, if Jesus, who is in the spirit world, should come in a spiritual body as he now is, he will be seen only by those whose spiritual eyes are open; so it would never be that every eye will see Christ coming again. Therefore, we can understand that it is because he will come in the flesh that the Bible says every eye will see the Lord at his coming. The Lord, in the flesh, cannot come on the clouds, so the "clouds" are surely symbolic.

The same Biblical passage goes on to say that every one who pierced him will also see him. Those who pierced Jesus were the Roman soldiers of his days. However, those Roman soldiers, of course, cannot see the Lord coming again. It is because, if the Roman soldiers are to be able to see the Lord coming again on the earth, they must be resurrected, but it says in Revelation 20:5 that those who will be resurrected at the time of the Lord's Second Advent are only those who will participate in the first resurrection, and the rest of the dead would not come to life until the thousand years (the millennium) are ended.

Therefore, we must interpret "those who pierced" as a parable, regarding it to be the appellation for those who, having believed Christ will come again on the clouds, will disregard and persecute him when he comes again most unexpectedly through a physical birth on the earth. If "those who pierced" should be interpreted as a parable in this way, there would be no reason why we cannot interpret the word "clouds" in the same passage, also, as a parable.

What, then , is the word "clouds" likened to? "Clouds" would denote that which is vaporized (purified) from the dirty water on the earth. Water symbolizes the fallen man (Rev. 17:15). Then we may understand that the clouds would signify the devout saints, whose minds are always in heaven and not on earth, completely reborn from the fallen race of men. Again, "cloud" is often used, either in the Bible or in the classics, as a word representing a crowd (Heb. 12:1).

We may see that the word is also used in that way, even today, in the languages of both East and West. The pillar of clouds by day which led the Israelites in Moses' course represented Jesus, who was to come later as the leader of the same nation; the pillar of fire by night represented the Holy Spirit, who, as the object of Jesus, was to lead the Israelites by the fire of inspiration. From the above, we know that Christ's coming on the clouds means that he will appear as the leader of the Christians, the Second Israel, amidst a group of reborn saints. As we have previously studied in detail, when Jesus answered the Pharisees' question as to where the Lord would come again (Luke 17:37) by saying that where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together, he meant that the Lord would come to the place where the devout saints would be gathered together, which signifies the same thing as the coming on the clouds.

If we should thus interpret the cloud as a parable, we may as well think that the Lord came on the clouds at the time of the First Advent. This is because Jesus, though he was in fact born on the earth, was surely one who came from heaven, seen from his significance and value, just as the Bible says, "The first man [Adam] was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man [Jesus] is from heaven." (I Cor. 15:47); "No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man." (John 3:13). This is the reason why it was believed that the Lord would come on the clouds, even at the first coming (Dan. 7:13).

4. Why did Jesus say that the lord would come on the clouds?

There are two reasons why Jesus foretold that the Lord would come on the clouds. First, it was to prevent the delusion of antichrists. If it had been clarified that Christ would come on earth in the flesh, the confusion caused by the delusions of many antichrists could not have been prevented by any means. Since Jesus appeared as the Messiah from a low and humble position of life, any humble man who had attained a certain spiritual standard could arise, calling himself the Lord of the Second Advent, thus dazzling the whole world into a great delusion. But fortunately, this kind of confusion has been avoided because all the believers, knowing that Christ would come on the clouds, have looked up into heaven. However, since the time is now full, God will surely tell us, straightforwardly, that Christ will be born again on the earth.

Second, it was to encourage those saints who were walking the difficult path of faith at that time. There are numerous other examples in which Jesus said things in such a way that they sounded illogical in order to encourage the saints to fulfill God's will as rapidly as possible. To draw examples, Jesus, in order to make his disciples believe that the Second Coming would be fulfilled right away, said, "...for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel, before the Son of man comes." (Matt. 10:23). Again, when Jesus had told Peter of his approaching martyrdom, he asked Jesus what would become of the disciple John; then Jesus replied, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?" (John 21:18-22). According to this word of Jesus, some of his disciples were looking forward to the Second Advent, which they thought might take place during John's lifetime. On another occasion, Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in his Kingdom." (Matt. 16:28), which made his disciples think that they could possible see the Lord coming again in their lifetime.

In this way, Jesus spoke as if the Lord were coming very soon; this encouraged his disciples so much that even under the oppression of the Roman Empire and the persecution by Judaism, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Act 2:1-4), and then they could found the early Christian Church, all from the ardent hope for the Second Advent, which they thought was imminent. It was also to stimulate and encourage the saints who were under severe tribulations that he told them he would come on the clouds from heaven in the power and glory of God with the trumpet call of the archangel, and fulfill all things like a flash of lightning.