Title: From East to West: How the Second Coming Unfolds

Topic: Second Coming

Summary: We look at the striking statement in Matthew 24:27 that the Second Coming will take place like lightning coming from the east and flashing to the west. What other clues does the Bible contain to what this might mean?

Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.

References:
Matthew 24:1, 27
Luke 17:20-30
Exodus 19:16; 20:18
2 Samuel 22:10-16
Matthew 28:2
Revelation 11:19
Numbers 3:23
Leviticus 16
Matthew 21:1
Luke 19:37
Numbers 34:6
Isaiah 9:2
Malachi 3:1; 4:1
Zechariah 14:1
Ezekiel 10:18; 11:22; 43; 44; 46; 48
Matthew 24:26-27
Hebrews 4:12
Luke 2:34-35

4500. 'And came with confidence upon the city, and killed every male' means that they utterly destroyed the truths of doctrine of the Church among the Ancients. This is clear from the meaning of 'the city' as the doctrine of the Church, dealt with in 402, 2449, 2943, 3216, 4478, in this case of the Church among the Ancients, for that Church is represented by Hamor and Shechem whose city it was; from the meaning of 'with confidence' as with trust, in this case with trust in falsity and evil; and from the meaning of 'a male' as truth, dealt with in 749, 2046, 4005. From these meanings it is evident that 'they came with confidence upon the city, and killed every male' means that with a trust in falsity and evil they utterly destroyed the truths of doctrine of the Church among the Ancients.

[2] It was the Church among the Ancients, a descendant of the Most Ancient Church, that was going to be established among the descendants from Jacob, because the Ancient Church had begun to perish. But the fact that they utterly destroyed every truth of faith and good of charity, and thus every internal aspect of worship among them, and so the fact that no Church could be established among Jacob's descendants, is described at this point in the internal sense. This explains how it came about that, because of their stubborn insistence, that which was merely a representative of the Church was established among them 4281, 4288-4290, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4317, 4429, 4433, 4444.