The answer
Some of the chapters of the New Testament outline some of the final signs of the Coming of Christ in wonderful detail. They can be outlined as follows:
- a) The appearance of the Sign of the Son of Man (the Cross) (Matt. 24:30).
- b) The coming of Christ in His glory on the clouds: (Matt. 24: 30; Luke 21: 27; 1 Thess. 3:13).
- c) The great sound of the trumpet by the archangel to proclaim the Judgement (Matt. 24:31).
- d) The rising of the dead from the graves (1 Thess. 4:16).
- e) The changing of the living in a moment (1 Cor. 15:52).
It is worthy to note that these events will occur simultaneously, and suddenly. When man dies, the body will return to dust (Gen, 3:19), and the spirit will return to God (Eccles. 12:7-8). It will either be commended to the paradise of joy, the waiting place of the righteous, if it was good (Luke 23:43); or to Gehenna, or the abyss, the waiting place of the wicked, if it was evil (Luke 16:23).
The spirits will remain in their respective place, and the bodies will remain in the dust, until the day of the General Judgement, when the angels will sound the trumpet, and the bodies will rise, after their spirit entering them, and the bodies will be changed to a spiritual form (1 Cor. 15: 42-44).
We will then meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:17), when He comes in His glory with His angels (Matt. 25:31). He will be seated on the Throne of His glory, and will judge everyone according to the deeds that they accomplished on earth, be they good or bad. He will send the righteous to eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven, and the wicked to everlasting punishment (Matt. 25:46).
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II
Pope Tawadros II, My Faith: A Series of Dialogues on the Creed (Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, 2014), 123–124.
The pages in the book (123–124)
