The Bible is riddled with prophecies that are often difficult to interpret. During the Old Testament, many prophets such as Isaiah, King David, Daniel and Malachi prophesied about Jesus’ first coming. However, when Jesus came and fulfilled those prophecies, the religious leaders disbelieved him. Why? because Jesus didn’t come in the way they expected.

In the New Testament, Jesus also gives us clues as to how he will come back. It is important for us to know and interpret the prophecies about the second coming, because if we don’t know, we might miss him. In fact, just as Jesus was persecuted in the Old Testament, we might even persecute him now if we don’t know.

In today’s post, we will look at some of the prophecies about Jesus from the New Testament. Join me as we try to figure out how Jesus will come back.

Our first clue to Jesus’ coming is in Acts when Jesus ascends to heaven. It says:

¹⁰ They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹ “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Acts 1:10-11

Here, the disciples are looking up into the sky when two angels appear to them. According to the angels, Jesus will come back the same way he has gone into heaven. This may seem straightforward, but do we really know how he went into heaven? One verse earlier, we have another clue:

⁹ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

Acts 1:9

In this scripture, it indicates that Jesus went into heaven on a cloud. Or Jesus ascended and was simply covered by a cloud. In fact, many scriptures mention that Jesus will come riding on a cloud, and this is why many Christians expect the second coming to happen in this way. Let’s look at only some of the scriptures about clouds:

“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
    and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
    and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.

Revelation 1:7

In the book of Revelation, which contains many prophecies about the second coming, it says that “he is coming with the clouds”. The gospels also mention clouds, especially Matthew 24, which is famously about the Last Days:

³⁰ “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.

Matthew 24:30

Similar accounts of this same event are recorded in Mark 13:26 and Luke 21:27. Then, another interesting scripture from 1 Thessalonians talks about what will happen to the believers when Jesus comes again:

¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

It says that he will “come down from heaven” and we will “meet the Lord in the air”. These scriptures are, of course, confusing to some, because people cannot ride on clouds. Moreover, people cannot float in the air because of the laws of gravity. Therefore, if we are expecting Jesus, whose body resurrected, to return with his physical body, many questions arise.

In the Bible, clouds are not only mentioned pertaining to prophecies about Jesus though. Sometimes clouds appear because God’s glory is to great for people to see. For example, a cloud sits on Mount Sinai when God appears to Moses:

¹⁵ When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, ¹⁶ and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud.

Exodus 24:15-16

God also leads the Israelites through the desert by sending a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire to guide them at night:

 ²¹ By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. ²² Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

Exodus 13:21-22

Then, in the New Testament, a cloud covers Jesus, Moses and Elijah during the Transfiguration:

⁵ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

Matthew 17:5

Curiously, there are also many scriptures that refer to people as clouds. Proverbs talks about people that are boastful as clouds without rain:

¹⁴ Like clouds and wind without rain
    is one who boasts of gifts never given.

Proverbs 25:14

Another similar scripture in Jude compares people who are selfish to “clouds without rain”:

¹² These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead

Jude 1:12

In Hebrews, Apostle Paul uses clouds to refer to witnesses of the gospel and he encourages the followers of Jesus to stay strong:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

Hebrews 12:1

From all of these scriptures, it seems that God uses clouds to describe various things in the Bible. When clouds gather, God sometimes appears, clouds guide and hide people, and sometimes clouds even refer to people. To make all of this more confusing, there are Old Testament prophecies that talk about God also riding on clouds, such as this one in Daniel:

¹³ “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.

Daniel 7:13

In Isaiah, it also says that the Lord rides on a fast cloud to bring judgment to the nations, especially in this prophecy against Egypt:

A prophecy against Egypt:

See, the Lord rides on a swift cloud
    and is coming to Egypt.
The idols of Egypt tremble before him,
    and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear.

Isaiah 19:1

What all these scriptures indicate is that clouds in the Bible do not only refer to the ones we see in the sky. The implications of this is that perhaps we must rethink our perceptions of the second coming. Will Jesus come on the type of cloud that God rides? Maybe Jesus will come on the type of clouds that refer to people? Or perhaps we should expect him on a literal cloud?

---

---