Death, heaven and hell
When will Jesus come back, and what will happen?
Short answer
Nobody knows the date. Jesus will return visibly, raise the dead, judge the world and make everything new. Christians differ on the order of events.
Jesus said no one knows the day or hour, not even the angels. Be careful with anyone who sets dates or maps current events onto prophecy.
All Christians agree on the core: Jesus will return in glory, the dead will be raised, everyone will be judged, and God will make all things new.
They differ on details: a literal thousand-year reign after Jesus returns (premillennial), the thousand years as a picture of the present age (amillennial), or the gospel spreading widely before He returns (postmillennial). Views on the rapture and tribulation differ too. Your church can explain what it teaches.
These teachings are there so you live ready: faithful, watchful and full of hope.
My verses
No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
“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.”
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness as you anticipate and hasten the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.”