Since many false prophets will gradually arise, some of whom will even try to pass themselves off as Jesus Christ, the question of how one can recognise them has arisen and gained current interest. I have therefore felt compelled to refer here to Christ's own statements about the event that has been called "the second coming of Christ". Christ himself warned very earnestly against these false prophets and false Christs, just as in a symbolic language he has constantly explained, for those who have ears to hear with and eyes to see with, how this so-called "second coming" will be. I will therefore refer to the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John in which he says: "Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (Matt. 24:25, 26, 27 and 30)

Christ further warns by saying: "Take heed lest any man deceive you: For many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or , lo, he is there; believe him not: For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect." (Mark 13: 5-6, 21-22)

"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whosoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." (John 16:12-14)

We have here some reproduced from the Bible some of Christ's own statements about his so-called "second coming". What is the true reality now behind these divine promises given by the world redeemer about this "second coming"? When during his second coming he cannot be found in the desert or in the chambers, and cannot be found here or there, his second coming absolutely cannot be as a Christ in the form of an ordinary physical man. In such a case he would be easy to find and recognise. He warns of course against believing those who come and say that they are Christ, or say that he is to be found here or there. His second coming shall thus not be to any great extent physical in nature. His appearance will at any rate be anonymous. It is thus not his purely physical person itself that will be the primary factor in his second coming. The second coming is hidden.

What is it then that will reveal his second coming? Indeed, what does he himself say? Does he not say that it will be like lightening that comes from the east, and flashes to the west? What is it about his second coming that can have such force? This is but his world-redeeming, divine message to mankind all over the Earth, and thereby from the east to the west. And here he goes on to say, "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (Matt. 24:30) What is this sign of the son of man that will appear in heaven? Here heaven means life's very highest sphere of consciousness or thought, that is the domain of universal love. Universal love is thus the sign of the son of man. When this sign appears the tribes of the Earth should mourn. Is this not precisely what we are seeing? Is the world not permanently in mourning? Have we not in this century experienced two great world wars? And are there not still wars and cold wars, murder and killing all over the world, concentration camps and torture chambers in which people are tortured to death in the most terrible ways? Can there be greater causes for the display of mourning and wretchedness? In this wretchedness the son of man will appear in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. The son of man means his divine message; it will thus emerge in the divine sphere of consciousness of universal love with power and much glory. What glory is it in the message of Christ that is to be revealed? This glory is an intellectualised renewal of his unintellectual message of about two thousand years ago. It is cosmic science, which reveals the following as fact: the existence of God; the immortality of living beings; the reincarnation or rebirth of beings; the existence of darkness as a vital necessity for the beings' experience of light and their future appearance as the human being in God's image after his likeness; the primary consciousness of God and the secondary consciousness of God; life's cosmic spirals; the microcosmos, mesocosmos and macrocosmos as living beings; universal love as the keynote of the universe; the beings' identity with the Godhead, time, space and eternity; that no one can do wrong and no one can suffer wrong; and that everything is very good. This is the main information contained in the "second coming" of Christ, which is the same as the continuation, renewal and perfection of Christianity. Can mankind be given a greater glory than the spirit of God in the form of consciousness, in thoughts and knowledge and way of being?

But Christ has more to say about his second coming, which means the perfection of his mission through the revelation of God's holy spirit as a science of the entire existence of the Godhead in a form intelligible to developed intelligence and feeling. What is the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in the name of Jesus or Christ, who will teach man all the things he has said to them? Is it not precisely thoughts and knowledge of the very highest realities in life about the existence of God and the existence of human beings and God's loving plan for all living beings? What else can constitute the holy spirit or God's consciousness?

The fact that people during Christ's physical incarnation on Earth were not so developed as to be able to understand his entire mission, and he had therefore to promise its completion at a later point in time, is confirmed by Christ when he said to his disciples that he has yet many things to say to them, but they could not bear to hear them. For this reason he had to reckon on completing his mission at a later point in time, when people were more developed intellectually. He then again mentions the holy spirit or the spirit of truth, which means the science of truth, that will come and lead mankind to the whole truth. It will tell mankind of things to come. It will glorify Christ, by taking from what is Christ's and making it known to mankind.

The mission of Christ this time will not be based on a physical Christ personality with authority and miracles. The person this time is anonymous. Only the Christ consciousness in the form of cosmic science will be the primary factor in the renewal and perfection that is promised or understood as the second coming of Christ. It is this holy spirit of truth or science of universal love that, as life's third testament, will become the foundation of life in the new world epoch beginning now.

I have explained here in brief Christ's own statements about his so-called "second coming" and his earnest warning to people that they should not believe all the many false prophets who will arise at the same time as his second coming, and who will not hesitate to claim to be Jesus Christ himself. It is good that many of these self-appointed prophets are so naive that they try to pass themselves off as Christ. In this way they reveal for the developed human being that they are not Christ.

I hope these lines can be of benefit to people who are in the dark about "the second coming of Christ".

(Original Danish title: Falske profeter og falske Kristus. First published in the Danish edition of Kosmos, no. 8, 1971. Edited by Mogens Møller. Translated by Mary McGovern, 2001.)

© Martinus Institut 1981

Published with permission from Martinus Institute