Where Is the Promise of the Lord’s Coming?

Presentation by Tim Moore

Tim Moore: Let’s turn to our text today and see why I titled this entire conference, Where Is the Promise of His Coming? So here’s what the Apostle Peter writes in his Second Epistle beginning in verse one of chapter three.

“This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you, in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. Know this first of all, in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”

For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the Word of God the Heavens existed long ago and the Earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His Word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

Do you realize that even God’s perceived delay in sending His Son is a manifestation of His grace, mercy, and love not wishing for any to perish? Do you believe the Lord God and take Him at His Word? Well, some of you may be familiar with Penn Jillette of the magician or comedy duo Penn and Teller. He’s the one that is bigger and taller and does all the talking.

Penn Jillette is so adamant, or was I should say, so adamant about his disbelief in God that he got license plates on his three cars that read, “ATHEIST,” “NO GOD,” “GODLESS.” He wanted to have a license plate that read “INFIDEL,” but the DMV wouldn’t allow something quite that audacious. He publicly lamented, strangely enough, they wouldn’t let me have “INFIDEL.” And he said this, “Atheism is not believing God. I believe there is no God.” He was adamant in his disbelief.

And yet Penn Jillette, this very brash, outspoken advocate of unbelief, had this to say about a mild‑mannered Christian who came to one of his shows. He described this man as polite and kind. Following the show, the man dared to approach Penn Jillette and ask if he could give him a Gideon Bible. Shocked, Penn accepted the Bible and later had this to say, “If you believe there is a Heaven and Hell and you think it’s not worth telling someone about it, how much do you have to hate him not to proselytize? To believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell people this man cared enough about me to proselytize.”

And this adamant atheist later said, “Well, I’m no longer an atheist. I guess I’m now an agnostic.” He claimed that every sane person is at worst an agnostic. So to put it in other terms, this hardcore atheist now admits that, short of believing faith, the only rational position is confessional ignorance.

I actually love to debate with atheists. I’ve done so many times. In about five minutes, I can dissuade them of their atheism, because I say, “Wow, you hold the position of atheism, right?” “Well, yes, of course.” “That means you’ve been to every corner of the universe, every so‑called dimension. You’ve explored the entirety of the cosmos, and you have found there is no God?” “Well, no, I haven’t been to all those places.” “Well, then how do you know?” And pretty quickly, I have 100% success rate with so‑called atheists to have them recognize, “Well, I guess I’m just an agnostic.” I say, “Oh, well, you’re halfway to faith. Let’s keep talking.”

Sometimes the actions of atheists speak louder than their words. The famous, or dare I say infamous to some, atheist Richard Dawkins had this to say about himself. He called himself a cultural Christian, saying that “he cherishes Christian traditions, hymns, and ethos, and expressed personal horror at the thought of Islamic customs and ideology replacing Britain’s Christian heritage, since Christianity,” as he said, “Is a fundamentally decent religion that provides a very beneficial framework for civilized society.” And that’s an avowed atheist?

Well, folks, if we consider that there are some who would be adamant about their atheism or at least their agnosticism, what are you adamant about? In other words, if they believe there is no God, what is it that you actually believe? Do you believe, not only in God, Satan and the demons do that. Do you believe God? You know, over the last few years, we’ve had several programs. I even touched on this in previous conferences, about Satan’s timeless battle for hearts and minds.

We talk about kinetic warfare. Pete and I can give you long dissertation on military operations and some of the technology that we wield even today. But really the more important battle is for hearts and minds. Any soldier will tell you this. You don’t really defeat an enemy, unless you obliterate them, until you have convinced them to either surrender or to stop fighting back. It is a battle that is mental and psychological. It’s a spiritual battle, and Satan is a very avid foe.

One of the things Satan likes to do is to put doubt in the minds even of Christians or those who claim to believe His Word. He would have you pilfer the promises of the Jewish people, for example, by whispering in your ear, “Did God really say?” that he had made promises to the Jewish people? “Did God really say?” And that’s essentially what we’re going to be talking about today with Peter’s admonition in his letter there in Second Peter.

Now in the end, Satan would like to assert, just as he did in the garden, “God is a liar.” Now, when I was at the Air Force Academy, we took an oath not only to uphold the Constitution, but we had an honor code, “I will not lie, steal, or cheat.” And all my life, I’ve actually tried to operate by that code.

I’m imperfect because I’m only a man, but I will tell you as someone who is still willing to look you in the eye and shake your hand and give you my word, that it means something to me just as it did my father and my grandfather before me. We don’t have to sign a piece of paper. I can tell you how galling, how absolutely offensive it would be to be called a liar. Can you imagine how offensive it is to a holy God to be accused of lying to the creatures He loves?

Well, quite frankly, Scripture is filled with the promises of God. He reveals Himself as the ultimate promise keeper. And by contrast, as I said, all of us are fallen, and so we fail too often in keeping our promises. Jonathan Swift, the Anglo‑Irish writer and satirist who wrote Gulliver’s Travels, had one of his characters flippantly assert, “Promises and pie crust are meant to be broken,” really? That’s how too many in our culture look at their marriage vows today. “Well, I mean it until I don’t.” What about Christians? Do we take our commitment seriously? Do we take God at His Word?

You know in my own experience, I was at a church one time where we had our superintendent of the Sunday school program as the lead advocate for the Promise Keeper effort in our church. We went to several gatherings. As a matter of fact, we drove to Dallas from Arkansas a couple of times to participate in Promise Keeper rallies. Anybody been to a Promise Keeper rally? Yeah, this young man, I’ll call him Jimbo, wore his Promise Keeper shirt every single day.

One weekend I realized I hadn’t seen Jimbo for the last couple three weeks, and I asked one of the other deacons, “Where’s Jimbo been?” “Oh, uh, haven’t you heard?” I said, “No, heard what?” “Uh, Jimbo’s made some bad choices.” I said, “What are you talking about?” “Well, he’s involved in an affair.” I said, “What? Jimbo’s got a wife, a little girl…a baby girl. What do you mean he’s involved in an affair?” “Yeah, he’s shacked up with this woman.” “He’s our Promise Keeper head. Has anybody confronted him?” “Well, no, we just…” I said, “Well, I’m going right after church, who’s with me?” And finally one guy, “Okay, I guess I’ll go,” to confront a man failing to keep his promise in the most sacred vow he had made.

Now, all of us, as I have said before, “Are prone to wander, prone to leave even the Lord I love,” which is why as the song says, “Lord, take my heart and seal it.” Bind me to You in such a manner I cannot stray. Because in my humanity I know I’m prone to, but I do not want to be faithless to You who is always faithful.

And the Word of God tells us this. It tells us that it is impossible for God to lie. “God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent.” Every word He has spoken He will make good. The Lord God said to Joshua: “None of the promises he had made to the House of Israel had failed. All would come to pass.” And regarding again those promises to the House of Israel, the covenant He made with Abraham, His oath to Isaac, He said that He has remembered His covenant how long? Forever. Forever.

Well, His promises, as I said earlier in one of our interludes, Are yes and amen. The Lord’s lovingkindness indeed never ceases. His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is my faithfulness? Great is your faithfulness? No, Great is His faithfulness, which is why I so appreciate Amber leading us in that song. The songs today were just tremendous. The one we led off with this afternoon, “This is my story, this is my song,” that was my mother’s song for all the years she sang in church, over and over again that was her solo song. So Mom, that one was for you, a special blessing not only to you, but to me.

Well, so the question I ask in this short presentation is: Where is the promise of his coming? You know, ironically, Peter touches on the fact that those scoffers who say, “All continues just as it was from the beginning of creation,” except that there was a creation. So he’s talking about people in the Church. Brothers and sisters, I can promise you, the world could care less about the promise of His coming today.

So let’s explore briefly the impatience that Peter recognized. You know, even in Christ’s day and age, there were people who were impatient. The apostles themselves were impatient, as I’m going to demonstrate today, over His perceived delay. But Peter foresaw an impatience that would pitch over into dismissive scorn for the surety of Christ’s promise to come again for those who are His.

So let’s just reflect. Pete did a little bit of that today when he was talking about the tyranny of the present. We have to remember the past, understand where we are, to then appreciate what is coming in the future. So in Jesus’ day and age, life in the land of Israel then divided into regions that Scripture describes as Judea, Samaria, and the Galilee was very difficult. Under Roman occupation, there was a pagan culture imposed that was hostile to the Jewish insistence on worshiping one true God.

And this Pax Romana, the Roman peace, was imposed by a heavy‑handed Roman military subjugation, especially for any lands or people that dared to resist Roman superiority. The warnings God had offered through Amos seemed to have plagued this House of Israel, because for over 400 years there had been an apparent famine for hearing the words of the Lord, in the sense that the canon of the Old Testament was complete and the New Testament, or the New Covenant, had not yet been announced.

We know that there was anticipation for a deliverer that was growing year by year alongside a mounting sense of oppression. Isn’t it funny how those two things seem to go hand in hand? Every time the Christian church in America feels a little put upon, there’s a sudden burst of enthusiasm for studying God’s prophetic Word. There’s a sudden interest in what God has promised for the future. But when things are going great, people go about their way. And yet many of us pray for things to go great for our children and grandchildren.

You saw the tendency that Pete talked about. When things are too easy, people get weak, and sometimes they get weak even in their faith. Now, this anticipation had grown in the Jewish society, but most Jews were looking for a military and a political savior, not one who offered repentance from sin and a kingdom of God based on the Gospel in a different form than they expected.

So as Nathan and I have described on Christ in Prophecy TV and radio, this kingly Messiah they looked for was referred to as Messiah Ben David, this exalted Son of David. And even the crowds that hailed Jesus as He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday what were they crying out? “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Was Jesus actually Yeshua Ben David? Yes, but He was a descendant of David, and yet not in the way they anticipated. Yeah, they cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” But those same crowds did not expect their long‑awaited Messiah to be a willing and suffering servant as described in Isaiah 53.

That has been called by some Jewish sages Messiah Ben Joseph, the son of Joseph by Ephraim. And opposed to the triumphant Messiah Ben David who would reign over Israel, many Jewish scholars expected this Messiah Ben Joseph to wage war and be a great military conqueror. According to their tradition, he would fall in a battle against Israel’s enemies. Whether it was by wielding stones or a sword, his tragic death would finally precede a final redemption for the House of Israel.

Don’t you find it interesting that today most Jews are very resistant to reading Isaiah 53? I’ve sat next to Orthodox Jews who are studying and reading their commentaries constantly, even on the flight to Israel, struck up a conversation and asked, “Do you ever read the prophets?” “Oh, yes, oh, yes. Oh, yes, I do, yes.” “You ever read Isaiah?” “Yes, of course, of course.” “You ever read Isaiah 53?” “No.” “Well, let’s read it, because that’s part of the prophet, isn’t it?” “Well, yes, we’re not supposed to read that.” “Why not?” Because it points to this suffering servant.

And they quickly realize that as a people, the Jews have gravitated to this expectation today for Messiah Ben David, all the power, majesty, and triumph without the tragedy, death, or redemption. To this day, many Jews reject the truth that Jesus is the Christ because He suffered and died. They don’t want to hear about it because it doesn’t fit with their narrative their expectation of this conquering, reigning king. A king who conquers and reigns surely doesn’t suffer and die but that’s exactly what Jesus did.

This really shouldn’t surprise even us as we read Scripture with all the blessing of hindsight that we have, because we realize that as Jesus began to reveal His divine plan for His own sacrificial death, His disciples remained in denial or absolutely rejected that reality altogether. And let’s look at no better example than Peter, the writer of the passage I read to you earlier. When Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord said, “Blessed are you, Peter, because my Father has revealed that to you.”

But just a few verses later, as Jesus revealed what was to happen as they went up to Jerusalem, Peter took Him aside and rebuked the Lord God that he had just confessed, because what He had described did not fit Peter’s expectation. “No, Lord, you will not die.” Did you hear the echo all the way from the garden? “You will not die.” And what was the Lord’s response to Peter? “Get thee behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are setting your mind not on God’s interests,” but on whose? Whose expectations? Whose desires? “Man’s.”

Which were so more temporal and immediate than what the Lord had in mind, were so…more false in the prosperity they were seeking here and now. What God had in mind was so much greater, but it required that His Son would go to the cross of Calvary.

Even after a hundreds of years of silence and deepening darkness leading up to the first Advent, I’ve observed many times that the Scripture records only two seasoned saints were awaiting the arrival of the Messiah at the Temple: Simeon and Anna. Out of all of Israel, these were the only two who seemed to understand that the Anointed One would come first to the Temple, not to all the palaces dotting the landscape.

And even as it describes Anna going and sharing with others, I want you to hear the reality that Anna was telling them, “Hey, I’ve met the Messiah,” and she continued to speak to those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. What were they looking for? A Savior who had come to deliver them from their sins, or a kingly deliverer who would deliver Jerusalem and the land from Roman occupation, from second‑class citizenship on the world stage? Were they looking for the Lord’s Christ or for one of their own making?

Unspoken in that insinuation is those others were not serving at the Temple with fasting and prayer, awaiting the Messiah. And I, again, tend to think that they were looking for a political or military leader, a great judge in the fashion of Joshua, Gideon, or Samson, who could bring unity and as I said prosperity to Israel. If such a deliverer combined the spiritual insight of Moses and the prophetic gift of Samuel or Elijah, well, that’d be fine, but most Jews were oblivious of their need for a Savior to deliver them from their sins. Yeah, great military leader, I daresay the Jews today would like to have such a person emerge on the scene.

Well, even as Jesus gathered His 12 disciples, one of the 12 was Simon the Zealot. The Zealots had arisen in about 6 A.D., we’re told, and they championed a violent rebellion to Rome to expel them from the land of Israel. They were devoted to the Torah, and they perceived that even the Jewish elites, to include the chief priests and the Sanhedrin, were accomplices with the hated Romans.

You know, according to the Jewish scholar and historian Josephus, Caiaphas was appointed by the Roman procurator Valerius Gratus that was Pontius Pilate’s predecessor in A.D. 18, and he was following in the footsteps of his father‑in‑law Annas, who also served as chief priest for 18 years. And this man enriched himself until he was deposed by the Roman legate of Syria, Lucius Vitellius. It’s hard for us to understand the hotbed of unrest, oppression, and yes, hope that was fading that Jesus was born into in Judea, a desire for a kingdom of this world.

Even after Jesus was crucified, resurrected, and ascended into Heaven, the Sanhedrin talked about other proposed Messiah figures they cite, in Acts chapter two Theudas and Judas of Galilee, who had movements that gathered followers and yet quickly died out. And they’d made the point that, “If the Way,” as followers of Christ would soon be known in Acts 9:2, “was of men, it would be overthrown” in short order, “but if it was from God, then the Sanhedrin itself would be fighting against the Almighty,” that’s Acts chapter five.

So clearly many Jews I would just submit were eager for a Messiah who would offer military or political leadership to unite the House of Israel and claim Israel’s rightful place on the world stage. But during His ministry, others were interested in much more immediate things. Just think about the people who came to Jesus. We tend to think of our own lives and experiences and try to transport them or telegraph them onto other peoples, so that’s always a danger. In a time of war, I can tell you, not every culture thinks like us here in the West or in America.

And we try to think, “Well, those people must have been seeking a work‑life balance like I am,” or have had comparable family dynamics and stress points, and that is fraught, quite frankly, with great peril. But there is some commonality. The people who came to Jesus were also often looking for very temporal relief. They wanted to be healed of physical maladies, and yes, demonic possession in the here and now. And once they realized that Jesus could multiply a few loaves and fish, then they just wanted Him to feed and sustain them.

More often than not, they’ve missed the power of the Gospel and the eternal ramifications it had. So here too, their expectation for short‑term blessings and not everlasting rewards is modeled by the disciples. Even after He had fed thousands, they expressed angst over His ability to provide resources to feed yet another crowd. They chastised the woman who anointed His head with expensive perfume because they were thinking in limited terms, “Well, that perfume could’ve been converted into money to feed the poor.”

They were always small‑minded, whereas Jesus was trying to lift their perspective to what God had in store, not only for them, but for the ages and the entire creation. And get this. Even after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, so they kind of get the big picture a little, but Acts chapter one records that even then they’re saying, “Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel? All right, you’ve come. You’ve died. You’ve resurrected. Now surely Israel will come into its own.”

Jesus’ answer would seem to have tamped down their curiosity, or at least channeled it into action that He was calling them to undertake spreading the Gospel, because here’s what He said, “It is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be,” what? “My witnesses both in Samaria, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the Earth.” Is that commission still in effect today? Was that just for the disciples and the apostles gathered there at that moment in Acts, or does that still apply to you and me?

Closing

Nathan Jones: I agree, Tim! As long as we’re waiting for our Lord to return, the Great Commission still stands. Christians are to be engaged with sharing Christ and His salvation and all the more as that blessed day draws near.

Tim Moore: I wish we had time to show you my entire presentation, but you can watch it and the other three, plus two Questions and Answers, by ordering the Where Is the Promise of His Coming? 2026 Bible Conference DVD or flash drive. Or visit our Christ in Prophecy YouTube channel to watch the entire conference livestream.

I also hope you’ll join us next episode in our Where Is the Promise of His Coming series, as Dr. Jake Hebert explains why the world’s denial of the Flood is directly tied to Christ’s promise to return. Maranatha and Godspeed!

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