Best Books on the Second Coming of Christ: 15 Classics Free
If you want one short book on the second coming, start with D. L. Moody's sermon That Gospel Sermon on the Blessed Hope. It takes under an hour. Then read Arno C. Gaebelein's The Return of the Lord, which walks through everything the New Testament says on the subject, book by book. For a fuller case, read A. J. Gordon's Ecce Venit or Horatius Bonar's Prophetical Landmarks.
The older writers in TheWay Library agree on the main points, because the Bible is plain about them. Jesus Christ will come again, personally and visibly, "in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). No one knows the day or the hour. The dead in Christ will rise, and believers will be changed and caught up to meet the Lord. He will judge the world and reign. And the hope of His coming is meant to change how Christians live now: it makes them watchful, holy, busy in the Lord's work and comforted in grief.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
1 Thessalonians 4:16
Most of the authors below were premillennial: they taught that Christ returns before the thousand years of Revelation 20. Many also held the dispensational view that the church will be caught up before a coming tribulation. A few, like Bonar, were premillennial without that later system. Each book's own position is noted so you know what you are reading.
Start here
1. That Gospel Sermon on the Blessed Hope, by D. L. Moody
One sermon, first preached in Chicago in 1877. Moody says he had been in the church many years before he ever heard a sermon on the Lord's return. He shows from Scripture that Christ will come bodily and suddenly, and argues that watching for Him wakes the church up and sends it after souls.
The word of God nowhere tells me to watch and wait for the coming of the millennium, but for the coming of the Lord.
That Gospel Sermon on the Blessed Hope
Its best-known line pictures the world as a wrecked vessel and God telling Moody, "save all you can." More in Who Was D. L. Moody? Read the sermon.
2. The Return of the Lord, by Arno C. Gaebelein
A plain survey of what the whole New Testament teaches about the second coming, through the Gospels, Acts, Paul's letters, the general epistles and Revelation. Chapter 7 sums it all up in twenty facts, and the last chapter lists fifty Old Testament prophecies still waiting for His return. If you want the Bible's teaching laid out in order, this is the book. Read The Return of the Lord.
3. Will Christ Come Again? by R. A. Torrey
A short booklet from 1918, answering a widely circulated pamphlet that said Christ need not come again in person. Torrey sets against it the plain words of Jesus in Matthew 24 and John 14, the angels in Acts 1 and Paul in 1 Thessalonians.
There is no Christ but the Christ of the Scriptures; any other Christ is a mere figment of the individual imagination.
Will Christ Come Again?
Read Will Christ Come Again?, or see Who Was R. A. Torrey?
The classic cases
4. Ecce Venit: Behold He Cometh, by A. J. Gordon
The Boston pastor's full study of the Lord's return, from a premillennial view. Gordon argues that Scripture gives the second coming as much space as almost any doctrine, and that its power should be at work in the church now. Later chapters trace how the early church's hope faded and revived, then describe the resurrection, the catching up of the church and the kingdom.
Christ is not only coming in power at the last day, but the power of His coming is to be constantly operating in the present day.
Ecce Venit, The Power of His Coming
5. Prophetical Landmarks, by Horatius Bonar
The Scottish hymn writer's case for Christ's coming before the millennium, written, as he says, to persuade rather than to quarrel. He calls Christians to study prophecy as the thoughts of God, frames history around Israel and the church, and gives his proofs from Scripture, with answers to objections.
in studying prophecy, we are studying the thoughts of God, the purposes of His heart.
Prophetical Landmarks, chapter 1
6. The Lord's Coming, by C. H. Mackintosh
The second volume of Mackintosh's shorter writings ends with a long series on the Lord's return, from the Brethren view: the coming of Christ for His saints and the later day of His appearing, the resurrections, the judgment, and the parables of the virgins and the talents. Its last paper is the best: the difference between holding the doctrine and actually waiting for the Son. The volume also holds his warm notes on Abraham and on "God for us." Read The Lord's Coming.
7. Addresses on Prophecy, by C. I. Scofield
Nine addresses by the editor of the Scofield Reference Bible, setting out the dispensational view: God's purpose in this age, the church, Israel's future from Romans 11, the tribulation, the millennium and the eternal state. Scofield starts with how prophecy shapes a believer's conduct, which keeps it practical. Read Addresses on Prophecy.
8. God's Methods with Man, by G. Campbell Morgan
Lectures given with a chart, surveying God's dealings with mankind from creation to the City of God. Morgan covers the present age of the Spirit, Christ's coming for His people, Daniel's seventieth week, His reign, and what comes after. The last lecture, on the purifying hope of His coming, is worth reading on its own.
It is not death to which we are to go, but to the Lord Himself.
God's Methods with Man, chapter 4
9. Studies in Prophecy, by Arno C. Gaebelein
Short studies written at the end of the First World War: the course of this age, "that blessed hope" of Titus 2:13, why Gaebelein believed the church will not go through the great tribulation, the midnight cry, and Israel's feasts read as a prophetic calendar.
That blessed hope will keep the person of the Lord Jesus Christ constantly before the heart.
Studies in Prophecy, That Blessed Hope
Daniel and Revelation
10. The Coming Prince, by Sir Robert Anderson
A famous study of Daniel's seventy weeks by a senior Scotland Yard official. Anderson works out the dates to argue that the sixty-nine weeks ended at Christ's entry into Jerusalem, and that the seventieth week is still to come. Detailed, but readable. Read The Coming Prince.
11. Lectures on Daniel the Prophet, by H. A. Ironside
Thirteen lectures, first given with a large chart, moving through Daniel in order: the stories of faithfulness in Babylon, the great image and the times of the Gentiles, the four beasts, the seventy weeks and the time of the end. Clear and pastoral. Read Lectures on Daniel.
12. Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation, by S. D. Gordon
Not a verse-by-verse commentary but eight warm talks on Revelation as the "crown book" of the Bible: Christ crowned in heaven, the seven churches, the throne, the judgments and His reign. The best place to start if Revelation has always confused you.
No one ever had a sight of Christ's face and forgot.
Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation, chapter 3
Read Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ.
13. Lectures on the Book of Revelation, by William Kelly
The deepest book on this list: Kelly's own translation of Revelation and lectures on every chapter, from the futurist Brethren view. For serious students. Read Kelly on Revelation.
The hope that comforts
14. The Morning of Joy, by Horatius Bonar
Bonar's devotional book on the morning that is coming for God's people: Christ's resurrection as its morning star, victory over death, the reunion of God's family and the presence of the Lord. Less about charts, more about hope. Read The Morning of Joy.
15. Christus Consolator, by H. C. G. Moule
Written during the First World War for the bereaved. Its last chapters turn to the departed as being with Christ and to reunion with them at His coming. See our guide to Christian books on death and grief for more like it. Read Christus Consolator.
How to read these books
Read with your Bible open. Check every passage they cite, especially in Daniel, Matthew 24, 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, 2 Thessalonians 2 and Revelation. Don't get lost in the timelines. Every one of these writers would tell you the point of the doctrine is a person: the Lord Jesus, who is coming back. As John put it, "every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3).
A good order: Moody, then Gaebelein's The Return of the Lord, then Gordon or Bonar, then Daniel and Revelation with Ironside and S. D. Gordon. More books are on the prophecy topic page.