“Behold, I am Coming Quickly” – Jesus AD 65

If we were talking about any other topic but the Second Coming, there would be no debate about what the statement “Behold, I am coming quickly” means. It means “I am coming soon.” However, because of all the deep-seated traditions about the Second Coming—which hold that it is a future event—many Christians simply will not allow the straightforward interpretation to stand. It must be explained away.

Here’s the way it is often done: When Jesus said, “I am coming quickly” (Rev. 22:7, 12 and 20), he did not mean he was coming soon. All he meant was, “When I finally get around to coming, I will come very rapidly—like a sprinter.”

Response: Theologians who make this argument are not being honest with the text. While it’s true that the Greek word tachu (“quickly”) can sometimes mean “rapidly” in certain contexts, it can also mean “without delay” or “imminently” in others. Context is key. And the context in this case—without question—indicates imminence. In the preceding verse, Jesus had just said that the events of Revelation would happen “shortly” (Rev. 22:6). Then, in the very next verse, Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming quickly” (22:7). Then he follows this up with “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand” (Rev. 22:10, italics mine). These are three clear timing indicators, back to back to back. “Quickly” obviously means “soon”!

The entire chapter—from Rev. 22:6 forward—is essentially one big time statement about Jesus’s soon coming (and the attendant events). In fact, the Second Coming was so imminent by this time (AD 65) that the angel of Revelation said: “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still” (v. 11). In other words, at this point in time (AD 65), there was no time left to waste trying to convert “the filthy” (the stubborn, truth-suppressing rejecters of Jesus). Jesus then follows this up with “And behold, I am coming quickly” (v. 12). This is now the second time he has said this (the first was in v. 7).

And just in case anyone missed it the previous two times, he says it a third time: “Surely I am coming quickly” (v. 20). The entire chapter is one big time statement about Jesus’s soon coming (and the attendant events)!

In fact, the entire book of Revelation is essentially one big time statement about the soon Second Coming (and the attendant events). The very first verse opens by saying the events of this prophecy will happen soon…for the time is near (Rev. 1:1–3), which is immediately followed by “Jesus is coming with clouds” (1:7). John then describes the Second Coming from various vantage points: from earth, from heaven, from the eyes of Jesus’s friends, and from the eyes of Jesus’s enemies. Then Revelation concludes by emphasizing again that “the events spoken about will happen soon, for the time is near” (22:6, 10), which is followed by Jesus saying—three times!—that he is coming quickly (22:7, 12, 20).

There is no doubt contextually that “quickly” (in Revelation 22) means without delay. In other words, Jesus must have come shortly after he said it—and he did in AD 70!

For more about this subject, get my book The End Is Here: How the New Testament’s Prophecies Were Fulfilled.

By Alex Polyak, The Bible Fulfilled, 8/10/24