Jesus Christ’s Second Coming will not take place in a moment, as most people think, but will occur over an extended period of time.

“In fact, it extends over several years, and when He actually physically comes back to the planet, it takes several days to accomplish,” says my pastor, Richard Jordan. “And that’s something that’s extremely important to understand in knowing the difference between the coming of Christ in prophecy (for Israel) and His coming for us (Believers at the Rapture).”

Zechariah 14, a chapter outlining specifics of the Second Coming, is the context for Luke 21:24-27. Verse 3 says, “Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.”

Jordan explains, “At this time, the foreign policy of every nation on the planet is going to be anti-Israel, says Jordan. “Now, that’s almost true today. There are only a handful of nations on the earth today who are not actively anti-Israel. But in this point, that resistance will be gone, and Christ ‘will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle.’

“When it says He’s going to fight ‘as when he fought in the day of battle,’ that’s saying, in other words, there are examples—dress rehearsals, if you will—of the events which will take place when Christ comes back to rescue and deliver Israel. It’s going to be like what you read about in the Old Testament in Israel’s past history.

“That’s why, when you read the prophecies about this, over and over—in fact, almost any prophecy you read about the Second Advent will point back to something historically in Israel’s past. It’s sort of like they’re dress rehearsals where God’s laying out for Israel information so that when the things come to pass, they can look back and see, ‘Aha, this is going to be like that!’ ”

We know from Zechariah 14:4 that the moment Christ physically sets foot again on earth, “his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives.”

Jordan says, “Now, you remember where He ascended up from in Acts 1? It was the Mount of Olives where His feet left the earth. And when His feet come back to the earth, the first time His feet touch the ground; it will be the Mount of Olives.

“But understand something, He’s already gone forth and fought the nations. In other words, there’s this period of time He fights against the Gentile nations who come against Israel before He gets off His flying machine, the horse. Actually, Isaiah 28 has Him riding three different kinds of vehicles that are flying, or riding upon the heavens.”

Zechariah 14:4 goes on to report that “the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.”

Verse 5 says, “And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.”

Jordan explains, “There’s going to be some rather unique physical phenomenon that takes place on Planet Earth that’s never happened before.

“Do you remember the verse in Matthew where He says if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed you could remove a mountain? Do you realize He was quoting Zechariah 14 when He said that? There’s the verse. Half the mountain shall be removed toward the north, and half of it toward the south.”

The earthquake from the passage can be found referenced in Amos 1, which details the actual flight path covered in the Second Advent.

“It’s important to understand that even the three days before Christ puts His foot down on the mount of Olives, He’s flying over in an artillery barrage,” says Jordan.

With the ‘cleavage’ that takes place in the Mount of Olives, reports Zechariah 14, living water will come out the throne Christ sets up in Jerusalem. Part of the waters will go toward the Dead Sea, and part out to the Mediterranean Sea. Verse 8 says that “in summer and winter shall it be.”

Jordan says, “Again, the point is this doesn’t happen in the moment of the twinkling of an eye. These events take place over an extended season—summer, winter. They’re going to take place over a whole year here.

From Luke 21:26, we know that at this time there will be “men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”

Similarly, Psalm 18:7, which is a Second Coming psalm, foretells of this hour, “Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.”

Jordan explains, “When He talks about the powers of heaven being shaken, it’s important to understand that the battle that takes place on the earth starts in the heavens.

“If the universe is like a tent that God’s intended to dwell in, the throne of God is up in the third heaven with the waters above and below the firmament. The firmament is what we call the starry heavens out here and the earth is in here.

“Now, just as the earth is divided up into twelve governmental sections (Editor’s Note: In the Bible, 12 is the number of governmental perfection), the heavens are divided that way. And what happens on the earth down here is a pattern for you to see the way things are organized out in what we call ‘outer space’ or the starry heavens—what the Bible calls the firmament.

“The pattern of things here reflects the way things happen up there. You remember in the book of Daniel, for example, where Gabriel was hindered by these (rebelling) angelic governmental realms out there, and, as a result, it took him 21 days to get down here to (earth) to give Dan the answer?

“And the way he got through was he had to send back to heaven and get the authority. In other words, his paperwork, his visas didn’t work when he came down through there. Now, when I say that to you, I say it so you can understand it’s real.

“I don’t know if in the angelic creation they’ve got a post office where you go to get a passport. That’s not the point. The point is that’s the way we operate here (on earth), and the way principalities, thrones and majesties operate here, the same terminology is described for how they operate out there.

“Remember (John) who looks into the spirit world and sees chariots and horses that are made of fire? Well, you never saw a horse with his flesh made of fire because in the Carbon-14 world we live in it would burn up. But in the angelic world—in the sprit realm—they’re real, and they’re literal in that realm.

“You say, ‘Brother Rick, that’s just all figurative, anthropomorphic discussion, but if it’s just anthropomorphic discussion to try and accommodate your feeble brain, then tell me something: If this stuff isn’t real and literal the way these verses say it is, the question I have is, where is Jesus Christ today?

“Isn’t He at the right hand of God in the third heaven? But, if that’s just figurative discussion, then He wouldn’t be up there literally, He’d be up there figuratively. And if He’s up there figuratively, where is He literally?

“Have you seen Him walking around here lately? No. So where would He literally be? He must literally still be in the grave? You see, you have to keep pushing it back. Therefore, the resurrection wasn’t literal—it was a spiritual kind of thing—

and He lives with us in our memory and His presence goes on with us.

“Well, if He didn’t rise from the dead, why not? Well, He must not have been God in human flesh? So, all of a sudden everything—the whole basis upon which we believe; just taking words in the Bible and giving then their normal sense—is gone and the whole foundation on which you stand is gone.

“My point is, when Jesus Christ comes back, the things He does to shake the earth, He does out here in the starry heavens.

“There is a specifically described route where the Lord Jesus Christ comes riding on the heavens, where He comes down the Mediterranean coast, goes down to Sinai, comes back up and crosses the Jordan River right where they put those stones on the Jordan, comes into Jerusalem, lands on the mount of Olives, and from there the thing splits up and He goes down into the city of Jerusalem.

“Now, this pattern He follows here as He comes up into this area where the Gadarenes were and destroys the satanic stronghold, and then comes down this coast right back out to where Armageddon is—all of that has a correspondence in the heavens. And just as this takes three days here, this fight in the heavens takes place—

earth time—about three years.”

Referring to Psalms 18’s reference to the earth being shaken, Jordan emphasizes, “This is not a shaking of the earth like an earthquake that’s just a natural phenomenon. You go to the Book of Revelation and you see those things falling out of the heavens are not these little golf ball-sized things; they’re things big as your head and make a mess. The hail-storm stones and the darkness, and all that stuff, are just atmospheric disturbances that come as a result of His presence coming down into the atmosphere of the earth.

“And He’s coming to judge and make war against His enemies and deliver the nation Israel. And once the days of His wrath are poured out, and Israel’s purged of unbelievers, and vengeance is poured out upon the Gentile nations, the Enemy is put down and Satan is bound in the bottomless pit. Then Christ sets up His Kingdom and that’s the redemption—the Kingdom of God is here on the planet.”