Nuzul-i-Isa: The Second Coming of Jesus Christ
Chapters
It is not every day that one sees a man being lifted from the earth to heaven with the assurance that he will return centuries later to stand on the earth again. Such an event must surely demand the attention of those who profess to believe that it will occur, and all the more so when the world's two greatest religions, whose adherents jointly number half of those who dwell on the earth, both make this very profession about the same man. Christianity and Islam both hold to the firm conviction that Jesus Christ, who lived in the land of Israel nearly twenty centuries ago, was raised alive to heaven and will return to earth in the fulness of time. No one can regard such a belief purely as a tenet of each respective faith. The implications are so profound that the subject must be studied further.
It is universally believed, in both the Christian and the Muslim worlds, that Jesus will come again to this world at the end of the age. Although the two religions differ in their estimate of how he shall appear and what he is due to accomplish when he returns, they both unanimously teach that he will return from the heavenly places heralding the climax of human history. It is surely incumbent, therefore, on every Christian and Muslim, to analyse this great anticipated event and to discover the real meaning and purpose of his advent and to simultaneously come to know the true identity and character of the central figure in what will surely be one of the greatest spectacles of history.
We propose to make a brief study of both the Christian and Islamic teachings about the return of Jesus Christ from heaven and will then press on to examine the implications of this great event and the real identity of the one whose advent will interrupt the course of human history and bring it to a speedy conclusion.