Matthew 24:30

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

The sign of Jesus' coming is thus his actual appearance on the clouds of heaven in great glory. It will not come in a more enlightened social conscience, or in some marked increase of benevolence among men and nations, nor in some sudden forward leap of civilization. The second coming will be a personal and glorious return of Christ in the skies. A materialistic, secular, and wicked age will not accept such a view, a fact prophesied by Christ in the revelation that all the tribes of the earth would "mourn" when they see it, a mourning that would NOT occur if some invisible, psychological, or spiritual return occurred. Christ plainly taught that his second coming would be bad news indeed for the great majority of mankind.

WHEN the second coming will occur is not and cannot be known, except to the "Father" (Matthew 24:36). Reference to Christ's coming "on the clouds of heaven, etc." is similar to the words he used before the Sanhedrin (Mark 14:62) and also coincides with the message of the angels who said upon the occasion of his ascension that "in like manner" he would come again (Acts 1:11). The mourning of the tribes of earth should be particularly noted. When evil men, at last caught up in the catastrophe of the final judgment, shall know then, when it is too late, that Jesus is indeed God come in the flesh and that the Father has committed judgment unto the Son because he is the Son of man, no imagination can be strong enough to picture the wretched sorrow of the myriads of the wicked thus summoned to the judgment on the great day.