According to the scriptures, Jesus promised two returns, in two ways.
1)
(
John 14:2-4) 2 In the house of my Father are many dwelling places. Otherwise, I would have told you, for I am going my way to prepare a place for you. 3 Also, if I go my way and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and will receive you home to myself, so that where I am you also may be.
Jesus did not say He would
come to earth again in the same body. This verse means that Jesus will come to them again “in spirit” so the disciples could be with Him in spirit.
This cannot mean Jesus was coming to earth to receive the disciples because where Jesus was preparing a place was in heaven, on not earth.
That is besides that fact that the disciples were dead when this was written so Jesus could not have received them unto Himself
anywhere but heaven since heaven is where souls go when they die.
(
1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17) 16 because
the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. 17
Afterward we the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will always be with the Lord.
These verses are not
Jesus saying He would return to earth. They are Paul saying the Lord will come. These verses contradict what Jesus said, that His work was finished here and He was no more in the world.
Thus Jesus returns, according to the angels, "in the same manner as you have seen him going into the sky.” - Acts 1:11.
This verse is not
Jesus saying He would return to earth. Below is my interpretation of those that verse in context.
Acts 1:9-11 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
The disciples were staring up into the sky as the spirit of Jesus was taken up to heaven out of their sight. The two men dressed in white (angels) came along and asked why they were staring up into the sky because they wondered why the disciples were staring up into the sky. Then the angels told the disciples that the same spirit of Jesus that was taken up to heaven will return just as it went to heaven,
in like manner.
It does not say that the disciples saw a body go up. It was the Christ Spirit that ascended, not a body, which is why the angels wondered why the disciples were staring into the sky, since there was nothing to look at. That makes perfect sense since angels can see spirits whereas the disciples couldn’t.
Descending from heaven upon the clouds means that the spirit of Jesus, the Christ Spirit, will be made manifest from the heaven of the will of God and will appear in the form of the human temple. Though delivered from the womb of Mary, Jesus in reality descended from the heaven of the will of God. It was another human who was slated to descend
in like manner, from the heaven of the will of God.
2)
(
Matthew 16:28-17:9)
28 Truly I say to you that there are some of those standing here who will not taste death at all until first
they see the Son of man coming in his Kingdom.”
We know that verse was either a lie or it refers to something other than the return of Jesus because
those standing there were dead before the alleged second coming of Jesus.
171 Six days later Jesus took Peter and James and his brother John along and led them up into a lofty mountain by themselves. 2 And
he was transfigured before them; his face shone as the sun, and his outer garments became brilliant as the light. ... 9 As they were descending from the mountain,
Jesus commanded them: “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of man is raised up from the dead.”
Some had a vision, of a symbolic representation of the coming kingdom. (
Luke 9:27) But I tell you truly, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death at all until first they see the Kingdom of God.”
(
Matthew 24:29-31) 29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30
Then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a great trumpet sound, and they will gather his chosen ones together from the four winds, from one extremity of the heavens to their other extremity.
See
1 Thessalonians 4:17.
Here Jesus returns as king to execute judgment upon the nations... according to scripture.
(
Matthew 26:64) Jesus said to him: “You yourself said it. But I say to you: From now on you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
(
Mark 13:26) And then they will see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
(
Luke 21:27) And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
I believe that the title ‘Son of man’ is symbolic of the perfect humanity that Jesus represented, but it does not apply exclusively to Jesus. It ultimately comes from the Book of Daniel, where it refers to the Messiah. It is a Baha’i teaching that the title applies to both Jesus and Baha’u’llah.
To explain in brief, I believe that ‘Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven’ means that the return of the Christ Spirit promised in the Bible will be made manifest from
the heaven of the will of God, and will appear in the form of a human being. The term “heaven” means loftiness and exaltation. Although Jesus was delivered from the womb of His mother, in reality He descended from the heaven of the will of God. Though dwelling on this earth, His true habitation was the realms above. While walking among mortals on earth, Jesus soared in the heaven of the divine presence.
Baha’u’llah explained the meaning of clouds in
The Kitáb-i-Íqán. The term “clouds” as used in the Bible means those things that are
contrary to the ways and desires of men. Just like the physical clouds prevent the eyes of men from beholding the sun, the desires of men hindered men from recognizing the return of Christ.
To further explain the teaming of clouds, Baha’is believe that the term “clouds” as used in the Bible means those things that are contrary to the ways and desires of men. They signify, in one sense, the annulment of laws, the abrogation of former Dispensations, the repeal of rituals and customs current among men. In another sense, they mean the appearance of a Manifestation of God in the image of mortal man, with such human limitations as eating and drinking, poverty and riches, sleeping and waking, and such other things as cast doubt in the minds of men, and cause them to turn away. These “veils” to recognition of a Manifestation of God are symbolically referred to as “clouds.” Just like the physical clouds prevent the eyes of men from beholding the sun, these things hinder the souls of men from recognizing the light of the Manifestation of God.
Thus the meaning of clouds is symbolic, not literal. Their judgment was clouded. Christians were looking for
the same man Jesus in the same body that resurrected and ascended to appear in the actual physical clouds in the sky with power and great glory, trumpets and angels, but when that did not happen that way they rejected Baha’u’llah. However, if one looks at what happened before, during and after Baha’u’llah appeared there is not one prophecy that cannot be applied to Him.
Much of this is explained in
Thief in the Night by William Sears, who researched the Bible prophecies for seven years and explained exactly how they were fulfilled by the Bab and Baha’u’llah.
Thus when Jesus said
“ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” we believe that means that His Return, the next Manifestation of God, would reside in the loftiness and exaltation of the divine presence (heaven), and would come down to earth by the will of God in the clouds (veiled from the sight of most people), like a thief in the night.
The reason Christians missed recognizing Baha’u’llah in the mid-19th century (and still do not recognize Him) is because they are waiting for the “literal fulfillment” of those Son of man in the clouds of heaven prophecies. They expect the same physical body of Jesus to come floating down on a physical cloud from heaven, but I am sure you already know this since it is a basic Christian belief.