The King Is Coming

John Bevere is a Christian minister, bestselling author, and cofounder of Messenger International, a global discipleship ministry. In this nonfiction work, he argues that the return of Jesus Christ is imminent, that believers are living in the prophesied season of His coming, and that understanding this reality should produce not passive escapism but urgent, holy, kingdom-focused living.

Bevere opens by confronting his own decades-long avoidance of eschatology, the theological study of end times. For the first 35 of his 40 years in public ministry, he refused to teach on the subject, citing the damage caused by failed date-setting predictions in the 1980s. He and his wife, Lisa, witnessed the fallout: People quit jobs, stopped paying mortgages, ran up credit cards, and in one case permanently chose not to have children. Divisive arguments over the rapture (believers being caught up to meet Christ), the millennium (Christ's prophesied thousand-year reign), and whether Revelation's events had already occurred deepened his aversion. Approximately five years before writing, Bevere felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to study biblical prophecy. Rather than producing contentiousness, the study intensified his passion for ministry, deepened his love for people, and strengthened his desire for holiness.

To establish the posture required for understanding prophecy, Bevere examines the figure of Simeon, a devout and righteous man who recognized the infant Jesus in the Jerusalem temple, and contrasts him with the Pharisees and scribes, who could not recognize the Messiah despite their scriptural knowledge. Holy fear, humility, and serious attention to Scripture, Bevere argues, are essential for discerning the signs of Jesus' second coming. He shows how the people of Jerusalem should have known the timing of their Messiah's arrival through Daniel 9:25–26, which prophesied 483 years from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah's death. Their failure to recognize this timing led to the city's destruction in AD 70 under the Roman general Titus.

Bevere argues that prophetic vision creates a restraining force against complacency, citing Proverbs 29:18: "Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint." He supports this with a 2016 experience in Brazil, where a church network that grew to over 300,000 members attributed its growth to teaching the second coming, the judgment seat of Christ (believers' future evaluation before Christ for rewards), and eternal rewards. By contrast, a Barna Group survey showed that between 2000 and 2020, approximately 33 million Americans moved from practicing to non-practicing Christian, and an additional 33 million left the faith entirely. Bevere connects this departure to Paul's prophecy in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 that a great falling away must precede the Day of the Lord, God's climactic period of end-times judgment.

Bevere presents God's "divine master plan," conceived before creation, to adopt human beings as heirs who will share His glory and govern with Him for eternity. He traces this plan through the garden of Eden and into an account of Jesus' suffering, arguing that Christ endured crucifixion not merely to pay for sin but because of "the joy awaiting him" (Hebrews 12:2): a faithful bride with whom He would share eternity. Shared suffering, Bevere contends, creates a bond of trust between Christ and His followers that qualifies them for eternal authority: "If we endure hardship, we will reign with Him" (2 Timothy 2:12). He argues that the second coming is ultimately a royal marriage between Christ and a bride He can fully trust.

Bevere describes the stages of an ancient Jewish wedding: the ketubah (marriage contract), the sharing of wine, the betrothal, the groom's departure to build a bridal chamber, the bride's preparation including the mikvah (ceremonial water immersion), the groom's surprise return with shouts and shofar (ram's-horn trumpet) blasts, the catching away of the bride, and seven days of seclusion under the huppah (canopy). He maps Jesus' words in John 14:1–3 onto this wedding language, identifying the bride-price as Jesus' blood and the betrothal as the covenant between Christ and the church.

Turning to timing, Bevere examines Jesus' prophecy that Jerusalem would be "trampled down by the Gentiles," or non-Jewish nations, until their period ended. He traces 18 centuries of foreign rule until Israel's rebirth on May 14, 1948, and identifies the Six-Day War of June 1967, when Israel recovered Jerusalem, as the fulfillment. He connects the fig tree parable (Luke 21:28–33) to the formation of modern Middle Eastern nations and applies 2 Peter 3:8 ("a day is like a thousand years") to Hosea 5:14–6:3 to yield a window of approximately AD 2032–2070, while counseling believers to plan as if Jesus is not returning for 200 years and live as if He returns today. He addresses the early church's expectation of an imminent return by explaining that God presented it as perpetually imminent to guard against complacency, and highlights Jesus' repeated command to "watch."

Bevere describes the mechanics of the catching away: Jesus descends with a commanding shout, the voice of the archangel, and a trumpet call; deceased believers rise first with transformed bodies; then living believers are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. He presents seven reasons for believing this event precedes the seven-year tribulation (a coming period of unprecedented divine wrath and judgment), including that believers are not appointed to God's wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9); Isaiah 26:19–21 prophesies God's people hidden in chambers until indignation passes, paralleling the wedding's seven-day seclusion; the church is the restrainer of lawlessness whose removal permits the Antichrist's rise; the biblical pattern of removing the righteous before wrath, as with Noah and Lot; and early church fathers including Irenaeus (AD 130–203) and Ephraem (AD 306–373) taught a pre-tribulation gathering. He acknowledges that even Lisa does not fully agree and emphasizes that this discussion is for encouragement, not dogmatism.

Shifting to preparation, Bevere identifies holiness as the defining characteristic of the bride Jesus seeks, citing Ephesians 5:25–27: "a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish . . . she will be holy." He distinguishes positional holiness (declared at conversion) from behavioral holiness (pursued throughout life), and warns against two distortions: permissive grace that treats habitual sin as inconsequential (Jude v. 4) and legalism that burdens believers beyond Scripture's requirements (Galatians 1:7–8). He examines Jesus' messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2–3, highlighting Ephesus for leaving its first love, Pergamum and Thyatira for tolerating false teaching and immoral behavior, Sardis for being spiritually dead despite a reputation for vitality, and Laodicea for lukewarm indifference. He contrasts these with Philadelphia, which received only praise and was promised protection "from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world" (Revelation 3:10).

Bevere consolidates three instructions for readiness: be dressed for service (use God-given gifts for kingdom work), keep lamps burning (pursue holiness), and watch (maintain eager expectation through prayer). He predicts an unprecedented outpouring of God's Spirit before Christ's return while warning that a counterfeit "harlot church" will grow in worldly acceptance before being destroyed during the tribulation (Revelation 17:16–17). In his final chapter, Bevere presents the judgment seat of Christ, where every deed, motive, and hidden thought will be eternally rewarded or forfeited. He distinguishes building with gold, silver, and jewels (selfless kingdom work) from wood, hay, and straw (self-serving efforts), and closes by comparing the believer's urgency to the 2011–2012 English Premier League finale, when Manchester City scored two goals in stoppage time to win the championship, arguing that believers are in the "final seconds of stoppage time" and should live with corresponding intensity.