I don't understand how so many astute and deeply studious seekers of the truth miss a very simple and plain statement in scripture. Hebrews 9:24-28 is the only place in the Bible that states "coming a second time" (Second Coming) and yet millions seem to believe that verse does not exist in it's simplest form. Context the old and the new, 1st and 2nd coming is to take away the Old to establish the New. The 1st is salvation, death on the cross as our sacrifice. The second is to judge the nation of Israel (just and the unjust) at that time and put into effect the New.
"but now once at the CONSUMMATION of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him."
Hebrews 1:2 "in these last days" spoken 2000 years ago to the nation of Israel reminding them of the prophecies of Moses about their last days, a warning to not go back to the law as it would become their "death sentence".
What about us???
All mankind would now be judged in their lifetime, no longer going to Hades to await the judgement as Jesus the Christ has become our EFFICACY in that He has paid the price, our "propitiation", and therefore we pass out of judgement to eternal life, John 5:24. ("Judgement" here is referring to condemnation.)
But what about all men facing the judgement? That is part of what makes the New so different, the mystery is more than Jew and Gentile, it's about our appeal to God to be made alive in Christ through our baptism to die to self, be buried in the grave and to be resurrected to life, what they were (in the 1st century) eagerly awaiting. (Read Colossians 2, Ephesians 1-3 and Hebrews 12:22-24 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel."
He doesn't need to come back at the "time of the end" as that has occurred at the time of the "consummation of the ages". We don't read of an "end of time" but the "time of the end" of the covenant that was given to Moses. He realized what he was writing about was the time that the 'physical' nation of Israel would see it's "end".
Daniel saw this also and was stunned into silence until he was shown that "end" was not the end of the world but the end of the age of the Jews and the temple worship but the beginning of the New Covenant that would bring life to the whole world (Isaiah 65:17f and 66:22f). What Daniel was told to seal was what was being opened by John to "reveal" about Jesus the Christ in the Apocalypse. The New is here, the old was fading away 2000 years ago and was taken away. Heavens and earth were shaken once more at the "consummation" of the age.
