Obsession With Fighting Christ at His Return

The desire to oppose Christ at His second advent is not a sign of spiritual independence but the ultimate expression of total depravity and enmity against God. As Easton’s Bible Dictionary notes, the unconverted are characterized by a "carnal mind, which is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:6-7). This hostility is not merely a temporary mood but a fundamental orientation of the soul that has not been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. When such a person looks to the future, they do not see a Savior to be welcomed but a Judge to be defied. This is the same spirit that characterized the Sanhedrin, who, despite Nicodemus’s cautious protest, plotted against Christ (John 7:50-52), revealing that without the new birth, the heart remains hostile to the King of Kings.

The theological significance of this obsession lies in the reality of God’s coming judgment. The Second Coming is described as the "glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour" (Titus 2:13), an event that brings "times of restitution of all things" (Acts 3:21). For the unregenerate, this is not a hope but a terror, because it marks the final end of their autonomy. The Reformed tradition teaches that all human resistance to God is futile; as Calvin observed, those who rush forward without faith to claim God’s benefits profane His presence. To wish to fight Christ is to wish to be under His wrath, for He is the Lion of Judah who will rule with a rod of iron. This desire confirms the truth of total depravity: that man, left to himself, cannot and will not submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Pastorally, this truth addresses the heart’s deepest rebellion. The gospel offers the only escape from this doomed trajectory: reconciliation. As Easton’s Dictionary explains, reconciliation is a change from enmity to friendship, wrought by God in the sinner (Col. 1:21-22). The believer is not one who fights Christ but one who is kept by His power for salvation (1 Peter 1:5). The hope of seeing Him as He really is (1 John 3:1-3) transforms the believer’s desire from resistance to reverence. For the one obsessed with fighting Christ, the only remedy is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, who convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8), turning the heart from enmity to love. Until that work occurs, the desire to oppose Christ remains a damning evidence of the soul’s separation from God, highlighting the urgent need for repentance and faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross.