Since Christ's ascension to heaven, God's people have wondered when he would return.

In all generations, Christians have discussed, and at times debated questions related to the

Second Coming. When will it happen? What exactly will happen? And what does that mean for the church?

My guest today is John Piper, and in this interview, he makes the case that,

although these questions are important and worth asking, there's an even more fundamental

question that we all must ask ourselves.

Am I truly longing for Christ's return?

John Piper is the founder and lead teacher of desiring God.org and the Chancellor of

Bethlehem College and Seminary. He served for 33 years as a pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in

Minneapolis and as the author of Come Lord Jesus, Meditations on the Second

Coming of Christ from Crossway. Let's get started.

Well, John, thank you so much for joining me again on the Crossway podcast.

Thank you. Great to be with you. Privilege.

So today I'm excited to ask you a bunch of questions about a topic that I think many of us wonder about, the second coming of Jesus, when Jesus is going to come back. And although I think

a lot of us have a lot of questions about this topic, at the same time, I think I can confess,

and I think many others might resonate that I can go long stretches without really thinking a lot

about Jesus' return. So I guess I just wonder to start us off, have you ever observed

that dynamic, whether in other people who have you pastored or counseled or even in yourself,

that paradox of wondering about this, but maybe not always thinking much about it?

Like everywhere? I mean, yes. I don't think we're in any danger today, except for a few

little pockets of prophetically obsessed people. And I don't, you know, those people tend to

loom large when we talk about the problems with prophecy. I don't think there are very many of those,

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