5. Jesus will destroy all the wicked at His return.

According to Jesus, what will happen to the wicked people still alive at His Second Advent?

“Just AS IT WAS in the days of Noah, SO ALSO WILL IT BE in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then THE FLOOD CAME and DESTROYED THEM ALL. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, FIRE AND SULFUR RAINED DOWN FROM HEAVEN AND DESTROYED THEM ALL. IT WILL BE JUST LIKE THIS ON THE DAY THE SON OF MAN IS REVEALED.”
—Luke 17:26-30.

The wicked—those who have persistently rejected all of Jesus’ offers of mercy—actually pass sentence on themselves. As they stare at this inexpressibly glorious face coming toward them from the clouds, a sudden awareness of their sin and indifference proves too painful to bear; they cry to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” (Revelation 6:16).

The wicked prefer death to standing before Jesus’ all-seeing gaze. They know that the voice now thundering from the sky once tenderly implored them to accept divine grace. Those who lost themselves in the mad rush after money or pleasure or position now realize they’ve neglected the only really worthwhile thing in life.

It is a crushing revelation. After all, not one of them needed to be lost. God Himself finds “no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 33:11). He is “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Jesus implores us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). But, incredibly, some turn aside His gracious invitation.