For several millennia, man has longed to witness the arrival of the Savior. Man has longed to behold Jesus the Savior riding a white cloud as He descends, in person, among those who have yearned and hoped for Him for thousands of years. Man has also longed for the Savior to return and be reunited with him; that is, longed for Jesus the Savior, who has been separated from people for thousands of years, to come back, and to once again carry out the work of redemption that He did among the Jews, to be merciful and loving toward man, to forgive the sins of man and bear the sins of man, and even bear all of man’s transgressions and save man from sin. What man longs for is for Jesus the Savior to be the same as before—a Savior who is lovable, kind, and venerable, who is never angry with man, and who never reproaches man, but who forgives and takes on all of man’s sins, and who will even, as before, die upon the cross for man. Since Jesus departed, the disciples who followed Him, as well as all of the saints who were saved in His name, have been desperately pining for Him and expecting Him. All those who were saved by the grace of Jesus Christ during the Age of Grace have been longing for that exultant day in the last days when Jesus the Savior descends on a white cloud to appear before the myriad people. Of course, this is also the collective wish of all those who accept the name of Jesus the Savior today. Everyone in the universe who knows of the salvation of Jesus the Savior has been desperately yearning for Jesus Christ to suddenly arrive to fulfill what Jesus said while on earth: “I shall arrive just as I departed.” Man believes that, following the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus went back to heaven upon a white cloud to take His place at the Most High’s right hand. In like manner, Jesus shall descend again upon a white cloud (this cloud refers to the cloud that Jesus rode upon when He returned to heaven), among those who have desperately yearned for Him for thousands of years, and He shall bear the image and wear the clothing of the Jews. After appearing to them, He shall bestow food upon them, and pour out living water for them, and shall live among man, full of grace and full of lovingkindness, vivid and real. All such notions are what people believe. Yet Jesus the Savior did not do this; what He did was exactly contrary to man’s notions. He did not arrive among those who had desperately yearned for His return, and He did not appear to the myriad people while riding upon the white cloud. He has already arrived, but man does not know Him, and remains ignorant of this. Man is merely awaiting Him aimlessly—little does he know that He has already descended upon a “white cloud” (the white cloud which is His Spirit, His words, His entire disposition and all that He is), and is now among a group of overcomers that He will make during the last days. How could man know that although the holy Savior Jesus is filled with lovingkindness and with love for man, He could not possibly work in those “temples” that are full of filth and inhabited by unclean spirits? Though man has been awaiting His arrival, how could He appear to those who eat the flesh of the unrighteous, drink the blood of the unrighteous, and wear the clothes of the unrighteous, who believe in Him and yet do not know Him and constantly extort Him? Man knows only that Jesus the Savior is full of lovingkindness and overflowing with mercy, and that He is the sin offering, filled with redemption. However, man has no idea that He is God Himself, who is brimming with righteousness, majesty, wrath, and judgment, possessed of authority, and full of dignity. Therefore, even though man eagerly yearns for and craves the return of the Redeemer, and even his prayers move “Heaven,” Jesus the Savior does not appear to those who believe in Him but do not know Him.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a “White Cloud”