A lot of Christians take comfort from the literal interpretation of the bible, and hold a firm belief that the second coming of Christ will come. If someone actually came up and introduced himself as Christ, it's doubtful that you'd believe him and he would be carted off to the funny farm. It's something that will happen in the future, somewhere else. Never in your home town.

Many religious sects have predicted the end of the world, when God will punish the bad and reward the good.  The promised prize is always a place in Heaven under the protection of Christ. Some people take the meaning of the second coming of Christ as symbolic. They believe that Christ will once again have an impact on the world, but not necessarily a physical presence.

Whether you are a believer or a non-believer, the second coming of Christ is a subject that has fascinated artists and writers over the years. In 1961, British director Bryan Forbes made a film called Whistle Down The Wind. It told an intriguing story from the point of view of a group of children. The leader Kathy, played by Hayley Mills, and the others discover a shabby man hiding out in a barn. He is actually a fugitive on the run for murder but he tells them that he is Christ. The children believe him and proceed to protect him and bring him food. They think they have stumbled upon the second coming of Christ.

They are excited to have found him and even though his demeanor is very non-Christ like, they completely accept him. Whereas adults would cynically reject him, the children are naïve innocents. Adults have taught them the bible stories about the second coming of Christ and they have taken them at their word. Unquestioning belief makes innocents of us all. This story is entertaining modern audiences now in a musical stage version written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman.

The British artist Stanley Spencer had his own unique style and outlook on the world. This was demonstrated in the many paintings he did with religious themes. Many of his pictures are set in the small town where he lived, Cookham on the River Thames. Spencer was a devout Christian and he depicted the Passion of Christ in a work titled Christ Carrying The Cross in 1929. This shows Christ walking down Cookham High Street accompanied by carpenters in the town. There is also an unfinished painting by him called Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta, in which Christ wears a black, straw hat and has a beard. Was Spencer reproducing the stories in a contemporary setting or was he predicting the same outcome for the second coming of Christ?

Another British artist and performance poet, Adrian Henri, placed Christ in a modern location. The Entry of Christ into Liverpool is a poem and a painting. The painting, finished in 1964, is inspired by the work of artist James Ensor and his The Entry of Christ into Brussels from 1889. Henri depicts a procession through a Liverpool street with Christ on a donkey, accompanied by the artist's friends. An atheist, Henri still played with the idea of the second coming of Christ and what it means to a modern audience.