I Shall Return

Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful people you said: “I have bestowed strength on a warrior; I have raised up a young man from among the people …”

– Psalm 89:19

March 11, 1942, was a dark day for America — as well as for the entire free world. Just three months earlier, the Japanese had launched a devastating surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The result was a crippled American Pacific fleet, 3,478 servicemen killed or wounded, plus an additional 103 civilian casualties. Meanwhile, the Japanese had trapped 85,000 American and Filipino troops on the Philippine’s Bataan Peninsula and the island fortress of Corregidor. 

Under orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Douglas MacArthur (the American commander) and his family evacuated the area for the relative safety of Australia. The thousands of troops MacArthur left behind were eventually forced to surrender to the enemy. But the general refused to turn his back on his men — or the Filipino people.

“I shall return,” MacArthur promised in his statement to the press. And on October 20, 1944, he kept that vow when he waded ashore with an invasion force at the Filipino island of Leyte. “People of the Philippines, I have returned,” MacArthur declared in an unforgettable radio broadcast.

Awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, Douglas MacArthur was a warrior known for his bravery, heroism, and faithfulness. And while his promise was both historic and world-changing, it doesn’t come close the significance of another vow kept more than 2,000 years ago. 

Mankind had for centuries been enslaved by an enemy called sin, and there was no way to repay God for its many transgressions and failures. So, to keep a promise he had made at the foundation of the world, our Creator paid the enormous sin-debt himself through the sacrifice of his own son, Jesus. 

God understood that we were powerless to save ourselves from the punishment we all deserve. That’s why Jesus came to earth in the form of a helpless infant, grew up and lived a faultless, sin-free life, and was unjustly executed for crimes that he didn’t commit. One of the best-known passages of the Bible (John 3:16) summarizes this incredible act of devotion:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

It was through Jesus that God kept his pledge of forgiveness and salvation for those who ask for it in faith. And one day — quite possibly within our lifetimes — he’ll keep another long-anticipated promise when he returns to defeat Satan once and for all.

“Behold, I am coming soon!” Jesus assures us through Revelation. “Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophesy in this book ... Yes, I am coming soon.”