The short answer
When people say the Second Coming is the moment "the veil will be lifted," they mean Christ's return is best understood not as God travelling to us from a faraway place, but as the unveiling of a reality that is already here and now hidden. On this view heaven is not a distant address in the sky; it is God's own dimension of reality, overlapping our world like a room behind a curtain. At the Second Coming that curtain is drawn back, and what has always been true in God's dimension becomes visible and joined to the world we live in.
The phrase has drawn fresh attention because the New Testament scholar N. T. Wright used it in a recent discussion of the Second Coming, salvation and the "unseen realm," reported by the Christian Post (Christian Post). It is worth taking seriously, because it corrects a common cartoon of the return of Christ while raising a further question the image alone cannot answer: once the veil is lifted, what actually changes on the ground? This post looks at what Wright said, the biblical language of veils and unveiling, what the model gets right, and where the Divine Principle presses further.
What N. T. Wright actually said
Wright describes the Second Coming as a future moment when, in his words, "the veil will be lifted," revealing a reality that already exists but is currently hidden from us. He speaks of "the curtain" being "drawn back" so that "that which is already true in the heavenly dimension will be revealed and will be integrated with the present world." The accent falls on integration: heaven and earth are not two places one of which we leave for the other, but two dimensions that God intends to bring together into a renewed creation.
He is careful about how far the language can be pressed. Discussing exactly how such an event occurs, Wright notes that "we are at the borders of language" and that the Bible's pictures of clouds, trumpets and glory are symbolic and poetic rather than a literal weather report. This is not a way of emptying the Second Coming of reality; it is a way of guarding its true reality against being reduced to a spectacle in the sky. His long-standing argument, laid out in essays such as "Farewell to the Rapture," is that popular end-times schemes have often mistaken vivid metaphor for literal mechanics and, in doing so, lost the New Testament's actual hope.
Heaven as a dimension, not a distant place
The key that unlocks the "veil" image is Wright's definition of heaven. Heaven, he says, is "not a place in the sky, but rather God's dimension of what we think of as ordinary reality." In other words, heaven is not a location a rocket could eventually reach; it is a mode of existence that runs alongside and through our own, ordinarily screened from our senses. If heaven were merely far away, the Second Coming would be a journey. If heaven is a hidden dimension already interlocking with ours, the Second Coming is an unveiling.
This matters pastorally as much as intellectually. It means the risen Christ is not marooned in a remote corner of the cosmos waiting to set out, but is, as Wright has put it, present with us yet hidden. It also reshapes how we think about the Christian hope after death, which is not finally about escaping earth for a disembodied sky but about heaven and earth being remade and united. For how that hope bears on where believers ultimately belong, see our discussion of whether heaven is our final home or a restored earth, and for the reality of the hidden dimension itself, what the spiritual world is.
The Bible's language of veils and unveiling
The image of a veil is not imported into Scripture from outside; it runs through it. The Greek word behind the last book of the Bible, apokalypsis, literally means an unveiling or uncovering — Revelation is, by its own title, the pulling back of a curtain. At the moment of Jesus' death, "the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom" (Matthew 27:51), the very veil that had screened off the Most Holy Place, the earthly symbol of God's presence. The tearing of that veil is Scripture's own picture of a barrier between God's dimension and ours being removed.
Paul develops the theme directly. He writes that a veil lies over the human heart, and "when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed" (2 Corinthians 3:16), and that "now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12). Isaiah looks forward to the day when God "will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations" (Isaiah 25:7). And John's vision of the end is precisely a union, not an evacuation: "the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them" (Revelation 21:3). The consummation is God's reality made fully manifest here, which is close to what the site explores under what the Second Coming will actually accomplish.
What the "veil" model gets right — and leaves open
The model gets a great deal right. It rescues the Second Coming from becoming a mere sky-show and restores its true scale: the healing and uniting of the whole created order. It takes seriously that God's dimension is real and near rather than fictional and far. And it honestly flags the limits of our language, refusing to build rigid timetables out of poetic imagery — a restraint sorely needed given how often confident predictions have failed, a pattern examined in why people keep setting dates for the Second Coming.
But an unveiling metaphor, taken alone, leaves a real question open. If salvation were only a matter of a curtain opening so we can finally see what was always there, then the return of Christ would be essentially a change in our perception. Scripture, however, describes the end as a change in the world: evil judged, death undone, righteousness established, a new heaven and a new earth in which "righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13). Seeing rightly is necessary, but the biblical hope is that things are actually made right. The veil being lifted must therefore be joined to something being accomplished — which is exactly where the Divine Principle presses the question further.
The Divine Principle view: an unveiling that still needs people
The Divine Principle shares the conviction that God's purpose is to unite heaven and earth into one reality, and that the spiritual world is a present dimension woven together with the physical, not a distant place. To that extent it stands close to Wright's picture. But it adds a crucial element: the union of the two worlds is not accomplished simply by a curtain opening for us to look through. It is accomplished as God's truth is fully revealed and as human beings respond and take up their part. Heaven becomes visible on earth as a world is built that actually reflects it.
This is why the Divine Principle understands the returning Lord as one who establishes God's truth and lineage in the world and calls people to build the kingdom of heaven on earth, not only in heaven. The veil is lifted not merely so that we can perceive an already-finished reality, but so that the long-hidden purpose of creation can at last be realised through God and people working together. Read this way, Wright's image and the Divine Principle fit hand in glove: the curtain is drawn back, God's dimension and ours are meant to become one, and that oneness is completed as the returning Lord and a responding humanity bring it about. For how that return is understood concretely, see how Jesus will return, and for the larger disclosure this belongs to, what the Divine Principle is.
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean that "the veil will be lifted" at the Second Coming?
It means the Second Coming is understood not as God arriving from a distant place but as the moment when a reality that already exists — God's own dimension, often called heaven — is unveiled and joined fully to our world. N. T. Wright uses the image of a curtain being drawn back: what is already true in the heavenly dimension becomes visible and integrated with the present world. Scripture uses the same picture, promising that "now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12).
Does the "veil lifted" idea deny a literal Second Coming?
No. It reframes it rather than removing it. The point is that Christ's return is a real, decisive event, but its nature is the union of heaven and earth rather than a spatial descent through the sky. Wright cautions that we are "at the borders of language" here and speaking in symbolic and poetic terms. The New Testament itself pairs vivid imagery of clouds and glory with the deeper reality of God coming to dwell with His people (Revelation 21:3).
Where does the Bible speak of a veil being removed?
Several places. The temple veil was torn at Jesus' death (Matthew 27:51), opening the way into God's presence. Paul writes that a veil lies over hearts that turn from God, and "when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed" (2 Corinthians 3:16). Isaiah foresees God destroying "the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations" (Isaiah 25:7). The unveiling of God's reality is a consistent biblical hope, not a modern invention.
Is heaven a place in the sky or another dimension?
Wright argues heaven is "not a place in the sky, but rather God's dimension of what we think of as ordinary reality" — a realm that overlaps and interlocks with ours rather than sitting far away. The Divine Principle likewise teaches that the spiritual world is not a distant location but a real, present dimension of existence woven together with the physical world, so that the two are meant to become one.
What does the Divine Principle add to this picture?
The Divine Principle agrees that God's purpose is to unite heaven and earth, but stresses that this union is not accomplished automatically by a curtain simply opening. It comes about as the returning Lord establishes God's truth and lineage on earth and as people respond and take responsibility. The veil is lifted not only for us to see, but so that a real world reflecting heaven can be built — the kingdom of heaven on earth as well as in heaven.