Why hasn't Jesus come back yet?

Remarkably, this exact question was already being asked in the first century. Peter describes people mockingly asking, "Where is his 'coming' that he promised?"—showing this isn't a modern crisis but one the earliest Christians already faced directly.

Peter's answer has two parts. First, God's relationship to time differs from ours: "with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day"—what feels like enormous delay to us doesn't carry the same weight from God's perspective. Second, and more directly, the delay reflects genuine patience: God is "not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance," extending the window for people to respond rather than closing it early.

This doesn't remove the real, ongoing tension of continued waiting, but it shows the New Testament treating this question honestly nearly two thousand years ago, not needing a newly invented answer only now.