The UPCI affirms the imminent, bodily, personal return of Jesus Christ. The Articles of Faith describe Christ's coming in the clouds as a 'blessed hope' (Titus 2:13) and affirm the resurrection of the dead and the transformation of living believers at his coming. This event is described as potentially imminent — it could occur at any time — and this expectation drives the UPCI's evangelistic urgency.

The UPCI's eschatological framework is broadly premillennial and includes a rapture (the catching away of believers) followed by a period of tribulation and then Christ's millennial reign. The specific timing debates (pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, post-tribulation rapture) are not uniformly resolved within UPCI teaching, but the pre-tribulation rapture position is common among UPCI ministers.

The second coming is also the moment at which the UPCI's salvation theology will be vindicated: those who have received the full new birth will be caught up, while others will face the tribulation and judgment. This eschatological framework gives the UPCI's insistence on the specific Acts 2:38 plan an ultimate seriousness — the consequences of not receiving the full new birth extend into the final events of history.