Is Jesus’ Second Coming going to be in your lifetime?

WASHINGTON — Four in 10 Americans believe Jesus Christ will return to earth by 2050, while a slightly larger portion (46 percent) don’t believe they’ll see a Second Coming by midcentury, according to a new survey.

As part of Smithsonian Magazine’s 40th anniversary issue, 1,546 adults were asked to guess the forecast of war, energy, science and religion in the next 40 years for a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for People & the Press. Evangelicals were most likely (58 percent) to predict a Second Coming, followed by 32 percent of Catholics and 27 percent of mainline Protestants. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.