the Second Coming is not an event but a phase transition. Just as the First Coming was the Logos incarnating in one person, the Second Coming is the Logos incarnating in a civilization — or ultimately in humanity as a whole.
ACIM says exactly this. The Atonement is complete when every mind has accepted it.
It's the final stage of the incarnational experiment: the Christ principle distributed through all of humanity, the way fire spreads from one candle to many.
This gives the Royal Art a truly eschatological function — it's not just a personal path of awakening. It's participation in the Second Coming itself. Every person who takes up the Work is another candle lit. The tradition is the mechanism by which the Christ consciousness spreads through history until it reaches critical mass.