IT is very important to distinguished between these two lines of truth, because Scripture does. To speak of the Lord’s coming for us, and the day of the Lord, as if they were the same things is to confuse the both. Our hope, strictly speaking, as Christians, is the Lord Himself; we look for other things afterward, but He is our proximate hope. The day of the Lord is the true Jewish hope; hence you often real of it in the Old Testament. But the coming of Christ for us, when those who are Christ’s shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, is not found in the Old Testament. It is a New Testament revelation. Hence, Paul says, “This we say unto you by the word of the Lord.” And again, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”
When the Lord comes for us, those who see Him will be transformed into His likeness—we shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye: “When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” But when He comes with us, to bring in the day of the Lord, “every eye shall see Him;” and, instead of those who see Him being changed, “all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” When the Lord comes for us, He descends to meet us in the air; but when He comes with us, “His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives.”
When Christ comes for us, He will separate His saints from the wicked, and raise the dead saints, and all will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, without any action on the wicked; they are simply left behind. But when He comes with us, He will sever the wicked from the just; take the bad away in judgment, leaving the righteous for blessing in the earth, and not raising the dead till a thousand years afterward. (Rev. 20:55But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. (Revelation 20:5).) Who can say how near, how very near coming of the Lord for His saints may be!
The Sympathy of Jesus With the Church, and With the Jewish Remnant.
The Lord’s tender care over us is seen in His prayer in John 17. Besides, we are told, that in “that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted;” and again, “We have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet with sin.” (Heb. 2:18; 4:1518For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. (Hebrews 2:18)
15For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15).)
The Lord’s care for the Jewish remnant, whom he foresaw would be in the great tribulation, is blessedly brought out in Matt. 24, “Then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains.” “Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter,” because of the sufferings they would be exposed to; “neither on the Sabbath-day,” because godly Jews would only be free in conscience to take a Sabbath-day’s journey, and thus not escape the pursuit of their persecutors. What tender love and sympathy is here brought out!