24. -THE COMING OF OUR LORD.
What an appropriate close to the second year of united Bible Study-"The Lord's Coming!'' Perhaps there is no subject in which greater advance in truth has been made, during the last 50 years, than in that of our Lora's return. Truly we are in the testing days of Matt. 25, when at midnight the Spirit has raised again the cry " Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him." Few intelligent Christians now doubt the personal return of our Lord to this earth. The old idea too, that death is to be regarded as our Lord's coming is now widely and justly regarded as erroneous. Some however, still speak of death as the Lord's coming, failing to see that the idea has not only no Scripture warrant, but is directly opposed to its spirit, as in John 21 " Jesus saith unto Peter, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee, follow thou me." " Then went this saying abroad among the brethren (not that this foretold John's death, but on the contrary) that that disciple should not die."
A careful study, however, of the Scriptures brought before us, as the result of last month's study, will show that further light is needed to distinguish between the two parts of our Lord's coming, which we may here contrastSecret into the air, for His people. "I will come again and receive you unto myself."
As the Morning Star (before the day) Rev. 21.
For final salvation.—"Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation."
Public to the Mount of Olives, with His people.—"At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints."
As the Sun of Righteousness, (ushering in the day) Mal. 4.
For judgment.—"The Lord cometh, with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all."
It is evident that the coming for His people must precede His coming with them, and therefore it is the former for which we wait. It may occur at any moment, " for we shall not all sleep." In the words of another, " As soon as the last member is brought in, and Christ's body is complete, the Church will be removed from the earth, will pass away into heaven. The Lord, as we read, descending thence with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, while we, both the dead and the living in that day, will be caught up to meet Him, and be forever with Him. Thus will end the path of the Church on earth, and for this we, the children of God, are now called to wait, even " for His Son from heaven" to take us home to Himself.
And now, the Church being gone, with whom will the Lord begin to deal next? With Israel again. Gathered once more into their own land-in unbelief and defiance of God, it is true-the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the very tribes which slew their Messiah, will by this time have built their city and temple (Isa. 66:6; Zech. 14:1-3; Rev. 11:1, 2); and not only so, but will also have received a false Messiah, set up by themselves, one suited to meet and to please the unregenerate heart. This delusion, on their part, God will permit, in order to chasten His people for their past disobedience in rejecting His Son. They hated, they put the Just One to death, the One who came to them in the Father's name; and hence He, acting with them on the principle of retributive justice, measuring to them the same measure that they themselves meted to Jesus, will allow them to become the blind dupes of another, who will come to them in his own name. (John 5:43).
A deceiver at first, and a tyrant in the end (Psa. 5:6; 43:1), this fearful being, this false Christ, Satan's great counterfeit of their long-looked-for Messiah, will receive their blind homage and worship, in those days of their deepest delusion and ripened apostasy. And not only so, but " all the world will wonder after the beast" (Rev. 13:3); while the ten Gentile kings, who in that day will rule the fourth and last empire of Daniel, will give him their power and strength, owning him alone as their Lord, and becoming wholly subject to him, as his vassals (Rev. 17:12,13.) In the midst, however, of the infidel nation, thus come to the height of their evil and folly, an elect faithful remnant (Isa. 6:13; Zeph. 3:12,13; Zech. 13:8,9), hated by the bulk of the people, will be raised up (it would appear through the testimony of two certain prophets, namely the witnesses spoken of in Rev. 11) to look for the coming of Christ. And in answer to the cry of these sufferers He will come. (Psa. 79, 80, 118.) Yes: the heavens will open, and Christ the Rider on the white horse, followed by the armies in heaven (Rev. 19:11-21), even His Church, together with others who have part in the first resurrection, who as we have seen, will have previously ascended to meet Him, and will have been with Him in heaven during the whole of the above-mentioned action on earth, will descend to make war with the beast, the ten kings of the earth, and their armies; with all in short, who, in that hour of man's complete apostasy, will be leagued under the beast, against God and His Christ. Then follows the conflict-" The battle of Armageddon" (Rev. 16:13-16), the issue of which it is almost needless to tell. The beast, and the false prophet, his minister, the second beast of Rev. 13:11, will be destroyed, cast, both of them, into the lake of fire forever; the kings of the earth, and their armies, will be slain with the sword proceeding out of the mouth of the heavenly conqueror; while Satan, the great mover of all, will be chained, and cast, for a thousand years, into the bottomless pit. This done, the Lord, having gathered in His elect, namely, the Jewish remnant before named, will next take to Himself His great power and will reign. He will ascend the throne of David, His father, which had been destined for Him, as the true heir, from the outset (Psa. 89; Ezek. 34:23,24); gather in,' in the next place, the whole of His people, both Judah and Ephraim, and not only so, but His glory will spread through the earth. Blessing at last will flow forth in a national political way to the Gentiles, who will unite with Israel in that day, in adoring the Lamb through whose blood alone they will be redeemed. (Isa. 2:2-5.) The temple worship of Israel will then be revived. (Psa. 51 iq; Ezek. 40-48) The feasts and the sacrifices, not pointing forward, as of old, but commemoratively back to the blessed redemption already accomplished, will be observed in Jerusalem. Thither the nations will congregate; thither they will go' up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. (Zech. 14:16.) The promised land will be the scene of God's presence on earth-the place of His throne; there His city will rise-, Jerusalem-the metropolis of the world; there His temple will stand: there too the glory will be especially visible, in the light of which the nations will walk. (Rev. 21:24.)
Such, beloved reader, is a brief forecast of the immediate future, and an attempt to group into order the events that precede and follow our Lord's public appearing. Before closing this notice we might say that it appears to us that the following passages out of Division 2 of the subject may fairly be taken as alluding to the first or secret coming of our Lord into the air.
" Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the hidden counsels of the heart." 1 Cor. 4:5.
" Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." 1 Cor. 15:23.
" The Lord cometh (Maranatha)." 1 Cor. 16:22. " The Lord is at hand." Phil. 4:5.
" For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry." Heb. 10:37.
" Be patient therefore brethren, unto the coming of the Lord for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. James 5:7. 8.
" We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him. 1 John 3:2.
" Hold fast till I come." Rev. 2:25.
" Behold I come quickly." Rev. 22:7,12,20.
"Even so, come Lord Jesus."