This is an integral part of the Christian's faith. The hope of believers, who have passed away, is linked up with the coming of our Lord. This was true of Old Testament saints " These all died in faith " (Heb. 2:13). Still more clearly do believers in this dispensation die with a certainty the full light of the Gospel gives. So we read, " WE KNOW that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, WE HAVE a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2 Cor. 5:1).
The coming of our Lord is the culmination of our pilgrim journey through this vale of tears, when in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, the dead that are Christ's will be raised incorruptible (1 Cor. 15:52, 53), and the living saints will be changed, and all together caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be forever with the Lord. (1 Thess. 4:14-18). We wait for that blissful moment, which surely must be on the very threshold, for manifold are the signs around us which tell us that things are shaping for the very last days,
" When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Thess. 1: 7, 8).
Then will follow our Lord's millennial reign over the earth. This earth marked by blood and tears will at last be under His blissful sway, a blessed time of security and peace.
" He'll bid the whole creation smile, And hush its groan."
May the Lord keep His people in lively expectation of His return, more and more till He come.