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T H E K I N G ’ S B C S I N E S S
July 1924
His Coming and His Appearing Dr. James H. Brookes
The late Dr Brookes was one of the leading Presbyterian preachers 6f the United States, editor of “ The Truth, ’ and one of the greatest Bible teachers this country has ever had. He was, perhaps m o r e familiar with the Bible, as a whole, than any other man, and was for years associated with the leaders of the famous Niagara Bible Conference. B T is to be regretted that those who firmly and joy fully hold* to the premillennial advent of our Lord sometimes differ among themselves with regard to the distinction between His coming for the (John 15:3). In His last interview with them after His resurrection, He said to Peter, concerning John, “ 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, that that disciple should not die” (John 21:22, 23); and it was evidently our Lord’s intention to keep them in a posture of waiting for Himself.
saints, and His appearing with them. Many intelligent and devout students of the Word of God believe that there is no perceptible interval between the two, or at least that, if not simultaneous, they are so near to each other, the difference is of no practical value. Hence they insist that the church, or the saved ones of the present dispensation, will pass through “ the great tribulation” of the last days under the reign of antichrist. Hence too they argue that the second advent is impossible at present, because certain prophecies remain to be fulfilled. But it is clear that there is an interval of some length, however short, between the quickening and transforming shout and trump of our descending Lord (1 Thess. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:52) and the time when they shall “ appear with him in glory” (Col. 3 :4). Thus we are told that at His visible manifestation on earth, when ail nations are gath ered against Jerusalem to battle, and “His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, . . . the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee,” [or with Him], (Zech. 14: 1-5). ' Again we read of “ the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his skints,” (1 These. 3:13). Again, “ if we be lieve that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (1 Thess. 4:14). Again, “ Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thou sands of his saints” (Jude 14). Again, when Christ is seen coming forth from the opened heaven for the destruc tion of antichrist and the false prophet and their assembled hosts, “ the armies which were in heaven followed him ■Upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean;” and “ the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Rev. 19:8, 14). Coming “ FOB” and Coming “WITH” It is obvious, therefore, that there must be a “ gathering together unto him” (2 Thess. 2:1) before “ the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their ■Father” (Matt. 13:43). In other words, He comes for them, before He appears with them; and the former is the immediate object of the believer’s hope as revealed in the Gospel. Be tween “ that blessed hope” and the passing moment, the Bible makes known nothing as necessarily intervening since the finished work of Chsist accomplished at His first com ing. Its language fully proves that His followers should stand in an attitude of constant expectation and longing with respect to the promise of His return, as possible every day, as not improbable any day. Such is the only proper meaning that can be attached to His oft repeated command, “Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matt. 24:42-51; 25:13; Mark 13:33-37; Luke 12:35-40; 21:34-36). When He was about to leave His disciples He cheered their hearts with the assurance (which even Dr. David Brown admits can not refer to death) “ I will come again (present tense, ‘I come, or am coming’ ) to receive you unto myself”
So, immediately after His ascension, the two men in white said to them, “ This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1 :11 ); “ and they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24:52); for not a word had been dropped to intimate that He might not come during their own life. On the other hand, the first Gentile converts who “ turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God,” -were taught by the Holy Ghost “ to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which de livered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10). When they received the inspired Epistles, they learned that “ the night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Rom. 13:12); that they were to be “ waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1 :7 ); that “ the Lord is at hand” (Phil. 4 :5 ); that they should be found “ looking for that blessed hope” (Tit. 2 :13 ); that “ yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry,” (Heb. 10:37); that “ the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (Jas. 5 :8 ); that “ the end of all things is at hand” (1 Pet. 4 :7 ); that they must be “ looking for, and hasting unto the com ing of the day of God” (2 Pet. 3 :12 ); that “ it is the last time” (1 John 2 :18 ); for the very last words that fell from the lips of Jesus proclaimed, “ Surely I come quickly” (Rev. 2 2 : 2 0 ) . The Purpose of the Delay No view of the second advent can be correct that fails to give to such passages their natural, obvious, and com mon sense meaning; and the perplexity of many, who are troubled by the fact that more than eighteen hundred years have passed since they were spoken and written, is owing to their ignorance of the character of the present dispensation. It is the dispensation of grace, when God by the Holy Ghost is taking out of the Gentiles a people to His name, to constitute the body and bride of His exalted Son. They are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heav enly places in Christ (Eph. 1 :3 ); their citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3 :20 ); they are partakers of the heavenly calling (Heb. 3 :1 ); and there is no reckoning of time in heaven. The very nature of the church, as an assembly called out from the world, makes the interval it fills a dateless period, and it can have no connection with “ times and seasons.” These belong to Israel, and to Israel when dwelling in the land given to them for an everlasting possession. But the chureh in her relation to the hope set before us in the Gos pel, is by the necessity of her calling like a perfect sphere, every point of whose surface is equally distant from the center. By her unity as a divinely organized body, which even her own folly can not destroy, the measure of the (Continued on page 459)
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