jL
GL(Lsy>rb
Pre and Post-Tribulation Appearances The Distinction Between Christ’s Coming For His People and With His People By DR. B. BROADBELT, England
R. Grattan Guinness, and others who argue against any time-distinction b e t w e e n Christ’s coming for His peo
Elements of the Second Advent. (1) Manifested in glorified bodily form to His glorified people. (2) Manifested with them in glory to all. Result: Manifested in spirit ual political reign over all during the Millennial Age. Now all agree that the above ele ments represent at least two distinct moral aspects of the two Advents re spectively. But we now know that, in the case of the First Advent, the time- factor also distinguished between the two elements: the time the Lord lay in the grave separated them. Yet we. do not therefore say that these two stages constituted two Advents, one to die for His people’s sins, and another to as cend on high till the Father make His enemies His footstool. May it not .be, then, by analogy, that some time may elapse between the two corresponding aspects of His Second Coming, and this without the need of assuming two Ad vents, one to glorify His people, and another to judge the nations. The above seems well in accord with the parallelism characteristic of proph etic fulfilment. There was only one Babylonian captivity; but it occurred in many stages. There is only one final Jewish Restoration; yet it is tak ing place in parallel phases and stages. Again, when our Lord referred to the days of Noah and Lot, He spoke in vivid terms to warn the unwary; until the last day of Divine long-suffering, the blind and godless will be blind and godless still, and they will vanish in a crack of doom. Yet even here, yes,
ple and His coming with them, never theless grant that there are two moral aspects of His Second Advent, and as sent that the moral distinction between them is exceedingly broad. Dr. Guin ness’s contention is that prophecy an nounces two Advents only, not three. He and others assume that the Coming of Christ for His people first is equiva lent to a separate and third advent. Is this assumption justified? Let us examine the subject by a few analogies. Take first the analogy of Old Testa ment Messianic Prophecy as a whole. There is no distinct reference even to two different Advents there. The Jews never understood there would be two. They did believe that there would be one, and one only. There was, indeed, an exceedingly broad moral distinction between the two aspects of His Coming revealed there, viz., as a Suffering Lamb, and as a Ruling Lion; yet time and event proved that the time-element should also distinguish between these two aspects of Messiah’s Advent in an interval of nearly 2,000 years. Let us further try it by analogy with His first advent in this way:— Elements of the First Advent. (1) Manifested in ordinary bodily form to all. (2) Manifested in resurrected bodi ly form to chosen believers only. Re sult: Manifested in the Spirit through His people to all during the Gospel Age.
Made with FlippingBook Online document