open Bible doubt the reality, the literalness, the certainty of the second coming of Jesus? The truth o f the Bible stands or falls with Jesus’ coming. If Jesus is not coming personally and literally, then throw your Bible away, for it becomes a dangerous, unreliable and vicious book. Then the world is doomed, the Church is deceived, all preachers who preach the Second Coming o f Christ are either dis honest or tragically deceived, and the only hope for a dying world is gone. We remind you again that the first promise in the Word is concerning His coming. The last prom ise in the Old Testament (Malachi 4) is concerning His coming. The first announcement given by the angel in the New Testament to Mary was that “ the Lord God shall give unto him the throne o f his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32, 33). The last words o f the Lord before the Cross were “ I am coming again.” The first words He sent back from Heaven were “ I am coming again,” and the last promise in the Bible is “ I am coming again.” Yes, Jesus Christ is coming again. The very same Jesus who was born in a stable, died on a cross, ascended into Heaven, is coming again, and everyone will have to meet Him either in glory or in judgment. One of these days the last church bell will ring, the last sermon will be preached, and the last broadcast sent forth before His com ing again. My friend, are you ready to meet Him who said, Marvel not at this: for the, hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (John 5:28, 29). He told His disciples before Calvary: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again . . . (John 14:3). Then He went to the Cross, was buried, and after three days arose. Forty days later He led His little army to Mount Olivet and bade them farewell. Jesus their Lord was going away. How sad they must have been as they watched Him dis appear in a cloud! But then suddenly He sends back from Heaven the message recorded in Acts 1 :9 -ll, And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud re ceived him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heav en, shall so come in like manner as ye have
seen him go into heaven (Acts 1:9-11). The surest thing in all the world is the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ from Heaven. He is coming to put an end to the misery that sin has brought, to take His Church unto Himself, and to set up upon this earth a government and a King dom which will bring peace, prosperity and bless ing to the world, to Israel and the nations such as has never been dreamed of. The two men on the Mount of Olives brought this message back from Heaven, “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.” Either this is true or God is a liar and the Bible becomes a book of fiction and all born-again, Bible-loving Chris tians are a group o f deluded and pitiable fools. Between the first and the last promises in the Bible, is a mass of prophecy and teaching in type, symbol, and direct word concerning this great event. There are twenty-two times as many verses in the Old Testament that speak of the Second Coming as of the first. In the New Testament there are 422 passages which refer directly to His com ing again. One whole book, the book of the Revela tion, concerns His coming again and events asso ciated with it. How strange then that this truth of the Lord’s return should be so little known by Christians and disbelieved by so many who profess the name of Christ. How strange that in thousands of churches a preacher stands Sunday after Sun day with an open Bible before him, one-third of which speaks directly or indirectly concerning that glorious day when He shall come, and the “king doms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and o f His Christ,” and yet will never teach this glorious truth beyond the mere mention that some day the King is coming back again. The second coming of Christ is the consummation of all that occurred at His first coming. It is the justi fication of Calvary, the vindication o f His humilia tion and death, the verification of His infallible Word, and the greatest incentive to revival and evangelism. TH A T BLESSED HOPE There is no greater incentive to holiness among the believers than the daily looking for that glad event when Jesus comes. Almost every mention of His return is connected with admonitions for holy living. John in writing to us in I John 3 says: Beloved, now are we the sons o f God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure (I John 3:2, 3). Paul in writing to Titus says, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
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