K ING 'S BUSINESS PROPHECY SECTION Edited, by Dr. Charles L. Feirtberg, Director, Talbot Theological Seminary OUR
L ORDS
by Charles H. Stevens, D .D .*
there were no accompanying signs in the heavens (Luke 21:25). Another theory is that the preaching of the gos pel to the sinner is the second coming of Christ. Here there is no coming in the clouds; angels do not appear when a sinner is saved. Second, let us notice the “ how” of His return. He went away in the presence of His own. The world’s last view of God’s Son was when He hung on the Cross or when He was placed within the cold tomb. Next they will view Him in open glory. He appeared last to His own, so shall He appear first to His own. His going was sudden; His coming will be sudden (I Cor. 15:52), in the “ twinkling of an eye,” the quickest reaction in the human body. We will not have time to be alarmed. It will be all over and we that are in Christ will have our glorified bodies before we can think. He went away personally, bodily, literally, and visi bly. “ In like manner” He will come again. “This same Jesus.” Language could not be plainer or more precise. How strange that some will go to such infinite ends to avoid a literal interpretation of the clear, unmistakable Word of God! Do they not want Him to return? Pray tell how a saved person could so reason. If a man leaves his wife going on a trip involving an indefinite stay and promises her he will return, she certainly does not look for “ another”—we hope not. Neither does he send anoth er. Hardly! Why then do men wish to twist the Scrip tures in an attempt to make them say other than what they want them to say. How blind is the heart of man, and how stubborn his will when he has made up his mind he does not wish to see. IV. TH E TW O FOLD ASPECT OF HIS RETURN There is only one coming, one return, but two aspects or two stages. First of all, He is coming in the air for His own (I Thess. 4:13-17). This will be a private mani festation. The Church had two beginnings, a private beginning in the upper room on the morning of the resurrection when He showed them His hands and His feet and breathed upon them and said, “ Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” That was a secret or private beginning. Then fifty days after, on the Day of Pentecost, the Church had a public beginning. So the Church is to
III. TH E M ANN ER irst , let us notice some mistaken conceptions of the nature and maimer of our Lord’s return. There are those who teach death is the second coming of Christ. Both are spoken of as being unexpected and uncertain, but analogy ends here. Death is said to be our enemy (I Cor. 15:26); our Lord’s return is called the “ blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). Death introduces the disembodied state (II Cor. 5:2-4); His return introduces our likeness to Him (I John 3:2). In death the believer goes to Christ; in Christ’s second coming, Christ comes for the believer (John 14:1-3). There are four separate instances in the New Testament where the believer is described as pass ing through death—first, the penitent thief on the cross, “ This day thou shall be with me in paradise;” second, the first Christian martyr, Stephen, “ Lord Jesus receive my spirit” ; third, the Apostle Paul, “ Absent from the body, present with the Lord;” fourth, “ Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them” (Rev. 14:13). All of these passages speak of the saint’s going to be with the Lord, but not the Lord’s coming for His own. In John 21:21-23 our Lord sets death and the prospects of tarrying until He comes in direct and sharp contrast. Death is the very opposite to the coming of Christ. “ If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee . . . Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?” There are yet others who teach that the descent of the Holy Spirit was the second coming of Christ. This is ridiculous in that such a theory confuses the Per sons of the Godhead. Christ said, “ I will send you another comforter.” This theory also fails to take recognition of the fact that most of the teaching concerning the second coming was written after Pentecost. There are yet other theories that space here will not allow us to expand, such as the destruction of Jerusalem. The book of the Revelation was written after this; “ Be hold I come quickly.” When Jerusalem was destroyed
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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