THE RETURN OF THE LORD JESUS
The Key to the Scripture and the Solution of All Our Political and Social Problems or
THE GOLDEN AGE THAT IS SOON COMING TO THE EARTH
BY R. A. Torrey, D. D. Dean of the Bible institute of Los Angeles California
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. Unauthorized copying and distribution is punishable by law (Title 17 of United States Code).
-------------■ EX LIBRIS THE BIOLA LIBRARY PRESENTED,BY William Ullrich
232.6 T6Jr ,, : ---------------------· I
1913
COPYRIGHTED
DY
THE INSTITUTE OF
BIBLE
LOS ANGELES Registered in Stationer's Hall, London English rights reserved
'l'lle quotations from the Bible in tllts book are taken from The A merican Standard Bible by permission of '.l'homas Nelson d: Sons, owners of the copyrioht
I ,,
I
l i
Synopsis PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS
The wl'iter an optimist-His optimism defined-The true doctrine or the Advent Is: A safeguard against error-The most precious truth. Paue... 7 OH.APTER I. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRUTH THAT Otra Lom, JESUS IS COMING AGAIN. The frequency or Its mention-Its emphasis as the comfort or saints and the blessed hope of the be liever-It Is peculiarly obnoxious to the worldly -It Is the incentive to service, watchfulness and separation-Four stages of the author's expe rience-The transformation wrought In him by the apprehension of the doctrine. Page. • . 13 OH.APTER II. TnE CERT~UNTY THAT Oun LORD JEsus 1s COMING AGAIN. It Is repeatedly and explicitly affirmed by the Word of God-It Is distinguished as a coming "a second ti-me"-It Is not synonymous with death -It Is not the Coming or the Holy Spirit-It did not occur at the destruction of Jerusalem-It lies yet in the future. Pag•. . • e6 OH.APTER III. THE :MANNER IN WHICH Oun LORD JEsus 1s Co.MING AGAIN. Personally-Bodlly and visibly-In three stages With great publicity-In' great power and glory -With His holy angels-Suddenly and unan- nounced. Page. • • Sf;
OH.APTER IV. THE RESULTS OF THE RETURN OF Oun LORD JEsus. The results: As regards God-As regards the Church and individual believers:...As regards Israel~As regards the nations-As regards human society as a whole-As regards Antichrist and the Devil-As regards the physical universe. Page.. . 53
OH.APTER V. THE TIME OF Oun LORD'S RETURN.
It is unknown-No definite data revealed-It will be when men think not-When the world will be absorbed in its pursuits-After the revelation of the Man of Sin-In a time of apostasy-So far as we know, at any moment. Page .•• 101 OHA.PTER VI. OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD THE RETURN OF Oun Lono JESUS. We should be always ready-We should be looking, expectant-We should be earnestly longing-The preciousness of the words, "Jesus is coming." Page••• 125
PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS
The writer an optimist-His optimism defined The true doctrine of the advent is: A safe guard against error-The most precious truth.
"This 10ord He hath in fact spoken,-'Here after ye shall ,ee the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven,'-bu, it is a word of which there is no eza1nple. Even the mad pride of Roman emperors who demanded re ligious homage for their stat1Ltes has never gone so far as to conceive such an unheard of thought, and here it is the lowliest of men who speaks.• The word must be tr1Lth; for there is here no mean term between truth and madness." LUTIIABDT.
T HE writer of this book is an optimist. He is absolutely sure that a golden age is swiftly coming to this earth. But he is not a blind optimist. His optimism is not the result of shutting his eyes to unpleasant facts; his eyes are wide open to the awful injustices that rule in human society as at present constituted. He is fully aware that there is a storm coming. He does not ques tion that we are facing the wildest, fiercest, most appalling storm this old world ever passed through, but the storm will be brief and beyond the storm there is a golden day, such as philosophers and poets never dreamed of. The writer is an optimist because he has deeply pondered and believes with his whole heart what the Bible teaches concerning the Second Coming of Christ. If he did not be lieve that, he could not but be a pessimist, knowing what he does of social conditions and the trend of human society today. In the Return of our Lord is the perfect solution, and the only solution, of the political and social and commercial problems that now vex us.
8
PBELIMINABT 8TATEMJ:1'TIS
In the truth concerning our Lord's Return is the safeguard against all current heresies, errors and falsehoods. One error after an other is arising to deceive, if it were possible, even the very elect. One who knows the truth clearly revealed in God's Word concerning the Second Coming of Christ is proof against them all. For example, no one who knows the truth concerning the Second Coming of Christ could possibly be misled by Christian Science, Millenial Dawnism, Occultism, Theosophy or Behaism. It is remarkable how all forms of error touch the doctrine of Christ's Second Coming, and are shattered by the truth re vealed about it in the Scriptures. Those who are ignorant of what the Word teaches con cerning the Second Coming of Christ may fancy that they see in Madame Besant's "Or der of the Star of the East'' a preparation for the coming of Christ, but those who know the truth know that it is a preparation for the welcoming of the Antichrist, the Devil's imi tation Christ. The truth of our Lord's Return is the most precious truth the Bible contains. It fills the heart of the believer with joy, and girds him with strength ~or the battle. It lifts him above the sorrows and fears and
II
PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS
necessities and trials and ambitions and greed of this world and makes him in all things more than conqueror. All the quotations in this book are taken from the American Standard Version of the Bible. There can be little doubt that on the whole this version comes nearer to giving the exact and full force of the original than any other version now in common use, and space is saved by quoting directly from it in every case instead of quoting the Authorized Ver sion and then putting in the margin the Re vised Version, or the American Standard Version.
Original page is missing or too poor quality. This page was inserted to allow for proper page turns.
CHAPTER I
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRUTH THAT OUR LORD JESUS IS COMING AGAIN. The frequency of its mention-Its emphasis as the comfort of saints and the blessed hope of the believer-It is peculiarly obnoxious to the ,vorldly-It is the incentive to service, watch fulness and separation-Four stages of the author's experience - The transformation wrought in him by the apprehension of the doctrine.
"Ye turned from the iaols to serve a living and true God., anci to wait for His Bon from Heaven, whom He raised. from the <lead., even Jesus, who <lelivereth us from the wrath to come." I THESSALONIANS 1:9, 10. "For what is our hope, or 1011, or crown of rejoicingf Are not even 11e, before our Lord. Jesus Ohr-lat at His coming." l THESSALON'IANII !l:19. "Amen: come, Lord. Jesus." REVELA.TION 22: 20.
CHAPTER I THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRUTH THAT OUR LORD JESUS IS COMING .AG.A.IN T HE importance in God's thought of the Second Coming of Christ is seen in the fact that this event is mentioned more times in the New Testament than there are chapters. It bas been said by those who have taken the trouble to count that it is mentioned 318 times in the 260 chapters of the New Tes tament. . .And one who made a life-long study of the doctrine has said that it occupies one in every twenty-five verses from Matthew to Revelation. It also occupies a prominent place in the Old Testament, as by far the greater part of the predictions concerning Christ in the Old Testament are connected, not with His first coming to die as an atoning Saviour, but with His Second Coming to rule as King. • The coming again of Jesus Christ is the one
'l'HE IMPOR'l'ANCE o~• 'l'IlE TRUTH
14
doctrine with which God commands us to com fort sorrowing saints. When death had be gun to thin the ranks of the believers in Thes salonica, and hearts were aching over separa tion from ·those who bad fallen asleep, the Apostle Paul wrote, ''But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the ciouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, conifort one another with these words" (I Thess. 4 :13-18). Afl "these words" have entirely to do with the Second Coming of Christ, it is evident that the one doctrine with which God commands us to comfort those in sorrow over the loss of loved
16
'rHE bIPORTANCE OF THE TRUTH
ones is that of our Lord's Coming again. There is no other truth that has such comfort in it for intelligent believers when they are called upon to pass through deep sorrow as that of the Return of the Lord and what it involves for us and for those who have fallen asleep. Time and again in writing to those who have lost for a time those whom they love, I have obeyed God's commandment and used the truth of our Lord's Return to com fort them, and many have told me afterwards how full of comfort this truth has proven when everything else had failed. In the Old '1 1 estament also we find God through His ser vant Isaiah comforting Israel in the time of their misery and desolation with the thought of the Corning of the Lord: ''Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 0 thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; 0 thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God I Behold, his reward is with him and his recom pense before him" (Is. 40 :1, 9, 10). Time and again in the New Testament the Coming Again of our Lord Jesus Christ and the events connected therewith are held up as
Tm;: IMPORTANCE OF THE TBtJTH
16
''the blessed hope'' and the eager desire of every true believer. In Titus 2 :13 Paul says, ''Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Sav iour Jesus Christ.'' And Peter in II Peter 3 :11, says: '' Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dis solved, and the elements shall melt with ferv ent beat T'' To the true believer, the Coming Again of Jesus Christ is not something to dread, but it is the brightest hope the future bolds for us and it should be .the object of our eager desire and longing. anticipation. The last prayer in the Bible is also the cry of every intelligent Christian heart, ''Amen; come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20). But while the Return of our Lord is the blessed hope and eager desire of the true believer, it is the particular object of the hatred and·ridicule of the mockers who walk after their own lusts. Peter's prediction has . come true: ''In the last days mockers shall \ \come ~th mockery, walking after their own '·: lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His
17
THE blPORTANCE OF THE TBUTH
coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the begin.Ling of the creation'' (II Pet. 3:3, 4). A worldly Church and worldly Christians join with these mockers in their hatred of this truth. As a bride who is flirt ing with other men does not long for the re turn of her absent husband, so the faithless bride of Christ, who is flirting with the world does not long for the return of her Lord. But for the believer whose affections are all fixed upon Jesus Christ the Word of God contains no other promise so precious as the promise that He is quickly coming again. Our atti tude toward the Coming Again of Jesus Christ is a good index of our spiritual state. The fact that our Lord Jesus is coming again is the great Bible argument for a life of watchfulness, fidelity, wisdom, activity, simplicity, self-restraint, prayer and abiding in Christ. During the last week of His earth ly life, our Lord said to His disciples, ''There fore be ye also ready; for in an hour that ye think not the son of man cometh,, (Matt. 24 :44). In our day we are constantly urging men to be ready because death may overtake them at any moment, but this was not the ar gument that our Lord Jesus used. It was
18
THE bn•onTANCE OF TllE TROTH
His own coming, not the coming of death, that He held up before His disciples as the incentive to live as they ought to live. Pro ceeding still further, He said, "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath set over his household, to give them food in due season t Blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing" (vs. 45.46). On another occasion our Lord was warning His disciples against the sins which are especially common in our day, over eating, over-drinking, and undue occupation with the cares of this life, "Take heed to yourselves," He said, "lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunken ness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you suddenly as a snare : for so shall it come upon all that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every season making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man'' (Luke 21 :34- 36). It was not the physical e:ffects of folly in eating and drinking that our Lord urged upon His disciples but rather the fact that these things would unfit them to meet Him upon His Return. The Apostle John writes to those whom he had led into·the light, "Now,
19
'l'ur:: ll\[POl\'rANCE OF THE TRUTH
little children, abide in Him; that, if He shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming" (I J obn 2 :28). There are many reasons why we should abide in the Lord Jesus but the pre-eminent reason in John's mind was that Jesus was coming again and that if we were to have confidence and not be ashamed before Him when He did come, we must be abiding in Him. Our Lord Jesus tells us that His return is the one event for which we should be look ing. "Let your loins be girded about," He says, ''and your lamps burning; and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for thefr lord when he shall return from the marriage feast; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may straightway open unto him.'' (Luke 12 :35, 36). In the next verse an espe cial blessing is pronounced upon those "Whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching." The Holy Spirit in the 9th chap ter of Hebrews and the 28th verse tells us that "to them that wait for Him," shall He ''appear a second time apart from sin unto salvation." These words ought to lead us to some very deep and earnest thinking and to
20
THE IMPORTANCE 01' THE TBtJT.11
ask ourselves whether we are really looking, watching, waiting for Him. · It is evident from what has been said above, that the truth of our Lord's Second Coming is a truth of the very first importance. To many the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ seems like an impractical doctrine. I once so regarded it. In my early ministry, one of my members came to me and asked if I would speak upon the Second Coming of Christ. I knew nothing about the doctrine and put him off, thinking to myself, "You will be a much older man than you are now before I speak upon a doctrine so impractical.'' But the day came when I found it was not only one of the most precious but also one of the most prac tical doctrines in the whole Bible. There have been four marked epochs in my Christian experience: First, When I came to know the Lord J' esus as my personal Saviour and my Lord. Second, When I discovered that the Bible was indeed the inerrant Word ·of God, that its statements were absolutely reliable in every respect, and that everything any man needed to know was contained in this one Book. Third, When I learned that the bap tism with the Holy Spirit was for the present day and claimed it for myself. And Fourth,
21
THB IMPOBTANCB OF THB TBUTK
When I came to see the truth concerning the Second Coming of Christ. The latter truth transformed my whole idea of life, it broke the power of the world and its ambition over me and filled my life with the most radiant op timism even under the most discouraging cir cumstances.
Original page is missing or too poor quality. This page was inserted to allow for proper page turns.
CHAPTER II
THE CERTAINTY THAT OUR LORD JESUS IS COMING AGAIN
It is repeatedly and explicitly affirmed by the Word of God-It is distinguished as a coming "a second time"-It is not synonymous with death-It is not the coming of the Holy Spirit -It did not occur at the destruction of Jerusalem-It lies yet in the future.
"He 10ho testi/feth the86 th'tnga saith, yea: (sureJy) I co11U quic1c1i,. .A.men: come Lora JflllUI." RBVELATION 22: 20.
CHAPTER II THE CERTAINTY THAT OUR LORD JESUS IS COMING AGAIN B EYOND a peradventure our Lord Jesus is coming again. How do we know that? Because God tells us so in His Word, over and over again in the most ex plicit and unmistakable terms. On the night before His crucifixion our Lord Jesus seeking to comfort His disciples who were over whelmed with the thought that He was about to leave them said, '' I come again and will re ceive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:3). The Apostle Paul in I Thess. 4 :16, 17 takes up this promise of his Lord and writes, '' The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive that are left, shall to gether with them be caught up in the clouds,
26
THE CERTAINTY
to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord." The Apostle Paul doubtless had the words of Christ in mind when he said this; for there are four items in connection with the Lord's promise that are exactly covered by four in Paul's words. (1) Jesus said, "I come again." Paul said, "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven.'' · (2) Jesus said, "and receive you unto my self." Paul said, "We shall be caught up to meet the Lord." (3) Jesus said, "that where I am there ye may be also.'' Paul said, ''So shall we ever be with the Lord." (4) Jesus prefaces His words with ''Let not your heart be troubled" (John 14:1). Paul closes bis by saying, ''Comfort one another with these words.'' Paul's words are an inspired com mentary upon the promise of Jesus. In one of bis later epistles Paul says again, "Our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself" (Phil. 3 :20, 21). In Heb. 9 :28 we read again, '' Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins
27
of many, shall appear a second time apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation." The Apostle Peter in urg ing the Jews to repentance in Acts 3:19-21 says, ''Repent ye, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; and that he may send the Christ who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus: whom the heaven must re ceive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from of old." All the passages quoted, as well as many others, assert in the most distinct and un ambiguous terms that OUR LORD JESUS rs COMING AGAIN. There are those who would interpret at least some of these passages as referring to the death of the believer, but the passages will not admit of this interpretation. At the death of the believer, while our Lord Jesl}s may draw near, He does not come "with a shout," nor "with the voice of the archan gel,'' nor ''with the trump of God.'' At the death of the believer, those who are alive and left surely are not caught :UP with them to
28
THE CERTAINTY
meet the Lord in the air. Jesus Himself drew a plain contrast between the death of the be liever and His own coming again. Speaking to Peter about the future of John He said, "If I will that he (John) tarry till I come, what is that to theeT" It is plain from the context that ''If I will that he tarry'' means, "If I will that he remain alive." Now if we put Christ's coming at the believer's death, then we would get this nonsense, ''If I will that he remain alive until he die, what is that to theeT" Of course, it is not what our Lord meant. . What He meant, as is plainly indi ated by the words in their context, was "If I will that he remain alive until my own per sonal return.'' There are others who would have us inter pret the coming again spoken of in the verses above as referring to the coming of Christ at the coming of the Holy Spirit. . The coming of the Holy Spirit is doubtless in a very real and important sense a coming of Christ. This ap pears from John 14:15-18; 20-23, where Jesus says, '' If ye love me ye will keep my com mandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that be may be with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, for it
29
THE CERTAINTY
beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him:. ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you. . . . He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him. Judas (not Iscariot) saith unto him, Lord, what is come to pass that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word : and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make .our abode with him." It is plain from these words that the coming of the Holy Spirit is a coming of Jesus Christ, because it is His work to reveal Christ to us and to form Christ in us, so that Christ comes to make His abode with us; but this coming of Christ is not that which is referred to in the passages under consideration. This is evident from the fact that all these promises but one (John 14: :3) were made after the coming of the Holy Spirit and pointed to a coming still future. Furthermore, Jesus at the coming of the Holy Spirit does not receive us unto Him self to be with Him, rather He comes to be
TH" CEIITAlNTl'
30
with us (John 14:18, 21, 23), but at His coming again mentioned in John 14:3, and I Thess. 4 :16, 17, He takes us to be with Him. Further still, He does not at His coming in the Spirit fashion anew the body of our hu miliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory (Phil. 3 :20, 21), and at the coming of the Spirit, there is no trump of the archangel, no shout, no resurrection, no rapture in the clouds-in other words the coming of Christ at the coming of the Holy Spirit in scarcely any particular conforms to the plain and explicit statements of Christ and the Apostles concerning His Second Coming. Many scholarly students of the Bible, whose opinion is well worth considering, take the coming again mentioned in the verses above to be at the Destruction of Jerusalem. There is an element of truth in this interpretation. The destruction of Jerusalem was in an im portant sense a precursor, prophecy and type of the judgment of the end of this age and therefore in Matt. 24 and Mark 13 the two events are described in connection with each other. But God's judgment on Jerusalem at that time is manifestly not the event referred to in the passages given in the opening of this
31
raE CERTAINTY
chapter. At the destruction of Jerusalem, those who slept in Jesus were not raised, liv ing believers were not caught up to meet the Lord in the air, the bodies of believers were not transformed. Furthermore, years after the destruction of Jerusalem we find John still looking forward to the Lord's coming as an event still lying in the future (Rev. 22 :20). The words found in John .21 :22, 23, "Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to tbeeT Follow thou me. This saying therefore went forth among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He should not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" were written years after the destruction of Jerusalem. Not any of these events mentioned, nor all of them together, nor any other event that has yet occurred fulfills the very plain, ex plicit and definite predictions and promises of our Lord Jesus nnd His apostles regarding His coming again. THE COMING AGAIN OF JESUS CHRIST SO FREQUENTLY MENTIONED IN THE NEW TESTA MENT AS THE GREAT HOPE OF THE CHURCH IS AN EVENT THAT STILL LIES IN THE FUTURE.
Original page is missing or too poor quality. This page was inserted to allow for proper page turns.
CHAPTER III
THE MANNER IN WHICH OUR LORD JESUS IS COMING AGAIN
Personally-Bodily and visibly-In three staiea -With great publicity-In great power and glory-With His holy angels-Suddenly and unannounced.
"And while the11 were looking steaafastly into heaven a.s he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; who also said, Ye men of Galilee, 10h11 stand ye looking into heaven, this Jesus, who was received uv from 11ou into heaven, shall so come in like manner as 11e behold Him going i11to heaven." . ACTS 1:10, 11.
CHAPTER Ill THE MANNER IN WHICH OUR LORD JESUS IS COMING AGAIN T HAT our Lord Jesus is coming again is generally admitted among all who really believe in the Bible, but there is a wide diversity of opinion as to how He is coming again. However, if one will go to the Bible to find out what it teaches, in stead of trying to read his own views into the Bible, there are many things about the Manner of His Coming which are perfectly plain. I. First of all, it is perfectly plain that His coming will be personal. That is to say, it is not merely the coming of some great revival, or moral reformation, or social uplift, or the disclosure of some new truth, but the com ing of our Lord_Jesus Himself. In His prom ise to His disdples on the night of His cruci fixion, He snid, '' I will come again.'' And the context clearly shows that He meant that
THE MANNE'.11
36
He personally was coming. The apostle Paul wrote, "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven." And the two men who stood by the disciples as they were looking steadfastly into heaven, trying to follow Jesus with their eyes as He went away from them, said, ''Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven T this Jes-us who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven" (Acts 1 :11). There is no mistaking the · meaning of these words. Jesus Himself in His own person (the same Jesus who went away) is coming back again. Some years ago a minister of the Gospel wrote, ''We must not expect a personal return of our Lord, but be satisfied with Him as coming more and more in all the wonders and glories of this closing nineteenth century." The man who wrote these words was a good and godly man, a man who had made great sacrifices for the Lord Jesus Christ, but I have never been able to comprehend how any man who really loved the Lord could have written these words. The wonders and glories of the closing nine teenth century were well enough in their place, and for them we thank God, but if one really loves the Lord, it is not the wonden
and glories that He works that we long for, but for Jesus Himself. As much as we rejoice in His works, it is Himself that we long for; it is Himself that we must have; and it is Himself that we shall have. Suppose a bride groom had left bis bride and gone into a dis tant land to prepare a home for her, assur ing her that in due time he would himself re turn for her to take her to the home that he had gone to prepare. Every now and then be has sent her some gift as a remembrance and a token of bis continued love. One day a friend calls upon the bride and finds her eagerly looking forward to the day when the bridegroom himself shall return for her. After listening to her declaration of her long ing for the return of the loved one, be says to her, "You must not expect a personal re turn of your husband. When be told you he would come again, he did not refer to a per sonal return. Has he not sent you many gifts as tokens of his loveT'' ''Yes.'' ''Well it is not for himself that you must look-you must learn to see him and be satisfied with him as coming to you more and more in the gifts which he is sending you from time to time." What would the bride reply7 She would answer, "I do not desire bis gifts. I
as
THE MANNED
am longing for himself." And it is for JEsus HIMSELF that the true believer is long ing. We cannot be satisfied with him as com ing more and more in the richer experiences of grace that are constantly coming to us by · the power of the Holy Spirit. We long for Himself and we must have Himself and we shall have Himself. ''This very Jesus, which was taken up into heaven shall so come in like manner" as He was seen to go into heaven. II. The verses already quoted make clear a second thing about the coming again of our Lord, that is, He shall come BODILY AND VIS IBLY. He "shall so come in Uke manner as" He was seen going into heaven (Acts 1 :11). By any fair interpretation this can mean nothing short of a visible and bodily coming. It may mean more than·that. It cannot mean less. It has been said that the expression ''so come in like manner" only indicates the cer tainty of His coming, and has nothing to do with the manner of His Coming, but the Greek words thus translated will not admit of this construction. The literal translation of the Greek words is ''Thus shall come in the man ner which," and the form of expression is never used anywhere to indicate mere cer tainty, but always to indicate manner. In the
39
'fHF: M'.ANNEB
very manner in which they had seen Him go would He come again. He had gone from their sight bodily and visibly. They had "beheld Him going into heaven" and should behold Him coming' again. Furthermore, in Heb. 9 :28 we read, '' So Christ also, having been once o:ffered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation." The Greek word translated "shall appear" means literally "shall be seen." The word admits of no significance but that of seeing with the eye. If possible, it is even clearer in Rev. 1 :7, "Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him. 11 Once at the close of a sermon on the Second Com ing of Christ, a devoted disciple of Pastor Russell and his Millenial Dawn vagaries ap proached me and said, ''You do not think, do you, that Jesus when He comes again will actually be seen with the eyef" I replied, "It does not matter what I think, the only ques tion is, what does God's Word sayf and God says in so many words in His Word, ''Be hold He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him. 11 Of course this does not fit in with the teaching of the Millenial Dawn books, that He has already come, nor does it
40
THE MANNER
fit in with many other current theories, but it is the plain teaching of the Word of God and cannot be escaped, except by such a juggling with God's Word as if applied to other pas sages of the Word would lead to utter confu sion. If the Bible teaches anything definitely and distinctly, it teaches that the Lord Jesus who was taken up visibly and bodily from Mt. Olivet into heaven, so that the disciples saw Him as He went, is coming again visibly and bodily, so that people shall see Him as he comes. We shall not merely feel His spiritual presence near ; we shall see Him, as really and as distinctly as the disciples saw Him as He stood talking with them on Mt. Olivet the moment before His feet left this earth and He was received up unto the Father. There are to be different stages of this per sonal, visible coming of our Lord. 1. The first stage in His coming will be as He comes in the air whither His believing people shall be caught up to meet Him. ''The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so
Tim J\.l .<1.NNJ,;k
shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4:16, 17, R. V). 2. A second stage will be when He comes to the earth. ''The Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all 'the angels with Him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all the nations; and he shall separate them one from the other, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats" (Matt. 25 :31, 32). "And his feet. shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the mount of Olives shall be cleft in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south And ye shall flee by the valley of my moun tains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah King of Judah; and Jehovah my God shall come, and all the holy ones with thee" (Zech. 14:4, 5). From the closing words of the preceding quotation, it is evi dent that in this latter stage, His saints shall come with Him. 'l'his ts also evident froll! I Thess. 3 :13, '' To the end be may establish
42
THE MANNER
your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints," and I Thess. 4:14, "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." In the air our Lord comes for His own; to the earth He comes with His own. For anything we know a considerable interval may take place between these two stages of the Lord's coming. The words of our Lord Himself in Luke 21 :36 "But watch ye at every season making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son <?f Man,'' and the words of Paul in II Thess. 2:7, 8, ''For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work; only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to naught by the manifesta tion of his coming,'' seem to hint that the whole period of the great tribulation inter venes between the coming of Jesus in the air for His earthly saints and His coming to the earth with His saints. This, however, does not constitute two comings but two stages in
43
the one coming. Bearing in mind the distinc tion between these two stages in His Coming Again will help to solve many of the seeming discrepancies between di:fferent texts of the Bible on this subject. 3. A third stage is a succession of events that follow His coming to the earth. Of these we shall speak more at length when we come to study results of His coming. · III. OUR LORD JESUS IS COMING AGAIN WITH GREAT PUBLICITY. Our Lord Himself laid great emphasis upon this fact and warned His disciples against all those false prophets and teachers who should proclaim a secret coming. _He said, ''Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you beforehand. If there fore they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the wilderness; go not forth. Behold, he is in the inner chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the com ing of the Son of Man'' (Matt. 24 :23-27). We are being constantly told in these days
44
THE MANNEK
that Jesus has come again in one person or in another, or in some new form of faith. One false teacher assures us that the second ad vent of the Lord Jesus Christ took place in October, 1874. Another school of error would have us believe that the revelation of the doc trines of Christian Science to Mary Baker Eddy was the Second Coming of Christ. Others have gone to the heart of Persia to find Him. Claims of a similar character are being constantly made in various quarters and a large society is now being formed in different parts of the world to watch for ''the star in the east.'' These ''inner chamber'' Christs and Qbscure corner Christs are a humbug, long since predicted and exploded. If Chris tian people were more intelligent and careful students of the Word along these lines, they would not so readily fall a prey to these false teachings regarding Him. Our Lord was so careful to put us on our guard. Even at His coming for His saints there seems to be a large measure of publicity about it. We are told, ''The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trurnp of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise :first.'' The doctrine of the secret rapture of believers does not
45
Tm:: l\L\NNEll
seem to have much support in Scripture. IV. When our Lord comes again, He is coming on the clouds of heaven with POWER AND GREAT GLORY. His words regarding it were, ''And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clou,ds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24 :30, R. V). What did our Lord mean by saying He was coming on the clouds 'I First of all, this is a literal description of the man ner of His coming, but further than that, it sets forth the fact that He is coming as a Divine person and in Divine glory. Every where in the Old Testament Jehovah was the One who came in or on a cloud. In Ex. 19 :9, R. V., we read, ''And Jehovah said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and may also believe thee forever." Again we read in Ex. 34 :5, ''And Jehovah descended in the cloud~ and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah.'' In Ps. 97 :1, 2, the Psalmist sings, ''Jehovah reigneth; let the earth rejoice; Let the multi tudes of isles be glad. Clouds and darkness are round about him: Righteousness and jus-
Tm,: MANNEK
46
tice are the foundation of his throne." Turn ing to the New Testament we read, ''While he was yet speaking, behold, a bright cloud over shadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" (Matt. 17:5). In Ps. 104:3 it is written, "Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters; who maketh the clouds HIS char- . iot; Who walketh upon the wings of the wind.'' And in Is. 19 :1, '' Behold, Jehovah rideth upon a swift cloud." From all these passages, it is plain that it is Jehovah who comes in the clouds or on a cloud, therefore to say that Jesus is coming in the clouds is to say that He is coming as a Divine person in Di vine glory. V. When our Lord Jesus comes again, He is coming in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. He Himself said so. In one place, Matt. 16 :27, He says, "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then shall he render unto every man according to his deeds.'' And in Mark 8 :38, He says, ''For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man also shall be ashamed of him when he
47
THE l\IANNElt
cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.,, In a similar strain in II Thees. 1 :17, the Apostle Paul speaks of "the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven . with the angels of his power in flaming fire." When Jesus came the first time, He came as a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger; He was despised and rejected of men; they did what they pleased with Him; the Divine glory was hidden beneath the veil of flesh; but when He comes again, His Divine glory and power will be manifest to every eye. As in His pre-existent state in the heavenly world, He was manifested to all the angelic world "in the form of God" (Phil. 2 :6), so shall He be manifested to us. While He shall still be the Son of Man, He shall be Man wear ing the very form of God, clothed with the outwardly manifest glory of God. VI. The coming of our Lord Jesus will be SUDDEN AND UNANNOUNCED. He will come unexpectedly and without warning. He says in Rev. 16 :15, "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keep eth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.'' This is constantly taken to refer to His coming at death, but the context and parallel passages show clearly that this
48
is not the thought. In I Thess. 5 :2, 3, the Holy Spirit speaking through the Apostle Paul says to the believers in Thessalonica, "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape." The Lord will not find when He comes again an expectant world, but an unexpectant world. The world will be taken up with its usual occupations; ''And as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giv ing in marriage, until the day that Noah en tered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall be the coming of the Son of Man'' (Matt. 24:37-39, R. V). Men and women will not be gathered on hilltops with white robes waiting for the descent of their Lord-every thing will be going on just as usual and with out any announcement, without any previous warning, unexpectedly and suddenly the trump of God shall sound; ''for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a
4!1
TUE MANNER
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." The attempt that so many are making to lay out a complete and very definite chart of events leading up to our Lord's Return loses sight of this clearly revealed fact about His coming. That He is coming we may be sure, but of every definite detail regarding His coming we cannot be sure. As the thief never sends word beforehand that He is coming, so our Lord will come without previous announce ment. Our part is to be ready always, ''For in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh" (Matt. 24 :44, R. V., cf. V. 43). We should always see to it that that day does not come upon us as a snare. How earnestly our Lord pleads with us, "Take heed to your selves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you sud denly as a snare: for so shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every season, making suppli cation, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21 :34-36).
Original page is missing or too poor quality. This page was inserted to allow for proper page turns.
CHAPTER IV
. The results: As regards God-As regards the Church and individual believers-As regards Israel-As regards the Nations-As regards human society as a whole--As regards Anti christ and the Devil-As regards the physical universe . THE RESULTS OF THE RETURN OF OUR LORD JESUS
"Rt,pt,nt Y", tht,rt,foro, and turn again, that 11our sins ma11 be blotted out, that so there 1nay. come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lorcl; ancl that He may sencl the Christ who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus: whom the heavens m1tst receive until the time of the restoration of all things, whereof Goel spoke b11 the mouth of His hol11 prophets that have been from of olcl." ACTS 3:19-21.
CH.APTER IV
THE RESULTS OF THE RETURN OF OUR LORD JESUS W E come now to the brightest, gladdest part of our whole study. The results of our. Lord's Return to this earth as re vealed in His Word are such that the very contemplation of them will :fill the believer's heart not only with hope and longing but with gladness and ecstacy. These results are man ifold. They may be classified under seven heads. First, The results of The Return of our Lord Jesus, as regards God. Second, The results as regards the Church and individual believers. Third, The results as regards Israel. Fourth, The results as regards the Nations. Fifth, The results as regards human society as a whole. Sixth, The results as regards the Anti christ and the Devil.
'l'BE RESULTS
64
Seventh, The results as regards the phys ical universe.
I
The Results of the Return of our Lord Jesus as regards God. 1. The first result of the return of our Lord will be new glory to God. We read in Is. 40 :5, R. V., '' The glot·y of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." The context clearly shows that it is at the coming of the Lord that this prophecy is to be fulfilled (see vs. 3, 9, 10). The glory of God has already been revealed in creation (Ps. 19 :1); it is being revealed from century to century in history; it was revealed in the Person.and work of Jesus Christ at His :first coming; but the full revelation of the glory of God will be in connection with Christ's Second Coming. That is the :first reason why we should desire it, that there may be new glory to the name of Him Whom we love and worship. 2. The second result of our Lord's Return is that He Himself will reign as a King. This we are told over and over again in the New Testament and in the Old. In the par-
65
T1m RKSULTS
able of the pounds our Lord compares Him self to "a certain nobleman (who) went into a far country to receive for himself a king dom and to return" (Luke 19 :12), and in the 15th verse He says, ''And it came to pass when he was come back again, having re ceived the kingdom.,, He says again in Matt. 25 :31, ''When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory." We find this representation of our Lord Jesus reigning as a King over and over again in t_he Old Testament. For example, in J er. 23 :5, 6, we read, ''Behold, the days come, saith J e hovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and right eousness in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called: Jehovah our righteousness.'' Referring to the same period, Jehovah declares in Ps. 2:6, "Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.'' The Spirit of God through the prophet Zechariah sets forth the same truth in a way that emphasizes the Deity of our Lord. '' And Jehovah shall be king over all the earth, and in that day shall Jehovah be
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124 Page 125 Page 126 Page 127 Page 128 Page 129 Page 130 Page 131 Page 132 Page 133 Page 134 Page 135 Page 136 Page 137 Page 138 Page 139 Page 140 Page 141 Page 142 Page 143 Page 144 Page 145Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker