The Time of the Lord’s Return.
By E. P. Goodwin
THE Scriptures teach the doctrine of a literal, visible, personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ; a return distinct from, and in the Word never confounded with, death, nor the descent of the Holy Spirit, nor his indwelling and manifestation in the hearts of believers. Very naturally then comes the question, When is this return to occur? First, then, it should be noted that the Scriptures are express in declaring that the precise time is not revealed and cannot be known. Many devout Christians have been led into most mischievous errors by well-meant but unwarranted speculations, assigning a specific date for the coming of the Lord. It would seem as if his own decisive testimony should prevent such theorizing. Speaking on this very point he said, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” Mark 13:32. And when, after his resurrection, the disciples put to him the question, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”—a question involving this same matter of the date of his return—his reply was, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” Acts 1:7. Such language shuts the door squarely against all inquiry on this point. Whoever, therefore, attempts to assign dates, puts the finger on the year or the day in which the Lord is to come, is prying into the secret things that belong to God, and will inevitably mislead students of Scripture and dishonor the very Word which such exposition aims to exalt. But while this is true, it is equally true that the Scriptures give us very specific statements as to certain great features which will condition and characterize the Lord’s return. In examining these, many Scripture students overlook one point of great importance, and are led into difficulty thereby. The point is this: that Scripture writers never attempt to give us what has been termed “The Perspective of Prophecy.” That is to say, they see the visions of the future and speak of them as though all were occurring consecutively and at one crisis or period. They make little or no account, as a rule, of the time intervening between the different events. They look upon these much as a distant observer does upon the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, seeing them as a single, huge, many-pinnacled range, sharply defined in one continuous skyline. Whereas when one draws nearer and begins to climb them, he finds that what seemed one range is subdivided into a series of ranges, with broad parks and huge cañons lying between, and the peaks that seemed nearest because of their majesty, retreat farther and farther as advance is made toward them. The prophecies respecting Christ strikingly illustrate this principle. His first and second comings, his humiliation and his glorification, his sufferings and his kingship, are spoken of side by side, and [in many instances] without any allusion to the centuries lying between the two classes of facts. Take the prophecies of Isaiah, for example. In chapter 9:6, 7, is first the announcement of the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem, and immediately following that the declaration of the universality and perpetuity of his kingdom; as if the child were born, took the throne, established his reign over all the earth, as consecutive events all occurring in the prophet’s day. Whereas the child was not to be born for seven hundred years and more; and to-day after twenty-five hundred years, the world is still waiting for the kingdom to be established “with judgment and with justice.” The eleventh chapter of the same prophecy furnishes another notable example. The first declaration manifestly relates to the human birth of Jesus, and is so cited in the New Testament. Then follows the glowing and wonderful picture of the time when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. One, in noting this, would naturally suppose the events synchronous, or very closely connected and occurring within the human life-time of the Messiah. There is no hint whatever of the mighty stretch of years lying between the cradle of Bethlehem and the day when its occupant shall “gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth,” and shall “set up an ensign for the nations,” and reign gloriously over all the earth. The New Testament prophecies show the same disregard for distinctions of time. The Apocalypse notably abounds in visions which follow one another without break and generally without any hint of lapses of time, nor—what is more strange—any word of caution concerning the interpretation. Yet we know, past a peradventure, that the events which John beholds and records cover the whole stretch of time from his day to the end of all things. Our Lord himself speaks in the same way, coupling in Matthew 24 the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world as if in close proximity, though really separated by ages. The significance of this fact as related to the question of the Lord’s return, is obvious. These inspired witnesses in testifying respecting that, do not distinguish the events connected therewith in any exact time-order. They simply set forth the one overshadowing event of which they prophesy, as one grand crisis, within which are gathered up many different events all related to and factors of that one glorious issue. They include all these, when they speak of the Lord’s coming, just as in speaking of the Rocky Mountains we include all the subordinate spurs and peaks which, however far apart, are all component parts of the one great central range. If we keep this principle in mind, it will greatly help us in studying the subject in hand, and especially in getting a right understanding of the events which are coupled with and characteristic of the Lord’s return. Luke pictures this very graphically: “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Another conditioning event of this return is given in Matt. 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Our Lord is answering the question, “What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?” What is meant by this “witness to all nations,” we may learn from other scriptures. In Luke 21:24 we have this: “And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” This is what is to take place after the capture and destruction of the city by the Romans. In Acts 15:14–17 (Revised Version), the apostle James says in the council at Jerusalem, “Symeon hath rehearsed how first God did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After these things I will return, and I will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue of men may seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called.” And in Romans 11:11–27, the apostle Paul declares that through the fall of Israel salvation is come unto the Gentiles and that this blindness of Israel shall continue “until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” The present age, or dispensation, is what is meant by “the times of the Gentiles.” God is now, by the preaching of his gospel among the nations, taking out of them a people for his name. And this preaching of the gospel now unto the ends of the earth, is what our Saviour meant in the passage in the twenty-first of Luke. The object of this witnessing of the gospel, is the gathering out of all the nations God’s elect, those chosen in Jesus Christ from before the foundation of the world as the children of the kingdom, the heirs of God and joint-heirs of Jesus Christ, the church, the body of Christ. When this is accomplished, the Lord will return and the end come. The word of Christ is unequivocal: “Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding. . . . Be ye therefore ready also; for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” “Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” It is undeniable that this was the attitude of the early church, and that the Holy Spirit set everywhere the seal of his endorsement upon it as the attitude that especially honored the Lord, bore fruit of highest Christian experiences of consecration, faith, prayer, benevolence, and efforts to save souls. And in just so far as it is the attitude of believers, it yields the same fruits now.—Rev. E. P. Goodwin, D. D., in Advance.