p. 3 | The Second Coming of Christ by M. E. STEWARD

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 6, 1910

The Second Coming of Christ

By M. E. STEWARD

M. E. STEWARD

The second advent of our Saviour is an event the most transcendently glorious and blissful to the child of God; at the same time it will be full of horror and dark despair to the ungodly.

Will Christ come personally? John 14:3; Acts 1:11.

This subject may be appropriately considered under three divisions:—

1. For what purpose will Christ come?

—Our Saviour will come to save his people. Heb. 9:28. He will come to destroy the wicked. 2 Thess. 1:7-9.

2. How will he come? Three texts describe the manner of his coming: (a) “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him.” Rev. 1:7. (b) “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.” 1 Thess. 4:16. (c) “The Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him.” Matt. 25:31. The long, loud blast of the trump of God, reverberating through the world, will herald the approach of the King of kings, while the voice of the Coming One will “shake not the earth only, but also heaven,” as he calls his sleeping saints from their graves. Then a triumphant shout from all created intelligences, such as earth never heard before, will proclaim eternal victory over death and sin and sorrow.

3. When will Christ come? Three unimpeachable witnesses testify on this point: (a) Nature; (b) the condition of mankind, as predicted in the Bible; (c) the succession of empires and events, also foretold in “the sure word of prophecy.”

(a) Nature has three grand divisions,—the sky, the land, and the water. In accordance with Christ’s predictions in Matt. 24:29, signs of his coming have even been seen in the three heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, and the stars. The sun and the moon were supernaturally darkened May 19, 1780, at the very time specified in Mark 13:24. The stars fell Nov. 13, 1833. The testimony of the land began with the “great earthquake” of Lisbon in 1755, in which ninety thousand persons perished. The land continues its warnings in cyclones, and in earthquakes unprecedentedly frequent, severe, and wide-spread; while fearful judgments and horrible disasters of various kinds seek to arrest the mad rush of the nations. Nature testifies by the water (Luke 21:25), while floods and tidal waves rush over the land, joining the voices of sky and land to arouse the world to the fact that universal destruction is coming.

(b) Three prominent characteristics in the condition of mankind answer precisely to those that are foretold for the last days: (1) “Evil men and seducers . . . wax worse and worse” (2 Tim. 3:1-5, 13); (2) rich men are heaping “treasure together for the last days” (James 5:3); (3) many “run to and fro,” and knowledge is increased. Dan. 12:4. Multitudes run in this fast age. They run in three directions,—in the sciences, discovering new truths and inventions; through the earth, in cars and on ships, carrying the truth with them, so that knowledge is increased; through the Bible, from beginning to end, collecting all the texts on a subject, and thus increasing a knowledge of Scriptural truth.

(c) The prophecies, which foretell the succession of empires and events in earth’s history, prove that Christ’s coming is near. There are three special series,—in Daniel; in the Revelation; and in our Lord’s great prophecy, recorded in three of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. There are three series of events recorded in the first part of Revelation,—the seven churches, the seven seals, and the seven trumpets,—all of which continue to the second coming of Christ. Farther on in the Revelation are three great beasts,—the great red dragon, the leopard beast, and the two-horned beast; these together span the gospel age. Revelation 12, 13. Then come the three angel’s messages, ending with the appearance of the Saviour on the white cloud.

When will our Lord come again?—In the mouth of many witnesses, we know that he is “near, even at the door.”

Sanitarium, Cal.