For many years men have felt that this world was driving toward a crisis. The thoughtful have looked with trepidation upon the mighty movements which this generation has witnessed, with their clashing interests and their irreconcilable ambitions.
We have seen international relations ruptured around the world, and every consideration of ethics, humanity, and culture made subservient to the demands of military necessity forced home with the cold blades of the bayonet, or we have seen all such considerations blown to the winds in the blast of the bursting shell.
We have seen the mightiest geniuses of the most enlightened age of the world giving the product of their intellect to the shattering of domestic tranquility and the scattering of death and desolation among the dwellings of men.
War in Place of Peace
We have looked for peace and have found war. We have talked of brotherhood and love, and we have seen malevolence and hatred in their stead.
The diplomats have negotiated treaties of arbitration and amity, and the embattled hosts have blown them to bits and scattered their fragments through the world.
We have built ships for travel and for traffic, but the terrors of the sea are sending their battered hulks to the bottom of the ocean to rust among the seaweed and the stones.
Darkness for Light
We have bragged of our enlightenment, our progress, and our high elevation above the heathen of the world; but the tattooed savages of the Dark Continent are upbraiding us for our wanton slaughter of our kind.
We have bowed down to the god of the Dollar, and have ground the faces of the poor and have broken the backs of their children, that we might worship with more vehemence at that shrine. Our nations have professed themselves Christian, and the loudest speaking theologians have written “Ichabod” over the doors of their most expensive temples.
Millions for Missions but Billions for War
We have spent millions of dollars to send the gospel to the heathen and billions to blow one another to pieces. We have taught savages to respect and to keep the law of God, and have shattered every precept of that law on every battlefield.
We have thrown the sanction and the nominal protection of the church and the state over the institution of the home, and for a few paltry dollars have licensed the activities of a monster whose success is measured directly by the amount of ruin and sorrow he can crowd into the homes of the people.
“None That Doeth Good”
On every hand and in every land greed and ambition, avarice and covetousness, enmity and malvolence, intrigue and deception, doubt and skepticism, robbery, rapine, and murder, are written in the records of the people’s doings. No wonder, then, that the inspired writer, looking out upon these conditions in the world, should declare, “There is none righteous, no, not one. . . . They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Rom. 3: 10-12.
God’s Kingdom Yet to Come
Let us, then, look out upon the conditions in this world through the eyes of that prophet and ask ourselves the question, “Is this the kingdom of our God?” Every book of Holy Writ, every inspired writer from Moses to John the revelator, tells us in language we cannot misunderstand that God’s kingdom is yet to come, and the fulfilling prophecies of God’s Word tell us that it is coming soon.
Perilous Times
Speaking of the conditions which exist in our day, and which were to be the characteristics of the last days of this world, the prophet says:—
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. . . . Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” 2 Tim. 3: 1-13. This inspired description of the days that were to be the last days of time is God’s answer to the declaration of men who would make the world believe we are now entering, or are soon to enter, upon earth’s golden age of peace and safety and brotherly love.
Rusty Treasures
The apostle James, speaking of the last days of time, paints for us this vivid picture:—
“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. . . . Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” James 5: 1-8.
So “in the last days perilous times” shall come; and in “the last days,” when these perilous conditions exist,—
“The Coming of the Lord Draweth Nigh”
Is this merely a hope of trembling hearts, confined to a few whose wish for release from the strife and turmoil of the age has come to be looked upon as a divine statement of an impending event? Let us question the prophets and the apostles, and even the Son of God himself. Says Jude:—
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all.” Jude 14, 15.
The psalmist declares:—
“Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself.” Ps. 50: 3-6.
A Time of Judgment
The judgment of the great day, the gathering of God’s loyal children to himself, and the coming of the Almighty One with reward for his saints and a tempestuous whirlwind of death for his enemies, are ushered in at the same time. It will be “tempestuous round about him” only for those who have rejected him.
Shelter, Victory, and Life for the Righteous
To those who have accepted him, he is a sun and shield, a shelter in the time of storm, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. For we read:—
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. . . . He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation.” Ps. 91: 1-9.
Because at this time “the reward of the wicked” is poured out, there is no uncertainty as to the event that is being described. It is the time of our Lord’s return and the days that immediately precede that event. They who are shielded in that time are they of whom Isaiah is speaking, and this is the event of which he is speaking, when he says:—
“He [God] will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Isa. 25: 8, 9.
Fear and Destruction for the Wicked
In the preceding chapter of the same book the prophet speaks thus of the same event:—
“Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare; for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.” Isa. 24: 17-22.
Of this same event Peter speaks. Note the similarity of the description:—
“The day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 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 dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” 2 Peter 3: 10-12.
To those that are outside God’s ark of safety that day is a day of fear and bitter consequences. To those who have acknowledged his rulership, accepted his redemption, and obeyed the directions of his will, that day is the gladdest and most glorious day of their experience.
A Time of Trouble
Daniel tells us of that time in these words: “At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness2as the stars forever and ever.” Dan. 12: 1-3.
Zephaniah tells us how it will affect those that are not prepared for it:—
“That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness.” Zeph. 1: 15.
He also declares that “the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.” Verse 14.
The apostle John was given a vision of that day, and testifies thus concerning it and the effect of its coming:—
“The heaven was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand?” Rev. 6: 14-17.
His Glorious Appearing
We may ask, What is it that strikes terror into the hearts of the unsaved inhabitants of earth? It is the sight of the offended King of the universe, coming in the clouds of heaven, in the glory of the Father, surrounded by all the holy angels, and the conviction that they are not ready to meet him. He who came once as a Saviour comes now as a judge, and his summons to the execution reverberates through the world from pole to pole. Says the apostle Paul:—
“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 shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. 4: 16-18.
It is a day of greatest contrasts. The voice of the triumphant Son of God rolls through the world, and silence every sound save the wail of lamentation and the shouts of joyous welcome. There will be only two classes then, the condemned and the justified, the wretched and the joyous, the lost and the saved.
The Testimony of the Prophet Malachi
The prophet Malachi tells of that day of separation and rewards:—
“Behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts.” Mal. 4: 1-3.
The Testimony of Angels
We have read the testimony of prophets and apostles telling of the certainty of Christ’s return. Let us listen to the testimony of the angels. Jesus had risen from the dead, had given his last admonition to his beloved disciples. Suddenly they see him caught up before their eyes; and as they watch with straining eyes the disappearing form of the One who was to them the chiefest among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely, they suddenly become aware of the presence of two beings who they did not know were with them. The record is:—
“When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold two men stood by them in white apparel; who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1: 9-11.
“Behold He Cometh With Clouds”
A cloud received him up out of sight. On a cloud he will come again. Says the revelator:—
“Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him.” Rev. 1: 7.
The psalmist declares that he “maketh the clouds his chariot.” Ps. 104: 3. But what says the Saviour himself concerning that event of which he is to be the center and the goal? When God the Father spoke his approbation of his Son Jesus, he said: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Let us hear him, then, upon this matter of his return to this world:—
“They shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Matt. 24: 30-35.
“The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire; so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Matt. 13: 39-43.
Three Great Events
Note the three great events which this declaration of our Saviour brings to view—the end of the world, the reward of the righteous, the destruction of the wicked. It is the climax of all earth’s experiences, God’s answer to Satan’s challenge, the beginning of the end of the campaign of anarchy. It is the culmination of the work of the gospel. It separates the tares from the wheat, the chaff from the kernel, the loyal from the disobedient. It puts the stamp of true value upon the achievements of every son and daughter of Adam. In this life the gaudy, the unreal, the transitory, the self-assertive, the pretentious, have thrust themselves forward and upward at the expense of everything of true value; but that event strikes the true level and puts the true where the true should be, and the false where the false belongs. The apostle Paul gives emphasis to this thought: “Each man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward.” 1 Cor. 3: 13, 14. The Saviour himself, through the apostle John, makes the same declaration:—
“Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according as his work is.” Rev. 22: 12.
From these scriptures we learn that the day of final awards and the day of our Lord’s return are one and the same. Not at death do the saints enter into the eternal inheritance; not one by one as they pass from life into the embrace of death; but as one mighty host, gathered by the reaping reapers of earth’s final harvest. “The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” So testifies the Spirit through the apostle Paul:—
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” 1 Cor. 15: 51-55.
And with this declaration agrees the testimony of an ancient prophet, who speaks as follows concerning the condition of the dead and the day of redemption:—
“Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” Isa. 26: 19-21.
The Saviour’s Promise
While the day of the Lord comes as a day of destruction to the ungodly, to those who have chosen the ways of righteousness it comes as the fulfillment of Christ’s personal promise to his followers. He says:—
“In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go not prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14: 2, 3.
As certainly as he went to prepare a place for his people, so certainly will he return to take his waiting people to the place prepared. He comes in the clouds of heaven, with an escort of the hosts of the unfallen angels. The righteous who have risen from their dusty beds at the command of the Conqueror of death, and the righteous who have not tasted death, are then “caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,” evermore to “be with the Lord.”
No Room for Doubt
With prophets and apostles and the Son of God himself declaring in harmonious voice the certainty of our Lord’s return, no one who owns allegiance to his cause can doubt the doctrine of the second coming of Christ. Few professed Christians do, and yet many are in doubt as to the manner of his coming and what is involved in it. Upon this point the Saviour himself cautions his followers:—
“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 therefore 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 coming of the Son of man.” Matt. 24: 23-27.
When that event occurs, there will be no room for doubt on the part of any as to whether that is the real event. The glory of his presence will burst from the sky upon our earth as a tornado of withering, consuming fire. Out of that tempest of flaming vengeance the saints come forth unscathed, lifted on the wings of angels up to the cloud chariot of Jehovah. No one will ask, Is it really the Christ? They who are unready will utter despairing prayers to the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the just recompense of their deeds.
Make Christ Your Choice
They who have made Christ their choice will know that their earthly pilgrimage is finished, and the consummation of earth’s long-deferred hope has come at last. That dazzling form there in the heavens, whose glory outshines the sun, whose presence scatters the foes of “the little flock,” is the same Jesus whose touch healed the sick, whose words comforted the sorrowing and spoke the dead to life, whose promises have cheered the waiting church for near two thousand years, and whose form once hung on the cross of Calvary, scorned by the rabble and the doctors of the law, bruised for our iniquities and bleeding for our redemption. Saints and sages from Adam’s day to that day have looked forward to the time of his return. What they looked for will then have come. No pen can describe the awful sublimity of that event, or picture the consternation and the woe of those who have rejected the overtures of mercy and realize now what they have lost.
It Is Not Too Late
We have yet a little space, a little time, in which to accept the invitation held out so freely in the hand that was nailed to the cross for man. “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Isa. 53: 5.
The Crowning Day
The day is near at hand when he who was once crowned with thorns will be crowned King of kings, and Lord of lords. Of that coronation Daniel speaks:—
“I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. . . . I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Dan. 7: 9-14.
The Lost Dominion Restored to Man
In that coronation there comes back to man, through the life and the death of the second Adam, the dominion lost in the triumph of Satan over our first parents. Since the day that man fell, the universe has waited for that consummation, that coronation, that vindication of the love and justice of the Most High. In Christ’s triumph every loyal child of God will triumph also; and the day of that triumph is near. Soon we shall see him, either to welcome him, or to flee from the terror of his consuming presence. We ourselves choose which it shall be. Let us not spurn his gracious invitation. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Rev. 22: 17. “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22: 12.
