The Second Coming of Christ by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 10, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 29.

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The Second Coming of Christ

By W. A. S.

Synopsis of Present Truth — No. 9

The Second Coming of Christ

(Concluded)

The Scriptures make very clear the purpose of Christ’s second coming and the events of that great day.

The Purpose of His Coming

The second coming of Christ has been the hope of the children of God through all the ages. The apostle Paul calls it the “blessed hope:” —

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Titus 2: 11-13.

The saints of God have fallen asleep in death with their faith reaching forward to Christ’s glorious appearing. So the veteran apostle fell, with eyes upon “that day:” —

“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 2 Tim. 4: 6-8.

It is because Christ’s second coming is the grand climax of the plan of salvation. The crowns of life are bestowed when Jesus comes. Not till then are the children of God ushered into the eternal kingdom. The saved will go together, through the gates, into the city, — patriarch and prophet, apostle and reformer, and the child of God of this last generation. Of the ancient worthies it is written: “These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” Heb. 11: 39, 40. It will be a glorious day when the ransomed throng, of all the ages, marches in together, through the gates into the city.

It is to take his children to the saints’ eternal home, that Christ comes the second time. This was his promise to the disciples: —

“I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14: 2, 3.

Events of His Coming

Not in detail, but in their general order, let us follow the events of that great day.

1. The Prelude

As the revelator saw it and heard it in vision of the last day: —

“And there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, . . . and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God.” Rev. 16: 17-19.

“And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” Rev. 6: 14.

2. His Glorious Appearing

Then bursts upon the world the glory of his coming: —

“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 in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet.” Matt. 24: 30, 31.

“And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” Rev. 14: 14, 15.

3. The Resurrection of the Just, the Translation of the Living Righteous

The time to reap has come, and the wheat is gathered at last into the garner of the Lord: —

“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.” 1 Cor. 15: 51, 52.

“And he shall send 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.” Matt. 24: 31.

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are 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 which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them 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: 15-18.

The righteous dead are raised to life as the trump of God sounds and the voice of the Archangel calls to his sleeping saints, and the living righteous are translated from mortality to immortality. Then all together, with the escort of the angels, they follow the Saviour to the heavenly mansions that he has prepared in the city of God.

4. The Destruction of the Wicked

Before the glorious majesty of the coming King no sin can endure; for true it is that “our God is a consuming fire” — now, in the day of his mercy, consuming sin out of the heart that by faith approaches the throne of grace, but in that day consuming the unrepentant sinner with his sin.

“Where will the sinner hide in that day, in that day? Where will the sinner hide in that day? It will be in vain to call, ‘Ye mountains on us fall!’ For his hand will find out all, In that day, in that day.”

It is the great day long foretold by seer and prophet. Again let us read the description of what it will mean to the unsaved to see Christ coming in glory; for the terror of that day must warn us now to keep within the refuge of the Saviour’s loving grace: —

“And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and 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 his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Rev. 6: 15-17.

The same glory that transforms the righteous, is a consuming fire to those who have rejected Christ’s salvation: —

“And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” 2 Thess. 2: 8.

“When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” 2 Thess. 1: 7-9.

The Climax of Human History

Thus the second coming of Christ brings the end of the world, the resurrection and translation of the righteous, and the destruction of the wicked. The resurrection of the wicked dead does not then take place, but only that of the just; save for some of the wicked dead who have had a special part in warring against Christ—“they also which pierced him” (Rev. 1: 7)—who are raised to see his coming, necessarily to fall again before the consuming glory. The righteous are taken to reign with Christ in the heavenly city for a thousand years, while during the same period the earth lies in desolation and chaos, uninhabited by man, a dark abyss, the dreary prison house of Satan. Of the two resurrections, first that of the just and then of the unjust, we are told: —

“And they [the righteous] lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power.” Rev. 20: 4-6.

It is at the end of the thousand years that the resurrection of the wicked takes place. Then the city of God descends—“the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming

down from God out of heaven”—and the wicked come forth to condemnation and the second death, from which there is no waking.

“Now Is the Accepted Time”

Now is the day of salvation, when by Christ’s grace we may prepare for that great day. To be found in him in that day will be of infinitely greater worth than anything this world can give, of pleasure, or possessions, or honor. Nothing will count then but the blessed hope.

Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, found the personal Saviour in the days of the Methodist revival in England. All her wealth and all her social influence were devoted to Christ, even though titled friends took umbrage at her close association with the poor and the humble who pressed into the kingdom. She wrote of her joy in being numbered with the children of God,—

“I love to meet among them now, Before thy gracious throne to bow, Though weakest of them all; Nor can I bear the piercing thought, To have my worthless name left out, When thou for them shalt call.”

“Prevent, prevent it by thy grace! Be thou, dear Lord, my hiding place In that expected day, Thy pardoning voice, O let me hear, To still each unbelieving fear, Nor let me fall, I pray.”

One night, at a royal ball, the Prince of Wales asked a titled lady where the Countess of Huntingdon was. “O, I suppose she is with some of her beggars somewhere!” was the flippant answer. “Ah,” said the crown prince, “in the last day I think I should be glad to hold the hem of Lady Huntingdon’s mantle.”

True it is that the greatest gift of grace now, as it will be then, is to be numbered among the obedient children of God.

“Let me among the saints be found, Whene’er the Archangel’s trump shall sound, To see thy smiling face; Then joyfully thy praise I’ll sing, While heaven’s resounding mansions ring With shouts of endless grace.”

W. A. S.