The Second Coming of Christ
By C. S. Longacre
Its Place and Meaning in the Plan of Redemption
THE second coming of Christ in person with his heavenly associates to this earth is not only the greatest event because of its surpassing glory and majesty, but because of the consummation of all the eternal interests and the realization of the blessed hope of the whole family of faith. From the day when Adam and Eve turned their sorrowing steps from Eden and the tree of life, the children of faith have waited for the coming of the promised One, who is “the resurrection and the life,” who has “the keys of death, and of hades,” to break the destroyer’s power and bring them back again to the lost paradise, and restore them to their original privileges as partakers of the life-perpetuating fruit of the tree of life. Upon the second coming of Jesus Christ to this earth hangs the9realization of the great problem of redemption and eternal life. If Jesus were never to come, redemption would never come. As the signs of his coming were to be fulfilled, redemption in its fulness had not yet come to his people, but at that time they were commanded: “Then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” The coming of Christ is the great sheet-anchor of hope to the Christian. The promise of the coming of the Deliverer into the land of the enemy is our only hope of deliverance. It is the only light that illuminates the uncertainty of the future. It is the only balm that can heal all ills. Were it not for the second coming of Christ to unlock the tomb of every pious saint, clothe him with the beautiful garments of immortality, and escort him up the shining heights to those mansions he has gone to prepare for us, a fearful and sorrowful wreck would mark the end of each and all. Life would be but a narrow vale—a moment of time between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We might strive to look beyond the heights, but it would be all in vain. We should see only a black gulf of despair. We might cry aloud for deliverance, but were it not for the second coming of Christ and the resurrection, the only answer that could come back would be the echo of our own wailing cry. Thank God, he has not left us to grope in darkness, but has given us a positive answer that deliverance will come. In this night of sin and death, hope sees a guiding star piercing through the mists of time, and painting on the horizon the golden dawning of a grander day. Every vessel that sails out upon the wide ocean carries a captain, a compass, and an anchor. In the time of storm amid rocks and shoals these are indispensable. It is a good thing to have a hope—a hope anchored within the veil. In the Christian’s life, the Bible is his compass, Jesus is his captain, his hope is his anchor, and heaven is his port. Take the second coming of Christ out of his Bible, and you have taken the needle out of his compass. What good is a compass without a needle?—None, until the needle is put in its proper place. All the stars and systems of worlds in the whole universe from time immemorial have been revolving around two polar centers. So the Bible has two central points toward which everything within its lids has been pointing. These two objects, or themes, in the Bible toward which everything points, and around which everything revolves, are the first advent of Christ to this earth as a helpless infant, and the second advent of Christ as universal King, glorious in apparel and mighty in strength. The first time, he came to have his heel bruised, as it is written: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his bruise [margin] we are healed.”—healed from all the wounds which sin has made; the second time, he is to come to bruise the serpent’s head. The first time, he came as our sin-offering to take away our sins, and to satisfy by his death the irrevocable claims of God’s broken law upon the sinner; the second time, he is to come without sin unto salvation to all who look for him and love his appearing, and to justify by his decisions the immutable claims of God’s holy law. The first time, he was sent as the holy apostle and servant of God, to declare the love, the mercy, the character, and the care of his Heavenly Father toward us, that we might be reconciled and believe and trust him; the second time, he is to come with the armies of heaven, as King of kings and Lord of lords, and out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, and with it he shall smite the nations, and with a rod of iron he shall break them into pieces as a potter’s vessel. The first time, he came to save sinners; the second time, he comes to glorify his saints, and to punish sinners. Without the second advent of Christ, all that Christ wrought out during his first advent would be rendered null and void. In fact, if you were to take the promises of Christ’s second advent out of the Bible, you would take the glad tidings out of the gospel, the needle out of the compass, the kernel out of the shell; and all that you would leave would be a compass without a needle, a shell with no kernel, a hope without a consummation. From Genesis to Revelation the second coming of the Lord is the song and science, the keynote and the anthem, the precious, joy-inspiring hope and comfort of the Sacred Scriptures. And thank God, the unmistakable omens and precursors of this greatest event tell us that only a few more rolling suns will bring us face to face with our blessed Redeemer. Prepare to meet thy God in peace.