Studies in the Prophecies
The simple but glorious truth of the personal, visible second coming of Christ in glory is taught in many places in the Scripture. “To God’s pilgrim people, so long left to sojourn in ‘the region and shadow of death,’ a precious, joy-inspiring hope is given in the promise of his appearing, who is ‘the resurrection and the life,’ to ‘bring home again his banished.’ The doctrine of the second advent is the very keynote of the sacred Scriptures. From the day when the first pair turned their sorrowing steps from Eden, the children of faith have waited the coming of the promised One to break the destroyer’s power and bring them again to the lost paradise. Holy men of old looked forward to the advent of the Messiah in glory, as the consummation of their hope.” After Jesus had been manifested in the flesh, fulfilling minutely all things “which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms” concerning him, and when he was about to return to the Father, he said to his disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. 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.” After his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, when he was taken up “and a cloud received him out of their sight,” the two men in white apparel said to the astonished disciples, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” The Holy Spirit, speaking through the mouth of the great apostle to the Gentiles, has assured us that “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.” Through the same apostle we are also taught to look “for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” And the closing words of the book of inspiration point us to the same great hope of the church in this statement and petition: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Not only is the fact of the second advent emphasized thus in the Scriptures, but there are various lines of prophecy and many detached prophecies which mark the course of earthly history, and enable us to determine with much definiteness and assurance when the coming of the Master is near. Such a line of prophecy is the one recorded in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, the thirteenth chapter of Mark, and the twenty-first chapter of Luke, and sometimes called our Lord’s great prophecy. In this prophecy, as recorded in substantially the same language by each one of the evangelists, after giving certain signs Jesus said, “When ye see all these things, know ye that he is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be accomplished.” It is the purpose of this study to point out with as much clearness as possible the application of the expression “this generation,” dealing more especially with the record as given by Matthew. Just previous to his departure from the temple Jesus had uttered a sevenfold woe upon the scribes and Pharisees, closing with this terrible warning of impending disaster: “Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Continuing the same prophecy of the overthrow of Jerusalem in the generation in which he was speaking, as he passed out of the temple and “his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple,” Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Afterward “the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” It should be observed that the disciples asked about two separate things. They inquired, “When shall these things be?” referring to those experiences in the immediate future of Jerusalem’s history of which Jesus had said, “All these things shall come upon this generation.” They also asked, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Jesus answered both of these questions, and it will greatly help us to understand clearly his answer if we mark the parallel between the experience of the generation which rejected him at his first coming and the generation which rejects him at his second coming. The experience of the generation which heard the message of the first advent is so similar in many respects to the experience of the generation which hears the message of the second advent that the former might almost be considered as a type of the latter. When the Jews rejected the true Messiah, they opened the way for such an incoming tide of deception and brought upon themselves such troubles as ended in the downfall of Jerusalem and the nation before the generation had passed away which heard the preaching of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus. All this came upon them because they knew not the time of their visitation. And in tracing the downward course to the end in that generation the Master told his disciples of false Messiahs, of political troubles, of famines and earthquakes and persecutions and the deceptive work of false teachers, and the abounding iniquity which would cause the love of many to wax cold. But he further declared that the gospel message, the good news of the heavenly kingdom brought near in the Word becoming flesh, should be preached throughout all the world, and then the end would come. The history of that generation met all the specifications of the prophecy, and the disciples were witnesses to the true Messiah “both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth,” as is shown by the testimony of the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Colossians, written A. D. 64. Col. 1:4, 5, 23. Then they saw “the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place,” which was, as is declared by Luke, “Jerusalem compassed with armies,” then those who believed the words of the Lord fled to the mountains to escape the general destruction, and then according to the very words of Jesus the enemies of Jerusalem cast a bank about her, and kept her in on every side, and dashed her to the ground, and her children within her. Thus were fulfilled the very words of the Master, “All these things shall come upon this generation.” But in the experience of Jerusalem in that generation may be seen a picture of the church in this generation; and in foretelling the events which would lead up to the end of that nation, Jesus also foretold the events which would lead up to the end of all the nations and his coming. And as in that generation the gospel message, the testimony to the true Messiah, was preached in all the5world, so in this generation the advent message must be preached in all the world, and then the end will come. But of this we will speak more fully in our next study.