Behold, He Cometh by Joseph A. Seiss

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 24, 1906

“Behold, He Cometh”

By Joseph A. Seiss

Here is the great fact unequivocally stated. Christ has not gone to heaven to stay there. He has gone for His church’s benefit; and for His church’s benefit He will return again; not in spirit only, not in providence only, not in the mere removal of men by death, but in His own proper person, as “the Son of man.” Few believe this, and still fewer lay it to heart. Many sneer at the very idea, and would fain laugh down the people who are so simple as to entertain it. But it is nevertheless the immutable truth of God, predicted by all His prophets, promised by Christ Himself, confirmed by the testimony of angels, proclaimed by all the apostles, believed by all the early Christians, acknowledged in all the church creeds, sung of in all the church hymn-books, prayed about in all the church liturgies, and entering so essentially into the very life and substance of Christianity that without it there is no Christianity, except a few maimed and mutilated relics too powerless to be worth the trouble or expense of preservation. That religion which does not look for a returning Saviour, or locate its highest hopes and triumphs in the judgment scenes for which the Son of man must reappear, is not the religion of this Book, and is without authority to promise salvation to its devotees. And those addresses to the churches which have no “Behold, He cometh” pervading or underlying them, have not been indited by “the seven spirits of God,” nor sent by Him whose Apocalypse is the crown of the inspired canon. Murmur at it, dispute it, despise it, mock at it, put it aside, hate it, and hide from it, as men may, it is a great fundamental article of the gospel, that that same blessed Lord, who ascended from Mount Olivet, and is now at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, shall come from thence to judge the quick and the dead, and to stand again on that very summit from which He went up. This is true, as Christ Himself is true; and “he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.” Amen.—Joseph A. Seiss, D. D.