EXPLORING YOUR BIBLE by Rose E. Boose

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California, U.S.A. · Sep 16, 1930

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 57, No. 36.

Read the full edition

EXPLORING YOUR BIBLE

By Rose E. Boose

with the guidance of an expert Bible teacher

Miss ROSE E. BOOSE

The Second Coming of Christ

As you have followed the Bible studies during the past few weeks, you have read from the word of God that through the gift of Jesus Christ, and His death, God has made provision for a full and complete redemption for all mankind. Man is not redeemed to continue his existence in this present condition, with sin, sorrow, and death on every hand. God has better plans for him. Jesus expressed this in the last prayer uttered in the upper room before He went to Gethsemane: “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedest Me before the foundation of the world.” John 17:24. This is the desire of God for His people; and man, who was created for His fellowship and glory, will be reunited with the family of heaven and be partakers of this glory. This reunion is about to be realized.

COMFORTING WORDS

After Jesus told His disciples that He must return to the Father, sorrow filled their hearts, and He comforted them by saying, “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.” John 14:1-3. And when for the last time He led them to the Mount of Olives, from which place He ascended into the heavens, the promise of His return was voiced by two angels. “Ye men of Galilee,” they said, “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.” Acts 1:9-11. In Hebrews 9:28 we read: “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Christ will return to gather His people, for He has promised it. Then let us consider how He will come, and the events to occur when He returns.

The angels said, “This same Jesus . . . shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11. What was the manner of His departure? “While they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” Acts 1:9. It was a real, literal, visible ascension, and the promise is, He “shall so come in like manner” as He departed. John the revelator exclaimed: “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him.” Revelation 1:7. “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. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.” Revelation 14:14-16.

CHRIST WILL RETURN

Thus we see that Christ will return to this earth. His coming will be a personal, literal, visible coming in the clouds of heaven. In the last scripture we read that He comes to reap “the harvest of the earth.” While Christ was with His disciples, He gave a parable regarding the harvest. It is the parable of the wheat and the tares, recorded in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-42. Of the wheat and the tares He said, “Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into My barn.” In His explanation of the parable Christ said, “The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; . . . the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” Then, in harmony with Revelation 14:14-16, when Christ comes in the clouds of heaven to reap the harvest of the earth, that is the end of this present world. One more text on the purpose of Christ’s coming: “As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” “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, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:27, 30, 31.

Paul continues the picture of this wonderful gathering of the saints: “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.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17. No one is able to picture in his mind the glory, the wonder, the rapture, of that moment when the voice of Jesus, as He descends from heaven, with all His holy angels, reverberates through the length and breadth of this earth, calling the sleeping saints from their dusty graves! Then “the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and the grave delivered up the dead which were in them.” Revelation 20:13, margin. The angels, who are the reapers, hasten to the uttermost parts of the earth to gather the redeemed of all ages to meet the Lord in the clouds.

A COMPLETE RESTORATION

In 1 Thessalonians 4:16 we are told that only the “dead in Christ” are raised at this time; and then it adds, “We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” Verse 17. On this point of translation of the living saints we read again: “Behold, I show 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.” 1 Corinthians 15:51-53. The righteous dead are raised with new, immortal bodies, the living saints are changed from mortality to immortality in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. A complete restoration will be realized. The image of God will be restored to them. It is stated, “Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like

unto His glorious body.” Philippians 3:20, 21. In 1 John 3:1-3 we read in part, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. . . . Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” Surely such knowledge and such a hope should prompt to holy living.

GLAD DAY COMING

For this glad day, God’s faithful ones in all ages have patiently waited. Job said, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” Job 19:25. One of Paul’s last statements was, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord . . . shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:8. Paul had ere this admonished the believers to “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 2:12, 13.

Isaiah pictures to us the joyous welcome the righteous will give their Lord as He returns in the clouds of heaven. With a shout of holy joy they exclaim: “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.” Isaiah 25:9.

While to some the coming of Christ will bring unspeakable joy, to those who have rejected His mercy and loving-kindness it will be a day of terror and anguish. God, in His word, has faithfully presented both sides of the picture; and the effects of Christ’s second coming upon the ungodly will be studied next week.