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The Coming of Christ

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Oct 4, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 40.

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The Coming of Christ

By J. N. Cross

(Concluded)
J. N. CROSS
Let us notice the manner of Christ’s coming. This is very important; for Satan will have power to imitate every work of Christ, as the Egyptian astrologers did that of Moses and Aaron, except the manner of his coming.
We have already noticed the words of the angels at the ascension of Christ, and also his own comparison to a flash of lightning from a heavy cloud on a dark night. Now listen to the words of John in Rev. 14: 15: “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.”
First, let us notice the words of Christ himself, the best of all witnesses: “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.” And again: “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, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matt. 24: 30, 31. And Paul says, in 1 Thess. 4: 16: “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.” Thus we see that the second coming of Christ will be on the clouds of heaven, that he comes with power and great glory, that he comes to raise the righteous dead and translate the righteous living.
Let us pause a moment to consider the scene. The investigative judgment, beginning in 1844, has determined who are dead in Christ, and who are dead in sin; then Christ will come with the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels, to give reward to every man according ashis work has been; but he does not set his foot upon the earth; the righteous dead of all ages and nations are raised from their dusty beds, and the righteous living are “changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye;” the corruption of the dead has been changed to incorruption, the mortality of the living to immortality; then all are lifted by angels’ arms to meet the Lord in the air; and with the glory of the Father, and of the Son, the glory of ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels (Rev. 5: 11), they ascend, with hallelujahs and songs of praise and thanksgiving, to heaven, the paradise of God.
Well may we pause to contemplate this scene of glory, for “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” 1 Cor. 2: 9. We must not pause in our upward flight, but a backward glance shows the wicked, slain by “the spirit of his mouth” and “the brightness of his coming.” 2 Thess. 2: 8. The whole land is desolate, and there is no man. Jeremiah 4. Satan and his fallen angels are bound for a thousand years, for there is not a man on earth for them to tempt, and they are not permitted to go to any other world. During this thousand years, the righteous are in heaven examining “the books” to determine the amount of sin each of the wicked has committed, and the punishment due to each, not of men only, but of the fallen angels also. 1 Cor. 6: 3.
The millennium past, the holy city, New Jerusalem, comes down from God out of heaven. Its streets are of pure gold, clear as crystal; its walls of most precious, transparent stones, mingling the colors of the rainbow; its gates of solid pearl, through which no one can ever enter save as a child of Abraham, and a member of one of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. The city is three hundred and seventy-five miles square, and would cover a space equal to two and one-half times the State of Iowa; yet it is only called “the camp of the saints.” The wicked dead are now raised to see the glory of the redeemed, and to realize what they have lost—eternal life in such a city! Satan persuades them that they can easily break through such seemingly thin and brittle walls, take the city, kill its King, and possess the earth forever. The last, vain hope of the great deceiver! Fire comes down from heaven and destroys them all. Rev. 20: 9. They are “ashes under the soles of your feet.” Mal. 4: 3. Like “the fat of lambs” they are consumed, “into smoke” have they consumed away (Ps. 37: 20), and are as if they had not been. Christ has accomplished his mission, and through death has destroyed “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,” and has delivered “them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Heb. 2: 14, 15.
The earth is purified from every stain of sin. The garden of Eden, a little corner of the great world field, is restored, enlarged, yea, beautified, till the whole earth exceeds the original, for Christ has set up the throne of his father David in the capital city of the whole earth, and to his reign there shall be no end. Isa. 9: 7. Then, and not till then, can “the meek inherit the earth, and delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Ps. 37: 11.
The Father can not leave his Son, so he, too, comes to earth, and we read, “The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” “The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven,” has then been “given to the people of the saints of the Most High.” Satan, with all his host of fallen angels and wicked men, is forever destroyed. The whole universe has seen the terrible consequences of sin to such an extent that none will ever desire or dare to sin again, but every thought and word will be in strict harmony with the will of God; and that glad time will have come of which the seer of Patmos says, “Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”