The Waiting Church

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · BATTLE CREEK, MICH. · Jan 17, 1871

The Waiting Church.

THE position of the Christian church since the departure of Christ from earth, like that of the Jewish church before his coming, has been one of waiting. Having finished his work here below, and opened a way of salvation, having become the one offering for sin, and having established a kingdom, a body, and made it ready for receiving as its soul the Holy Ghost, he, in accordance with the announcement made to his disciples, went away from them, ascended into Heaven, there to remain an intercessor at the right hand of the Father until his coming again to judge both the quick and the dead, and to receive his children unto himself.

For the first few centuries after his departure, and even down to the time of Constantine, his church was emphatically a waiting and a watching church. The thought of his return was the one hope that burned with increasing brightness in proportion as the darkness of persecution deepened. Watchmen stood upon the walls anxious above all things to detect signs of the promised morning, to discern the first herald of his glorious coming. The apostolic faith in Christ was among other things, a faith in him as about to return and gather his suffering followers into a kingdom blessed and illuminated by his divine, yet personal presence. He was regarded as an absent Lord, and therefore the nature of his presence on earth, in the sacraments, was not discussed. They regarded the whole existing economy, both civil and spiritual, as only temporary.

They accepted the parting benediction of their Master when he was lifted from among them out of sight, into Heaven, in its literal meaning; believed as they were told, that “the same Jesus” would come again in the very same manner in which they had seen him go, that is, visibly, personally, surrounded by clouds, not of mystery, but yet of glory. That promise was thenceforth the central hope of his orphaned church—the comfort and stay of the espoused bride. It breathed in every epistle, from the first; and the last prediction of the Apocalypse, “Behold I come quickly,” was only a continued echo of what had been constantly heard since the hour of the Lord’s ascension.

And the belief of Christians in that promise, was more than physical signs and wonders, the secret of their marvelous power of patience. This attitude of waiting for a Judge and Saviour, about to return; for a Christ, then localized as to his presence, only in Heaven, yet soon to become localized on earth, separated the early church, by lines which no one could mistake, from the careless, self-seeking, and scoffing world. If men then speculated too much upon prophecies relating to Christ’s second advent, they were thereby prevented from speculating upon other subjects which have since done so much towards making the unity of the church little more than a name.

But because the Christ of the apostles was a waiting Christ, and their church a waiting church, the faith was kept as delivered, and the kingdom remained unbroken all through that fearful night of persecution.

And it was not till the church ceased to watch and to wait for the Bridegroom’s return that it showed signs of unfaithfulness. But when it forgot its absent Lord, and looked no longer for his coming, heresies and corruption began to rend and stain its Heaven-wrought vesture.

This attitude of waiting in which Christ left the church, should, and must be preserved until the end. Every advent season through all the more than eighteen hundred that have come and gone, has brought nearer the consummation which seemed so near to those who first believed. Every moment of this waiting, every moment which lengthens the period of the Lord’s delayed coming, hastens the hour of his return.

Let us then trim anew the lights that have been growing dim, and gird up our loins, as those whose work it is to watch, lest coming suddenly he find us sleeping.

For while Christ waits, he pleads for the reconciliation of souls to God, through himself, by the Spirit, and for the building up of his saints unto such an image of his measure and stature as will make them meet for the promised inheritance.—The Churchman.