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THE COMING OF CHRIST

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 15, 1873

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 42, No. 5.

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THE COMING OF CHRIST.

By James White

NATURE AND OBJECT OF THE GREAT EVENT.

BY ELDER JAMES WHITE.
Text.—“And to you, who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.” 2 Thess. 1:7–10.
In God’s plan for the salvation of man, the second advent of Jesus Christ holds an important place. He who undertook the cause of men made one advent to this world as teacher, and to die as a sacrifice to open the way for their pardon. He is to make another advent, to complete the work, to destroy his enemies, to raise the righteous, and change the living saints, to destroy sin and sinners, and to restore man and the earth to the condition in which they were before sin entered the world. This great event is the consummation of the Christian’s hope. There they were to find consolation and rest; hence the language of the text, “To you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels.” Here is the completion of the great plan for man’s redemption.
In this faith and hope the church were to rest. Although they might sleep in the grave, and be unconscious in the tomb for centuries, the interim between the close of this life and the opening of the next, is unconsciousness. “Rest with us,” when our hope is realized—when Jesus Christ is revealed, in flaming fire to destroy his enemies, and to give life to all his friends. The manner and the object of Christ’s coming will claim our especial attention this morning.
He will come again. “And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Heb. 9:28.
He will appear. It is not an invisible coming. “Ye men of Galilee,” said the angels, as Christ ascended up on high, “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.” Acts 1:11.
The first disciples of the Lord beheld his form as he rose from the mount of Olives. That form will again appear, and all the disciples of the Lord will see it. “Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him.” Rev. 1:7.
“Let not your hearts be troubled,” says Christ, “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.” “If I go,” said the tangible Saviour, “I will come again.” That very person that uttered these words will come again.
“Looking for that blessed hope,” says the apostle, “and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” That blessed hope of the word of God, embracing the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ—not an invisible coming—but his appearing.
The coming of Christ will be personal and visible. The same Jesus which is taken up from Mount Olivet to Heaven—not another, not death, not conversion, not the outpouring of the Spirit; but this same Jesus—“shall so come in like manner.”
“And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” And again Jesus says, “If I go away, I will come again.”
“The Lord himself,” says the apostle—not death, not conversion, not the outpouring of the Spirit; but, the Lord himself—“shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God.”
Christ will come, attended by the holy angels. He will come in great glory. As in the language of the text, the Lord Jesus Christ “shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire.” The grand scene, the myriads of angels, the brightness and the glory, is represented by flaming fire. I have yet to learn that the element of common fire will accompany the Lord Jesus Christ in burning flames. But the glory, the brightness, and the power, attending that scene is represented by consuming fire.
The presence of one angel at Joseph’s sepulcher, prostrated the Roman guard as dead men to the ground. But Christ is coming with his own glory, with the glory of the Father, and all the holy angels with him. Heaven will be emptied of the holy angels. All of them, crowding around our Saviour, will constitute an overwhelming body of light, and power, and strength. It will be a grand procession.
If the Roman guard fell as dead men before one angel, what must be the effect produced upon sinners, when the Lord himself appears in the glory of the Father—and no man can see God and live—with his own resplendent glory, and the glory of all the holy angels with him? Sinners cannot behold, and live. Yet some theories give but little more power and grandeur to the second advent of our Lord than the arrival of a train of cars. According to the theory of a mixed millennium, this grand procession may come from Heaven, the dead may be raised, and sinners live on and mingle more or less with immortal saints. This theory has the gospel preached in the future age, and probation continuing. I repeat: If one angel, at the resurrection of the Lord, had sufficient power to strike the Roman guard as dead men, when the Lord shall come in the glory of the Father, and all the holy angels, sinners will not be able to exist. “And to you, who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. When will all living wicked men of all nations, who obey not the gospel, be destroyed with flaming fire? Answer: “When he shall come to be glorified in his saints.” But all you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire.
This brings us to examine particularly the proposition that, at the second coming of Christ, all sinners then living will be destroyed. Proving this point, the doctrine of a mixed millennium is at once utterly refuted. Turn to 2 Thess. 2:7, 8: “For the mystery of iniquity [the errors that in Paul’s day were progressing toward the papacy] doth already work; only he who now letteth [hindereth would be a more proper translation] will let [or will hinder. Paganism hindered in Paul’s day], until he be taken out of the way. [Paganism was removed to give place to the papacy.] And then shall that Wicked be revealed [the papacy], whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” When and by what means is the papacy to be destroyed? By the brightness of Christ’s coming; or, as translated by Macknight, “by the bright shining of his coming,” when he shall come in the glory of his Father, and all the holy angels with him.
The man of sin, the papacy, is to be destroyed with the brightness of Christ’s coming. And, at the same time, those that know not God, the heathen, and those that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as our text declares, perish under the vengeance of flaming fire that attends the revelation of the Son of God from Heaven. We inquire, then, Who is there left of all the living wicked men to mingle on the earth with immortal saints, in the mixed millennium, after papists, heathen, and all others who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall be destroyed?
Matt. 13:37–43, is Christ’s exposition of the parable of the tares of the field: “He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 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 enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world [the end of this age]. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity.” That will be a very clean work. When all things that offend, and they that do iniquity, are gathered out, there will not be one sinner left.
Christ is heir to the whole world, as the territory of his kingdom. And in the end of this age he is to gather out of his kingdom, or the territory of it, all things which offend. At his coming, he is to cast them into a furnace of fire, where they will burn until they are utterly consumed. He will gather out all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, “and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then [the next great event] shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
Who hath ears to hear let him hear, when Christ testifies that he is not to have things mixed in his kingdom! His angels are first sent to gather out of the territory of the kingdom all that offend, and them which do iniquity. They will cast them into a furnace of fire. Clean work is first made in the territory of his kingdom. Sinners, and the works of sin, are consumed by fire, and not a single sinner, nor a single mark of sin, left; then, and not till then, shall the righteous shine forth in the kingdom of their Father.
At the second coming of Christ, the righteous dead will be raised, and the living righteous changed to immortality. “Behold, I show you a mystery, We shall not all sleep [shall not all die], 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.” The dead shall be raised incorruptible. When? At the last trump. It is then that the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God [that is, the last trump], and the dead in Christ shall rise, and the living shall be changed. “Comfort one another,” says Paul, “with these words.” Rest here, ye troubled ones. Here is comfort. Here is the consummation of your hope.
As we have shown, the resurrected and changed saints are not left upon the old earth in its shattered condition, during a mixed millennium of mortals and immortals, dwelling together upon the earth. No! No! But, on being raised from the dead, the immortal saints are at once caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and are to be with him, while the earth rests a thousand years in a desolated condition. They will be taken up to the Father’s house, or the New Jerusalem, where they will reign with Christ in the judgment of the wicked dead a thousand years.
The Scriptures are plain upon this point. Jesus had told his disciples that he was about to leave them. They were sad. He would now comfort and instruct them. “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. Christ is coming to take his children up to his Father’s house, to those mansions of which he spoke. But we have further proof upon this point in chap. 7:33: “Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me.” What we wish to prove from this text is, that Jesus Christ was soon to go up to his Father. Connect with this statement chap. 13:33: “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me; and, as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come, so now I say to you.” “Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterward.” Verse 36. Where was he going? Answer: To his Father. “Whither I go ye cannot follow me now.” You mustwait awhile, Simon, before you follow me to the Father’s house in Heaven. Wait until the first resurrection. Simon then has the promise of following his Lord up to the heavenly mansions above, and, if Simon goes there, I do not know why Paul, James, John, Andrew, and all the just resurrected and changed ones may not—why we may not go there, if we are faithful as he was.
We call your attention to the song of the redeemed in the city of God, as described in Rev. 5:9, 10: “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.” These are redeemed. They are immortal. They are singing the song of redemption. Are they singing and reigning on the earth? No, they are looking forward to the time when they shall reign on the earth. They, all immortal, are reigning and rejoicing with their divine Lord in the city above, in those heavenly mansions, but they are looking forward to the close of the seventh millennium, when they shall reign on the new earth.
We have made the statement, that, during the thousand years, the earth will be desolate. Having proved that the living wicked will all be destroyed at Christ’s second coming, and having proved that the saints will then all follow their Lord up to Heaven, and there reign with him, looking forward to the time when they shall reign on the earth, in what other condition, I ask, could this earth possibly be, but desolate? There will be no saints here. They will all be in the city above. And there will be no living wicked here. They will all be destroyed at Christ’s second advent. The old earth will be a very lonesome place. It looks bad enough now. It has been defaced by the flood, it has been rent by earthquakes, and is waxing old as a garment. And when the voice of God shall be heard, casting down mountains, and changing the surface of the earth, so that the mighty men of every land, and all ungodly men, are crying for rocks and mountains to fall on them; and when the earthquake, which is connected with the resurrection of the righteous dead, shall take place, this globe will present a most ragged appearance. And we know of no better place for Satan, when he shall be chained for that thousand years—we know of no place in all the universe that can be better represented as the bottomless pit, than this earth in its desolated, broken condition, from the time of the first, to the second, resurrection. He will see, then, the mischief he has wrought. He cannot reach the righteous; for they are in the city of God. He cannot any longer tempt the wicked; for they are all dead. He and his angels, confined to this planet, wait for the thousand years to roll round, when they will be destroyed.
The doctrine of a mixed millennium does not have the earth desolated at any point. But the Scriptures have it desolated, without an inhabitant.
Isa. 13:9: “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.”
Isa. 6:11: “Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate.”
Chap. 24:1–3: “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; for the Lord hath spoken this word.”
We might quote this morning from Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and other prophets; but time will fail. The last text quoted is a very strong one. The statements are, first, that the earth will be made empty; secondly, that it will be made waste; and, thirdly, as if the idea might be cherished that a few sinners might be left in the earth from the general destruction, the prophet adds, “and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.”
The one thousand years’ reign of Rev. 20 is the Judgment reign. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Verse 4.
The one thousand years are set apart for God’s great settlement with the wicked of all ages. “I saw thrones, and they sat upon them.” The martyrs were there, and the saints of other ages were there. And they reigned with Christ a thousand years in judgment, engaged in the work of meting out the due punishment of the wicked. The thousand years, between the two resurrections, are not set apart for the saints of God to be doing a mixed business. They have one specific work. It is God’s great day of settlement. And while that settlement of the effects and affairs of the great controversy that has existed for six thousand years between Christ and the devil, is going on, Satan and his angels have their position, being confined in the old, desolated earth. This will be just the place for the devil and his angels; while far removed from this sad, desolated scene, in the city of God in Heaven above, are all the saints, attending to the great settlement of matters which have resulted from the fall of man. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded … and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” And they are still looking forward to the time when the earth shall be restored to its Eden glory, at the close of the one thousand years, after the wicked are raised from the dead and destroyed with Satan and his angels. This constitutes the sweetest note of redemption’s song, of those who reign with Christ in judgment during the one thousand years—“And we shall reign on the earth.”
The offices of our Lord Jesus Christ, as given in the Scriptures, are prophet, priest, and king. As prophet and teacher, he came more than eighteen centuries ago, and filled that office. As priest and intercessor, he ascended up on high from the mount of Olives, and he is now fulfilling that. If men are to be saved at all, they must be while he has on his priestly garments, at his Father’s right hand, and is offering his blood before the Father as really as the priests under the Jewish type offered blood for the pardon of the sins of the people in figure. Now when his work in the capacity of priest is done, he will lay aside his priestly garments, and put on his kingly robes. Then he will come with power and great glory, to destroy his enemies, and to give his people life, and take them to himself. He will then fill his third office, and reign King of kings and Lord of lords. And the very first work of his reign is to settle the affairs which have been the result of the great controversy, from the murder of Cain, down to the last sinner. The matter will have to be settled up.
Abel will be seated on a throne in the city of God in judgment, to participate with his Lord and Master in the judgment of Cain. Noah will sit in judgment in the cases of the wicked men of his time. Lot will testify against the wicked Sodomites. Elijah will be present when the case of Ahab and Jezebel is taken up. And the martyrs will be present when the Jesuits and papal monks shall be tried for their iniquity. They will reign with Christ in this grand settlement for one thousand years, looking forward to the full reward when they shall reign on the earth. During the one thousand years they sing a song of their redemption, so far as immortality is concerned; but, so far as the new-earth territory is concerned, they are looking forward to the reception of the entire reward at the end of the thousand years.
We call your attention to the great image of the second chapter of Daniel. The head is of gold; the breast and arms are of silver; the sides, of brass; the legs, of iron; the feet, part of iron and part of clay. I turn now to the declaration of verse 45, which shows the fate of all earthly kingdoms illustrated by the image. If there can be anything left after the prophetic description is all fulfilled, we cannot see how. Please read Dan. 2:45: “Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands [margin, which was not in hand], and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter.” In another place, all earthly kingdoms are described as becoming “like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.”
Now there is no mixing these earthly kingdoms with the stone kingdom. These are all swept away before the stone kingdom fills the earth.
The Master, on his return to the earth, does not undertake to build up a kingdom here in the midst of the ruins of the old earth. But after all earthly kingdoms are ground to powder, and become like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, and the wind carries them away, so that no place is found for them, and after the great day of the Judgment, and the destruction of all his enemies, then is his immortal kingdom established in the earth.
This subject is also illustrated in chap. 7:11, 12. “I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away; yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.” The difference between the fourth, and the other three, is plain. The dominion of the others was taken away, and their bodies, the people, were merged into succeeding ones. But the body of the fourth beast, being in existence at the second coming of Christ, is given to the burning flame.
The golden head of the image of Dan. 2 represents all earthly governments. Its king had universal sway. The silver of that image represents all the world. The brass represents the world also. The iron of that image represents the whole world, the same as the fourth beast of chap. 7. The dominion of Babylon was taken away; but the people were not destroyed. They were transferred to the Medo-Persian government. So with the second, and the third. But when you come to the fourth beast, Rome, his body was slain, and given to the burning flame. There is no transfer of the people to another government; but utter destruction. Babylon is lost in Persia; Persia, in Grecia; Grecia, in Rome. Rome is lost in the lake of fire at the revelation of Jesus Christ, with nothing left to help compose the mixed millennium.
And now, dear friends, while Christ is occupying the position of priest, fulfilling his second office, presenting his blood to his Father in behalf of sinners, it is mercy’s hour. It is the period of man’s probation. It is the hour of hope for sinners, and the only one. For when he shall lay aside his priestly garments, and shall take to himself his robes, and his kingly crown, and bear the sword of justice, what will poor sinners do? Sinner, your divine Lord holds no sword in his hands to-day. He has not upon his vesture, and upon his thigh, a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. The robes of the royalty of Heaven he does not wear yet. He is now our priest, mediator, and friend.
But before he comes, he is to receive the kingdom, the glory, and the power. He is to receive his crown. He is to receive his royal garments, and upon them the name of his royalty will appear, King of kings and Lord of lords. Instead of the censer which he now holds in his hand, as he pleads his blood, he will bear the sword of justice. There will be no probation after that change. There will be no longer hope for the sinner after he shall have left the mediatorial seat, and has laid aside the censer for the sharp sickle, the instrument of vengeance.
He now pleads his blood, and while he pleads, mercy lingers. But when he shall take to himself the sword of justice, he will say, “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me.” He will gather out of the territory of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and they will be consigned to the fiery furnace. And in due time, after the grand settlement with the wicked shall have taken place, which will require a thousand years, then will the Son, with all the angels, and with all the saints, shine forth in the kingdom of his Father.
Brethren, let us rejoice to-day that Jesus is our intercessor, that mercy lingers, and that the distinct period allotted for his priesthood, in which there is hope for sinners, has not closed. Let us rejoice in it, and work while the day lasts. Come, backslider! Come, sinner! Come while you can, and be washed in the blood of the Lamb. Come and make your peace with Jesus. Secure him as your friend. Come and receive robes of righteousness, that you may stand the test of the Judgment, and be admitted to the marriage feast of the Lamb. Amen.