Death and the Coming of the Lord.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
IN a sermon recently preached in New York by Dr. R. S. Storrs, from Rev. 22 : 20: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” the speaker asked whether it is proper for us to take up and repeat the prayer of the apostle, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” He then proceeded to answer the question as follows:— “It was only natural and proper, we may think, that he should utter this prayer to Christ. But we may not so freely repeat it after him. There is a certain tremor of hesitation, natural to the heart, in echoing the words. We would rather, for ourselves, know beforehand, if it might be, the moment when the summons is to come; we would rather see the Master afar off, and in gradual approach; we would rather make special and protracted preparation for the voice which is to call us from all the circles of life on earth, to go and be henceforth with him. At any rate, we do not feel at liberty to offer prayer for sudden death, and in this we are right. We have no right to offer such a prayer. Even John did not offer it until the Master had manifested to him his purpose of coming quickly.” If Dr. Storrs had studied the Bible as thoroughly as he has studied history, he could not have spoken such words, and then have deliberately written them for publication. There is just one correct statement in the paragraph, and that is, that it is not right to pray for death. That is true; it is not right to pray for sudden death, nor for any other kind of death; but it is right to pray for the coming of the Lord, and to long for it, as the following texts clearly prove:— “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven.” Matt. 6 : 10. This is what Christ himself commanded us to pray. Now when we read these words: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word” (2 Tim. 4 : 1, 2), we know that the kingdom comes only when Christ comes; therefore Christ taught his disciples that they should daily pray for his coming. Again, Paul says: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 2 Tim. 4 : 7, 8. The crown of life, then, is to be given only to those who love the coming of the Lord. Paul and Dr. Storrs do not seem to agree on this subject. We have no disposition to carp at Dr. Storrs. He is an able man, and we admire his talent. He is no more out of the way than are thousands. The trouble with him is, that while in history he searches for himself, and draws his own conclusions, in matters of Bible doctrine he accepts unquestioningly what the multitude believe. From his standpoint, it was very natural to say that we ought not to pray for the coming of the Lord. But what a terrible doctrine it is which obliges its adherents to569deliberately throw aside the only hope which Christ left his church. What doctrine does this? The doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul—the theory that men go to Heaven at death. The doctrine of the second coming of Christ is the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), the hope with which Christ comforted his sorrowing disciples; but the dogma of inherent immortality ignores all this. People sometimes say that it makes no difference what we believe concerning the immortality of the soul; that it is not of any practical importance whether we believe that it is inherently immortal, or dependent on Christ for immortality. Does it make any difference whether or not we believe the words of Christ? Is it a matter of no importance that we lay hold on the only hope that Christ has left us? If there were nothing else against the doctrine of natural immortality, this alone would condemn it. Of course it will not do for people to say that the Lord is not coming at all, for the Bible is full of assertions that he is; and since the people have settled it for themselves that men receive their reward at death, they combine the two. Since the idea is getting so prevalent that death is the coming of the Lord, it is proper for us to devote space to examine it in the light of Scripture. First, Christ said to his disciples, “If I go away, I will come again.” He did not promise to come again and again, but simply “another time; once more.” Paul’s words in Heb. 9 : 28 agree with this: “And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Now since he comes only once more, it is certain that death cannot be that coming, for death is constantly occurring. He promised to come “again.” The word “again” indicates another of the same kind. Christ was on the earth in the flesh; he was seen by thousands. Now if he comes “again,” a “second time,” he must come in person. The departure of a soul for Heaven cannot be another advent of Christ. If any think this is a far-fetched argument, let them read the account of Christ’s ascension: “And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, 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 : 9-11. No amount of philosophical theorizing can ever wrest that scripture so as to make it teach a coming of the Lord at death. Those who hold to that theory, must deny the statement of the angels. Something more in the same line. Read Rev. 1 : 7: “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him.” Every eye does not see when a man dies. Thousands die in solitude, unseen by mortal eye. So here is another text that is either unknown to those who hold the theory we are considering, or else is denied by them. Moreover, this shows that John knew what he was praying for when he uttered the words found in Rev. 22 : 20. He was not praying for death, but for the Lord to come in the clouds of heaven. Every follower of Christ may and should offer the same prayer. Still further, we read in Matt. 24 : 27, that “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.” Who ever saw or heard, as such a phenomena at the death of any one? It is utterly impossible for a man to believe those words of the Lord, and still believe that death is the coming of Christ. Ought not the words of Christ to be believed, rather than the theories of men? When Christ comes, it is to take his people to himself. He doesn’t take one before another, as Paul shows in 1 Thess. 4 : 15-17: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [go before] them which are asleep. For 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.” Here we see that both the righteous dead and the righteous living are taken to be with the Lord at the same time, at his coming. And this is just what the same apostle teaches in 2 Tim. 4 : 6-8, already quoted. He says that the Lord will give him a crown of righteousness “at that day.” At what day? Why, the day referred to in the first verse, when Christ comes in his kingdom to judge the living and dead, “At that day,” says Paul, the Lord will give me a crown, “and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing.” Yes, at the coming of the Lord all who love him shall receive a crown, and all at the same time. Look once more at 2 Thess. 4 : 15: “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord.” Now if it be true that the “coming of the Lord” is equivalent to “death,” we can substitute the latter word in the verse, and we shall then have the sublimely ridiculous statement that “we which are alive and remain [alive] until death, shall not go before them which are asleep”! If there is one special class of persons who live until they die, what becomes of those who do not live until they die? We should like to have Dr. Storrs turn his logical mind to the solving of this conundrum. We turn to the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians. Paul says: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, . . . as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” Verses 1-4. Paul assured them that the Lord would not come until after the great apostasy, and the full establishment of the papacy. The papacy was fully established in the sixth century; but would Dr. Storrs have us believe that between the first and sixth centuries no one died? He is too good a historian not to know all about the bloody persecutions during the reigns of Nero, Domitian, and others, in which hundreds of Christians yielded up their lives for the faith. Yet Christ could not come until after the setting up of the papacy, and he has not come yet. There is scarcely any limit to the texts that might be quoted to show the absurdity of the idea that death is the coming of the Lord. There is just one more passage that we wish to notice. It shows that none of Christ’s disciples entertained the idea that death was his coming. Christ had met his disciples at the Sea of Galilee. He had questioned Peter concerning his love, and had showed him by what kind of a death he would be called upon to show his love. Then Peter looked around, and seeing John, asked, “Lord, and what shall this man do?” Jesus answered, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” John 21 : 21, 22. Suppose we substitute death for the coming of the Lord, and then we have the Master saying, “If I will that he tarry [remain alive] until he dies, what is that to thee?” What a horrible doctrine it is that makes such nonsense of our Lord’s simple language. But notice: Just as soon as Jesus asked Peter what difference it was to him if John should live until the coming of the Lord, the disciples, assuming that Christ had declared that John should remain until his coming, began to spread abroad the statement that John would never die! They knew very well that death and the coming of the Lord have nothing in common. If all our readers do not agree with us in saying that the idea that death is the coming of Christ is both absurd and unscriptural, we have understated their sagacity. If any hold that idea after carefully reading the texts we have quoted, we should be glad to hear from them, that we may together consider the matter further. We do not care to hear from any who cannot give a reason for their belief. We do not expect to hear from any. May the Lord help all to study well all that relates to the coming of the Lord, and to speedily learn to pray, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” E. J. W.