p. 434 | The Coming Christ by Samuel T. Spear

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 22, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 28.

The Coming Christ.

By Samuel T. Spear

Jesus of Nazareth began his public ministry at the age of thirty, pursued it for some three years thereafter, died on the cross under the decree of Pontius Pilate, rose from the dead on the third day, and after forty days left the earth by a miraculous ascension into Heaven. The Bible follows this Jesus into Heaven, and presents him to us as there seated on the right hand of the Majesty on high, as the "High Priest of our profession."

The Bible, however, does not stop with this revelation of Christ in Heaven. It goes further than this, and extends our view to a period in the great future, when this Prince and High Priest in Heaven, this Saviour of sinners, this Man divine, will return, personally and visibly, to our world, and states the object thereof with a general outline of the facts and events that will be connected with that return. The revelations of God's word on this point startle the mind with the overwhelming and awful grandeur. No one believing them, can read them, and be unimpressed by them.

The ascension of Jesus into Heaven occurred at Bethany in the presence of "the apostles whom he had chosen," who saw him as he went up, and to whom, "while they looked steadfastly toward Heaven," two angels, appearing as men, spake the following words: "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." Jesus had scarcely vanished from their sight when this announcement greeted their ears, assuring them that he would come back again to this world, and that the manner of the coming would be like that of his departure, but not informing them when or for what purpose he would thus return to earth. It was enough for them to know that he had left this world by ascension into Heaven, and that he had not left it forever.

Peter, who was an eye-witness of the scene, a hearer of what the angels said, and a believer in the fact that Jesus had gone into Heaven, and was there, soon after referred to him in the following terms: "Whom the Heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of his prophets since the world began." The Rev. Mr. Barnes, in his Notes on Acts, understands the word here translated "restitution," to mean the completion, the filling up, the consummation and fulfillment of prophecy relating to the whole Messianic plan of God on earth. The word "until" suggests that, when this shall have been accomplished, Jesus would again personally revisit our world, not necessarily to remain here, but that he would appear here a second time. Prior to this he would be in Heaven, whither he had just ascended.

Christ himself, at different times, and on various occasions, used language calculated, and, indeed, intended, to convey the idea of both his departure from and his subsequent return to this world. The following passages illustrate this statement:—

"What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" "I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come unto you." "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I said, I go unto my Father." "But now I go my way to Him that sent me." "It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart I will send him unto you." "A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father." "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world and go to the Father."

These passages contain clear intimations of Christ's departure from this world, as subsequently accomplished by his death, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven; and some of them also contain intimations that he would come back again and receive his followers unto himself. Both ideas were on his lips, especially toward the close of his public ministry.

The twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew records the answer which Jesus gave to the question of his disciples in respect to the end of the world. These are his words: "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left." The sheep here represent the righteous; and to them Christ will say: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." The goats represent the wicked; and to them Christ will say: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." The sequel is thus stated: "And these [the wicked] shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal."

Here is a coming of Christ declared by himself in words applicable, not to the destruction of Jerusalem, but only to the final and general Judgment, as elsewhere taught in the Bible. This coming is connected with that Judgment. Christ places himself on the judgment throne. Paul tells us that God "hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead." He also says that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. What Christ says about his coming, the gathering of all nations before him, and his adjudication upon their character and destiny, not only associates that coming with the final Judgment, but corresponds with what the apostle says. He will at last come, not to die for sinners, and not to preach to them a gospel of salvation, but to judge the world in righteousness. God has appointed the day or time for this Judgment; and, if so, then he has appointed the time of the coming.

The same apostle, alluding, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, to the resurrection of the dead, says that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," and then adds: "But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." The order here stated is the resurrection of Christ first, as "the first fruits" or pledge of that of his people, and then their resurrection "at his coming." This connects the resurrection with the second coming of Christ. At this coming his own words will be fulfilled: "Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."

Paul, in his first epistle to the Thessalonians, refers, in the following manner, to the second coming of Christ and to the events connected therewith: "For this we say unto you by the word of the lord, that we [Christians then living] which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent [precede] 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 [Christians then living] 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 the fact of Christ's descent from Heaven is distinctly stated; and with it is connected the resurrection of the righteous dead. And also the change in respect to Christians then living. Christians, whether the risen dead or those then living, will meet the Lord in the air, and will ever be with the Lord.

The same general thought was in the mind of the apostle when, in his epistle to the Philippians, he said: "For our conversation [citizenship] 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, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." What Paul looked for, as he stated, is evidently the second coming of Christ, or his descent from Heaven; and with this event he associated the change of "our vile body," of which, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, he speaks as taking place "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump," "when the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Wonderful language, and wonderful thoughts expressed by it.

So, also, in Paul's second epistle to the Thessalonians, we have these words: "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, 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." The "day" here mentioned is the day or time "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven," "when he shall come to be glorified in his saints," and when he will "recompense" rest to the righteous and punishment to the wicked—a glorious day to the one, and a wrathful day to the other. The reference here is manifestly to the second coming of Christ, and to the events, as here set forth, that stand connected with that coming. He will then "descend from Heaven," and reappear in our world, attended by "his mighty angels." There will be no doubters then as to the second advent. The good and the bad will alike understand that Christ has come. —Samuel T. Spear, D. D., in Independent.