p. 147 | THE SECOND ADVENT by C. P. Bollman

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 10, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 10.

THE SECOND ADVENT.

By C. P. Bollman

THE doctrine of the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ is a scriptural doctrine. It is taught in both the Old and New Testaments, and directly or indirectly in almost every book in the Bible. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of it, saying, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints.” Jude 14. The patriarch Job, too, when brought as it were to the very brink of the grave, so that he could say, “I am escaped with the skin of my teeth,” saw by faith the glorious triumph of the saints of God and exclaimed: “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” Job 19:25, 26.

Time would fail, however, to tell of David, of Isaiah, of Jeremiah, of Daniel, and of many other Old Testament writers who spake of the glorious coming of Christ when he shall come to take the throne of his father David and “reign in Jerusalem [the new Jerusalem], and over his ancients gloriously.” But it is in the New Testament that we find this doctrine in its clearness and fullness; it is there that we have the promise of the Lord himself, “I will come again;” and it is there that we find recorded the words of the angels to the sorrowing disciples: “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 1:10.

There too we read the words of Paul to the Thessalonian brethren, words wherewith he would comfort them concerning their dead: “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 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.” 1 Thess. 4:15-17.

But neither can we dwell upon all, or even a tithe, of what the New Testament writers have said upon this all-important subject; for it is in every Gospel, in the Acts, in almost every epistle, and it is the burden of “the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.” Rev. 1:1.

Yes; the Scriptures teach the doctrine of the second coming of Christ, but how will he come? The question has been already answered: “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.” “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven.” While in Matt. 24:27 we are told in the words of Christ himself: “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.” And when he does come the glad cry will be raised by all his waiting people: “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Oh, that all who bear His name, might adopt as their heart-felt petition the devout prayer of the aged John as in vision he beheld the glories of that day, and exclaimed, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

C. P. BOLLMAN.