Coming of the Day of the Lord.
By C. P. Bollman
THE Scriptures plainly teach that the day of the Lord is surely coming. The Saviour said, "If I go" away "I will come again" (John 14 : 3); and the angels bore the same testimony when they 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 : 11); while the apostle Peter positively states: "But the day of the Lord will come, . . . in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Pet. 3 : 10. When that day comes, there will be people living upon the earth just as they are now. For, "as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24 : 37-39. Nature will give no unmistakable warning of the approaching catastrophe. "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest . . . shall not cease;" and to these facts the last-day scoffers, spoken of in 2 Pet. 3 : 3, 4, will appeal, when they tauntingly ask, "Where is the promise [sign] of his coming?" They see no indications of the soon-coming end; and, like the antediluvians, they reject the word of the Lord, and so seal their own eternal doom. But their unbelief cannot affect the purpose of God, nor prevent the fulfillment of his word; the Majesty of Heaven has spoken through his Son, who said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." In view of the coming of that day, the Saviour has commanded his people to "watch" (Matt. 24 : 42); and exhorts them, saying: "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares." Luke 21 : 34. Are we heeding that injunction? or are we indifferent to these things? If indifference be our condition, we are surely upon dangerous ground; for the apostle, speaking of those upon whom that day will come as a thief, says, "And they shall not escape." 1 Thess. 5 : 3. But it may be asked, How may we know when that day is near? does not the Bible say (Matt. 24 : 36), "But of that day and hour knoweth no man"? Yes; but it also says: "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." Matt. 24 : 32, 33. There is, as any one who will stop for a moment and candidly think, can readily see, a vast difference between knowing the day and hour when an event is to transpire, and knowing simply when it is near. We may plant a seed in the earth, and under certain conditions we may know about when it will spring up; and yet it is impossible for us to tell just when the sprout will first appear above the ground. Or a friend may be slowly dying of an incurable disease; and though we may know when death is near, we cannot tell the day and hour when it will come. So it is with the coming of the day of the Lord: we may know—yea it is our duty to know when it is near, but the exact time God has not revealed. Not only do the texts already quoted sustain this view, but it is the whole tenor of the Scriptures. The apostle Paul, in 1 Thess. 5 : 4, makes it very clear that when the day of the Lord comes there will be a class of persons who will be expecting it. He says: "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." Some have supposed from this language, as also from verses 15 and 17 of chapter 4, that Paul taught the Thessalonians to expect the coming of the Lord in their day; but that this is a mistake, is evident from the first part of chapter 2 of his second epistle; for there he tells them plainly that that day was not then at hand; and that before it came, there would be a great falling away from the true faith, and that the "man of sin" should "be revealed, the son of perdition," which all Protestants agree refers to the papal power, the full establishment of which did not take place till A. D. 538. Hence we conclude that portions, at least, of the apostle's first letter to the Thessalonians were designed more especially for those who should live this side of the great apostasy, and in the generation that could scripturally look for the coming of the Lord. But the fact that Paul assured the Thessalonians that certain events must take place before the day of the Lord, proves that something can be known about that day; but this fact we have already learned from other scriptures; and he must be blind indeed, who can read the word of God without discovering, not only that the day of the Lord will come, but that when it does come the people of God will not be overtaken as by a thief.