The Second Coming of Christ.
Is it to be literal? Will the Lord really return to this world in person? Or is the language which in so many different ways predicts the coming of the Lord to be taken in a figurative or mystical sense, meaning death, conversion, spiritual manifestations, calamity and overthrow, either national or individual? The next appearing of Christ is to be his second appearing. So Paul explicitly states it: “Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation.” Heb. 9 : 28. Now we say that to make death the second coming of Christ, destroys this language of the apostle; for then we have as many second comings of Christ as there are deaths in the land. If it be said that the death of an individual is not the second coming of Christ in a general sense, but only to that individual, then we inquire, what was the first coming of Christ to that individual? If it is to individual experience that these predictions of the second coming of Christ refer, it must be also in individual experience that the first coming occurs; for these two comings are related to each other; and a second implies that a first has taken place. Now if death is to any individual the second coming of Christ, it is incumbent on those who take this view to tell us what constituted to that individual the first coming of Christ. Will they do it? No doubt they would willingly if they could, but can they? The same remarks apply to conversion. The second coming of Christ was not the destruction of Jerusalem; for predictions written after that event prophesied of it as an event yet future. Rev. 1 : 7; 3 : 11; 6 : 16, 17; 14 : 14. To bring out in vivid light the absurdity of all views which spiritualize the second coming of Christ, we have only to view them against the background of some of the plain declarations of the scriptures concerning this event. The first passage to which we call attention is one which the Christian reads with ever fresh delight. It is one which electrifies with joy every heart in which the love of Christ is found. It was spoken under circumstances which cannot fail to give a correct and vivid idea of the nature and manner of the return of our blessed Saviour; and it contains an enunciation of the truth so clear and forcible that it cannot well be evaded or ignored. We refer to the testimony of the angels to the men of Galilee, as they stood gazing up into heaven to catch the last view of their ascending Lord. When Jesus had finished the work which he had personally to accomplish on the earth, he led his disciples out as far as Bethany, bestowed upon them his parting blessing, and was taken up into heaven. And while in mute astonishment they gazed steadfastly up toward the cloud which had received him out of their sight, two men in white apparel stood by, bearing to them the very promise best calculated to comfort them in that sad hour of separation, and one which has been of equal comfort to the saints of every following age who have mourned the long-continued absence of the Lord. Hear what the angels 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. Cheering words! Worthy to be inscribed in letters of gold! worthy to be worn as frontlets between the eyes, and engraven on every door-post, as no doubt they are deeply enshrined in every Christian heart. Three points are made clear by this testimony:— 1. That the Lord will surely come again. He “shall come.” 2. That this coming is to be in the person of Jesus himself: “This same Jesus.” 3. That his coming is to be visible, in the clouds of heaven. Otherwise it would not be as they had seen him go into heaven. Personally, bodily, visibly, he ascended. It was a literal transaction, seen with their natural eyes, accomplished in the light of day. They beheld him till a literal cloud hid him from their view. In like manner will he come again. Literally the clouds will reveal him. All eyes shall see him. Even those which would gladly be buried forever from his presence beneath earth’s massive mountains, will be compelled to look upon his majesty and glory. Blessed are those eyes which shall be prepared to behold in the Coming One a friend and Saviour, and shall hail him with the joy that shall be born of the certain knowledge that their salvation is at last accomplished.