SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.
By J. B. Goodrich
WE are told by some that Christ's second coming took place at the destruction of Jerusalem, about A. D. 70. If that is a fact, then all the testimony given us by inspired men since that time should point us back to that event for the fulfillment of those prophecies bearing upon this subject. But what are the facts in the case? Exactly the reverse. John, while in tribulation, "in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ," speaks of the coming of Christ as an event still in the future. John wrote the Revelation A. D. 96; but the destruction of Jerusalem took place some twenty years before; therefore the destruction of Jerusalem could not be the second coming of Christ, of which John spoke. Rev. 1:7; 3:11; 14:4, and 22:12. Again, Paul warns the Thessalonian church against entertaining the idea that the day of Christ was at hand (2 Thess. 2:2), and then he says, "Let no man deceive you by any means." Deceive means "to lead into error; to cause to believe what is false, or disbelieve what is true; to impose upon; to delude; to ensnare; to entrap; to disappoint."—Webster. "For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." The man of sin is generally acknowledged by all Protestant churches to represent the Pope, standing at the head of the Romish Church, and corresponds to power described in Dan. 7:25, and Rev. 13:1-10, which arose, as noted in prophecy, in A. D. 538. Then the coming of Christ could not take place prior to that time, and Daniel said it should continue for a time, times, and the dividing of time, which is 1260 prophetic days. Each day for one year, 1260 years, brings us to A. D. 1798. So, according to Paul's instruction which he gave to his brethren, no one could expect the second coming of Christ till after 1798. The Lord by Paul says that Satan should work with all power, and signs, and lying wonders (2 Thess. 2:9, 10), which is now being fulfilled in modern Spiritualism, and is the last mentioned sign of Christ's coming, in the line of prophecy. For men to preach and advance the idea that Jesus came at the destruction of Jerusalem, or that he comes at death, or at conversion, is without any foundation in truth, and must be another gospel which Paul did not preach, and falls under his anathema in Gal. 1:8, 9. We cannot afford to be deceived. J. B. GOODRICH.