THE TIME OF CHRIST'S COMING.
WE have found thus far in our consideration of this important subject that Christ is literally, personally, visibly coming again; that he will at that time raise to immortality the righteous dead, destroy the living wicked, change the living righteous to incorruptibility, and gather his people home to the New Jerusalem, the capital city of his future kingdom. The destiny of every soul hangs upon that coming. When will it take place? Surely it is not over-curious or irreverent to ask such a question. The importance of that event to us justifies it, and it is not rebuked of God. Such inquiry is not only not rebuked of God but it is encouraged; yea, the knowledge which such honest inquiry will bring is enjoined. But we must not be presumptuous. Faith is based on the word of God and goes no farther than that word reveals. He who goes beyond this is walking not in the path of faith but presumption. The word of God expressly declares that it is not for us to know the day or the hour of Christ's coming. Matt. 24:36. We have no scriptural right, therefore, to "set times" for that event. But at the same time we are to "know" when "it is near, even at the doors." Matt. 24:33. What are the evidences which God has given us upon which we may base such knowledge? I. Upon the prophetic word. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing [will bring no judgment upon the earth, see context], but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." Amos 3:7. And this has been emphatically true from the beginning. Would God destroy the world by a flood?—He gave the people warning for one hundred and twenty years through Noah and his associates, among them doubtless being Lamech and Methuselah, the latter of whom died the year the flood came, the former a little before. Sodom and Gomorrah's doom was revealed to Abraham and Lot; and the latter warned the people. Doubtless there had been previous warnings. The wicked Canaanites were warned by the preaching and sojourn of Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, neither were the Israelites allowed to go thither till the Amorites had rejected every overture of Infinite Mercy, and the wretched inhabitants had filled up their cup of iniquity by so identifying themselves with the sin that they must be destroyed to destroy the sin. Gen. 15:13-16. The Hebrews were warned again and again of the judgments which would come upon them if they continued in sin. 2 Chron. 36:15-17. Nineveh was warned of its coming doom if it persisted in its wickedness and idolatry. God in his mercy has ever given faithful warning of approaching judgments, and pointed out the way whereby man might escape them. Now the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is an event before which all others, great as some of them are, pale into insignificance. Surely if he has warned the world of these lesser judgments—these lesser days of evil to a sinful world or sinful nations or cities—he will warn the world of that great day of his wrath, of that greater event of the coming of the Son of Man in all the glory of the Father. And of this the word assures us. Prophecy was not given for ancient times alone. It "is a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the daystar" arises in the hearts of God's people. 2 Peter 1:19. Some of the evidences given in prophecy are as follows:— 1. The prophecy of Daniel 2, representing the history of earth's monarchies under an image composed of five different metals or materials, namely, gold, silver, brass, iron, and a mixture of iron and clay. Succeeding this is the everlasting kingdom of God. We have existed under the iron-clay division for many years, and the mixture has been more and more evident in the monarchies of the Old World. The next great dynasty is the everlasting kingdom of Christ. 2. The prophecy of Daniel 7, in which the kingdoms of earth are represented by four cruel, blood-thirsty beasts, and the Papacy by a little horn on the fourth beast. The time of papal supremacy is stated, closing shortly before the beginning of the investigative judgment. The fall of papal dominion is also predicted, and a little while from this the kingdom is given to the people of the saints of the Most High. Daniel 7 declares, unmistakably, that we are nearing the time of Christ's coming. 3. Daniel 8 and 9 present another line of prophecy, including three of the great dynasties given in the two preceding lines, omitting Babylon, as that empire was then a matter of history not prophecy. In Daniel 8, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome are portrayed till the time when earth's empire should be broken "without hand." Besides the prediction concerning these promises, the prophecy deals with our Lord Jesus Christ, pointing out the time when he should be manifested as the Messiah, how long his ministry upon earth would last, when his priesthood would begin, and the very year that he would enter upon the closing work of that priesthood, the justifying of the heavenly sanctuary, or the investigative judgment (Dan. 8:14), which would determine the worthiness or unworthiness of the characters of those who had once entered God's service (Luke 20:35). This closing work began in 1844, and, according to the type, is a comparatively brief work, which will soon be over. Then Christ will come. 4. Daniel 11 and Revelation 2-13 present no less than seven different lines of prophecy, every one of which shows that the coming of the Lord is near. We have the seven churches, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the two witnesses, the great red dragon, the multi-formed beast, the two-horned beast, and the scarlet-colored beast upon which Babylon sits, all declaring that the coming of Christ is near. II. But God has not confined the proof of Christ's nearness to long lines of prophecy and symbolic representations which require some knowledge of history in order to well comprehend them; evidence is given so that the simple and unlearned can comprehend the warning and heed the admonitions connected therewith. In Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, we have three different versions of specific instructions which our Lord taught his disciples with reference to the destruction of Jerusalem and his second coming. No one of these chapters is complete. Each to some extent supplements the others, but they are never contradictory. Matthew 24 is the most complete, and that we will take as the basis of our evidence. In the third verse of that chapter the disciples say unto Christ: "Tell us when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming [parousia, presence], and the end of the world [age]?" How did our Lord answer these earnest questions? If these were matters concerning which his followers had no right to inquire, our Saviour would then have indicated it. He would have said, "Heed ye the moral and spiritual instructions of God purely, and give no thought as regards how or when the age shall terminate, and I shall come." How did he reply? We will have a portion of his reply in our next.