I AM COMING by Truth

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 20, 1893

"I AM COMING."

By Truth

WITH these words our Lord sought to cheer the sad hearts of his disciples. He had just announced that one of them would betray him, and that all of them would forsake him, while the cruel and shameful cross loomed up distinctly in his view. Seeing their look of sorrow and surprise, he said, as if forgetful of his own approaching agony: "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you." He could not deceive nor mislead them, nor withhold the exact truth, nor keep them in ignorance of his precise meaning. "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14: 1-3.

The consolation he imparts turns upon the promise, "I will come again," or, rather, "I come again," or, better still, "I am coming again," like a father calling to his frightened children, "I am coming," and so quieting their fears. But Satan is a cunning rogue, and he has robbed nearly all Christians of the comfort these words were designed to give, by leading them to suppose that when the Saviour said, "I am coming," he really intended to say, "You must die." . . . The only question is, Did our Saviour wish the disciples to understand that he is literally and personally coming again, or did he teach them and us that we must die?

1. When we read his wonderful words, it is wise to infer that he used language correctly; that he knew what he purposed to say, and, hence, that we are to take his statements in their natural and obvious sense, unless it is apparent at a glance that they are figurative or symbolical. It is a sound and incontrovertible principle of exposition which "the judicious Hooker" lays down when he says; "I hold it as a most infallible rule in the interpretation of sacred Scripture that where a literal construction will stand, the furthest from the letter is commonly the worst." It was as easy for our Lord to say, "If I go away you shall die," or, "You will join me soon in my Father's house," as it was to say, "I am coming again;" and it is certain that he said what he meant and meant what he said. . . .

2. Our Lord was not unfamiliar with the word "death." He often spoke of his own death; and not long after he said to the disciples, "I am coming," he plainly told Peter that he must die. "This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God." John 21:19. Why the change? Why did he not inform the others that they, too, must die? Why did he single out one for death, and address the remaining ten in language so entirely different, saying to them, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again"? Is it not clear that his coming again was unlike the dying of Peter, especially as Peter was one of the eleven who heard the promise, "I am coming again," and then afterwards learned that he was to die?

3. It is certain that he left a wrong impression upon their minds if by the promise of his coming again, he purposed to set forth the fact of their death, about which they needed no revelation, as the history of the world and their own observation taught them that "it is appointed unto men once to die." Heb. 9:27. If a beloved friend is about to leave a household at the close of a delightful visit, and, perceiving the sorrow caused by his announced departure, says to the circle mourning his expected absence, "I am coming again," and they subsequently learn that he only did under figurative language the truth that they must die, they would have very little respect for his candor, or very little confidence in the interpreters of his language who could put such a gloss upon the meaning of his words. . . .

5. It is often said that He is spiritually present with his people at death. This is certainly true, and it is equally true that he is spiritually present with them all the time. "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28:20. "For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Heb. 13:5. There is no sense, therefore, in which he is spiritually present with believers at death differing from that in which

he is spiritually present before death; and the same chapter that contains the promise, "I am coming again," also contains the promise to the sinner who trusts him and keeps his word, that the Father and he "will come unto him, and make our abode with him." John 14:23. But this is not his coming again to receive us unto himself, and to abide where he is in the Father's house.

6. If his coming is death, then he comes again at the death of unbelievers and the ungodly, for they, too, die. Think of the Lord coming again every time the unsaved and the wicked die, that is, every second of time, and it will be easy to see what confusion and nonsense such exegesis makes of one of the most blessed promises of the word of God. . Is the promise, "I am coming," fulfilled every time an ungodly man dies? Why not if the coming of Christ means death?

7. But our Lord himself clearly shows that his coming and death do not mean the same thing. He predicted Peter's death, and then directed the apostle to follow him. John, unbidden, but drawn by the cords of love, also started to follow, and Peter said, "Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die; yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" John 21: 22, 23. So far is it, therefore, from the truth that the coming of the Lord and death are the same that they are directly opposed to each other. The coming of the Lord prevents death.

Nor can his coming mean the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, nor the destruction of Jerusalem, nor any providential occurrence, because in neither of these events did he, nor does he, receive the disciples to himself.

It is quite common to say that there have been a great many comings of Christ, all pointing to his final and literal coming, and in this way his promise is divested of all power and sweetness. There are 7,959 verses in the New Testament, and of these 330, or one in twenty-five, directly refer to his second coming, nor is there any subject but faith that is mentioned more frequently. In all of these verses, without a single exception, his coming means his coming, and nothing else; and we are no more at liberty to give to the word some other import than we are to change the significance of the statement, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."