The Coming of Our Lord by George W. Rine

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 6, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 30.

The Coming of Our Lord

By George W. Rine

Great Events at His Coming

THROUGHOUT the broad sweep of inspired teaching, no doctrine stands out in bolder relief than does that of the second coming of Jesus. It holds a fundamental place in the gospel, in God's eternal purpose in Christ. It is the crowning act in the drama of human redemption. The one distinctively blessed hope of the church is declared to be the "glorious appearing of . . . our Saviour Jesus Christ." Titus 2:11-13. There are reasons, as we shall see, why that event is so insistently accentuated in Holy Writ. Not a few of the essential events comprehended in the everlasting gospel are contingent upon the coming of our Lord.

The Resurrection and Immortality

Verse thirteen of the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians records our heavenly Father's assurance to His trusting children that He would not have them ignorant respecting the destiny of their beloved dead who fall asleep in Christ. In clear, pointed language the divine Spirit declares that just as surely as Jesus had died, and risen from among the dead, so surely would the dead in Christ be raised to life. With equal directness He tells us that that momentous event will be synchronous with the coming of the Lord "from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God." See verses 16, 17.

In verses twelve to twenty-three of the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is found Paul's inspired argument establishing incontestably the doctrine of the resurrection. Observe now his testimony as to when "they that are Christ's" shall rise: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." We have seen that Jesus will come with the sound of the trumpet. In verses fifty-one and fifty-two of the same chapter we are told in language that throbs with the fervor of assured hope, "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible." Those who are raised incorruptible are, of course, the righteous dead. Again we see that the restoration of the dead in Christ to life and immortality will be incident to the sounding of the last trumpet; but this sounding is one of the many incidents that mark the glorious appearing of Jesus.

It is self-evident that to be raised "incorruptible" is to be raised immortal. This is precisely what Paul goes on to declare. He says, "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." It is then that the "saying" will be brought to pass, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" Yes, it is when the Lord shall descend from heaven with the voice of the Archangel that His own predictive assurance will be fulfilled that "the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life." John 5: 28, 29.

How our spirits yearn and pray for the restoration to endless life of our beloved dead! Is not this divinely inspired hope infidably precious? But, as we have seen, the realization of this hope is bound up with the coming of the Saviour. Naturally, then, we look forward to that coming with glad, wistful anticipation.

Now mark the eloquent positiveness and dignity with which Paul, as he approaches the "valley of the shadow of death," declares his hope: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day." You ask, "At what day?" Paul at once identifies the day: "And not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." 2 Tim. 4:7, 8. Ah, it is at the day of his Master's appearing that the venerable apostle hoped to be crowned with life eternal. The Spirit-filled Peter speaks of the same crown as "a crown of glory that fadeth not away," which the loyal servants of God would receive "when the Chief Shepherd shall appear." 1 Peter 5:2-4.

As the righteous dead undergo a resurrection to immortality at the appearing of Jesus, even so shall His children that "are alive and remain" when He comes, be changed from the corruption of mortality to the glory of immortality. Here is the divine assurance, given through Paul: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, . . . at the last trump. . . . For . . . this mortal must put on immortality." Of the same import is the following inspired assertion: "For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, . . . who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." Phil. 3:20, 21. The same blessed hope is again enunciated by the divine Spirit, as follows: "We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Rom. 8:22, 23.

The Reception of the Kingdom

The realization of immortal life, however, implies an endless home, an imperishable kingdom. A life of glory and immortality carries with it, as a corollary, an ageless kingdom of glory. And we have the divine promise that precisely such a kingdom will displace all the kingdoms of this world, at the appearing of the Lord of that kingdom, Christ the Saviour. Observe, now, our Lord's own assurance: "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, with all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. . . . Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matt. 25:31, 34. By implication, Paul, the apostle and prophet of Jesus, enunciates the same truth, as follows: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; Preach the Word." 2 Tim. 4:1, 2.

As clearly and cogently as language can express it, the Spirit of inspiration sets forth the fact that the church militant will not receive her eternal inheritance, the timeless kingdom which the Father has prepared for her, until her Lord shall come again in the plenitude of supernal glory. More than twenty-five centuries ago Jesus, through His servant Daniel, assured all His ransomed children that "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." But "when shall these things be?" Ah, as we have seen, at the coming of Jesus. Then will that prayer, coming first from the lips of our Lord, and since repeated by the millions of His saints, "Thy kingdom come," be completely and forever answered.

Then will come, of course, the happy reunion of all the children of God, when the dead are raised and the living are changed. But the climax of redemption will be the actual and manifested union of the church with her Lord in the marriage of the Lamb. Then she shall be presented to Him a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Then the astonished universe shall cry, "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?" The church has shared the Master's humiliation in the midst of a scoffing and unbelieving world. But when He comes, she shall be exalted to His side, as the consort of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The Desolation of the Earth

Not a few passages of Holy Writ prophetically portray the second coming of Jesus, in terms of awful grandeur and terrible majesty. "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence," declares the psalmist; "a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." Ps. 50:3-5.

In the latter part of the sixth chapter of Revelation are recorded the events that should take place under the opening of the sixth seal. First are set forth some of the signs in the heavens and the earth which would betoken the imminence of Christ's appearing. And, secondly, as one of the effects of His actual coming, the heavens are said to depart as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and every island is moved out of its place. In verses 26 and 27 of Hebrews 12, the apostle alludes to the fact that the voice of God shook the earth when, in the days of Moses, He descended upon Mount Sinai, and with a voice of awful majesty declared to His people His holy law. The inspired writer then adds: "But now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." That this cosmic convulsion coincides with the actual appearing of Jesus is attested by the fact that the apostle announces that immediately after the removing of all things shakeable and

ephemeral, the people of God — those who have looked for, and now welcome, their returning Lord — receive a kingdom which can not be moved. (Verse 28, first part.) But that kingdom, as we have already learned, will be actually realized at the second advent of the Lord of that kingdom.

In rapt vision the prophet Joel looked down through the vista of the centuries and preannounced that when the “day of the Lord” was about to break there would be “multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision,” and then adds, “For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.” Chapter 3, verse 14. After foretelling that the sun and moon should be darkened and the stars should withdraw their shining, the prophet goes on to declare, as found in verse 16, “The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake.” But, for the consolation of the saints, he at once assures them, “But the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” A parallel prophecy, found in Jer. 25:30, shows unmistakably that it is the heavenly Jerusalem, the celestial Zion, from which the Lord, in that grand and awful day, will utter His voice which will shake heaven and earth. Jeremiah declares: “The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitation; . . . He shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.”

The terrible desolation that is wrought in the earth and in all things appertaining to it, is graphically depicted as follows: “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger. . . . The whole land shall be desolate.” Jer. 4:23-27. Isaiah prognosticates the same awful fact thus: “The windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it.” Isa. 24:18-20.

We now see that while the coming of Christ brings immortality and the eternal inheritance to His believing children, with the transcendent glory implied in these, that same coming will bring chaos and desolation to the earth, and destruction to all irreclaimable sinners. As noted above, Jeremiah declared that he “beheld, and, lo, there was no man.” In the second chapter of Second Thessalonians it is expressly stated that the wicked will be destroyed by “the Spirit of His [the Lord’s] mouth,” and “with the brightness of His coming.” Again, in the context of the passage above cited from Revelation 6, the unrighteous are represented as crying out, at the coming of the Lord: “Mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

Ah, how often the Scriptures assure us that all God’s trusting people shall be able to stand in that awful day? Recall the reassuring promise cited above from Joel, “The Lord will be the hope of His people,” at the very time that He arises to shake terribly the earth. Yes, the coming of our Lord means eternal and irrevocable salvation to His people, but desolation and death to all who scout His mercy and despise His proffered salvation. Is it not, therefore, tremendously important that we should all eagerly obey our heavenly Father’s gracious injunction — “Prepare to meet thy God”?