Meaning of Christ's Coming to His Children
By C. P. Bollman
To His believing children the second coming of Christ will be the fruition of all their hopes. "Unto them that look for Him," declares the apostle, "shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Heb. 9: 28. His coming will be therefore— The dawn of that glad day so long foretold,
That day of holy inspiration known.
When earth with fervent, glowing heat shall melt,
And works of boastful men shall perish all
As withered flower of the summer field
Into the overheated furnace cast. Enoch, "the seventh from Adam," spoke of "that day," saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints." Jude 14. The psalmist also looked forward to that day as the time of rewards. "The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken," writes the sweet singer of Israel, "and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; 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: 1-5. Isaiah too spoke of the second coming of Christ as the time of the final deliverance of His people, saying: "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth. . . . And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Isa. 25: 8, 9. Speaking to the prophet Daniel, the angel of God said of "that day," "And 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, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him." Dan. 7: 27. Our Saviour Himself testified of that day, saying: "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 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. That rewards will be given at His second coming is taught also by our Saviour in these words: "When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they can not recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." Luke 14: 13, 14. It is at His second coming that the dead in Christ "hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." John 5: 25. Of this time and of the resurrection of the righteous and of the change to immortality of the living saints, the apostle writes: "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [or die], 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, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" 1 Cor. 15: 51-55. Again the apostle says in 1 Thess. 4: 13-17: "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep [or dead], that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him [from the dead]. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [or go before] them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." In this scripture, as in 1 Cor. 15: 51-55, previously quoted, the apostle treats only of that which the second coming of Christ will bring to His own faithful children; namely, immortality, a crown of life, and a home with Jesus in His eternal kingdom. With the testimony of the apostle Paul agree also other scriptures. To the elders of the churches of "Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia," the apostle Peter wrote: "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 1 Peter 5: 2-4. Nor is this golden chain of promise which we have found running through both Testaments broken even as we reach the closing chapters of the sacred canon. Looking down the centuries to the last generation of His believing children, our Lord, by whom the Revelation was given to John through His angel, says to His waiting church: "Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that [at His coming] they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly." And again we say, with the beloved John, let every loyal loving heart respond, "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus," bringing to Thy people eternal life, and an everlasting inheritance in the earth made new.