The Coming of the Lord by L. A. Phippeny

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Jun 25, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 26.

The Coming of the Lord

By L. A. Phippeny

PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS AND REMARKS.

WHAT Lord?—The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Second Adam, Lord of lords, and King of kings. Coming from where?—From heaven. Coming where?—To this earth. Coming why?—To put an end to sin, and to establish righteousness. Coming when?—Soon. Coming how?—Literally, personally, visibly.

If the sentiments expressed in the above paragraph were truly believed by every professed Christian,—truly believed, I mean, with a belief that moulds actions as well as moves lips,—all that might be hoped or dreamed of accomplishment by these articles, vanguarded, accompanied, and rewarded by the Spirit of God, would shortly be done, and that, too, without them, and the world would wait but a few days for the tremendous change that will in any event not delay long.

The phrase at the head of this article is not new to Christendom, but to many it really means little. To some it savors of credulity, and belongs either to a past age or to the dim and distant future; still others interpret it this way and that. It shall be the aim of these articles to examine some of the various interpretations most commonly held, and some Scriptural testimony concerning this great event, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why Should the Lord Come?

Why should He not come? Put the question as you will, it sets one to thinking, and the reasons why the Lord should come press in throngs to the front. Is it to banish sin?—Then there is a world of reason for His coming! Is it to establish righteousness?—Then the united voices of earth ought to send a shout to the gates of heaven for Him to come soon!

Where shall we begin in the enumeration of reasons? With sin, because it is so easy to see sin? There are some who say the world is getting better. There are just as great and good men who affirm that it is getting worse. One brief sentence from the Word of God ought to settle the point. It is this: "In the last days . . . evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse." It is not the purpose particularly of this present article to prove that the days of these months in which we live are the last days of this world, to which this sentence refers. That really does not have to be proved for a man who believes the Word of God. If the world is getting better, then its last days will be its best, if it has last days. But if it is growing worse, then "in the last days . . . evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse." The Scriptures affirm that there will be "last days" for the world. Then there will be a "last day," and then there will be an end of this age. And then, according to the Word, the Lord will come. If there is much probability that the world will grow worse than it is, then there may be a little while yet before that event. But if you do not know the exact position of the mercury in the world's moral thermometer, would it not be well to make preparation for that event this day?

When the Lord comes, we shall look for a beginning of peace on earth. But as the words stood for contraries in these days, the word "peace" conjures up in the imagination a troop of ideas as nearly related to the pure meaning of peace as is charcoal to snow. There was a "peace congress" of nations, and almost if not fully every important nation represented was not only perplexed over the problem of greater and stronger defenses, vaster armies, and deadlier weapons of destruction, but was at the moment of the congress continuing with unabated energy plans looking to the acquiring and perfecting of implements of war.

Are They Making for Peace?

Still there are those who assert in all seriousness that these gigantic preparations for war,—ponderous battle-ships, monster guns, terrible explosives, submarine torpedo-boats, airships for war, ingenious and frightful inventions for destroying life and property,—are all making for peace! This is not a statistical paper, and will not attempt to array figures representing standing armies, reserves, appropriations for purposes of war, and war debts,—figures increasing in their vastness to an extent alarming even to those who constantly observe and study the world situation. Bankrupt nations, nations rapidly approaching the breaking point financially, a world awaiting with trembling and dread and apprehension an untried fray, is the situation. Even those who claim peace as the outcome admit that there must first be fearful bloodshed and untold financial disasters before the desideratum is reached. Is it peace? Does it really look like peace? Is there not need for the presence of the Prince of Peace?

And then there are politics and political corruption, vast aggregations of wealth, gigantic trusts,—machinery unfortunately used in the main for the gratification of insatiable greed, for the lust of this world and its pride and unholy ambitions, and whose logical trend is toward the conditions hinted at in the preceding paragraph. Seemingly a necessity because of the vast combinations of money capital are the federations of trades and the labor-unions, whose sympathetic cords are rapidly binding into one great irresistible power all trades, all occupations of labor from metropolis to city, from city to town and village and country, and the recesses of mountain and forest. Is there anything ominous in the concentration of measureless resources of wealth in the hands of a few, or of one? Is there anything that causes foreboding in the tremendous power of federated labor, the strike, and possibilities related thereto? Which sentiments or emotions rule, peace, love, magnanimity, unselfishness, or selfishness, greed, and growing hatred? Leaving aside the questions of right and wrong, of oppression and fancied or real grievances, does not the situation call for the presence of a master-spirit,—the spirit of Peace and Love?

And apropos further to the subject of the world's becoming better or worse, I will refer merely to the augmenting rate of murders, suicides, divorces, diseases, insanities, robberies, assaults, scandals, social evils and corruptions, and vastly more, as unanswerable reasons why the Lord should come with His correcting power.

The query may arise as to what the Gospel is accomplishing in the earth, if it is the power of God unto salvation, and whether it is not sufficient to correct the evils that have been enumerated, as well as all others, and if it is not seen as the presence and power of the Lord. Yes, the power in the Gospel is able to correct all evils, and does it in the life of every one who wills to have it operate in him. The trouble is not with the Gospel, but with men. The foregoing evils have been enumerated because they are present before the eyes of all, and are striking evidences of the proximity of the event concerning which this paper is written.

There is good in the world. The power of God is working through willing human agencies, and divine purposes will be accomplished. If preponderant evil demands the coming of the Lord, it is to be conceded that were all righteous, then also the Lord could most appropriately come in person. The discussion of this theme will touch this point further on, in its relation to the work of the Gospel. There are other questions concerning the real purpose of the coming of Christ in person to this earth which are perplexing to many. In this article I have referred much to the existing and increasing evil and wickedness, and the critical world situation. Naturally the question arises, What is the cause of all this wickedness? This has an important bearing on the coming of the Lord to this earth, and a few thoughts on this portion of the topic will follow in the next article.