WHAT HIS COMING MEANS by B. Franklin Richards, M.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 11, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 41.

WHAT HIS COMING MEANS

By B. Franklin Richards, M.D.

His Promise

NEARLY nineteen hundred years ago, when Jesus was living among men, He taught the people on several occasions that He was not to remain long with them. He had work to do that must be accomplished when away from them, before He would be ready to receive them unto Himself. "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." John 14:2, 3. The coming of Christ means the literal fulfilment of that promise.

Now such an important event can not be ushered in noiselessly, or secretly, as when some large traveling circus visits the city, without wakening the inhabitants. When Jesus comes, the event will be accompanied with great commotion. Mighty peals of thunder will roll through the sky. Heaving, moving mountains, falling rocks, twisted trees, crushed buildings, and fleeing islands, will answer to His presence. There will be an earthquake, "such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." Rev. 16:18, 20; 6:14. Heaven's trumpet will sound on that occasion long, loud, and clear, till every soul is fully awake, and every grave, holding the remains of a believer in Christ, has opened and given forth its treasure. 1 Thess. 4:15-17, 1 Cor. 15:51-57.

Cessation of Business

The coming of our Lord means the end of every kind of business on this earth. Buying, selling, or bartering in articles of necessity or luxury will eternally cease. Manufacturing will stop. Great mills and factories will at once shut down, never more to resume operations. The millions of busy toilers, who will be employed in office, factory, mine, or store, or on farm or railway, on that day stop work, an everlasting suspension. Great railroad trains will be in transit on that day the same as now. Some will be carrying living freight, eager to reach home or stopping-place. But each train will stop, for the earth will reel with fearful commotion, so that no wheel can hold to the rail. Joel 3:16. Wherever it stops, there it will remain forever. Freight trains will be creaking under the weight of costly cargoes while moving toward, or departing from, seaport towns or railway centers; but the merchandise, costly tho it be, will never be received. Letters by thousands, containing important news, will be stored away in mail pouches, or pigeonholes in mail cars, never to be opened or read.

This, greatest of all events, means the end of all earthly trusts, combines, and monopoly. Every holder of stock, bond, or deed, will on that day, the owner of millions, be as helpless as those accustomed to poverty. Eze. 7:19.

All earthly possessions will, with one gigantic sweep, extending from one end of the earth to the other, be swept from the control of man on that day.

The farm will not save the farmer, nor the mansion or castle save the capitalist, neither will the hut or tenement-house save their dwellers; for God will empty the earth of its contents. "The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; for the Lord hath spoken this word." Isa. 24:3.

What It Means to the Righteous

It means the beginning of happiness that will last for eternity, with the full enjoyment and complete possession of immortality and eternal life, the end of sickness, pain, poverty, suffering, and death, the complete victory over the devil and his angels. 1 Cor. 15:51-57; 1 Thess. 4:15-17.

It will be the day when the millions of saved will meet and see their Saviour face to face. 1 John 3:2. O! wonderful day, when this frail body, so subject to disease and suffering, will give way to an incorruptible one, fashioned to bear close resemblance to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Phil. 3:20, 21.

It will mean the deliverance from captivity and the power of the grave. O captives, you who have been held for decades, yea, centuries, in the prison-house of the enemy, will go free, free, then. Listen: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction." Hosea 13:14. "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." John 5:28, 29.

It will be the great "pay-day," when the faithful employees will be rewarded with the coin from the royal bank of heaven. Jesus the great Redeemer will be the Paymaster. Every righteous soul will receive an honest wage. "Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22:12.

It will be the day Christians have long waited and looked for, when all tears will be wiped away and the Lord in person will meet and ever be present with His people. "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces. . . . 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.

How can they help being glad? Everything changed, loved ones, separated by death for many years, meet. O most delightful meeting, nevermore to part! Every person given a perfect body free from every unpleasant thing that distresses us here, and every sin and tendency that has brought us so much sorrow. No more crutches, or canes, wheel-chairs, eye-glasses, ear trumpets, or anything artificial. At last, at last, perfection finally reached.

What It Means to the Wicked

It means death, sudden death. It means a day of awful, indescribable fear that death only can shake off, a time when all will pray. "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondsman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the 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?" Rev. 6:15-17.

All earthly powers will cease then. Political and financial rule suddenly comes to an end. The millionaire with his boasted power beholds his weakness, but it is too late to reform. The politician who has been so successful in the past in gaining notoriety and office, loses all interest in such things now, for the King of Glory has called for a reckoning. Earthly governments, with their gigantic armies must now give way to the true Commander and His army. "And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." "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." Matt. 24:30; 25:31, 32. It will be a terrible day to the wicked. No way of escape. They have been weighed on the faultless scales of Heaven and like the king of Babylon, have been found wanting.

What It Means to the Old Earth

We have found by the Scriptures that when the Lord comes again, all the righteous will be removed from this earth, and while they are being carried to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:16, 17), the living wicked will be destroyed with the brightness of His coming (2 Thess. 2:8). Consequently there will not be a living human being left upon the earth after the righteous are removed.

The prophet Isaiah tells us about this in chapter 24:1-3: "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. . . . The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; for the Lord hath spoken this word." "There were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a GREAT earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth. . . . And every island FLED AWAY, and the mountains were not found." Rev. 16:18-20. Such an earthquake as is here described will so shake the earth that mountains, buildings, trees, and everything standing will be thrown down. The earth will reel to and fro like a drunkard. "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." Isa. 24:19, 20. Pastures are spoiled, grain will not grow, trees, vines, and shrubbery are withered, streams are dried up.

Such will be the condition of this old earth when Jesus comes. Joel 1:10-20. Its surface will show the marks of the fearful storm till a thousand years have passed away, then another change will take place. "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God; and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more; the first things are passed away. And He that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He saith, Write; for these words are faithful and true." Rev. 21:1-5, A. R. V.