The Coming Again of Jesus Christ

Pacific Press Publishing Association

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 49.

The Coming Again of Jesus Christ.

IN writing upon the foregoing subject, Doctor Torrey quotes John 14:3; Heb. 9: 28; Phil. 3:20, 21; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17; and Acts 3:19, 20, and speaks of the claim that is made that Christ's coming is at death, as follows:

"This coming again of Christ is not at the death of the believer. (a) He does not come again at death

with a shout,

etc. (b) Those who are alive and remain are not caught up, etc., at the death of individual believers. (John 14:3, and 1 Thess. 4:16, 17, manifestly refer to the same event. They are exactly parallel in the three facts stated: (1) The 'I will come again' of Jesus, equals 'The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven' of Paul. (2) The 'Receive you unto Myself' of Jesus, equals the 'Shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord' of Paul. (3) The 'That where I am, there ye may be also' of Jesus, equals the 'So shall we ever be with the Lord' of Paul. Paul's words are manifestly an inspired commentary on those of Jesus, and the reference of the words of Jesus to His coming at death is thus made impossible.) (c) John 21:22—'Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me'—shows how utterly impossible it is to make Christ's coming refer to death. 'If I will that he tarry,' evidently means, If I will that he remain alive. Now put Christ's coming at the believer's death and you get this nonsense: If I will that he remain alive until he die, what is that to thee?'"

To show that Christ's promise to come again does not refer to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as some have claimed, Doctor Torrey in further commenting on the texts already referred to says:

"(a) All of these promises but one (John 14:3) were made after the coming of the Holy Spirit and pointed to a coming still future. (b) Jesus does not receive us unto Himself to be with Him at the coming of the Holy Spirit. At the coming of the Holy Spirit He comes to be with us (John 14: 18, 21, 23), at His coming again mentioned in John 14:3; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17, etc., He takes us to be with Him. (c) He does not at His coming in the Spirit 'fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory.' (Phil. 3:20, 21.) (d) There is no trump of the archangel, no shout, no resurrection, no rapture in the clouds, at this coming of the Christ. In other words, this coming in scarcely any particular conforms to the plain and explicit statements of Christ and the apostles concerning His coming again."