THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.
We learned in our study two weeks ago what Christ's coming is not; it is not death, it is not the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it is not Spiritism, or Mormonism, or any other ism or theory, or movement. Against all these Christ faithfully warns us. What, then, is it? Jesus promises, "I will come again." John 14:3. Another passage declares: "Christ . . . shall appear a second time." Heb. 9:28. Both of these passages imply that there was a first coming. Of the first coming there is abundance of Scripture evidence. How He should come, when He should come, are both predicted. He came, a Babe in Bethlehem; "the Word made flesh," "born of a woman, born under the law," in "the fulness of time." Here He grew to manhood. He manifested His divine nature in His purity and breadth of teaching, in His blameless life, in His marvelous works, in His death for sinners, in His resurrection from the dead. All this was manifest in the personal, physical Jesus. His disciples knew Him, talked with Him, ate, slept, drank, and walked with Him. Divinity and humanity were united, never to be separated. Human hands laid Him in the sepulcher. After His resurrection He gave ocular and physical evidence that He was alive. "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold Me having." Luke 24:39; John 20:26-28. Then He ascended to God, "and was carried up into heaven." Luke 24:51. "A cloud," evidently of bright angels, "received Him out of their sight." And then two messengers from God gave this testimony: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye behold Him going into heaven." Acts 1:9-11. Listen again: "Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him." Rev. 1:7. After warning against false teachers and false Christs, who would declare something else to be His coming, Jesus says: "Behold, I have told you beforehand. If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the wilderness; go not forth, Behold, He is in the inner chambers; believe it not [not thus will He come]. For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming [presence] of the Son of Man." Matt. 24:25-27. One more testimony from the apostle Paul: "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God." 1 Thess 4:16. What, then, shall we conclude?—That the second coming of Jesus is a literal, personal, visible, glorious coming. If His first coming was literal, personal, so will His second be literal, personal, also. Believe it soul. Jesus is coming again.