The Master's Coming by Charles L. Taylor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 29, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 47.

The Master's Coming

By Charles L. Taylor

V. What His Coming Will Mean to the Incorrigibly Wicked

THE great day of the Lord will surely come. Suns may rise and suns may set; a few months or years may run their course; men may continue their forgetfulness and their mad rush after earth’s fleeting treasure and pleasure: but some day the end will be reached, and the opening heavens will reveal the awful glory of an approaching Christ. The trumpet tones of Michael will announce the drama of time ended, and the curtain will be rung down, to rise no more.

That terrible day, tho fully declared and set before the world by faithful servants of God, will find the last generation of mankind all unprepared. Men have heard but not heeded. And when at last, by veiled sun, by mighty earthquake, by rended heaven, and by suspension of nature’s laws, the day of His appearing actually comes, there will go up from the millions of unprepared and awe-stricken inhabitants of earth the mournful wail, “The great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Rev. 6: 14-17.

Indeed, we may well ask, and ask now, Who shall be able to stand in that day? What will that day demand at the hand of each and all who will live to meet it? Especially, what will it mean to those, whether living or dead, who have no hope in Christ?

There is no room here for speculation. The issue is too great, the results are too momentous and far-reaching to admit of idle fancy or undemonstrated theory. What says the Bible?

First of all, the Scriptures certainly make it plain that the second coming of Christ is the time of general reward for mankind. “Behold, I come quickly,” is the word; “and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22: 12. “The Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works.” Matt. 16: 27.

The record is plain and unimpeachable. All men will be rewarded when He comes. But notice, dear reader, that the reward shall be determined according to man’s works. There will be no arbitrary bestowal either of blessing or curse. What men receive in that day of settlement, will be what they themselves have chosen, and to which and for which they have fitted themselves long before.

Character Alone

will determine the outcome. What man really is, what God finds him actually to be, will be the only item considered by the great Judge. A heavenly character will naturally pass up and into the heavenly abode, while a satanic character will find its level elsewhere.

In character alone men are like or unlike God. And character is but the result of a life lived,—the result of thought, of word, of act. Character, indeed, is but the fixed habits of life, tied into a bundle by man’s choice. Therefore the works of every day determine the great question of whether or not we shall stand in the great day, of whether we shall have life or death.

This truth is strikingly set forth in the letter of Paul to the Corinthians. Speaking of Christ, the great Foundation of all Christian character, he said: “Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. . . . If any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” 1 Cor. 3: 10-13. Character symbolized by wood, hay, and stubble, will not endure the terrible realities of the day when Jesus comes.

Everything in the form of sin, or which is connected or identified with sin, must perish when the glory of the King is revealed. Men who have refused God a place in their lives, refused to allow the “spirit of burning” (Isa. 4: 4) to purge away the “dross” and the “tin” (Isa. 1: 25) of their characters, must have that dross and tin consumed by His presence at His coming. But at that time, the destruction of the dross means the destruction of the men themselves.

Afraid of God Their Saviour

In ages past, men were afraid at the slightest revelations of God’s glory. At the base of Sinai, Israel pleaded with Moses, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” Ex. 20: 19. Said Manoah to his wife, when only an angel had spoken, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.” Judges 13: 22. Even Isaiah feared because of a vision, saying, “Wo is me! for I am undone; . . . for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.” Isa. 6: 5. God Himself had said, “There shall no man see Me, and live.” Ex. 33: 20. What, therefore, must be the portion of those who, without the protecting shield of Christ’s righteousness, are ushered into the very presence of the King of Kings, when He shall come, not only “in His own glory,” but in all the glory of the Father, and the glory of the angelic host? Luke 9: 26. “Our God is a consuming fire.” Heb. 12: 29. Said the psalmist, “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall

devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him.” Ps. 50: 3. No wonder that sinful men will then call for the very mountains to fall upon them and hide them. But there will be no hiding-place in that day. His consuming glory will be everywhere, it will find out all; and the wicked shall perish at His presence. 2 Thess. 1: 7-10; 2: 8; Rev. 6: 15, 16; Isa. 2: 19.

Prophecies of That Day

Many were the prophets who spoke of the terrible glories of that day, and what the day would mean to those out of harmony with God’s great Gospel plan. Said Zephaniah: “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. . . . And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord.” Zeph. 1: 14-17. Isaiah wrote: “Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.” “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.” Isa. 13: 6, 9.

Joel also saw in vision the events of the great day. “Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,” he wrote, “for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” Joel 2: 1.

Ah, that will be a dreadful day to the shelterless wicked! When the Lord shall begin the marvelous manifestations of His power, and “shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of His arm, with the indignation of His anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones” (Isa. 30: 30); when the very “earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage” (Isa. 24: 20); when all the great cities are reduced to ruinous heaps (Jer. 4: 26); then will men awake as from long sleep, but only to learn that salvation’s day is closed and they are lost. Then, in despair, they will begin to search for God’s Word (Amos 8: 11-13); they will cast their hoarded treasures to the moles and to the bats (Isa. 2: 20); they will earnestly tho selfishly pray, but their prayer will not be heard. Prov. 1: 27-29.

That day will be a day of destruction to the heathen. Obadiah 15, 16. It will also be a day of awful disappointment and anguish to the hypocritical, faithless churchman. Said Jesus, “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord;” but He will declare unto them, “I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7: 22, 23. Many will learn, when too late, that the robe of selfish pretense will not pass the test of God’s all-seeing eye; and they will mingle their wails with the great lost multitude in the outer darkness. Matt. 22: 11-13. They will inherit the portion of hypocrites. Matt. 24: 51.

On Which Side?

We are living in momentous times. The lines are fast being drawn, and men are ranging themselves for the final action. We shall soon be able to “discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.” Mal. 3: 18. There will be but two classes when Jesus comes,—those who are truly and wholly the Lord’s, and those who are incorrigibly evil. Great power from God will perfect one class in holiness, and great power from Satan will confirm the other in sin.

As to which class we shall belong to, it is for us to say. “Now is the accepted time.” Probation’s hour is still lengthened; but let no one presume upon present mercy, or think that perhaps another probation waits. This is our only testing time, and the fast westering sun of time admonishes us to hasten our preparation.

May God help you and help me so to choose Him that when the great day comes we may not be found calling for rocks and mountains to hide us, but gladly and safely hidden in Him.