Chapter 30
Coming Again
OUR
Saviour is coming again. Before parting with His disciples on the earth,
He Himself gave them the promise of His return.
"Let not your heart be troubled," He
said. "In My Father's house are many mansions: . . . 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; that where I am, there ye may be
also." John 14:1-3.
He did not leave them in doubt as to the
manner of His coming. "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." Matthew 25:31,32.
Carefully He warned them against
deception: "If they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go
not forth: behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as
the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so
shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matthew 24:26, 27.
This warning is for us. Today false
teachers are saying, "Behold, He is in the desert," and thousands have
gone forth into the desert, hoping to find Christ.
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And thousands who claim to hold communion
with the spirits of the dead are declaring, "Behold, He is in the secret
chambers." This is the very claim that Spiritualism makes.
But Christ says, "Believe it not. For as
the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so
shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
At Christ's ascension the angels declared
to the disciples that He would "so come in like manner" as they had seen
Him go into Heaven. Acts 1:11. He ascended bodily, and they saw Him as
He left them and was received by the cloud. He will return on a great
white cloud, and "every eye shall see Him." Revelation 1:7.
The exact day and hour of His coming has
not been revealed. Christ told His disciples that He Himself could not
make known the day or the hour of His second appearing. But He mentioned
certain events by which they might know when His coming was near.
"There shall be signs," He said, "in the
sun, and in the moon, and in the stars." Luke 21:25. And He speaks still
more plainly: "The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give
her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven." Matthew 24:29.
Upon the earth, He said, there shall be
"distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things
which are coming on the earth." Luke 21:25, 26.
"And they shall see the Son of man coming
in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send
His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather
together His elect from the four winds,
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from one end of heaven to the
other." Matthew 24:30,31.
The Saviour adds: "Now learn a parable of
the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves,
ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these
things, know that it is near, even at the doors." Matthew 24:32,33.
Christ has given signs of His coming. He
says that we may know when He is near, even at the doors. When the trees
put forth their leaves in the spring, we know that summer is near. Just
so surely, when the signs appear in the sun and the moon and the stars,
we are to know that Christ's coming is near.
These signs have appeared. On May 19,
1780, the sun was darkened. That day is known in history as "the dark
day." In the eastern part of North America, so great was the darkness
that in many places the people had to light candles at noonday. And
until after midnight the moon, though at its full, gave no light. Many
believed that the day of judgment had come. No satisfactory reason for
the unnatural darkness has ever been given, except the reason found in
the words of Christ. The darkening of the sun and the moon was a sign of
His coming.
November 13, 1833, there was the most
wonderful display of falling stars ever beheld by men. Again thousands
believed that the day of judgment had come.
Since that time earthquakes, tempests,
tidal waves, pestilence, famine, and destructions by fire and flood,
have multiplied. All these, and "distress of nations, with perplexity,"
declare that the Lord's coming is near.
Of those who beheld these signs He says,
"This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
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Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away."
Matthew 24:34,35.
"The Lord Himself shall descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet
the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore
comfort one another with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.
Christ is coming, coming with clouds and
with great glory. A multitude of shining angels will attend Him. He will
come to raise the dead, and to change the living saints from glory to
glory.
He will come to honor those who have
loved Him and kept His commandments, and to take them to Himself. He has
not forgotten them nor His promise.
There will be a relinking of the family
chain. When we look upon our dead, we may think of the morning when the
trump of God shall sound, when the "dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed." 1 Corinthians 15:52.
That time is near. A little while, and we
shall see the King in His beauty. A little while, and He will wipe all
tears from our eyes. A little while, and He will present us "faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Jude 24.
Wherefore when He gave the signs of His
coming He said, "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up,
and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:28.
Preparing For Eternity
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