The Lord's Coming Part 16

But from that to chapter xix. there is not a single syllable about the church on earth. The plain fact is, the church will not be on earth during that solemn period. She will be with her Head and Lord, in the divine retirement of the Father's house. The redeemed are seen in heaven, under the t.i.tle of the twenty-four crowned elders, in chapters iv., v. There, blessed be G.o.d, they will be, while the seals are being opened, the trumpets sounded, and the vials poured out. To think of the church as being on the earth, from Revelation vi.-xviii.--to place her amid the apocalyptic judgments--to pa.s.s her through "the great tribulation"--to subject her to "the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth"--would be to falsify her position, to rob her of her chartered privileges, and to contradict the clear and positive promise of her Lord.[25]

[25] We shall have occasion, in a future paper, to show that, after the church has been removed to heaven, the Spirit of G.o.d will act both among the Jews, and also among the Gentiles. See Revelation vii.

No, no, beloved Christian reader; let no man deceive you, by any means. The church is seen on earth in Revelation ii., iii. She is seen in heaven, together with the Old Testament saints, in chapters iv., v.

We are not told, in the Revelation, how she gets there; but we see her there, in high communion and holy worship; and then, in chapter xix., the rider on the white horse comes forth, _with_ His saints, to execute judgment upon the beast and the false prophet--to put down every enemy and every evil, and to reign over the whole earth for the blissful period of a thousand years.

Such is the plain teaching of the New Testament, to which we earnestly invite the attention of our readers. And let no one suppose that our object is to find an easy path for Christians in thus teaching, as we do most emphatically, that the church will not be in "the great tribulation"--will not come into "the hour of temptation." Nothing of the kind. The fact is, the true and normal condition of the church, and therefore of the individual Christian, in this world, is tribulation. So says our Lord: "In the world ye shall have tribulation." And again, "We glory in tribulation."

It cannot, therefore, be a question of avoiding that which is our appointed portion in this world, if only we are true to Christ. But the fact is, that the entire truth of the church's position and prospect is involved in this question, and this is our reason for urging it so upon the prayerful attention of our readers.

The great object of the enemy is to drag down the church of G.o.d to an earthly level--to set Christians entirely astray as to their divinely appointed hope--to lead them to confound things which G.o.d has made to differ, to occupy them with earthly things--to cause them to so mix up the _coming_ of Christ for His people with His _appearing_ in judgment upon the world, that they may not be able to cultivate those bridal affections and heavenly aspirations which become them as members of the body of Christ. He would fain have them looking out for various earthly events to come between them and their own proper hope, in order that they may not be--as G.o.d would have them--ever on the very tip-toe of expectation, looking out, with ardent desire, for the appearing of "the bright and morning Star."

Well doth the enemy know what he is about; and surely we ought not to be ignorant of his devices, but rather give ourselves to the study of the word of G.o.d, and thus learn, as we most surely shall, "the double bearing" of the glorious fact of the Lord's coming.

"THE COMING" AND "THE DAY."

We must now ask the reader to turn with us for a little to the two epistles to the Thessalonians. As we have already remarked, these Christians were converted to the blessed hope of the Lord's return.

They were taught to look for Him day by day. It was not merely the doctrine of the advent received and held in the mind, but a divine Person constantly expected by hearts that had learnt to love Him and long for His coming.

But, as we can easily imagine, the Thessalonian Christians were ignorant of many things connected with this blessed hope. The apostle had been "_taken_ from them for a short time, in presence, not in heart." He had not been allowed to remain long enough amongst them to instruct them in the details of the subject of their hope. They knew that Jesus was to return--that self-same blessed One who had graciously delivered them from the wrath to come. But as to any distinction between His coming _for_ His people and coming _with_ them--between His "state of presence" and His "appearing"--His "coming" and His "day," they were, at first, wholly ignorant.

Hence, as might be expected, they fell into various errors and mistakes. It is wonderful how speedily the human mind wanders away into the wildest and grossest confusion and error. We need to be guarded on all sides by the pure, solid, all-adjusting truth of G.o.d.

We must have our souls evenly balanced by divine revelation, else we are sure to plunge into all manner of false and foolish notions. Thus some of the Thessalonians conceived the idea of giving up their honest callings. They ceased to labor with their hands, and went about idle.

This was a great mistake. Even though we were perfectly certain that our Lord would come this very night, it would be no reason why we should not, most diligently and faithfully, attend to our daily round of duty, and do all that devolved upon us in that particular sphere in which His good hand has placed us. So far from this, the very fact of expecting the blessed Master would strengthen our desire to have everything done as it ought to be up to the very moment of His return, so that not so much as a single righteous claim should be left neglected. In point of fact, the hope of the Lord's speedy return, when held in power in the soul, is most sanctifying, purifying, and adjusting in its influence upon Christian life, conduct, and character. We know, alas! that even this most glorious truth may be held in the region of the understanding, and flippantly professed with the lips, while the heart and the life, the course, conduct, and character, remain wholly unaffected by it. But we are expressly taught by the inspired Apostle John, that "every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John iii. 3). And, most surely, this "purifying" embraces all that which goes to make up our whole practical life, from day to day.

But there was another grave mistake into which those dear Thessalonians fell, and out of which the blessed apostle, like a true and faithful pastor, sought to recover them. They imagined that their departed Christian friends would not have part in the joy of the Lord's return. They feared that they would fail to partic.i.p.ate in that blissful and longed-for moment.

Now while it is quite true that this very mistake proves how vividly these Christians realized their blessed hope, still it was a mistake, and needed to be corrected. But let us carefully note the correction: "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus [or are laid to sleep by Jesus] will G.o.d bring with him."

Mark this. He does not seek to comfort these sorrowing friends by the a.s.surance that they should, ere long, follow the departed. Quite the reverse. He a.s.sures them that Jesus would bring the departed back with Him. This is plain and distinct, and founded upon the great fact that "Jesus died for us and rose again."

But the apostle does not stop here, but goes on to pour a flood of fresh light upon the understanding of His dear children in the faith.

"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent [or precede] them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of G.o.d: and the dead in Christ shall rise first [that is, before the living are changed]. 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."

Here, then, we have presented to us what is commonly spoken of amongst us as the rapture of the saints--a most glorious, soul-stirring, and enrapturing theme surely--the brightest hope of the church of G.o.d, and of the individual believer. The Lord _Himself_ shall descend from heaven with a summons designed only for the ears and the hearts of His own. Not one uncirc.u.mcised ear shall hear--not one unrenewed heart be moved by, that heavenly voice, that divine trumpet call. The dead in Christ, including, as we believe, the Old Testament saints, as well as those of the New, who shall have departed in the faith of Christ--all those shall hear the blessed sound, and come forth from their sleeping places. All the living saints shall hear it, and be changed in a moment. And oh! what a change! The poor crumbling tabernacle of clay exchanged for a glorified body, like unto the body of Jesus.

Look at yonder bent and withered frame--that body racked with pain, and worn out with years of acute suffering. It is the body of a saint.

How humiliating to see it like that! Yes; but wait a little. Let but the trumpet sound, and in one moment that poor crushed and withered frame shall be changed, and made like to the glorified body of the descending Lord.

And there, in yonder lunatic asylum, is a poor lunatic. He has been there for years. He is a saint of G.o.d. How mysterious! True; we cannot fathom the mystery; it lies beyond our present narrow range. But so it is; that poor lunatic is a saint of G.o.d, an heir of glory. He too shall hear the voice of the archangel and the trump of G.o.d, and leave his lunacy behind him for ever, while he mounts into the heavens, in his glorified body, to meet his descending Lord.

Oh! reader, what a brilliant moment! How many sick chambers and beds of languishing shall be vacant then! What marvellous changes shall then take place! How the heart bounds at the thought, and longs to sing, in full chorus, that lovely hymn,

"Christ, the Lord, will come again, None shall wait for Him in vain; I shall then His glory see: Christ will come and call for me.

"Then, when the archangel's voice Calls the sleeping saints to rise, Rising millions shall proclaim Blessings on the Saviour's name.

"'This is our redeeming G.o.d!'

Ransomed hosts will shout aloud: Praise, eternal praise, be given.

To the Lord of earth and heaven!"

Amen and amen!

How glorious the thought of those "rising millions!" How truly delightful to be amongst them! How precious the hope of seeing that blessed One who loveth us and who gave Himself for us! Such is the hope of the Christian, a hope concerning which there is not a single line from cover to cover of the Old Testament. "The word of prophecy"

is of all importance. We do well to take heed to it. It is an unspeakable mercy for those who find themselves in a dark place to have a bright lamp to cast its light athwart the gloom. But let the Christian bear in mind that what he wants is to have "the day star arising in his heart;" in other words, to have his whole heart governed by the hope of seeing Jesus as the bright and morning Star.

When the heart is thus filled and ruled by the proper Christian hope, then the eye can intelligently scan the prophetic chart: it can take in the whole field of prophecy as our G.o.d has graciously opened it before us, and find interest and profit in every page and in every line. But, on the other hand, we may rest a.s.sured that the man who looks into prophecy in order to find the church or its hope there has his face turned the wrong way. He will find "the Jew" there, and "Gentile" there, but not "the church of G.o.d." We earnestly trust that not one of our readers will fail to lay hold of this fact--a fact, we may safely say, of the very deepest moment.

But it will perhaps be asked, "Of what use, then, is prophecy? If indeed it be true that we cannot find aught about the church on the prophetic page, of what possible use can it be to Christians? Why should we be told to take heed to it if it does not immediately concern us?" We reply, Is nothing of any value to us save what immediately concerns ourselves? Shall we take no interest in anything unless we ourselves form the immediate subject thereof? Is it nothing to us to have the counsels and purposes and plans of G.o.d laid open before us? Do we lightly esteem the high favor of having the thoughts of G.o.d communicated to us in His holy word of prophecy? Surely it was not thus that Abraham treated the divine communications made to him in Genesis xviii.: "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?"

And what was that thing? Did it immediately concern Abraham? Not at all. It concerned Sodom and the neighboring cities, and Abraham had no stake in them. But did that prevent his interest in the divine communication. Did it hinder his appreciation of the mark of special favor in his being made the honored and trusted depository of the thoughts of G.o.d? Surely not. We may safely a.s.sert that the faithful patriarch highly esteemed the privilege conferred upon him.

And so should we. We should study prophecy with all the interest arising from the fact that therein we have unfolded to us, with divine precision, what G.o.d is about to do on this earth with Israel and with the nations. Prophecy is G.o.d's history of the future; and just in proportion as we love Him shall we delight to study His history; not indeed, as some have said, that we may know its truth by its fulfilment, but that we may possess all that absolute, that divine certainty as to the future which G.o.d's word is capable of imparting.

Nothing can be more absurd, in the judgment of faith, than to suppose that we must wait until the accomplishment of a prophecy to know that it is true. What an insult offered--unwittingly, no doubt--to the peerless revelation of our G.o.d.

But we must now turn, for a moment, to the solemn subject of "The Day of the Lord." This is a term of frequent occurrence in Old Testament Scriptures. We cannot attempt to quote all the pa.s.sages; but we shall refer to one or two, and then the reader can follow up the subject for himself.

In Isaiah ii. we read, "For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low.... And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted _in that day_. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth."

So also in Joel ii. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains; a great people and a strong; there has not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations; ... the earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining; ... for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?"

From these and similar pa.s.sages, we learn that "the day of the Lord"

stands a.s.sociated with the deeply solemn thought of judgment upon the world--upon apostate Israel--upon man and his ways--upon all that which the human heart prizes and longs after. In short, the day of the Lord stands in striking contrast with man's day. Man has the upper hand now, the Lord will have the upper hand then.

Now, while it is perfectly true that all the Lord's people can rejoice in the prospect of that day, which, though it will open in judgment upon the world, shall, nevertheless, be marked by the universal reign of righteousness; yet we must remember that the peculiar hope of the Christian is not the day with its awful accompaniments of judgment, wrath, and terror; but the coming or presence of Jesus, with its precious accompaniments of peace and joy, love and glory. The church shall have met her Lord, and returned with Him to the Father's house, before that terrible day bursts upon the world. It will be her blissful portion to taste the ineffable communion of that heavenly home, for an indefinite period previous to the opening of the day of the Lord. Her eyes shall be gladdened by the sight of "the bright and morning Star," long before even "the Sun of righteousness" shall arise, in healing virtue, upon the pious portion of the nation of Israel--the G.o.d-fearing remnant of the seed of Abraham.

We are intensely anxious that the Christian reader should thoroughly enter into this grand and important distinction. We feel persuaded that it will have an immense effect upon all his thoughts and views and hopes of the future. It will enable him to see, without a single intervening cloud, his true prospect as a Christian. It will deliver him from all mist, vagueness, and confusion; and further, it will divest his mind of all that feeling of dread with which so many even of the Lord's dear people contemplate the future. It will teach him to look for the Saviour--the blessed Bridegroom--the everlasting Lover of his soul, and not for judgments and terror, eclipses and earthquakes, convulsions and revolutions, it will keep his spirit tranquil and happy, in the sure and certain hope of being with Jesus, ere that great and terrible day of the Lord come.

See how the faithful apostle labored to lead his dear Thessalonian converts into the clear understanding of the difference of "the coming" and "the day."

"But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when _they_ [not ye] shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness"--The Lord be praised!--"Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that are drunken, are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For G.o.d hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep [that is, are dead or alive] we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do" (1 Thessalonians v. 1-11).

Here we have the distinction set forth with unmistakable clearness.

The Lord Himself shall come for us as the Bridegroom. The day of the Lord shall come upon the world as a thief. Is it possible for contrast to be more striking? How can any one confound these two things? They are as distinct as any two things can be. A bridegroom and a thief are surely two different things; and just as different are the coming of the Lord for His waiting people and the coming of His day upon a slumbering or intoxicated world.

Some perhaps may find a difficulty in the fact that the church in Sardis is addressed in such solemn words as these, "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee" (Rev. iii. 3). The difficulty will vanish when we reflect that, in the case of Sardis, the professing body is looked upon as having a mere name to live while dead. It has sunk to the level of the world, and can only see things from the world's standpoint. The church has failed utterly; it has fallen from its high and holy position; it is under judgment; it cannot therefore be cheered by the church's proper hope; but is threatened by the world's terrible doom. We do not see the church here as the body or bride of Christ, but as the responsible witness for G.o.d on the earth--the golden candlestick which ought to have held forth the divine light of testimony in this dark world, in the absence of her Lord. But alas! the professing church has sunk lower and become darker than even the world itself. Hence the solemn threatening. The exception confirms the rule.

We shall proceed with this subject as presented in 2 Thessalonians.

It is a fact full of the richest comfort and consolation to the heart of a true believer, that our G.o.d, in His marvellous grace, ever makes the eater to yield meat, and the strong, sweetness. He brings light out of darkness, life out of death, and causes the bright beams of His glory to shine amid the most disastrous ruin caused by the enemy's hand. The truth of this is ill.u.s.trated on every page of the inspired volume, and it should fill our hearts with peace and our mouths with praise.

Hence it is that the varied doctrinal errors and practical evils, into which the early Christians were permitted to fall, have been overruled of G.o.d, and used for the instruction, guidance, and solid profit of the church to the close of her earthly history.

Thus, for example, the error of the Thessalonian Christians in reference to their departed brethren was made the occasion of pouring such a flood of divine light upon the Lord's coming, and upon the rapture of the saints, that it is impossible for any simple mind that bows to Scripture ever to fall into a similar mistake. They looked for the Lord to come, and in that they were right. They expected Him to set up His kingdom on the earth, and in that they were right, as to the broad fact.

But they made a great mistake in leaving out the heavenly side of this glorious hope. Their intelligence was defective--their faith lacking.

They did not see the two parts--the double bearing of the advent of Christ--His descent into the air to receive His people to Himself, and His appearing in glory to set up His kingdom in manifested power.

Hence they feared that their departed brethren would necessarily be absent from the sphere of blessing--the circle of glory. This mistake is divinely corrected, as we have seen, in the first epistle, chapter iv. The heavenly side of the hope--the Christian's proper portion--is placed before the heart as the true corrective for the error in reference to the sleeping saints. Christ will gather all (and not merely part of) His people to Himself; and if there is to be any advantage--a shade of difference in the matter--it will be on the side of those very people about whom they were mourning. "The dead in Christ shall rise first."