THE EPILOGUE
(continued)
“And,
behold, I come quickly; and my reward
is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Rev. 22:12).
It
was the last night of the revival in the sleepy little south Alabama
town. The congregation was softly
singing, “Just as I am,” and the preacher was standing in front of the pulpit
with both arms raised in invitation. He
knew there were people present who needed to receive Christ as Saviour. “Jesus Christ could come tonight,” he urged. “Will you be ready for Him? The trumpet may sound before this meeting is
over, or before you awake in the morning.
When that happens the graves in the cemeteries will burst open and the
dead rise, and those living who are ready will go soaring off into space to
meet the Lord. Everywhere people will
suddenly be missing without any clue as to where they may be. Husbands will miss their wives, and wives,
their husbands; parents will miss some of their children, and children will
miss father or mother or both. They will be searching for them in all
possible hiding places, but will not be
able to locate them. Loud wailing will
ensue, and hearts will be filled with the dread of unknown and hostile
powers. Finally, after days of fruitless
searching, they sit down in dumb resignation and despair. The Antichrist will then appear and the Great
Tribulation will begin. Those of you who
are left will have to go through seven
years of hell on earth. The scenes of
earth will be indescribably
bewildering and terrifying. Oh, why not
make things right with God tonight so you will be spared from such a time of
trouble and punishment!”
I
was just a boy at the time, but it made a profound impression on me. In fact, when I saw my first aurora borealis, it nearly scared me to
death. I was sure Jesus was coming at
last, and I knew for a certainty that I was not ready for it. On another occasion I arrived home from
school one late afternoon. I stepped off
the school bus in our rural district and made my way up the embankment to the
house. The house was open, the windows
up, the doors unlocked; but no one was to be found. Mother wasn’t there. My brothers weren’t there. The house was empty! I called but no one answered. I checked across the road at the neighbor’s
house and they were gone, too. Suddenly
a terrible fear seized me and my blood ran cold. “Oh, my God!” I thought, “the rapture has
taken place and I have been left.” There
is no doubt that I was the happiest little boy in the whole world that
afternoon when my mother came walking across the hollow. Of course, Jesus hadn’t come that day nor has
He come (in that manner) any other day in the past seventy-two years. Looking back, I wonder why it took me so long
to question what the preacher said.
Of
course, among those who believe in the return of the Lord, most simply take it
for granted that His return could take place at any moment. But is that true? Is it possible that you might step out the
front door of your home tonight, see a bright light flashing across the sky, and suddenly
realize that Jesus IS RETURNING, and He is returning NOW? After all, Jesus did promise to return. “I go to prepare a place for you. And if
I go…I WILL COME AGAIN, and receive you unto myself” (Jn. 14:2-3). “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”
(Mat. 24:27). “And, behold, I come
quickly; and my reward is with me…” (Rev. 22:12). Make no mistake about it! Jesus did promise to go away and to return to
planet earth.
Before
the Lord Jesus Christ left this earth to ascend into the heavens of the Spirit,
He said, “I will come again.” He, as the
glorified Christ, repeated these words to the apostle John on the lonely isle
of Patmos in our present text. Twenty-one times, at least, Jesus speaks of
His coming again, and most of these references are made on the eve of His departure. It was in the shadow of the cross that He
foretold His advent in glory. He
declared, “The Son of man shall come.” “They
shall see the Son of man coming.” “Your
Lord doth come.” “When the Son of man
shall come…” “When He cometh in the
glory of His Father…” “Ye shall say,
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” etc., etc. Our Lord did clearly — not once or twice, but
repeatedly, and at definitely marked crises in His ministry — declare that He
would come again.
Plain
as Jesus had made the promise of His coming to His disciples, at the time of
His ascension, they still did not seem to grasp its significance. A faithful group of His followers stood looking upward on that
historic occasion. As the Lord ascended,
He perceived their consternation and sent messengers of assurance: “And while
they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by
them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven”
(Acts 1:10-11).
No
subject in the entire Bible has gendered more interest, study, speculation, and
theological debate than the return of Christ.
It has been interwoven into practically every theory, creed, or doctrine
expounded by man. Through the centuries
it has been the object of scorn and mockery by enemies of truth, and not a few
times has it, through ignorance and carnal reasoning, suffered abuse and
distortion by well meaning friends. No
subject has been more misunderstood or misconstrued than this great truth; and
yet it is the hope of the ages. The
focus of the entire scriptures is upon this wonderful event. It is significant to note that when men drew
near to God they would receive glimpses of this truth. Certainly the scriptures have much to say
about it but only the blessed Spirit of Truth can make it substance in our
lives.
Most
of the differences in scriptural interpretation among Christians is the result
of an incomplete knowledge of the plan and purpose of God. Much of what is taught and believed in
Christian circles today is derived from the wrong source — Bible study! That statement may astound you, and you may
demand to know why I say that the great mass of confusion in Bible teaching stems from the wrong source —
Bible study. What’s wrong with Bible study? Isn’t this very article an effort in Bible
study? Ah, there is nothing whatever wrong
with Bible study IF WE HAVE THE RIGHT TEACHER TO TEACH US! Christians gather
together in Bible Schools, Bible study groups, Sunday Schools,
etc., to study the Word of God, but the problem with the vast majority of such
groups is that they have the wrong teacher — the human understanding, natural
reasoning, and the carnal mind! They try
to decipher the deep and wondrous spiritual mysteries of the Word of God with
the human intellect and fleshly logic, instead of allowing the One whom God
sent to be our teacher, the Holy Spirit of Truth, to unveil to spiritual minds
and transformed hearts the hidden mysteries of the kingdom of God,
His ways, and His great plan and purpose.
If we all have the right teacher we will all be taught the same thing,
and what we learn of Him will be the truth.
What He teaches is truth; He cannot give us anything else but truth.
When
we think we know it all, we shut ourselves off from further revelation, and make it impossible
for the Spirit of Truth to guide us into all truth. We need to pay heed to the Biblical injunction,
“If any man think he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to
know” (I Cor. 8:2). Yes, we still have a
lot to learn, there is yet much of the total picture to be revealed to us, and
as the beams of divine revelation stream from the glory above, let us ever walk
in that light, and as we do, it will be fulfilled in us what the scripture
says, “The path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more
unto the perfect day” (Prov. 4:18).
There are many precious Christians
who believe, and have received the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, who try to fit
into this one initial experience with the Lord, all the parts of the Word of
God that pertain to further
experiences. The infilling of the Holy
Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, stages of growth and development in Christ,
overcoming, maturity and brideship, sonship and reigning with Christ, and many
others; they think these have all been incorporated in this first experience of
regeneration. Yet, those of us who have
received the infilling of the Holy Spirit as a further experience, know what blessing and
reality they are depriving themselves of when they assume that they have
received the gift of the Holy Spirit when they first believed. The baptism in the Spirit is not the ultimate
either, as many seem to believe, it is merely the gateway into a vast spiritual
world where there await more and more wonderful experiences and attainments in
the Lord, as we continue to walk in the Spirit and grow up unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ!
In
entering upon this grand and wonderful portion of God’s Word we desire to do so
with profound reverence and humility of spirit, dreading to rush in where
angels fear to tread; and anxiously desirous to bring out of the inspired words
what is really in them, and to put nothing into them that is not really
there. As I have said, there is no
subject where there seems to be more of the confusion that attends carnal minds
conjuring up inaccurate and half-stated and fancifully conceived theories than
this subject of our Lord’s coming again.
It will take intense spiritual
effort, and much prayer and holy brokenness before God, to lay aside all one
has heard and hears, to lay down all preconceived notions and ideas, to find
out just what the Holy Spirit teaches.
The one question ultimately must be, What does the Word of God actually
teach? And not, What have men taught? We
must be determined to be committed to the Spirit of Truth and the Word of God
only, in receiving an understanding of Christ’s coming, irrespective of any and
all traditional views which might tend to influence a forced or unnatural
conception. We must be willing to let
inspiration lead and interpretation
follow. Some will be tempted to stop and ask, “Why! how can that be!”
regarding some particular point. And
perhaps nowhere more than at the point of truth we shall now set forth!
It
may surprise some of my readers to learn that the Bible nowhere speaks of the
“second coming” of Christ. Interesting,
isn’t it — how some of the major and most commonly accepted doctrines and
practices of professing Christianity cannot even be found in the Bible? There is no mention whatever of such things
as Christmas, Easter, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, Mass, Popes, Cardinals, a man called “the pastor,” infant
baptism, Trinity, holy relics, candles, prayer books, church buildings, or — the
“second coming”! The Spirit of God has
dealt with me powerfully through many years that the Lord’s people should purge
their vocabulary and terminology, and remove even from their consciousness the
multitude of non-scriptural and extra-biblical expressions carried over from
the house of the harlot, Mystery Babylon.
We have both parroted and coined a great many unscriptural terms that
have been so misleading and have lead us astray in our understanding of the
scriptures and the wonderful plan of God.
We
have been so completely saturated, so thoroughly brain-washed in the errors of
the carnal church systems of man that we do by rote and speak by habit the
ridiculous absurdities imbibed in the pews of Babylon.
How astounded we are when once we learn the truth and discover that the cherished teaching or
hallowed practice we have unwittingly assumed
to be godly and spiritual truth is not only unfounded in the holy
scriptures, but actually an abomination in the sight of God! And this term — “the second coming of Christ”
— is not scriptural, either, and cannot be found anywhere in the Bible; yet it has influenced the thinking
and teaching of most Christians to accept and believe concepts that simply are
not true. We have been so confused in our
thinking that everything in the scriptures pertaining to the coming of the
Lord, His appearing, His manifestation have to fit into His coming as a man two
millenniums ago, or to His so-called “second coming” when every eye shall see
Him. This is wrong. Very wrong.
May
the blessed Spirit of God come speedily with His coal of fire from off the holy
altar of Eternal Truth and forever sanctify our speech! The “second coming of Christ” is not a biblical
phrase. It has no scriptural
warrant. It is my deep conviction that
it should be discarded altogether, for it is the cause of much confusion of
thought and not a little outright error.
Many texts
speak of the coming of Christ, the coming of the Son of man, the coming of the
Lord, or similar phrases. But if you
consult any Bible Concordance such as Strong’s and look up the word “second”
you will find that it never occurs
with a word that can be translated “coming.”
There is one passage in Hebrews that does say this: “So Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear
the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:28). This beautiful passage, however, is not
referring to Christ coming to earth a “second time.” The writer is drawing the picture of the ministry
of the Old Testament high priest when he went into the Most Holy Place
of the tabernacle on the day of atonement to offer the blood of atonement upon
the mercy seat for the remission of the sins of the people. It was there, in the Most Holy Place, before the throne of the
Lord, that the high priest “appeared” in the presence of God on behalf of the
sins of every Israelite. He is saying
that Christ is now our great high priest, and just a few verses above the
passage we quoted above he shows how our Lord, after His death as our
sacrifice, took His own blood and entered in, not to the Holy Places made with
hands, but into heaven itself, now to APPEAR in the presence of God for us (Heb.
9:24). Christ “showed up” as it were,
before God, with His atoning blood, on
behalf of the sins of all humanity. And
just as the high priest of Israel
went into the Most Holy Place
to “appear”
before God with the blood, and once the sacrifice was accepted, he came
out of that Most Holy Place
to “appear”
a second time, not this time in the Most Holy Place before
God, but now in the Outer Court before the people, sin having been
dealt with; and just as he “appeared” this second time before the people free
from sin and bringing salvation, SO
shall He appear this second time UNTO THEM THAT LOOK FOR HIM, WITHOUT SIN, UNTO
SALVATION! It is in the “Outer Court” of our
spiritual experience that we “see” Christ as our Saviour. Can we not see by this that this “second
appearing” has nothing to do with His “second coming” to earth — instead, it is
His high priestly appearing before the Father in heaven contrasted with His appearing unto us bringing His full and free
salvation! HIS PRIESTHOOD is the whole
theme of the book o f Hebrews. That is
the mystery.
How
often our hearts have thrilled as we
have read the many wonderful passages concerning the coming again of our
Lord! But the preachers, when preaching
from these texts, always add the word
“second” to each one, and proceed to preach on
“the second coming of Christ”! They invariably add the word “second” to every
“coming” in the New Testament, and then add the “second coming of Christ” to
nearly every chapter in the Bible — even in the Old Testament. Adding “second” to the word “coming” does
violence to the meaning every time.
Jesus did not say, “the second coming of the Son of man.” James did not say, “Be patient therefore,
brethren, unto the second coming of the Lord.”
Peter did not ask, “Where is the promise of His second coming?” Paul
did not say, “Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall
destroy…with the brightness of His second coming.” Jesus did not tell John on Patmos,
“And, behold, I come the second time quickly.”
There is no justification whatever for adding “second” to any of these
inspired passages or to the scores of others that speak of His coming. I have all the confidence in the world that the
Holy Spirit inspired them to be written exactly as they should be written —
without the word second! You will have
to rewrite the entire New Testament to support the doctrine of the “second
coming” of the Lord. The “second coming”
is not a scriptural expression and first
occurred among Christians as late as the middle of the second century after
Christ. I cannot emphasize too strongly that the word “second” is never used in holy writ with the word
“coming.” That is the simple and plain
and incontrovertible truth, and this fact is elementary and basic to a correct
understanding of the coming of the Lord!
We
have been led to think in terms of the first coming and the second coming,
whereas the Bible speaks in terms of the progressive revelation of Jesus Christ. Our God does not talk about the “first
coming” and the “second coming” — He talks about the progressive revelation of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. For
example, let us take a look at that thought in Micah 5:2, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the
thousands of Judah,
yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me who is to be Ruler in Israel, whose
goings forth have been of old, from
everlasting (Hebrew: from the days of antiquity).” Notice, His “goings forth.” The plural is used. The goings forth of the Lord speak about the
Lord Jesus Christ! Now, the idea of
“goings” has to do with the onward marching of God — the on-going revelation of
Himself and the progressive unfolding of His purpose, step by step. This is what is indicated here. This is what history is all about, the
progressive revelation of Jesus Christ, the marching forward of God, visitation
after visitation, revelation after revelation, the ever-increasing unveiling of
Himself to man.
The
term “second coming” implies that there has been only one coming of Christ thus
far. That is not true! It may surprise you to learn that the
scripture does not treat His coming at Bethlehem
as an isolated event. Although it is
important, it is not considered out of proportion to other and comparable
events. His coming as a man was a step in
the development of God’s plan for redemption of the world. Actually, Bethlehem is one in a series of appearances of Christ into the world! The pages of the Old Testament are literally
sprinkled with the accounts of the Lord’s comings, beginning in Eden’s
blest garden and continuing through all generations of old. On the very day that man sinned he heard the
Voice (the Word, Christ) walking in the
garden in the cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8).
The casual way in which this is stated indicates that this was a normal event,
perhaps a daily appointed time at which the Lord manifested His presence to
communicate to the man He had placed on this planet. We know of a certainty that the Lord had appeared
to both Adam
and Eve before this because, when the Lord formed Eve, He then “brought her
unto the man” (Gen. 2:22). The Lord
freely conversed with them following their transgression, and the Lord still
walked among men even after Adam was banished from
the garden, for Cain, after he slew Abel, “went out from the presence of the
Lord, and dwelt in the land
of Nod”
(Gen. 4:16).
In
Genesis 17:1 we find that “The Lord appeared unto Abraham.” In Genesis 17:22 it says, “God left off
talking to Abraham, and went up from
Him.” Interesting, isn’t it, that
the mount of Olives was not the first time or place where the Lord ascended!
In Genesis 18:1 we read, “And the Lord appeared unto him.” Then in Genesis 18:33, “The Lord went His way, as soon as He left
communing with Abraham.” In Genesis
26:24 we see that “the Lord appeared unto him (Isaac) the same night, and said,
I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee.” In Genesis 35:7 it says, “And he (Jacob)
built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el (the house of God):
because there God appeared unto him.”
The Lord appeared unto Moses in the burning bush and spoke to him out of
the fire (Ex. 3:15-16). After Moses had
led the children of Israel
out of Egypt Christ walked among
them in mighty manifestation of power and glory and provision. When the tabernacle in the wilderness was
erected, “the Lord appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud (His
coming in a cloud is nothing new, either!)” (Deut. 31:15). He did not just visit them, He dwelt in their midst in the Holiest of all, appeared there
continually in His glory, and communed with Moses and Aaron. And then we read that “they drank of that
spiritual Rock which followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (I Cor. 10:4).
The “rock” which gave water to the thirsty multitude was not a native
rock of the desert where they were, for it was a special rock, it was a traveling
rock which went along with them, it was a spiritual rock — it was a Christophany
— an appearance and manifestation of Christ! And just as Jesus in Galilee
fed five thousand people from five loaves and two fish, so He supplied water
out of the Rock which He was to two
million Israelites in the
desert! So, it’s a little late, my
friend, to tell me that the coming of Jesus in flesh two thousand years ago was
the “first coming” of Christ!
The
Lord again came to Israel
in the wilderness in another form. “And
the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto
thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak unto thee…and mount Sinai
was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it…and the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top
of the mount” (Ex. 19:9,18-20). In the
days of Samuel the prophet “the Lord appeared…in Shiloh: for the Lord
(continually) revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh”
(I Sam. 3:21). In II Chronicles 3:1 the
“Lord appeared unto David…in the place that David had prepared in the
threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.”
In I Kings 3:5 the Lord appeared to Solomon. And this star-studded record of the Lord’s
comings in the Old Testament times takes on special significance when Israel
exclaims, “The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore
with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jer. 31:3). Ah, yes — “His goings forth have been of old,
from the times of antiquity!”
We
dare not lose sight of the fact that our Lord has already had many comings,
many appearings. We have limited the
comings of Christ strictly to two because of our unscriptural terms “first
coming” and “second coming,” whereas the truth is that He came; He continued to
come; He comes; He continues to come; He will come; and He will continue to
come! There are also numerous “comings”
and “appearings” of the Lord in the New Testament. BUT THEY DO NOT ALL REFER TO THE SAME EVENT. The word “coming” is very often used in
scripture of a visitation or manifestation of the Lord to judge or bless or
accomplish some specific aspect of His great plan and purpose among His people
and in the earth. One would think,
listening to the preachers carrying on about “the second coming of Christ,”
that every time the Lord says, “I will come,” He is speaking of one, specific,
particular, singular event sometime out in the future. I do not hesitate to tell you that this is a great error.
Revelation
2:5 tells of a coming of our
Lord. “Remember therefore from whence
thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will
remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” Since Jesus had gone, a coming of Jesus would certainly be a return. So what does the
Lord say? He warns the church at Ephesus that if it does
not repent, “I WILL COME…QUICKLY!” “I
will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his
place.” Have you noticed that the
terminology the Lord uses is precisely the same as in our text?
“Behold, I come quickly.” And yet — almost any preacher on earth
will tell you that the Lord’s coming quickly upon the church at Ephesus is not the “second coming,” but His promise
to come quickly in Revelation 22:12 is the
“second coming”! There can be
no doubt — the childish traditions of the church systems have clouded
men’s minds with darkness and have hung a veil of blindness over their eyes!
There
is neither time nor space to discuss in detail all of these comings and
appearings of the Lord in one brief
article, so we will mention them only briefly in passing. On the day of Pentecost Christ came again as
the Comforter. “And I will pray the
Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you
forever; even the Spirit of Truth: whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye
know Him; for He dwelleth with you (in the person of Jesus), and shall
be in you. I will not leave you
comfortless (orphans): I WILL COME
UNTO YOU. Yet a little while, and the
world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall
live also. At that day (when I come unto you) ye
shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I IN YOU…if a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father
will love him, and WE WILL COME UNTO HIM, and make our abode with him” (Jn.
14:16-20,23).
Ten
days after that little group of ardent disciples stood gazing up into the
heavens in bewilderment, wondering at the phenomenon of their beloved Master
rising bodily from their midst and disappearing into the cloud, they were
startled by another manifestation of the miraculous. It was the day of Pentecost, and as they were
waiting and praying in the upper room in Jerusalem,
the power of God manifested itself in their midst. Had not the messengers declared, “This same
Jesus shall so come in like manner AS YE HAVE SEEN HIM GO INTO HEAVEN?” And now, when the day of Pentecost had fully
come, suddenly “there C-A-M-E
F-R-O-M H-E-A-V-E-N a sound as of
a rushing mighty wind…and there APPEARED UNTO THEM cloven tongues (the Logos,
the Word) like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost…” Ah, it was the fulfillment of
the messenger’s promise unto them, this SAME JESUS had returned in mighty Spirit power, they heard Him come, He came from heaven, and they SAW Him
come, even as they had seen Him go into heaven!
Can you not see the mystery?
Their
minds were now enlightened with a better understanding of those things yet to
come in the outworking of the Father’s plan and purpose. They had been assured that their Lord would
return. The messengers had said that
“this same” Jesus would so come “in like manner” as they had seen Him taken
into heaven. But not until the Spirit of
the ascended Lord came upon them and into them at Pentecost did they begin to
understand the meaning of His “return.”
Their faith had been strained by the fact that His ministry had come to
such an abrupt and fatal end, and before many of the promises of God concerning
the work of the Messiah had been fulfilled.
But now He was here again — and this time IN A MANY-MEMBERED BODY! Please don’t write to me explaining that the
disciples were still expecting the Lord to come years after the day of
Pentecost had come and gone, certainly they were expecting the Lord, for He
comes in many-faceted ways, just as He did in the Old Testament, as we will
show more plainly in a moment; but this particular coming of the Lord on the
day of Pentecost was clearly prophesied by the Lord Himself, and He came just
as He promised, praise His wonderful
name! “I will not leave you comfortless:
I WILL COME UNTO YOU.” And Paul
says, “Now THE LORD is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty” (II Cor. 3:17).
As
our spiritual senses are awakened, the Christ comes to us within
ourselves. His comings are many and the
timings and purposes wrought out in us by them are of Him. But they are all designed to cause us to cast
off the earthly image and to grow up into the heavenly image. They are to cleanse, purify, judge, correct,
encourage, strengthen, mature, and transform us into the full stature of the
Son of God. Let us look at some of the
many facets of His coming. In Mark 13:26
He comes with CLOUDS. In Matthew 24:27
He comes as LIGHTNING. In Revelation
16:15 He comes as a THIEF. In Matthew
25:6 He comes as the BRIDEGROOM. In
Revelation 2:28 and 22:16 He comes as the MORNING STAR. In Malachi 4:2 He comes as the SUN OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS ARISING. In Malachi 3:1-3
He comes as REFINER’S FIRE and FULLER’S SOAP. In Philippians
3:20-21 He comes in RESURRECTION POWER.
In II Thessalonians 1:7-8 He comes in FLAMING FIRE. In I Thessalonians 4:16-17 He comes IN THE
AIR. In Hosea 6:3 and James 5:7-8 He
comes as RAIN. In Revelation 19:11 &
14 He comes ON A WHITE HORSE IN WARFARE.
In Matthew 25:31-34 He comes as KING. In I Peter 5:4 He comes as the CHIEF SHEPERD. In Matthew 16:27 He comes WITH HIS
ANGELS. In Jude 14 He comes WITH HIS
SAINTS. In John 14:18 He comes TO HIS
SAINTS. In II Thessalonians 1:10 He
comes IN HIS SAINTS — GLORIFIED. In Jude
14-15 He comes in JUDGMENT. In
Revelation 22:12 He comes WITH REWARDS. Time
and space fail me to tell of how He comes leaping upon the mountains and
skipping upon the hills, He comes with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, with the trump of God; He comes to the mount of Olives, He comes to
His temple, He comes in glory, He comes as Lord, He comes in His kingdom, He
comes as seasons of refreshing, and on and on and on… Oh, He comes in ever so many ways, when we
think not, but in His every coming He comes to take us away from our personal
sense of self and bring us into union with Himself. He comes to make us sons of God!
Like
a choir of many voices and as the sound of many waters, the testimony of the
Word of God resounds with abundant and stunning and inescapable evidence that
the coming of Christ is not a single event, but includes many different
manifestations. His coming to each of us
is a many-sided experience. To multitudes
He appears as Saviour. They find Him at
the crossroads of their lives. He
becomes their salvation but they never
venture any deeper to know Him intimately.
They have only a superficial knowledge and experience of Him. To others He appears as Chief Shepherd and
Bridegroom. They hear His voice and are
moved by His love, and follow on to purify and prepare themselves to know Him
in deeper measures of intimacy and union.
To others He appears as a Thief. He comes into their world uninvited and
unannounced, He overtakes them unexpectedly and breaks up their life style and smashes their
religious games. He apprehends them as
He did Saul of Tarsus suddenly on the road to Damascus, and calls them to a walk they never even dreamed existed. And unto others He appears as Fire, consuming
their hay, wood, and stubble, eliminating by the spirit of burning all that is
of self and not of God, and refining the gold of their inner man. Oh, yes!
The coming of the Lord is as many-faceted as the most dazzling crystal of
earth or the most beautiful diamond known to man!
If
the coming of the Lord is not a progressive revelation in many manifestations,
then, pray tell me, which of the many “comings” enumerated above IS THE SECOND
COMING? When He says, speaking of the
Comforter the Father would send, “I will not leave you orphans: I WILL COME TO YOU,” is that the
“second coming”? Or when He says, “I
will come unto you as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth,”
is that
manifestation His “second coming”?
Or is it when He comes as lightning — as sudden, bright flashes of revelation —
or as the sun of righteousness rising with healing in His wings bringing in the
full day of the knowledge and power of the Lord? Or is it when He comes as the Bridegroom, or
as the King, or with a shout, or with His saints, or in His saints? Paul
said that Jesus would come with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
the trump of God. Yet the Lord Jesus
Himself declared that He would come as a thief.
Certainly thieves do not blow trumpets and shout! Nor did Jesus blow trumpets and shout, nor did
He ride a white horse with armies following Him, nor did He have a sword coming
out of His mouth when He ascended from the mount of Olives, yet the literalist
preachers are sticklers for the idea that He must return literally and
physically “in like manner” as the disciples saw Him go into heaven. And it would seem that if He came as rain and
as fire at the same time, the rain would put out the fire!
But
these are not contradictions. They are
word pictures to help our finite minds comprehend more clearly some of the
great factors involved in the on-going
coming of Christ and what His coming means to the whole creation. When we put all these together and add to
them all the other illustrations of the Bible pertaining to Christ’s coming, we
begin to understand that what we are to look for is not a human being coming
down through the literal clouds, setting fire to the earth and toppling the
mountains, but mighty manifestations of the risen and glorified and ascended
and enthroned Lord of heaven and earth, leading to the transformation of mankind
from selfishness and hatred to compassion and love; from war and destruction to
peace and reconstruction; from dead in trespasses and sins to alive in Christ;
from the carnal mind to the precious mind that was in Christ Jesus; from
sickness, sorrow, and death to health, happiness, and life; from funeral
processions to the quickening power of
His resurrection!
And
hence it is that so very few Christians have really scriptural or spiritual
thoughts about the coming of their Lord.
They are looking into prophecy for the church’s hope — but they confound
the “sun of righteousness” with the “morning star” — they mix up the coming of
Christ “with His saints” and His
coming “in His saints” and then speak
mostly of Him coming “for His
saints,” which expression is not even in
the Book! They have not the foggiest
notion what is the difference in time or manifestation between His coming as
Rain or His coming as Fire; His coming as Saviour or His coming as Lord; His
coming as Lightning or His coming with Clouds; His coming as Bridegroom, or His
coming as King. Not very many know when or
how the Lord comes in any of His manifestations, therefore, they cannot know
how to MEET HIM!
These
are not things we can figure out with the natural mind for we must spiritually discern and respond to the
Lord’s comings in our midst and in our individual
lives. Jesus said, “Occupy till I
come.” In the midst of all our activity we are to ever
look for His comings! We must be spiritually
perceptive and awake at all times. Then,
recognizing His presence and turning aside from all that would distract, we can
move with Him in His visitation. As we
respond to His comings, be it in blessing, refreshing, quickening,
enlightenment, Lordship, fellowship, transformation — or in correction,
judgment, stripping, purging, or cleansing — we shall come to KNOW HIM in all
His glorious and eternal reality and be made like Him as His very own sons and
daughters in the earth. Oh, listen for
the sound of His comings!
Jesus
is coming again and again,
Coming in glory and power —
Not
just the future, and not just the past,
But coming each moment and hour.
He
is a river of Life
flowing free,
Has no beginning or end —
He
never leaves
or forsakes us because
He’s coming again and again!
— Anne Ashworth Speegle
“Behold,
I come quickly…” (Rev. 3:11; 22:12;
22:20).
There
is an important and sublime truth contained in these beautiful words. The word “quickly” is from the Greek tachu meaning shortly, without delay, swiftly,
speedily, or suddenly. While there is
significant truth, little understood by the average Christian or preacher, in
each shade of meaning of this word, it is to the thought of the speediness or suddenness of the Lord’s coming that I would now draw your reverent
attention. When John uses this word, he
is not using it in the sense of time in terms of hours, days, months, or years,
but in the sense of events happening suddenly and in rapid succession once they
begin. This principle of suddenness adheres to almost all the
“appearings” and “comings” of the Lord.
Look closely for a moment at the following examples: “Behold, I will
send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom
ye seek, shall suddenly come to His
temple…He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts…and He shall sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as
gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in
righteousness” (Mal. 3:1,3). Here is a
great one: “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house
cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest
coming suddenly he find you sleeping”
(Mk. 13:35-36). “And suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men” (Lk. 2:13-14). “And suddenly
there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled
all the house where they were sitting.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:2-4).
Then
there is poor Saul of Tarsus, who ran headlong into a blinding “suddenly.” “And it came to pass, that, as I made my
journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus
about noon, suddenly there shown from
heaven a great light round about me. And
I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why
persecuteth thou me?” (Acts 22:6-7). It
was there that the Lord “appeared” unto Saul, transforming him into Paul the
apostle. The angels’ sudden appearance
at the birth of the Christ child was “in the fullness of time.” Centuries of prophetic voices accumulated
until one night they poured out on a Judean
hillside, scattering excited shepherds into a hasty search for the Messiah’s
birthplace. Pentecost took place because
its time had “fully come,” and suddenly the Spirit of the ascended and
glorified Christ Jesus swept gloriously into the lives of those waiting for the
promise. Things happen swiftly,
speedily, suddenly in our individual
lives, in the midst of the Lord’s people, and among the peoples and nations of
earth because the time comes when God is ready to act, and suddenly He comes!
And we are admonished by the Lord to watch diligently for His
coming, “lest coming suddenly He find
you sleeping!”
Thou
shalt know Him when He comes,
Not
by any din of drums,
Nor
the vantage of His airs,
Nor
by anything He wears;
Neither
by His crown,
But
His presence known shall be
By
the holy harmony
Which His coming makes in thee.
“And,
behold, I come quickly; and my reward is
with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”
Two
things are said concerning “works” in the book of Revelation. Of the overcomer it is stated that their
works “follow them.” “Blessed are the
dead which die (to self and the world) in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith
the Spirit, that they may rest from their
labors; and their works do follow
them” (Rev. 14:13). Rest from “our
labors,” His works raised up in us — these are the works that “follow
us,” just as signs are said to follow those who believe! The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us
that this glorious gospel “at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was
confirmed unto us by them which heard Him; God also bearing them witness, both
with signs
and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according
to His will…” Then we read, “These signs
shall FOLLOW THEM THAT BELIEVE…” (Mk. 16:17). When John writes that “their works
do follow them,” the Greek text
reads, “their deeds, business.” Their
business is the Father’s business; thus
we could say of these sons, THEIR MINISTRY FOLLOWS THEM. It is not that they are out “beating the
bushes” trying to stir something up for the kingdom of God. Rather, like Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who “walked with
God, and was not, for God took him,” the “taking” was the result of his “walk”
with God, it was just naturally that which “followed.” When we cease from our own labors, becoming
workers together with God, results will automatically follow such a resting and
relationship with the Father.
The
second thing said concerning “works” in the book of Revelation is that the Lord
comes to reward every man according as
his work shall be. Please notice, my brother, my sister,
God is not here speaking of work that is in the past, work that has already
been accomplished, but of work that shall be.
The traditional view has been that we work for the Lord
throughout our lifetime on earth, then at the end of the age Christ comes and
hands out rewards for our faithfulness.
There is undoubtedly truth in that thought too, as Paul says in II
Timothy 4:6-8, but clearly here, in the Greek text of the passage now under consideration,
the work is future tense — according as his work shall be. Oh, yes, God still has much work to
be done in His great and eternal kingdom, for His plan is the plan of the ages,
and in the ages yet to come every son and daughter of the Lord will be about
their Father’s business until all creation is redeemed, restored, transformed,
and brought into the full measure of His Life — God all in all — EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE! Christ will be present in every work we do,
for we rest from “our labors,” to be about our Father’s business. And every kingdom work we perform will
immediately yield its own “reward,” Christ present and glorified within us will
advance us from glory to glory unto glory indescribable and incomprehensible! Isn’t it wonderful!
In
a very real sense, God owns us. The
apostle Paul
reminds us, “For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body
and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Cor. 6:20). The great King of this kingdom expects to see
a profit for all of His time, effort, and sacrifice. God, of course, is not interested in making
money. He already owns everything. God is in the business of developing His
family — sons with character. If those of us who are called now succeed
in qualifying for positions of rulership, we will in turn be able to help
millions of others become worthy citizens of the kingdom. We are not power hungry, seeking position for
position’s sake. Oh, no! But in any kingdom, the higher one advances
in the government of that kingdom, the
more potential and ability he possesses to serve and bless others. To put it in business terms, our future profit
to the kingdom of
God
will more than make up for our present losses — if we stay with the organization
and apply the new lessons! Saints are
capable of making costly mistakes. Have
you ever felt that God has given up on you?
Do you feel like you are wasting
His time? Sometimes our mistakes can be
very costly to us, too! Have you ever
felt that the cost was too high, and that you are wasting your time? Let’s see what God says: “Being confident of
this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
God
has great plans for us! I feel sure
that, unworthy servant that I am, my reward for what I have done thus far will
be small and paltry indeed! But our
Father is investing in us today with every intention of making a profit, an
increase in His investment, and expanding His kingdom. Our all-wise Father sees our potential. He knows our capacity to grow and develop. He is keener
at discerning it than we are. He is also
very aware of our weakness, and is ready to help. “I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me,” said Paul. The children of God make a lot of mistakes,
for children are children. Our ability
to learn from our mistakes is part of what God uses to build character in us. In the Revelation we read that it is the
overcomers — those who don’t leave God’s school or resign from His calling —
who ultimately are given power in His kingdom.
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even
as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne” (Rev. 3:21). “For everyone to whom much is given, from him
much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will
ask the more” (Lk. 12:48). Have you made
costly mistakes? Have you been stumbling
and seemingly wasting God’s time? Don’t
give up! Don’t resign! Don’t drop out of God’s school! His investment in you is too great! He will see you through!
Graduation day is coming! Then
the real work will begin! Right now we’re just “working our way”
through school! The positions in His
authority and government and glory are waiting!
Learn the lessons that will help you to better serve in the kingdom of God. If you do, great heavenly wealth and power
and opportunity lie ahead for you in the age and the ages to come. Through you creation will be lifted,
redeemed, restored to life and liberty and glory — and that’s where the real
profit begins! “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give
every man according as his work shall be.”
Let
us learn our lessons well — and let us never
presume that we have attained to something in God that we have not yet
qualified for. And let us never grasp after a
place or position the Father has not conferred upon us. There is no need to DECLARE OUR OWN SONSHIP —
the Father Himself declares His sons. “This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
This is my Son, hear ye Him.”
Some today have grown weary of waiting for the manifestation God has
promised, so they have “watered down” the hope and settled for a lesser
reality, declaring themselves sons of the kingdom on a lower plane than God has
called us to. Some have settled for a
“revival” realm, some for a “New
Testament Church”
realm and now speak disparagingly of what they term “classical sonship.” These impetuous and unreliable souls just
can’t wait for the Father’s appointed time! The place that God has called us to will
be in His time, not ours. “The heir, as
long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of
all; but is under tutors (in God’s school) and governors until the time appointed of the Father” (Gal. 4:1-2). Press on, saints of God!
To be continued… J. PRESTON EBY