HOPE OF THE LORD’S COMING
Inspired men did teach that the Lord is coming again; but when men affirm that the Holy Spirit taught the early Christians to expect the Lord to come the second time in their day, they virtually accuse the Holy Spirit of raising hopes that they knew would not be realized. We would expect infidels to argue that inspired men taught things that turned out not to be true. But the idea is so abhorrent to any one who believes in the infallibility of the Holy Spirit and the absolute truthfulness of everything he taught that it seems that no one could for a moment regard it as a harmless guess or as a matter about which we need not be concerned. However, if the apostles did teach such doctrine, we will have to acknowledge that they did, even though it leads us to discredit the certainty of their teaching. But did they teach it? Is there any justice, reason, or foundation for putting them under such a cloud of suspicion? Emphatically, no!
An argument to support the theory is built on a misunderstanding of the word “hope.” We are told that the apostles taught the early Christians to hope for the Lord’s coming, and that hope is made up of desire and expectation, all of which is true. But they assume that to hope for a thing is to expect it immediately, or at any moment. Their own contention on the word “hope” robs them of any hope of a millenial kingdom; for they all contend that the Jews must return to Palestine, Rome be developed again into a great empire, and then some years of great tribulation must pass before the millenial kingdom is set up. With their idea of hope, they can hope for nothing except that which may occur at any moment. But they are wrong in their contention on hope. We plant a crop, hoping for a good harvest; but no one is simple enough to think the harvest may come at any moment. The man who gives a large sum of money to build a college or hospital hopes to benefit generations unborn. We may lend, hoping to receive. Certainly no one makes a loan expecting the return at any moment. They are, therefore, wrong in assuming that imminency inheres in expectancy. And they are wrong also as to the basis of expectation. Expectation must have more than conjecture, more than mere probability, for a basis. I earnestly desire the Lord to come while I live, but I do not expect him to do so, for I have nothing on which to base such an expectation. But you ask, “Do you not think that the Lord might come while you live?” Certainly, but expectation must be based on something more substantial than what may or may not be. If the Lord should plainly tell me that he would come while I live, I would have grounds for expecting him to come before I die. But the Lord has never told any generation that he would come during the life of that generation, and for that reason no one has ever expected the Lord to come while he lived. If the apostles had taught the early Christians that the Lord would come in their day, then they could have expected him to come. But if the apostles had so taught, they would have taught falsely, for the Lord did not come then. But they did not so teach, and therefore the early Christians did not expect his return in their day. And yet they did, as do all Christians today, expect him to come at some period, for he said he would. They may have desired that he come in their day, and we may desire him to come in our day; but they had no grounds upon which to expect him to come then, neither have we any grounds for expecting him to come in our day.
The coming of the Lord is to be earnestly desired, and yet the thought of his coming fills one with dread and awe. Yet we are told that such feelings indicate that there is something wrong with us, just as there is something wrong with a wife if she feels uneasy at the home-coming of a good husband. We are reminded that the faithful wife gladly meets the devoted husband when he returns from a journey, and that children joyfully run to meet their father when he comes home, and this should be our attitude and feeling when the Lord comes. If we tremble at his presence, there is something wrong! Is it possible that any one so thinks? Does any one really think that we can meet the Lord on the same basis that one human being meets another? To teach that we should have such feeling of familiarity as a wife has toward her husband or as children have toward their father is hurtful to piety and reverence. If the author of the foregoing illustrations does not mean all this, his illustrations do not mean anything. For years I have had an earnest desire that the Lord come while I live, and yet I know that when I appear before him in his majesty and glory, I shall, like the beloved John, fall at his feet as one dead. (Rev. 1:17.) I cannot think that any Christian will feel otherwise. When Jehovah spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, “Moses trembled, and durst not behold.” (Acts 7:32.) Was there something wrong with Moses and the beloved John? But the author who presented the aforementioned illustrations is wrong, as he himself will learn when he appears in the presence of the Judge of all the earth.