“Two distinct advents are plainly taught in Scripture. The first, of Jesus’ birth as a Babe in Bethlehem, the second as ‘Son of Man’—glorified, who shall come in the clouds. Now, every Christian will admit, nay, more, the very worldling admits the fact that every Scripture relating to the first advent, as to time, place, circumstances, was literally fulfilled, even to the minutest detail. Then, in the name of common-sense, with the same covenant Scriptures in our hands, why should we not expect to see the predictions relating to the second advent also fulfilled to the very letter?
“We have our Lord’s own definite promise in John fourteen: ‘If I go, I will come again and receive you unto Myself.’ We are all agreed that He went. Well, in the same breath He said, ‘I will come again.’ Can any English be plainer—‘And receive you unto Myself?’ That promise cannot allude to conversion, and it certainly cannot allude to death, for death is a going to Him—if we are saved.
“This expectancy of Christ’s return for His people was the only hope of the early Church; and over and over again, in a variety of ways in the epistles it is shown to be the only hope of the Church, until that Church is taken out of the world, as a bride is taken by the bridegroom from her old home, to dwell henceforth in his. There never has been any comfort to bereaved ones in the thought of death, nor to any one of us who are living is there any comfort in the contemplation of death, save and except, of course, the thought of relief from weariness and suffering, and in being translated to a painless sphere, to be with Christ. But in the contemplation of the coming of Christ, when the dead in Christ shall rise, and those who are in Christ, who are still living when He comes, there is the certainty of the gladdest meeting when all are ‘caught up together in the air, to be for ever with the Lord.’ No waiting until the end of the world but, if He came this afternoon—and this may happen—you who have loved ones with Christ would that very instant meet them in the air, with your Lord.”
Tom Hammond listened intently to every word of the major’s, and, as Scripture after Scripture was referred to, he saw how the speaker’s statements were all verified by the Word of God.
“There are two points I would emphasize here,” the major went on. “First, that we must not confuse the second coming of the Lord—the coming in the air—for His saints, with that later coming, probably seven years after, when He shall come with His saints to reign.
“And, secondly, to those to whom this whole subject may be new, I would say, you must not confuse the second coming of our Lord with the end of the world. The uninstructed, inexperienced child of God feels a quaking of heart at all talk of such a coming.
“Such people shrink from the suddenness of it. They say that there is no preparatory sign to warn us of that coming. But that is not true.
“The Word of God gives many instructions as to the signs of Christ’s near return, and the hour we live in shows us these signs on every hand, so that it is only those who are ignorant of the Word of God, or those who are carelessly or wilfully blind to the signs around (and this applies, we grieve to say, as much to ministers as to people,) who fail to see how near must be the moment of our Lord’s return.
“The first sign of this return is an awakening of national life among the Jews, that shall immediately precede their return—in unbelief—to their own land. Please turn with me to Matthew twenty-four.”