15. What will take place at this time?
“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Verse 2.
Notes.—At the resurrection of Christ there was a special resurrection, when many of the saints were raised from the dead, were seen of many, and were taken to heaven with Christ at His ascension. Matt. 27:52, 53; Eph. 4:8. So, just prior to Christ's second coming and the general resurrection of the righteous, many of the sleeping saints, and some colossal sinners (those that “pierced Him,” Rev. 1:7), it seems, will be raised to witness His coming, and hear God's covenant of peace with His people.
This line of prophecy, therefore, brings us down to the resurrection of the righteous, which takes place at the second advent.
16. What false message will go forth before destruction comes upon those unprepared for Christ's coming and kingdom?
“For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, ... and they shall not escape.” 1 Thess. 5:2, 3.
Note.—The so-called Christian nations will not go to Palestine merely to expel the Turks from the land. As in the crusades of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the idea will be to rescue the Holy Land from the Mohammedans, and make Jerusalem the center of a glorious kingdom, with Christ as king. The Papacy itself, it is thought by some, will at this time remove its seat to Jerusalem, and issue a great peace proclamation, directing the nations to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, and calling upon all to come up to the mountain of the Lord, as described in Isa. 2:2-5 and Micah 4:1-5. Infatuated by the doctrine of a temporal millennium, many nations will join in the call, and say, “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Isa. 2:3. But this will be but the signal for the battle of Armageddon and the “sudden destruction” that is to overtake the world and bring to an end the present order of things. See Rev. 19:17-21; Eze. 38:14-23; 39:17-22. Toward this consummation passing events all indicate we are rapidly hastening.
Watchman on the walls of Zion,
What, O tell us, of the night?