THE PAROUSIA OF OUR LORD JESUS AND HIS SUBSEQUENT APOKALUPSIS AND EPIPHANIA– AT HIS SECOND ADVENT. –

We live at a time when many in the profess church say that the Lord’s second advent is near even at the door, and who claim to be awake and watching, but alas how few of these are truly awake, and who are looking in the right direction. The foregoing we present for the benefit of those who are TRULY awake, those who have ears to hear what the spirit is saying (the holy spirit speaking to them through the Word of God). It is to these especially that we present this subject, that they should not be left in darkness as to the Parousia of our Lord as is the rest of the world, as well as the worldly or nominal church.

“Watch, therefore; for ye know not the day your Lord doth come.” What I say unto you, I say unto all [believers], Watch.” – Matt 24:42; Mark 13:37  

Whatever the character of the watching, and whatever the thing to be looked for, there can be no question that the exhortation to watch for an event whose precise time is not stated, implies that when the event does take place, the watching ones will know it. Watch, because ye know not, in order that at the proper time ye may know, is the thought; and the intimation clearly is, that those who do not watch will not know: that the events which are to be known in due time to the Watchers, will be recognized by them, and not recognized by others, at the time of accomplishment.

This, the only logical interpretation of our Lord’s exhortation, is fully corroborated by several of the apostles. The Apostle Paul urges us, saying: “Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night; for when they [the world, unbelievers] 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” (1 Thess 5:2-4); because, being children of the light ye, brethren, will be watching and be enlightened and taught of the Lord.

The Apostle Peter suggests the means by which the Lord will teach us, and informs us respecting our location upon the path of “the just which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” He shows that it will not be by miraculous revelations, nor by dreams; but through the Word of testimony, the Bible. He says,

“We have the more-sure (the more reliable) word of prophecy, (the prophecies contained in the Holy Scriptures) whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light which shineth in a dark place (this present evil world), until the Day dawn, and the Day-star arise in your hearts.” – 2 Pet 1:19.

The united testimony of these Scriptures teaches us that, although it was neither proper nor possible for the Lord’s people to know in advance, anything definite, respecting the exact time of the second presence of the Lord Jesus, and the establishment of his Kingdom, yet when the due time would come the faithful ones, the watchers, would be informed, – would not be left in darkness with the world.

It is vain to urge, as contradicting this, our Lord’s statement, “Of that day and hour knows no man; no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” (Mark 13:32).

Those who use this Scripture to prove to themselves and to others that no man will ever know anything respecting the time of the second advent, find it to prove too much, and thus spoil their own argument; for if it means that no man will ever know, it must similarly mean that no angel will ever know, and that the Son himself will never know. This, evidently, would be an absurd construction to place upon the passage.

The Son did not know at the time he uttered this statement; the angels did not know THEN; and no man knew THEN; but the Son certainly must know of the time of his own second advent, at least a little while before it takes place; the angels also, must know a little while before it takes place; and the true children of God, the “watchers,” as we have seen above, are to watch in order that they, too, may know at the proper season and not be in darkness, in ignorance, with the world; and that their watching shall be rewarded is guaranteed: – “None of the wicked shall understand; but the wise [in heavenly wisdom] shall understand.” – Dan 12:10.

FOR WHAT ARE WE WATCHING?

This is an important question. Many of God’s people have been offended, “stumbled,” as respects the doctrine of the second coming of our dear Redeemer, by reason of peculiar, extravagant, unreasonable, illogical and unscriptural views on the subject, presented by some, who professedly love the Lord’s appearing, known as Second Adventists.

But this is all wrong; we are not to reject one of the grandest and most prominent doctrines of the Scripture, simply because some fellow-Christians have erred egregiously respecting the matter, and brought a certain amount of worldly-wise contempt upon everything connected with this subject. On the contrary, this doctrine, as a glorious gem, should be given the first place among the precious jewels of divine truth, where it can cast its halo and splendor and brilliancy over all connected and related promises and blessings. It should not be left in the imperfect setting which hides its glory and beauty, but should be recovered, remounted, set in its true place, to the glory of God and to the blessing of all who are sincerely and truly his people.

We need offer no apology for the interest which we feel in this grand subject, which is the center upon which all the testimony of divine grace, through all the holy prophets, is focused. Rather do they need to apologize who, knowing that next to the doctrine of the atonement for sin, the second coming of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead hold the most important places in the Scriptures, have nevertheless neglected this, while they have quarreled, skirmished, fought and bled over trifling things of no real importance, doctrinally or otherwise.

Our watching is to be for the second coming of him who redeemed us; who said, “If I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself.” The watching is to be specially with the thought that our Lord Jesus comes at his second advent, in the majesty and glory of the Father, King of kings and Lord of lords. The watching includes not only the thought of the second presence of our Lord, as King, but it has attached to it the wonderful results which are promised to flow from the coming of the King; for the coming of the King means the coming of the Kingdom for which he taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” And the coming of our Master, the King, and the establishment of this glorious Kingdom mean the fulfilment of the long-waited-for promise made to the seed of Abraham; the promise which Israel after the flesh was not found worthy to inherit; the promise for which God has been selecting the members of the Bride of Christ during this Gospel age, to be with the Lord Jesus, and his joint-heir in carrying out his beneficent provisions; the promise which is sure, but which has never yet had, in any sense of the word, a fulfilment; the promise which reads, “In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

Watching implies hoping, and it also implies waiting. We are waiting for what the Apostle terms “that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” who shall transform his Church to his own spiritual image and likeness, in order that we (once “changed“) may be like him, see him as he is, and share his glory, and be associated with him in his great work of bringing in the Millennial blessings to the world of mankind. Nevertheless, this waiting time and hoping time is a time of more or less tribulation, not only on the world, which still lies under the yoke of sin, and under the blinding influences of Satan, but also to the waiting, hoping and watching Church, of whom the Apostle says, “We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the deliverance [from death] of our body” – (Not our physical bodies, our present bodies as some suggest, but rather the body as a whole, that is), the body of Christ, of which we are members in particular. – Rom 8:23.

Continued with next post.