It has sometimes been thought that a minute
investigation of the details of Scripture prophecy is needful in order to form
any judgment as to the manner in which the Scripture presents the second coming
of the Lord; and thus, if prophetic details are not understood, or if there is
a difficulty in the mind respecting them, the simple subject of the Lord's
coming is either left as one on which no judgment is formed, or else there is
an acquiescence of an indefinite kind in the opinions of someone who is
supposed (perhaps truly) to be more instructed in Scripture. But while all
prophetic details, if rightly learned from the Word of God, have their value in
this as in other respects, so far from a knowledge of such minute points being
needful as a pre-requisite, a definite apprehension of the manner in which the
Lord's second advent is taught in the Word of God, is the rather that which is
indispensably necessary as the antecedent qualification; for thus a Christian
mind may enter on the details of those prophecies which teach what shall be the
future, whether of the Jews, the Gentiles, or the Church of God. This follows
from that one event being the turning-point in the dispensational dealing of
God. If, then, we have to learn anything as to the details of revealed truth,
the primary point is, how our hope --the coming of the Lord Jesus-- is set
before us.
For if a detailed
acquaintance with prophetic expectations is needful before the Lord's coming
can be understood, how would it have been possible for the apostles, or for the
Lord Jesus himself, to have taught anything on the subject? How could they have
used it as animating hope, leading to watchfulness, sustaining under trial, or
purifying the believer? But they did so use it as a fact, the reality of which
was apprehended in such a manner that the circumstances could be taught and
enforced as to their moral bearings. A marked instance of this is given in the
conclusion of 1 Thessalonians 4.
The Apostle comforts the Thessalonian Christians concerning their departed
brethren, teaching them (what they seem not to have fully known) that the whole
“Church of the first-born” shall be gathered together at the coming of the
Lord; the dead being raised, and the living changed. He then tells them how the
Lord shall come: “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ
shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we
ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words”. [4] And this the 
most uninstructed Christian may do who
simply accepts the words of the Apostle as being the truth of God. The scene
presented is the very reverse of secrecy: the Lord comes with a shout; His call
shall wake the dead; but besides this, the voice of the archangel shall be also
heard; and, as if the notion of publicity were intended to be specially
enforced, there shall be the sounding of the trump of God. This is just what
Christ has promised in Matthew 24:31,
when He comes with the clouds of heaven. To say that this triple sound shall
not be heard by all, would be a mere addition to Holy Scripture of a kind that
contradicts its testimony. We might as well say that “every eye shall see Him”
means that He shall only be visible to some few. Above shall be heard the
shout, the voice, and the trumpet: on earth the graves of all the sleeping
family of faith shall be opened; the sleepers shall arise: and then those
living shall with them be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. This, as thus
set forth, ought to be our hope. It may have been needful to teach the
Thessalonians that the day of the Lord must still be waited for; that the falling
away and the revelation of the man of sin had first to take place; but
even these things connect themselves with the same hope; for this Head of evil
is he “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall
destroy with the brightness of His coming (2 Thessalonians 2:8). “It is a righteous thing with
God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are
troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed” (2 Thessalonians
1:6,7). Thus, at the revelation
of Christ from heaven, there shall be rest for His Church, and the destruction
of their oppressors. The date which the Spirit gives for both is the same. The
Church is called to “patience of hope”, and not to mere excitement of
speculative expectancy. “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and
into the patient waiting for Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5).
most uninstructed Christian may do who
simply accepts the words of the Apostle as being the truth of God. The scene
presented is the very reverse of secrecy: the Lord comes with a shout; His call
shall wake the dead; but besides this, the voice of the archangel shall be also
heard; and, as if the notion of publicity were intended to be specially
enforced, there shall be the sounding of the trump of God. This is just what
Christ has promised in Matthew 24:31,
when He comes with the clouds of heaven. To say that this triple sound shall
not be heard by all, would be a mere addition to Holy Scripture of a kind that
contradicts its testimony. We might as well say that “every eye shall see Him”
means that He shall only be visible to some few. Above shall be heard the
shout, the voice, and the trumpet: on earth the graves of all the sleeping
family of faith shall be opened; the sleepers shall arise: and then those
living shall with them be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. This, as thus
set forth, ought to be our hope. It may have been needful to teach the
Thessalonians that the day of the Lord must still be waited for; that the falling
away and the revelation of the man of sin had first to take place; but
even these things connect themselves with the same hope; for this Head of evil
is he “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall
destroy with the brightness of His coming (2 Thessalonians 2:8). “It is a righteous thing with
God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are
troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed” (2 Thessalonians
1:6,7). Thus, at the revelation
of Christ from heaven, there shall be rest for His Church, and the destruction
of their oppressors. The date which the Spirit gives for both is the same. The
Church is called to “patience of hope”, and not to mere excitement of
speculative expectancy. “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and
into the patient waiting for Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5).
-------------------
[4] The expression “we which are alive and remain” is
what the Church may ever use; it has nothing to do with individual expectancy,
but it is the language of corporate hope. “We shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52) is of precisely the same
character: that portion of the one Church which is living at any given time may
use it; for so long as we are alive we do, in fact, belong to the number of the
living expectants in contrast to those who have fallen asleep. To suppose that
he Apostle imagined when he wrote the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, that
the coming of the Lord was so near that he would then be living, is to assume
that before he wrote his second epistle he had received such light as to
contradict his own previous teaching--a notion utterly subversive of the
authority of the first epistle, and also contradictory to the teaching of that
epistle itself (Chapter 5:1,2);
contradictory also to the fact that he had taught the Thessalonians, when with
them, some of the things which he enforces in the second epistle: “Remember
ye not that when I was with you I told you these things”. He must,
therefore, have had all this light before he wrote his first epistle. “We”, in
corporate expressions, means that portion of the whole body to whom the term
can apply. An Israelite will now say, “The Lord led us out of Egypt, and brought us through the Red Sea,
and gave us the land which He
sware unto our fathers”; but no one imagines that he applies this to himself,
or to the generation of men now living.
