The Finger Of Prophecy (2)

by R. Armstrong, Toronto | Category: The Finger Of Prophecy | Feb 1970

The Promise

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I come again, and will receive you unto Myself; that where

I am, there ye may be also" (John 14.1-3).

These words, spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ t6 His disciples just before He went to the Cross, are of immense significance. The certainty of their fulfilment is based on the authority of the Lord Jesus, to whom God has committed the accomplishment of His prophetic programme.

Paul, writing to the young Thessalonian church of God, confirms our Lord's promise: "For 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 that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4.16, 17). It is important to view His second coming in its dispensational setting. His first coming was "to bear the sins of many" (Hebrews 9.28); His second coming will be consummative, and will be either for blessing or for judgement.

The second coming is one coming but it will be fulfilled in two phases. The word "coming" (Gr. parousia) implies arrival and consequent presence with. It is used of (1) His coming as the Son of God to the air for the Church which is His Body, and (2) His coming as the Son of Man to judge the nations of the world and to deliver His people Israel just pri9r to the setting up of His millennial kingdom. In this article we are concerned with the first phase.

In the early centuries A.D. a great spiritual darkness spread over the earth. Belief in divine revelation was superseded by ignorance of God's truth and replaced by the ritual and superstition of an apostate church. Consequently, the knowledge of the precious truth of our Lord's return was obscured, and believers were not generally enlightened with regard to this glorious hope. But during the past five hundred years or so the Divine Spirit has enlightened afresh the minds of men of God who studied the Scriptures concerning these matters. Once again the precious hope of the Lord's return lightens the hearts of believers as they look forward to that great event. Its certainty is confirmed in the words:

"For yet a very little while,

He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry"

(Hebrews 10.37).

How will He come?

The coming of the Lord to the air will be personal. He said, "I will come again"; and the apostle Paul wrote, "the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout" (1 Thessalonians 4.16). He will come to the air in the body which bears the marks of His sufferings at Calvary, a body of "flesh and bones", the body seen by His disciples after He was raised from the dead (Luke 24.39). It will be the same body as that in which He appeared to Thomas, and said, "Reach hither thy finger, and see My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing" (John 20.27).

There will be three great signals in heaven, accompanying His descent:

(1)the shout of the Lord,

(2)the voice of the archangel, and

(3)the trump of God.

The Lord Jesus said that the Father had given Him "authority over all flesh" (John 17.2). He will exercise that authority when He comes to the air. When He utters His voice, the power of the Godhead will set in motion an orderly unfolding of tremendous events which are in God's plan of the ages, and which will continue until Christ reigns as supreme Head of the universe.

For whom will He come?

The shout of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4.16) will not be heard universally, but will be directed only to those who are "in Christ". The divine title "Lord" is used in Scripture in association with His "all authority". This shout will be like a military command, or summoning shout, a voice of power and authority. It will reach only those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and have been baptized in one Spirit into the Church, the Body of Christ. All who have died in Christ since Pentecost as well as those who are "alive" and remain unto the coming of the Lord will be in that vast multitude who will be summoned to meet their Lord in the air.

"The blood was the sign Lord That marked them as Thine Lord, And brightly they'll shine

At Thy coming again".

The reader is referred to the following group of scriptures which all relate to this phase of the Lord's return:

John 14.1 to 31 Thessalonians 4.13 to 18

1 Corinthians 15.35 to 542 Thessalonians 2.1

Philippians 3.20, 211 John 32

The meeting in the air

Millions of believers in Christ, members of His glorious Church, the Body, have died. Their souls are safe with Him in heaven, although their bodies have long since returned to dust. The Lord Jesus is "the resurrection and the life". God,

through Christ, has planned and perfected the marvellous process of their bodily resurrection which will take place at the sound of the "trump of God" (1 Corinthians 15.52, 1 Thessalonians 4.16). By this means He will bring the souls of the dead in Christ and their new bodies together at His coming (Philippians 3.20, 21, 1 Thessalonians 4.14).

In 1 Corinthians 15.37, 38, we read, "That which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind; but God giveth it a body even as it pleased Him, and to each seed a body of its own". These new bodies will be completely free from degenerative diseases, and fully compatible with the eternal environment to which He will take them. Like the personalities occupying them, they will be indestructible, sinless and perfect, and will live forever in a state of perfect happiness and joy. Dust that was once a human body, sown in death on land or sea, will become a perfect, glorified body like Christ's own glorious body (Philippians 3.21). Fashioned anew I The bodies of believers who are "alive ... at the coming of the Lord", whether they be old, young, crippled, or diseased, will be transformed into perfect, immortal, glorified bodies which will never taste of death.

The Church which is Christ's Body will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Then the vast host of the redeemed will go up past moon, sun, and stars, past all principalities and powers, into the heaven of heavens where God dwells in eternal light. We wonder what effect the Lord's coming will have on people left on the earth. It is not ours to speculate where the Scriptures are silent. No doubt there will be great consternation in many parts of the world when this great event takes place. Headlines and newscasts will carry sensational reports that thousands of people have suddenly disappeared. People of all nationalities will mysteriously be taken from where they are, and from whatever they are doing. No doubt it will dawn on many people who heard Christians preach about the Lord's return that what they believed in has actually taken place.

The terrible lawlessness which we see increasing on every hand in our time is a sure forecast that the coming of the Lord Jesus is very near. As an unsuspecting world moves closer every hour to the time of God's judgements on the earth, those who know Christ as Saviour should be rejoicing in the hope of His return and ordering their lives in the light of it. "Every one that hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure" (1 John 3.3).

"He which testifieth these things saith, Yea: I come

quickly. Amen: come, LORD JESUS" (Revelation 22.20).

R. Armstrong, Toronto | Feb 1970
The Finger Of Prophecy