Thus we reach a position from which we can get a view of the church's proper hope; and that hope is, most assuredly, "the bright and morning star." Of this hope the Old Testament prophets utter not a syllable. They speak largely and clearly of "The day of the Lord"--a day of judgment upon the world and its ways (see Isaiah ii. 12-22 and parallel Scriptures). But "the day of the Lord," with all its attendant circumstances of wrath, judgment, and terror, must never be confounded with His coming for His people. When our blessed Lord comes _for_ His people there will be nothing to terrify. He will come in all the sweetness and tenderness of His love to receive His loved and redeemed people to Himself. He will come to finish up the precious story of His grace. "To them that look for Him shall He appear (οφθησεται) the second time, without [that is, apart from all question of] sin, unto salvation" (Heb. ix).[24] He will come as a bridegroom to receive the bride; and when He thus comes none but His own shall hear His voice or see His face. If He were to come this very night for His people--and He may, for aught we know--if the voice of the archangel and the trump of God were to be heard to-night, then all the dead in Christ--all who have been laid to sleep by Jesus--all the saints of God, both those of old Testament and New Testament times, who lie sleeping in our cemeteries and graveyards, or in the ocean's depths--all these would rise from their temporary sleep. All the living saints would be changed in a moment, and all would be caught up to meet their descending Lord, and return with Him to the Father's house (John xiv. 3; 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17; 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52).
[24] The clause "Them that look for him" refers to all believers. It does not mean, as some suppose, those only who hold the truth of the Lord's second coming. This would make our place with Christ at His coming dependent upon knowledge, instead of upon our union with Him by the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God, in the above passage, most graciously takes for granted that all God's people are looking, in some way or another, for the precious Saviour; and verily so they are. They may not see eye to eye as to all the details. They may not all enjoy equal clearness of view or depth and fulness of apprehension; but, most surely, they would all be glad at any moment to see the One who loved them and gave Himself for them.
This is what is meant by the rapture or catching up of the saints, and has nothing to do directly with Israel or the nations. It is the distinct and only proper hope of the church; and there is not so much as a single hint of it in the entire Old Testament. If any one asserts that there is, let him produce it. If there be such a thing, nothing is easier than to furnish it. We solemnly and deliberately declare there is no such thing. For all that respects the church--its standing, its calling, its portion, its prospects--we must turn to the pages of the New Testament, and, of those pages, mainly the Epistles of Paul. To confound "the word of prophecy" with the hope of the church is to damage the truth of God, and mislead the souls of His people. That the enemy has succeeded in doing all this, throughout the length and breadth of the professing church, is, alas! too true. And hence it is that so very few Christians have really Scriptural thoughts about the coming of their Lord. They are looking into prophecy for the church's hope--they confound "the Sun of righteousness" with "the Morning Star"--they mix up the coming of Christ _for_ His people, and His coming _with_ them--they make His "coming" or "state of presence" to be identical with His "appearing" or "manifestation."
All this is a most serious mistake, against which we desire to warn our readers. When Christ comes with His people, "every eye shall see him." When He is manifested, His people will be manifested also. "When Christ our life shall appear [or be manifested], then shall ye also appear with him in glory" (Col. iii. 4). When Christ comes to execute judgment, His saints come with Him. "Behold, the Lord cometh _with_ ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all" (Jude 14, 15). So also in Revelation xix., the rider on the white horse is followed by the armies in heaven upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. These armies are not angels, but saints; for we do not read of angels being clothed in white linen, which is expressly declared, in this very chapter, to be "the righteousness of saints" (verse 8).