they held his coming as the great object of expectation and desire. Indeed Christians are described as those who " are waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. i. 7) ; as those who are " looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God* and our Saviour Jesus Christ " (Tit. ii. 13) (it is to them who look for Him, He is to " appear the second time, without sin unto salvation," Heb. ix. 28) ; as those who are ex- pecting and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God. (2 Pet. iii. 12.) It is a marked characteristic of the apostolic writ- ings that they give such prominence to the doctrine of the second advent. " Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come." (1 Cor. iv. 5.) " Christ the first-fruits ; afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming." (1 Cor. xv. 23.) Ye are our rejoicing " in the day of the Lord Jesus." (2 Cor. i. 14.) "He ... . will per- form it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Phil. i. 6.) " That 1 , may rejoice in the day of Christ." (ii. 16.) " Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." (iii. 20.) " When Christ, who is our life, shall ap- pear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." (Col. iii. 4.) i To wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." (1 Thess. i. 10.) " What is our hope, .... are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming ? " (ii. 19.) " Un- blamable in holiness .... at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." (iii. 13.) " We which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord .... shall be caught up .... in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (iv. 15-17.) In his second epistle he assures the Thes- salonians that they shall have rest, " when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven." (2 Thess. i. 7.) The coming of Christ, however, he tells them was not at hand ; there must come a great falling away first. Paul said to Timothy, " Keep this command- ment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Tim. vi. 14.) " There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day : and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." (2 Tim. iv. 8.) The epistles of Peter afford the same evidence of the deep hold which the promise of Christ's second coming had taken on the minds of the Apostles and of all the early Christians. He tells his readers that they " are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to bo revealed in the last time .... that the trial of your faith, .
796 PART IV. Ch. III. — THE SECOND ADVENT.
might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appear- ing of Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. i. 5-7.) Men are to " give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead." (iv. 5.) " Rejoice, .... that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." (verse 13.) " When the chief Shep- herd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory." (v. 4.) " We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty." (2 Pet. i. 16). The transfigu- ration on the mount was a type and pledge of the glory of the second advent. The Apostle warns the disciples that scoffers would come " saying, Where is the promise of his coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." In answer to this objection, he reminds them that the threatened deluge was long delayed, but came at last ; that time is not with God as it is with us ; that with Him a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years. He repeats the assurance that " the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night ; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the earth also and the works that are therein, shall be burned up." (2 Peter iii. 3-10.)
From all these passages, and from the whole drift of the New Testament, it is plain, (1.) That the Apostles fully believed that there is to be a second coming of Christ. (2.) That his coming is to be in person, visible and glorious. (3.) That they kept this great event constantly before their own minds, and urged it on the attention of the people, as a motive to patience, constancy, joy, and holy living. (4.) That the Apostles believed that the second advent of Christ would be attended by the general res- urrection, the final judgment, and the end of the world.
As already intimated, it is objected to this view of the prophe- cies of the New Testament referring to the Second Advent, —
1. That the first advent of Christ is predicted in the Old Tes- tament in nearly as glowing terms as his second coming is set forth in the New Testament. He was to come in the clouds of heaven ; with great pomp and power ; all nations were to be sub- ject to Him ; all people were to be gathered before Him ; the stars were to fall from heaven ; the sun was to be darkened, and the moon to be turned into blood. These descriptions were not realized by the event ; and are understood to refer to the great changes in the state of the world to be effected by his coming.