Jesus Is Coming

by William E. Blackstone

Paul Saw It. Paul also saw Christ in His glory and doubtless he saw all that John did, and probably more, for he saw things that it was impossible for a man to utter. (2 Cor. 12:4, margin.)

We neither despair, nor fold our hands to sleep. On the contrary, we are filled with a lively (Greek—living) hope (1 Pet. 1:3), the most “blessed hope” (Tit. 2:13), while we strive to save some from this worldly, sinful and adulterous generation, which is nigh unto cursing and whose end is to be burned.84

Surely this positive conviction of coming doom is a mightier incentive to action than can be the quieting fallacy that things are moving on prosperously and that EVEN THE WORLD IS GETTING BETTER.

The trouble is not with the heads, but with the hearts of men. No matter how great the learning, man must have a new heart, and this is obtained not by education, but by the operation of the Spirit of God.

Satan is the devil still. And the world is still the world. His manifestations and methods may be changed, but the spirit of darkness is the same. And accordingly we see that while slavery is disappearing, communism, socialism and nihilism are lifting their godless, headless forms. And darker are their forebodings than were even the days of the inquisition and martyrdom.

Think of it! more than fifty worlds gone down in the whirlpool of death. Each generation brings on to the scene an entirely new world. And how few out of these are converted. How few are reached by the gospel lifeboat, and how few of those reached heed the message of salvation. The great mass sweep on, like a wrecked vessel, in darkness and unbelief, to the Judgment.

Israel Is to Be Restored. But, perhaps, you say: “I don’t believe the Israelites are to be restored to Canaan, and Jerusalem rebuilt.” Dear reader! have you read the declarations of God’s word about it? Surely nothing is more plainly stated in the Scriptures.

All the orthodox Jews tenaciously cling to this hope; and shall we, who have accepted so much greater light, refuse this overwhelming testimony of the Word? God forbid.

All Nations Shall Flow Unto Israel. “As I LIVE, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. . . . I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders, and kings shall be thy nursing lathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet.” Isa. 49:18, 22, 23.

We might fill a book with comments upon how Israel shall be restored, but all we have desired to do was to show that it is an incontrovertible fact of prophecy, and that it is intimately connected with our Lord’s appearing, and this we trust we have satisfactorily accomplished.

For wise reasons the Master has withheld from us “the day and the hour” when He will come, but He called the Pharisees hypocrites, because they could not discern the signs of the times, and He has commanded us to WATCH, and he has pronounced a blessing upon the study of prophecy.1

REFERENCES. For convenience we give the following references to some of the principal passages which refer to our Lord’s return, in the consecutive order in which they occur in the Word, together with catch words to distinguish the same:

This subject of our Lord’s coming again is of such vital importance and is so largely interwoven with the whole of Scripture, that it affords a boundless field of investigation and an exhaustless mine of truth.

And this we believe was purposely designed, in order to give the church NO DATE and NO SIGN which might so definitely indicate the time of her Rapture, that she should in any interval cease to be vigilant.

Over forty centuries of the Night were past when Paul wrote, “the Night is far spent, the Day is at hand.” (Rom. 13:12). And surely, as eighteen centuries have since passed, it must now be ALMOST MORNING.

There is a notable dearth of power in the preaching of the Word to-day! Men descant on how to reach the masses but the masses go on unreached.

The attacks by Higher Critics upon the inspiration of the Bible have found so many adherents in the ranks of the clergy and theological professors who proclaim their doubts that the faith of the masses has been undermined and the great truths of the Bible have no longer that firm hold upon their consciences which has heretofore stimulated the disciples to faithful service, and brought sinners to repentance.

VII.Israel. God’s sun-dial. If we want to know our place in chronology, our position in the march of events, look at Israel.

The title deed to Palestine is recorded, not in the Mohammedan Serai of Jerusalem nor the Serglio of Constantinople, but in hundreds of millions of Bibles now extant in more than three hundred languages of the earth.

Shall we Christians condemn the Jews for not accepting the cumulative evidence that Jesus is the Messiah; and ourselves refuse this other cumulative evidence that His second coming is near?

Let us engage, with all our might, in this world-wide mission work. Let us give of our means, our prayers and our words of encouragement to those who go to preach in the by-ways and hedges and in distant lands (Rom. 10:15), and, if possible, let us go ourselves, thereby insuring ourselves of His fellowship Who said, “and lo, I am with you alway.”