27. 5. FUTURE EVENTS: THE DIFFERENT ADVENTS

It was this Advent which was the subject of Old Testament prophecy. We read nothing of the Rapture until it was revealed in 1 Thess. iv. 13--v. 11. This revelation was made on purpose that we might not be "ignorant"; as all are, and must be, concerning these things, unless they know what is here made known.

It was revealed for the special purpose, not only of informing the Church of God as to what it was ignorant of, but of comforting it. Twice over we have the exhortation, "Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thess. iv. 18); and, "Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify (or build up) one another" (1 Thess. v. 11). Both exhortations are introduced (in English) with the word "wherefore," showing the necessary connection between the cause and the effect; and linking them together.

If we read the Scriptures relating to the Rapture, and interpret them of the Advent, what is intended for our "comfort" will be used as an object of fear, and what is given as "blessed hope" (Titus ii. 13) will be taken as our dread.

With many this is the case. And all the mischief is caused by not "rightly dividing" two truths both belonging to the same Dispensation.

At the present moment of writing, both are, of course, future. Hence it is that so many mix them up together. They both concern the Lord's Coming, hence it is they are confused.

It is the same Christ who will gather His saints to Himself at their Rapture; and who will afterwards gather Israel to their Land.

His coming, from Gen. iii. 15, onward, has always been the hope of Creation (Rom. viii. 19 23), and the hope of Israel (Jer. xiv. 8), as it is now the hope of the Church of God (Titus ii. 13). But, as with the Resurrections, each is "in its own order."

In due time He came, but He was rejected and crucified. Israel was "not gathered" at that coming (Isa. xlix. 5);

1 The former is here (hōste), so that, marking the exhortation as the logical result of the revelation. The latter is to idio, on which account, wherefore, marking the revelation as being the ground of the exhortation.

L therefore that gathering is now in abeyance, until the Lord's Advent, the Day of the Lord.

In that, which we speak of (for the sake of convenience) as the "first coming," we have an illustration of what we call the "second coming."

There were prophecies even of that first coming which had to be rightly divided in order to be understood, even when read by those who lived in the Past Dispensation; and which might have been understood had the words of those prophecies been carefully noted. As these prophecies serve to illustrate the order of events connected with the second coming it may be well to look at them more closely:

In Micah v. 2, and Zech. ix. 9, we have two passages which both foretell and relate to that same first coming; and, fortunately, the English Version is as clear as the Hebrew in both cases.

In Micah v. 2 the word is יָצָא (yātza'), to come out.

In Zech. ix. 9 it is בָּנָא (bō'), to come in.

In Micah v. 2 the former is rendered "come forth," and in Zech. ix. 9 the latter is rendered "come unto."

Both were then future. The one prophesied of Christ's "coming forth" at Bethlehem, and the other prophesied of Christ's "coming unto" Jerusalem.

Until the time came for their fulfilment, there was nothing in those prophecies to tell the readers what would be the interval between those two comings, or whether there would be any at all. There was nothing to tell them that they were separated, as we now know, by more than thirty years.

Some readers indeed might interpret them of one and the same event, and come to the conclusion that there was "a discrepancy"; or that the text was corrupt, or that there was something wrong with the translation.

These are the conclusions so readily come to by Higher and Lower Critics, who first create the difficulty by not rightly dividing the Word, and then endeavour to explain it by cutting it to pieces with their pens, as Jehoiakim did with his pen-knife.

Both these Scriptures speak of the same coming of the Lord; but they are separated by some thirty-three years. He "came forth" from Bethlehem at His Incar-