28. THE PRESENCE AND THE APPEARING
WE have already, in discussing the Jewish prophecies, commented upon the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew up to the paragraph in which the Lord speaks of His appearing and the deliverance of His Jewish elect. In the sentences immediately following, He teaches the latter how they may know that He is near at hand, and declares the certainty of His predictions. And then, in the thirty-sixth verse, He proceeds to answer the second question of His disciples;—“What shall be the sign of Thy Presence?”
But before we consider this solemn subject, it will be necessary to avoid confusion by briefly investigating the meaning of the terms “Presence” and “Appearing.”
The Greek word παρουσία is usually translated ‘coming’: but we render it ‘presence,’ because the latter is its strict and literal meaning; while the former is derived, subordinate, and never absolutely necessary. For the sense is much the same whether we say of an absent person—“we shall be glad of your presence,” or, “of your coming.” Moreover, it is most important to retain the literal signification, because the word is used, not merely of the descent of Christ from the
High Heavens, but of the whole period of His sojourn in the air, which will, it seems, occupy at least seven years.¹ During this time His people will be caught up to Him; some immediately upon His descent, others later. But all are included in Paul's description, "they that are Christ's at His Presence."
The taking up of the first company will, as we shall presently see, be the sign that He has come, and that the judgments of the Apocalypse are about to commence. We may thus understand Paul's appeal to the Thessalonians;—"Now we beseech you, brethren, by the Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter pretending to come from us, as that the Day of the Lord is now present.'² The Thessalonians had been in much affliction, and, supposing that no sorrow could be greater than theirs, rashly concluded that they were in the last times, and that the Day of the Lord had come. But Paul reminds them that that Day will be brought about by the Presence of Christ in the air, and that the sign of
¹ That is, of course, the last of Daniel's Weeks when the dispensation will again be Jewish. Whether this period will follow immediately upon the removal of the Church, or whether there will be an abnormal interval—similar to that which came between the tenth of Nisan, on which the Jewish covenant was suspended, and the Day of Pentecost—is not revealed.
² 2 Thess. ii. 1, 2. The Greek of the last word does not signify "to be at hand," but "to be present." It occurs in Rom. viii. 38, 1 Cor. iii. 22, vii. 26, Gal. i. 4. Heb. ix. 9, in each of which passages the English Version renders it by "present." In 2 Tim. iii. 1, where the future is used, the Translators have "perilous times *shall come*." In 2 Thess. ii. 2, they have erroneously rendered "is at hand," evidently for the purpose of bringing the meaning into accord with their own dogmatic eschatology.
THE PRESENCE AND THE APPEARING.
His Presence, namely, the gathering together of His people to Him, had not then been given.
The second term, ἐπιφάνεια, signifies "appearing," or, "manifestation," and occurs in connection with the first in a passage which should be rendered;—"Whom the Lord shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to nought by the Appearing of His Presence."¹ Here it is used of the manifestation of Christ to the world, of the flashing forth of His Glory when the time of the unseen Presence is ended. But it may also be applied to the revelation of this Presence to those who are caught up to Him; so that the reference, in each case of its occurrence, can only be decided by the context.
We will now return to our Lord's discourse on the Mount of Olives. After an admonition, especially designed for the Jewish converts of the last days, to remember that the fulfilment of the things which He had been predicting would show that He was near at hand—just as the budding of the fig-tree proclaims the approach of summer—He proceeds to speak of His Presence, during which the events mentioned between the sixth and twenty-ninth verses will take place. The precise time of His descent cannot be revealed; for neither men, nor yet angels, may know it. Like other great judgments of God, it is announced again and again: but, were its appointed season declared, it could not become the test which He intends it to be. For those who saw that it was postponed beyond the term of their lives would altogether dismiss the subject; while those who expected to see it might, when near the appointed day, excite themselves
¹ 2 Thess. ii. 8 to a faith as worthless as that which men have often exhibited in predictions fixing the hour of doom for the world, and which too frequently lapses into a hopeless scepticism.
The Lord will, therefore, say nothing in regard to the day and the hour; but, nevertheless, He gives signs by which we may discover that they are at hand. A memorable period of history shall be repeated, and again it shall be as it was in the time of the flood, when men were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the command went forth, and Noah entered the ark. Then the world suddenly perceived that the door of escape had been closed, and that the execution of judgment had commenced: their thoughtlessness and mirth were quickly changed into agonizing fear, as the vigour of life found itself confronted by inexorable death.
In the parallel passage of Luke, the Lord adduces Sodom also as an illustration of what the world will be on the eve of His coming. Putting together the accounts of both periods as given in the book of Genesis, we find that their general characteristics include intercourse with beings of another sphere, the corruption of all flesh, violence, and unnatural crime; none of which ominous signs is lacking in the world of to-day. But the Lord does not particularize such things; for they belong to unregenerate and demon-driven men, and He uttered His prophecy for the guidance and consolation of His own people, whether Jews or Christians. For this reason, apparently, He specifies only those pursuits in which He may, at His coming, find the saved so heedlessly engrossed that He will be compelled to leave them for discipline.
THE PRESENCE AND THE APPEARING.
They are ;—
Eating and drinking.
Marrying and giving in marriage.
Buying and selling.
Planting and building.
Now all these acts and occupations are lawful in themselves; but, if they be permitted to hide eternal realities from our eyes, they become a cause of destruction. The world will be altogether absorbed in them up to the end; and the saved have need to watch and pray, lest they also should fall into the snare, and be taken by surprise.
In regard to their general character, we may notice that the judgments of God usually come upon men after they have made considerable advances in civilization and its vices: for it is then that pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness, generate rebellion; just as was the case with Sodom,¹ and as in olden time Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked.²
Luxurious living is a frequent characteristic of those who are ripening for judgment. "Ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter!" is a charge which God has more than once brought against men. And He is especially indignant that those who profess to know Him should be satisfying the flesh, when they ought rather to be sighing and crying for the abominations which surround them.
Even a slight excess may deprive a believer of his crown: for to obtain it he must overcome, and among his besetting sins there may be one of the kind which goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. Or, if he fares every day sufficiently well to induce fleshly con-
¹ Ezek. xvi. 49.
² Deut. xxxii. 15.
tent and love of ease, he will certainly be found among the slothful servants. Any pampering of the body brings weakness and blindness upon the spirit, and solemnly does our Lord recognise the fact in those words;—"Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that Day come upon you unawares."
But there are other insidious snares besides that of luxurious living. There are the social connections, which, pure and honourable as they may be, too often take undue possession of the heart, and monopolize the thoughts to the exclusion of Christ. There is the commercial temptation; the craving to acquire, and heap up treasure in the last days; the covetousness which sometimes seeks to defend itself from the eye of the Almighty by large donations, which, nevertheless, bear but a trifling proportion to the means of the giver, and do not deprive him of a single gratification. And, lastly, there is the disposal of the wealth accumulated; the preparations for a long stay upon earth, the devices whereby life may possibly be gained now and certainly lost hereafter, the erection of imposing mansions which, at the Judgment, will testify to the extravagance, the luxury, and the selfishness, of the builders. "For the stone from the wall shall cry out, and the beam of the timber shall bear witness." ¹
Such were the thoughts and occupations in the midst of which the Antediluvians and the Sodomites perished miserably, with all that had made up their lives. And, in each case, the silent removal of the righteous was the sign that the day of grace had
¹ Hab. ii. 11.
THE PRESENCE AND THE APPEARING.
passed.¹ Will there, then, be any similar sign to announce that Christ is in the air, and that the Day of the Lord has come? This question is answered in the next verse, and further explanation may be found in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians.
The world will one day be surprised by the sudden and unaccountable disappearance of many persons in the midst of their ordinary occupations. Two men will be working in the field in the middle of the day: one will instantaneously vanish.² His bewildered comrade may still see upon the ground the garment which had been put off for labour, but the man will be gone. Two women will be grinding the daily supply of corn in early morning; the hand of one will fail: her companion will look up, and see that she is no longer in her place.³ Two persons—the reference is evidently to a man and his wife—will be in the same bed at night: the one will be taken away, and the other will awake to solitude and bereavement.⁴ As soon as this sign is given, then woe for the earth and the sea! Those who shall be accounted worthy to escape will have been removed from the world: the Holy Spirit will no longer restrain the Mystery of Lawlessness; nor will the judgments of God be delayed.
With regard to the meaning of the words, "one shall be taken," an error has often been made through ignorance of the original. Comparing the clause with that of the thirty-ninth verse, "the flood came and
¹ Of course only so far as the natural life was concerned. Space for repentance to the saving of the spirit still remained, until the Judgment was actually carried out.
² Matt. xxiv. 40.
³ Matt. xxiv. 41.
⁴ Luke. xvii. 31.
took them all away," some have interpreted, "the one shall be taken away in judgment, the other shall be spared in mercy." But an examination of the Greek immediately dissipates this idea. In the thirty-ninth verse the verb used is αἱρεῖν, which means 'to take away by destruction.' But in the fortieth and forty-first verses, we find a very different word, παραλαμβάνειν, which properly signifies 'to receive,' or, 'take alongside,' and then, sometimes, 'to take with one as a companion.' Thus the word is most appropriately used of those who shall be caught up to Christ, that they may walk with Him in white, that they may follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
In the fourteenth chapter of John, it occurs in a very significant passage;—"For if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and will receive (παραλήψομαι) you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." Here it is used of the very act of which the Lord speaks in Matthew.
Again, in another place, we are told that the Lord "taketh" (παραλαμβάνει) Peter, James, and John, as His companions to the Mount of Transfiguration.¹ He selects three out of the twelve disciples to behold His glory; while the nine are, in the meantime, left at the bottom of the hill to struggle hopelessly with Satan; and, consequently, to be subjected to the scorn of the world, until at length the Master is seen descending the hill in company with those whom He had taken with Him.
Surely, this scene is typical, and confirms our interpretation of the passage we are considering, that the one is taken to be a companion of the Lord and to
¹ Matt. xvii. 1.
THE FIRST RAPTURE.
see His glory, while the other is left to agonize with the world and Satan as a further discipline: for the admonition to watch in the next verse seems to imply that both of the two are disciples.
Having thus described the sign of His Presence, the Lord proceeds to urge upon His followers the necessity of watching, and intimates, by the Parable of the Householder and the Thief, that grievous loss will be sustained by those who neglect His directions. Many other such warnings may be found in the Scriptures, and their special object is plainly set forth in the Lord's own exhortation;—"Watch ye, therefore, and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." ¹
XXI.
THE FIRST RAPTURE, AS REVEALED TO THE THESSALONIANS.
To none of the Churches with which he was connected did Paul communicate so many details of the last things as to that of the Thessalonians. For in one of his Epistles to them we find the most circumstantial prediction of the first ascension of the saints; while in the other there are many particulars respecting the subsequent career of Antichrist.
The planting of their Church is described in the seventeenth chapter of the "Acts." And from the account there given, as well as from the Epistles, we may infer that Paul spoke much to the converts of the coming and Kingdom of Christ. It may be that the Spirit, foreseeing the persecutions and tribulations which
¹ Luke xxi. 36.
awaited them, had, on that account, directed the apostle to dwell on the glory that should be. For even of the Lord Himself we are told that, for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame.
The prominence given in the teachings of Paul to the future reign of Christ may be discovered in the accusation by which the Jews sought to prejudice the rulers against him. "These," they said, "that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus." ¹
But, however Jews or Greeks may have distorted the apostle's meaning, the revelation of that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, had lifted up the Thessalonian Church to enthusiasm. And so, indeed, it has ever affected those whose hearts have been opened for its reception. It was that hope which stimulated the early Church to the extraordinary exertions of the first two and a half centuries: it is that which oftentimes since has supported believers through days of trial; for whenever persecution has arisen on account of the word, the Apocalypse and the prophetic Psalms have almost invariably formed the great stay and comfort of the persecuted. And, at this present time, the same hope is again exercising a powerful influence in arousing the Church to renewed efforts, and in separating off a people for the presence of the Lord.
Yet, although the Thessalonians received the spirit-stirring message with joy, even they did not rightly
¹ Acts xvii. 6, 7
THE FIRST RAPTURE.
understand it in all its bearings, and the consequence of their imperfect knowledge was seen in certain false and mischievous inferences.
Excited by expectation, and assuming that the Lord must come immediately, they could no longer settle down to the ordinary routine of life, and Paul found it necessary to exhort them to be quiet, and do their own business, and labour with their own hands, that their conduct might be seemly to those that were without, and that they might not, by neglecting their duty, be compelled to depend upon the help of others.
And then again, while they had heard of the coming of the Lord and their gathering together unto Him, they had not yet been instructed in regard to the first resurrection. Consequently, knowing only of the final resurrection and last judgment, being well aware that these events would not take place until after the Millennium, and distinguishing clearly between the Millennium and the Eternal State, they naturally concluded that all who had the misfortune to die before the Lord's return would lose the glories of the Kingdom.
What wonder, then, that they mourned immoderately when the spirit of a beloved one passed away from their midst; since they thought to see his face no more until after the long lapse of the thousand years; unless, indeed, they too should be called to follow him before the Lord came, and so be themselves deprived of the coveted glory.
To lift this gloom from their eyes, and reveal to them the glad truth, is Paul's object in the latter part of the fourth chapter. "We would not have you ignorant, brethren," he says, "concerning them which have been laid to sleep; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, which have no hope."
And then he reveals the wondrous truth, that each of the great events in our Lord's life has its correspondence in the lives of His members; that if, in our measure, we are called to suffer as He did, to be men of sorrows and acquainted with grief, to endure the contradiction of sinners and the hatred of the world, ay, and presently, should He tarry, to gaze for the last time upon the light of the natural sun; we may, nevertheless, look up to the eminence on the other side of the dark valley, where He sits in glory, and know that, by His grace, we too cannot fail to emerge from the night of death into the resurrection-morning.
Mourn not so hopelessly for your dead, he says to the sorrowing Thessalonians: you know that Christ died and rose again, and His Church must share in all things with her great Head. When He appears as the Risen One, then all those who have been laid to sleep through Him must God bring with Him.
The expression "laid to sleep through Jesus," is very beautiful. In the idea of sleep we have, of course, a hint that there is no intermission of life, and that there will soon be an awakening. The phraseology is that of the Lord Himself. "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth," He said, "and I go that I may awaken him out of sleep."
But of these saints, we are told that they have been laid to sleep by means of the Lord Jesus, that is, by His death and mediation. Yes: for, without His interposition, they had now been not asleep, but dead.
The wicked, when they relinquish natural life, do not sleep: they are dead, and have parted for ever with
THE FIRST RAPTURE.
all hope of life: they are shut out from God. They must, indeed, stand before the Great White Throne, but that will be in the miserable existence which is called death: for death, in the Scriptural sense, is no cessation of being, but eternal separation from Him in Whom alone we may find light and love and rest. And all who pass from this world in wilful rejection of Christ must be thus shut out. For "this is the record, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son, hath the life: he that hath not the Son of God, hath not the life."
But all those departed ones who have obtained the life from the Lord Jesus will God bring with Him. Like their Saviour, they have disappeared from the world; and, when He returns to sight, they also must be seen in His company. Now that He is invisible, He and His Church are mystically united: He is the Vine, and they are the branches. But that which is mystical is nothing, unless it has a reality behind it which shall presently be revealed. Therefore, as soon as the Lord is seen again, the connection between Himself and His Church must also become visible. "When Christ Who is our Life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory."¹
And so Paul proceeds to tell us how this consummation will be brought about: and he does so "by the word of the Lord," that is, by a direct revelation to himself.
The words, "we which are alive," are of great doctrinal importance: for they give clear evidence that Paul contemplated the occurrence of the advent in his own lifetime as a possibility. He was, however,
¹ Col. iii. 4.
well aware that none might know the day and the hour, and, therefore, expressed no definite expectation.
But he had a very definite desire, and gave utterance to it in unmistakable terms in another place. "For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life."¹
Yet Paul and many others have passed away, and still the Lord tarries. There is, however, no reason to believe that their expectant attitude is in any way changed: the spirits of those who sleep are also waiting for the Lord from the high heavens, and longing for the time when the sons of God shall be manifested and their bodies redeemed. In this respect the hope of the whole Church, on both sides of the river of death, is the same. And when the hour comes, whether they be upon earth or in the Paradise of God, they shall be glorified together, and neither quick nor dead have the precedence.
The words, "the Lord shall descend," utterly preclude the "spiritual" interpretation to which some Christians even now cling. For His spiritual presence is already with us, and so will remain even unto the end. It is, therefore, to His glorified body, which can be only in one place at a time, that allusion is here made. And the descent is the first stage in the fulfilment of the angels' words, that He should so come in like manner as He was seen to go up into heaven.
And as He passes through His illimitable realms,
¹ 2 Cor. v. 4.
THE FIRST RAPTURE.
upon wings of lightning, followed by His glittering hosts, and causing the countless stars which stud His heavens to pale with His glory, He will utter the word of command, and the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear, for all will not do so, shall live.
Forth from Paradise and the grave they will come, from the poor thief, whose mortal agony was prolonged until Heaven and Hades had thrilled with the mighty words, "It is finished," to the last who shall have been laid to sleep, just as the trump of God is proclaiming the arrival of the King.
And scarcely less wonderful will be the change in the case of the living.
It was a glad sight to see the warm flush returning to the leper's face, and his decayed limbs filling out and brightening into ruddy health.
It must have made the hearts of the bystanders rejoice to look on when blind Bartimæus received the reward of his faith, and opened his wondering eyes for the first time on God's fair world and on the tender and loving face of God's own Son.
And hard of heart must he have been who could restrain tears of sympathy when he beheld the poor demoniac ceasing from his mad ravings, his wanderings among the tombs, and his cruel self-mutilations, and sitting clothed, and in his right mind, at the feet of Him Who had saved him from his fiendish tormentors.
But even these miracles of love will seem as nothing to the deliverances of that glorious night, when the Lord shall call His people, and, in response, the bed-ridden invalid of years, the blind, the halt, the maimed, the consumptive, the fever-stricken, the poor oppressed lunatic or demoniac, the bowed down with age, and pain, and care, and bereavement, and persecution, and hard toil—all shall come forth from the places of durance in which they have been graciously enabled to possess their souls in patience, and shout for joy that the year of the Lord's redeemed has come.
And dropping every fetter of mortality, losing every scar and disfigurement as they rise, and joined by the company of those who had slept, they shall ascend in one glorious body to the presence of the King.
How precious will Christ then seem to them! How unspeakable the breadth and length and height and depth of His love, as separated from every evil thing, and caught up in clouds to the place where He is awaiting them, they utter their rapturous cry;—"Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood; and He made us to be a Kingdom, priests unto His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
Those who shall be summoned to this exultant gathering will find themselves suddenly rapt away, doubtless by the forceful power of that Spirit by Whom they were sealed unto the Day of Redemption. Woe, then, to all who shall have grieved the Spirit of God on that unknown and fateful night!
The Greek words εἰς ἀπάντησιν imply that they who go to meet the Lord in the air will subsequently return to earth with Him,¹ not without Him. For there shall be no more parting from the beloved
¹ That is, when He descends upon the Mount of Olives to deliver Jerusalem. "And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee." See Zech. xiv. 3-5, and compare Jude 14, 15.
Saviour, or from the friends which He has restored to us. Thenceforth we shall be ever with the Lord; we shall follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
And with thoughts of this glorious future we are to comfort one another in our bereavements. Not by intercourse with demons, who feign to be the spirits of our dead that they may allure us into paths of destruction; but by looking on to the time when Christ shall come, and, with every other blessing, restore to us for ever those whom we have loved and lost for a while.