The Redeemers Return

We shall not now attempt to argue at length what is a matter of common observation. One of the favorite devices of the Enemy is to get the believer occupied with something other than Christ who is "Our Hope." And, let us say it with emphasis, Satan cares not what that "something" may be, providing it shuts out our blessed Lord. This is his favorite device for the sinner. While ever the sinner is taken up with his own works of righteousness, the Finished Work of Christ is excluded from his vision. So it is with the believer. We are bidden to "Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Col.3:1). But to hinder him from doing this Satan is ever seeking to get the believer concerned with something else. With some it is "the mammon of unrighteousness;" with others it is "the care of this world." With some it is politics and civic affairs; with others it is Temperance reform work and Social-uplift activities. With some it is an intellectual study of doctrine or prophecy divorced from heart-occupatin with Christ; with others it is their own experiences and attainments.

The life-task of the believer -- blessed privilege -- was defined by the Lord Himself in that word to Martha, "But one thing is needful" (Luke 10:42) -- i.e., to sit at His feet and find our delight in Him. O that we might come to the place where we can say actually and experimentally, "Thou O Christ art all I want, more than all in Thee I find." But, as we have said, this is exactly what Satan seeks to prevent, and one of his "wiles' for preventing it (so it appears to the writer) is the partial-rapture theory which today is unsettling so many of the Lord's dear people. Teach that participation in the Rapture is a reward for faithfulness, and at once, the eyes are turned from Christ to self. Necessarily so; for immediately, I shall be occupied with my faithfulness, my obedience, my diligence, my service, the effect of which will be the drawing of invidious distinctions and the cultivating of an I-am-holier-than-thou spirit. But teach that the Rapture is "a good hope through grace" and I shall be occupied with my returning Lord. The Holy Spirit is here to glorify Christ and not to magnify personal attainments, and whether or not a line or system of teaching proceeds from Him may be judged by its logical and actual tendency to glorify Christ by getting His people occupied with their Lord.