Luke 21

Luke 21:5-36

XXI OUR LORD’S GREAT – HIS SECOND COMING Harmony, pages 160-168 and Matthew 24:1-25:46; Mark 13:1-37; Luke 21:5-36.The whole prophecy of our Lord, as contained in Matthew 24-25, in Mark 13, and Luke 21, has been considered in its general terms in the preceding discussions. Some details call for special attention in this discussion.

1. False christs. – On page 160 of the Harmony, Matthew 24:45 and the corresponding verses of the others there is a warning against false christs who will come before the advent of the real Christ. It was such a difficult matter to keep the disciples from expecting the final advent of our Lord speedily, as they call “speedily.” He knew they would misunderstand and be all the time on the lockout for the coming, so would increase the danger of being deceived by false christs. If one is confidently looking for the final advent of our Lord tomorrow, and he does not come, and somebody else comes claiming to be Christ, he would very likely take the one that comes. Hence these warnings on that subject, “Take heed that no man shall lead you astray. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many astray.” Yet again in a much later stage of the prophecy he warns: “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Lo, there; believe it not, for there shall arise false christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” Now, these false christs commence coming before the destruction of Jerusalem, and have been coming ever since, and they will multiply as the time approaches for the real advent of our Lord: but as we learn from 2 Thessalonians and Revelation, immediately preceding the advent of our Lord the man of sin will be revealed claiming that he is the Christ.

2. Warnings against false signs. – “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled: for these things must needs come to pass; but the end is not yet, for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places. But all these things are the beginning of travail.” Notwithstanding that solemn caution of our Lord, in every age of Christian history some disciples have found these events to be signs presaging the immediate coming of the Lord. In Bulwer’s romance, The Last Days of Pompeii, he, true to history, gives us an account of how the Christian people in those cities misunderstood the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. When they saw that eruption, its smoke, its ashes, its lava, its fire, its overwhelming destruction of the cities, they said, “Behold the sign of the Son of man; the end of the world is at hand.” This misconception was prevalent in the early centuries and held by what, in church history, is known as the Chiliasts, that is, literally, the “thousand year” people. It was repeated later in the history of Germany by the “Mad Men of Munster,” who pointed to the signs of the times as indicating the approach of the Son of man, and taught that he would, on this earth, set up a kingdom, and they were to begin that kingdom, and history tells us how the strong arm of secular power had to put down the madness of these superstitious, crazed people.

In the days of Oliver Cromwell, as English history informs us, a large part of his army was composed of what is known as the “Fifth Monarchy Men,” that is, as there was the kingdom of Babylon, the kingdom of Persia, the kingdom of Greece, the kingdom of Rome, so the Fifth Monarchy Kingdom would be the kingdom of the little stone; hence they were called the Fifth Monarchy Men because) judging from the signs and commotions in England at the time, they thought that the Messiah would speedily be at hand, and they were to set up that fifth monarchy on earth. In the United States there arose the Millerites who believed in the speedy coming of our Lord, and who fixed the very day of his appearing. Edward Eggleston, true to history, has written a romance called, “The End of the World.” He tells how these Millerites, having fixed the time for Christ to come, quit their business, gave away their property, and assembled on the day appointed with their ascension robes ready, expecting before that day closed to go right up to heaven) if only they could get the right flop, and when the day passed and no Christ came, then infidelity took the place of superstition concerning his coming at all.

In 1833, just ten years before I was born, there occurred a marvelous meteoric display, commonly known as the falling of the stars. Several books have been written upon this falling of the stars. Whenever you see a star fall you may know it is not a star. Stars do not fall. But when this great meteoric display occurred it seemed as if every star in the heavens were falling. So white men, black men, lawyers, doctors, preachers, and all classes alike, ran out in the street or in the road, and cried, “Behold, the sign of the Son of man; the end of the world is at hand.” Our Lord here is warning against that kind of belief. Notwithstanding his warning, every generation sees some people led astray in just that way.

3. Persecution. – Let us consider the paragraph of Mat 24:4-14, Harmony pages 160-162. Here he tries to make them understand that Christ’s coming is not imminent, because a long series of events must precede it, and he gives the series here. There will be false christs, false signs, earthquakes, long-continued persecutions of Christians. They shall be accused before synagogue and Sanhedrin) before Gentile judges and kings until the gospel of the kingdom has been preached in all the world. All these things must precede the coming of the Lord, and therefore that coming cannot be speedy in man’s sense of the word.

As Peter taught, replying to an objection about the coming of Christ based on that fact, he says, “The Lord is not slack concerning the promise of his speedy coming as men count slackness, but it is speedy in God’s sight, for a thousand years are with God as one day.” It is speedy to him. It is not speedy to us.

I called attention in the previous discussion to the statement of the apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2. Let us read that again in order to see that Christ’s coming cannot take place until every foretold, preceding event has taken place. Hence he says, “Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by any epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is just at hand; let no man beguile you in anywise: for it will not be except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”

4. The great Jewish tribulation. – In Matthew 24:15-22; Mark 13:14-20; Luke 21:20-23, we have the sign of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the great age-long tribulation of the Jews, shortened for the sake of some elect Jews. Then in Luke 21:24 we learn how long this tribulation shall last, viz., to the fulness of the Gentiles. But the sign of our Lord’s advent follows that tribulation. So we have no right to expect the coming of Jesus Christ until after the fulness of the Gentiles, until the end of the tribulation of the Jews, and until the conversion of the Jews.

When, then, is that sign to appear? “But in those days after that tribulation.” It must be after the cessation of the Jewish tribulation. It must be after the great darkness that follows that tribulation. I have already explained what the sign was – the white throne of glory in the judgment as compared with the sign of the first advent – a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Then comes the advent itself, then they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. All three of the witnesses testify as to the personal, visible, audible, tangible advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, and every time, he is represented as coming in the clouds: as, “That same Jesus whom ye saw taken up into heaven shall so come again in like manner.” No man with a Bible before him can seriously question a personal, real, visible, audible, palpable, tangible coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t preach on it enough.

While the premillennialist preaches too much on the time feature of it, the postmillennialist preaches too little on the reality and certainty of it. Whoever puts the time too soon, or makes it always imminent prepares for infidelity in the reaction of disappointment. Whoever leaves it out of his preaching altogether, leaves out the great hope of the gospel.

5. The parable of the fig tree. – We come now to the parable of the fig tree in Matthew 24:32 and parallel places in Mark and Luke. They all tell about it. It is preceded by this statement in Luke, “But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads; because your redemption draweth nigh.” Certain indications in the fig tree tell us when to look for the fruit. So when we begin to see the conversion of the Jews, the end of the fulness of the Gentiles, then we may rejoice and lift up our heads, for our redemption is nigh.

The crucial difficulty of interpretation is Matthew 24:34 : “This generation shall not pass away until all these things be accomplished.” That the commentators differ on this passage is true. Some claim this as proof that Christ himself believed and so taught his disciples to believe that his final advent would be in that generation, i.e., in an ordinary lifetime. But this claim is utterly irreconcilable with his previous, explicit teaching of the long series of events that must intervene. It utterly contradicts all his careful hedging against this very delusion. We are compelled therefore to construe this verse as referring exclusively to the question, “When shall Jerusalem be destroyed?” and then to account for its order in the discussion, or we must construe the Greek phrase e genea aute to mean “this race” – these Jews as a distinct people, shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished. It would thus become a prophecy, and a very remarkable one, of the persistence of this people through all their tribulation until the coming of the Lord.

In the preceding discussion I have given Dr. Broadus’ contention that it means an ordinary lifetime, and allowing that his contention accounted for its order in the discussion. In the same discussion also I have given my own contrary conviction of the meaning of the phrase and justified it by the context, which renders any explanation of the order wholly unnecessary. I trust the reader may understand this matter as explained, but I restate to make sure:

First explanation: “This generation” means an ordinary lifetime, and answers the question, “When shall Jerusalem be destroyed?” Our problem then is to account for its order in the prophecy, following as it does the unmistakable reference to the final advent. We thus account for it. Our Lord answers all the questions propounded by his disciples and comes to a pause at Matthew 24:31; Mark 13:27; Luke 21:28. In the general sense the discussion is ended. But in order to give clearness on some points he resumes the discussion of both the destruction of Jerusalem and of his final advent. This resumption begins where the general discussion closed, and is introduced by the parable of the fig tree, which in that case refers exclusively to the destruction of Jerusalem. This Jerusalem reference stops at Matthew 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32.

The resume has no more to say about Jerusalem, but takes up the second topic, our Lord’s final advent, commencing, “But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only” (Matthew 24:36; Luke 13:22). To this topic is devoted all the rest of the discourse. On Dr. Broadus’ theory of the meaning of “this generation” there is no other explanation of the order in which the fig tree parable occurs.

On the other theory of what “this generation” means there is no need to strain an explanation of the order of the fig tree. From beginning to end the whole prophecy proceeds in order and without a pause. From Matthew 24:29 to the end the advent only is discussed. Let us consider this theory. The Greek is e genea aute, and may mean this generation or this race of people. There is no question but that e genea aute sometimes means this race of people as well as this generation.

And the context, notwithstanding Dr. Broadus’ declining to accept this meaning in his commentary (and I have more deference for him than any other commentator I ever studied), notwithstanding that he says that we should not put this meaning on it, I can take the context and prove that we should put this meaning on it. He doesn’t deny that the phrase sometimes means this race of people. Then, if it sometimes means that, if that is a correct translation in some connections, may it not in this connection mean that, and does not this connection demand it?

The signification then would be that other nations will rise and fall and pass away, but this race of people, the Jews, will not pass away. They will be here when Jesus comes. It becomes a prophecy of the perpetuity of the Jewish people. Since the call of Abraham until the present time, while Assyria, Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Rome, and scores of other nations have passed away, this people has persisted in continuity of being.

The argument from the context appears in a preceding discussion. The next thought is Matthew 24:35.

6. The certainty of the advent. – “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.” Put the word of Jesus Christ against the heavens above and the earth beneath us. They may pass away, and they will, but “thus saith the Lord” is indestructible. He says that he is coming back. He will come back. No matter what the course of nature teaches as set forth in the second letter of Peter, when man looking at it stated, “Since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they have done from the foundation of the world:” Spring, summer, autumn, winter, a series of ever recurring events is called the course of nature.

They say that has been from the beginning. Jesus says that if he puts in a word against that course of nature, the course will fail, but his word will stand, and he says he is coming.

7. The time of his coming. – Take Matthew 24:36, “But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.”

The Son, in the limitation of his humanity, as a man, did not know. Michael doesn’t know; Gabriel doesn’t know; the angels in heaven do not know the day of the coming of the Son of man. God knows.

“God the Father hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.” (1) It is all important to fix the mind on this capital point, viz.: It is not liable to come any day. As the first came only in the fulness of time, so the second. The day of his first coming was like the day of his second coming will be. It is as fixed and immovable as the day of his first coming. Never forget the words of Paul, to the Athenians: “God hath appointed a day” (2) Certain pessimists reverse Daniel’s stone image of the growth of the kingdom and our Lord’s parable of the mustard seed. They have a tadpole interpretation of the kingdom, big at the head and “petering out” at the tail.

They hold that matters will wax worse and worse until at the advent only a handful of saints will be in the world, and claim this passage as a proof text. They argue from the few saved in Noah’s day to the few when Christ comes. They utterly mistake the point of likeness.

The day of the advent is not like the day of the flood in the fewness of the saved) but in the suddenness of the coming in each case. In both cases the wicked are surprised and are swept away unprepared.

8. Noah and the flood. – This paragraph finds a point of likeness between the coming of the flood and the final advent. It is our business to make no mistake on what is the likeness in point: “In that day they were eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came and took them all away. So shall be the coming of the Son of man.” That is, it shall be as unexpected as the coming of the flood. That very day when the flood came the wicked were buying, selling, and marrying, and giving in marriage, and going right along, not believing that there would be any flood. The point of likeness there then is the suddenness and unexpectedness of that coming to the wicked. The coming is like a flash of lightning, startling even those who are watching the clouds. In the text (Matthew 24:40-41) he shows that it will be unexpected to the righteous. He does the same thing in the parable of the ten virgins. They are all of them, the true and the false alike, asleep. They were startled by that coming. That separation the angels make will be utterly unexpected to the good man that was taken and the bad man that was left, to the good woman that was taken and to the bad woman that was left.

9. The warning of the parables. – Four parables follow in succession, all of them bearing on the suddenness and unexpectedness of his coming. The first is the parable of the man sojourning in another country, who before he went away gave authority to his servants, just as Jesus, before he goes up to heaven, will say to his disciples, “All authority in heaven and in earth is given unto me. I give it unto you, and I tell you what to do: go and preach the gospel to every creature and make disciples of all nations.” The parable anticipates the fact. The man sojourning in a far country does not tell his servants the day of his return. So the second parable, that of the householder, leaves the master of the house ignorant of the time when the thief comes. The thief does not write a letter to this householder saying, “On next Thursday night I am coming to burglarize your house,” nor does he, on arrival, ring the bell and send in his card.

The parable of the ten virgins is of like purport to good and bad. It matters not that one be awake at the time of the advent. All the ten slept. The thing that matters is preparedness. Get ready and keep ready. A soldier, though asleep, is ready, if, when the sentry fires at midnight and the drum beats, he can put his hand at once on his clothes, musket, and cartridge box. He is unready, if, when the alarm awakes him, he must in the dark hunt up things, clean his musket, and fill his cartridge box. These five wise virgins, though sleeping, were ready, because they had bought oil for their lamps. The five foolish virgins were unready, because they had not made this provision.

The great point of this parable is: There can be no preparation after Jesus comes. The time for preparation is then forever gone. John the Baptist came to prepare men. Jesus, at his first advent, came to prepare men. At the final advent he comes not to save, but to reward and judge.

10. The purpose of the final advent. – This purpose is clearly taught in the parable of the talents, so far as his professed servants are concerned. Going away, he made them stewards of his goods. But “now after a long time the Lord of these servants cometh and maketh a reckoning with them.” If hypocrites, they utterly perish. Why does he come, so far as they are concerned? What is the purpose of his coming?

To make a reckoning with them – their stewardship ceases. So far as the Christians are concerned the purpose of the final advent is, by their works, to show what fidelity as Christians they have exercised in the service of the Lord. If they have done well they receive a reward; if they have done unrighteously they suffer loss, but they are saved, yet as by fire, says Paul. The object of the coming, then, so far as Christians are concerned, is to reckon with them as to their Christian stewardship. But the fulness of the purpose appears in the last paragraph of the prophecy: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory and all nations shall be gathered before him.” Why gathered? That tells us why: They are separated instantly.

The righteous take the place at the right hand and participate with him in the judgment. The wicked are sent away into everlasting punishment.

And every time the coming of the Lord as to its purpose is expressed, that same lesson is taught – that he doesn’t come to teach; he doesn’t come as a vicarious sacrifice for sin; he doesn’t come to make intercession for his people in his priesthood ; he doesn’t come to rule as a king, but he comes to turn over the kingdom. He does come to judge.

I want to get the thought of that judgment before you. Revelation 20:11 says, “I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, before whom the heavens and the earth fled away and there was found no place for them.” The earth will be regenerated by fire. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. He winds up the present earth and the present heavens at his coming, “and the dead, small and great, stand before him,” for judgment, “and the books were opened.” Now notice: “And the dead were judged out of the books according to their works.”

11. Some questions. – very briefly answer some questions. If Christ’s first advent was a far-off, fixed time and not a sliding scale of possibilities, then is it true that Christ may come at any time? It is not true. He couldn’t come before the Spirit was given, as he promised. He couldn’t come before Jerusalem was destroyed, as foretold. He couldn’t come before the fulness of the Gentiles and the conversion of the Jews, as he foretold. He couldn’t come before the great apostasy and the revelation of the man of sin, as he foretold. Then why exhort everybody to watch? I wouldn’t know how to answer that question at all if Christ was liable to come at any time, but I do know how to answer it if the day of his coming is fixed and far away. I know how to reply to it.

It is quite important to answer this question fairly, for three things are clear from our Lord’s teaching: (1) the final advent is a fixed, definite date; (2) the series of foretold intervening events necessitates a far away date; (3) yet every man is exhorted to look for it, in his day, and be ready.

The first part of the answer consists of this fact: There are many comings of the Lord, and each is related to the final coming:

The Lord comes in the Holy Spirit: “I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you” (John 14:18). The relation of this advent to the final advent is shown in Acts 2:19-20.

The Lord comes in judgments, as at the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 21:40-41). And this coming, like the flood, is related to the final coming, as in the prophecy.

The Lord comes at the Christian’s death (John 14:3; Acts 7:56; Matthew 24:44-51). Otherwise the warning in Matthew 24:44-51 would be only a scare to all but the generations living when Jesus comes.

The second part of the answer consists in this: That while the final advent is a long way off to the race of man, between that advent and the individual of the race there is only the time till the individual’s death. With death his watching and his preparation cease. If he dies tomorrow unready, he will be unready when the advent comes to the race, though that may be centuries hence.

When I die I will get out of time into eternity. I am not charged or credited with anything that I do after I die. All that the judgment takes cognizance of are the deeds that are done in the body, not after one gets out of his body. The only time for me to prepare for the second advent is while I am living, and though that advent to the race may be a thousand years off, it isn’t a thousand years to me; it is just a number of days till I am dead. The only time I can watch, can pray, can get ready, is before I die. Therefore, he says, “I say unto you all, Watch, be ready.”

We must keep before us distinctly these two points: The coming of Christ historically to the race at a fixed day far away, and the coming of Christ to the individual when he dies; at the depot of death he meets us if we are Christians. The purpose of the advent is to judge both the righteous and the unrighteous.

12, The one ground of judgment. – That is the treatment accorded to Christ in his gospel and in his people. That is set forth in the end of the lesson. Jesus says to those on his right hand, “Come, ye blessed of my Father. Because I was sick and ye visited me, I was hungry and ye fed me, I was in prison and ye ministered unto me.” Then shall they say, “Lord, when did we do this? You were not on earth while we were living.” “Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye did it unto me. I identify myself with my gospel, my cause, my people.”

Look at the wicked. They are condemned now, but at the judgment there will be taken into account their deeds done in the body: “How did you treat Christ offered to you as a Saviour in his gospel? How did you treat his cause, his people?” And when he tells them that they did not come when he was sick, they did not give him food when he was hungry, they did not clothe him when he was naked, and did not minister unto him, they will say, “When, Lord? We don’t remember ever seeing you.” He answers, “Yes, but you saw my people, you had my gospel preached to you.” And in the same way the good angels will be confirmed, the evil ones with the devil condemned, and their treatment of Christ will be taken into account.

1. Why the necessity of warning against false christs?

2. What is Christ’s warning on this point?

3. Has history verified the wisdom of this caution of Christ? If so, how?

4. Who is to be the culmination of all the antichrists?

5. What was Christ’s warning against false signs?

6. What is the historical proof that men have mistaken natural phenomena for the sign, erred in fixing a date, and have misconceived the nature and time of the kingdom, with grievous results?

7. What are the events outlined by our Lord in Matthew 24:4-14 which show that the coming of Christ is not imminent?

8. What does Paul say must come first?

9. What is the importance of the doctrine of the advent and the preacher’s duty with respect to it?

10. What is the lesson of the parable of the fig tree according to the construction of Mat 24:34?

11. Restate the two theories of interpretation and show the argument for the author’s position.

12. In what statement does our Lord show the certainty of his coming and how does this answer the objection offered by the mockers referred to in 2 Peter 3:4-7

13. What does Jesus say as to who knows the time of his coming and how explain this statement as it applies to Christ?

14. Cite positive proof that the day of his final advent is not a sliding scale of possibilities, always imminent, but a definitely fixed and unalterable date, and compare it, in this respect, with the date of his first advent.

15. Two opposing views are preached: one, pessimistic as to the world prevalence of the gospel under the Spirit dispensation presenting the gospel kingdom as a tadpole, i.e., big at the head but tapering into a fine-pointed tail; the other, optimistic, as to the world prevalence of the gospel, as a little stone in its beginning and growing into a mountain and finally filling the whole earth. Which of these is the scriptural view and the proof?

16. What, then, is the explanation of Mat 7:13-14; Luke 13:23-24; Luke 17:26; Luke 18:8?

17. What four parables follow bearing on the suddenness and unexpectedness of his coming and what the point illustrated in each respectively?

18. What is the purpose of his coming with reference to hypocrites? With reference to Christians?

19. If a justified man goes immediately to heaven when he dies and an unjustified man to hell, why bring them from these places of joy and torment before a judgment seat at the end of the world?

20. What reference to this is in the book of Revelation and what are the books to be opened at the judgment? Answer: For the answer to the last part of this question see sermon, “The Library of Heaven”; first volume of sermons by the author.

21. If Christ’s first advent was a far-off, fixed time and not a sliding scale of possibilities, then is it true that Christ may come at any time?

22. What events must come first as foretold?

23. What three things are clear from our Lord’s teachings on this point?

24. Then why exhort everybody to watch?

25. What is the one ground of the judgment? Illustrate in the case of the Christians, the sinners, and the angels, respectively.

Luke 21:8-36

XX OUR LORD’S GREAT – HIS SECOND COMING Harmony, pages 160-168 and Matthew 24:1-25:46; Mark 13:1-37; Luke 21:8-36.This discussion begins with the third question: What shall be the extent of the tribulation of the Jews, commencing with the destruction of Jerusalem?

Jesus answers, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24). That is his answer.

A great many people, in commenting upon this, try to make out this great tribulation to be a Gentile tribulation. There is no Gentile tribulation in it at all; it is a Jewish tribulation altogether, and the “elect” spoken of, for whose sake the days were shortened, are not elect Gentiles, but elect Jews. Now, as their probation had lasted nearly twenty centuries, so that penalty has already lasted nearly twenty centuries, and no man now can see the end of it. There is no discernible sign yet upon the spiritual horizon of the fulness of the Gentiles. The kingdom of heaven was turned over to them and they pushed it through Asia into Africa, into Europe, across the ocean into America, across that continent and into the Pacific and into its islands, and then to the thick-peopled Orient again, and they are still pushing out the boundaries of the kingdom of God, and triumphantly preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Jewish tribulation has not yet ceased. Moses, with very great particularity, anticipating the very declaration of Jesus Christ, describes this Jewish tribulation.

He says, “If you shall break my covenant, and will not hear the prophet that is to come, like unto me, then you shall be destroyed as a people. You shall be sent captive among all nations, and nowhere shall ye be kindly received.

And so great will be the persecution against you that the heavens above shall seem brass and the earth beneath seem iron, and when it is evening you will say, Would to God it were morning, and when it is morning, you will say, Would to God it were evening.” Our Lord further says that this tribulation shall cease when they shall say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” that is, when they shall hear the Gentile messengers bearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then, as Zechariah puts it, “In the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out upon the house of Israel and upon the house of David, the spirit of prayer and supplication, and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his first-born son, and in that day a fountain for sin and for uncleanness shall be opened for the house of Israel and for the house of David.” So that the tribulation ends, just as Paul, in Romans 11, says it will end, by the conversion of the Jews. He says, “I say then, Did they stumble that they might fall? God forbid: but by their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy. Now, if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? . . . For, if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:11-12; Romans 11:15.)

To like purport speaks Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36:16-27; Ezekiel 37:1-14. He saw a valley of dry bones. They represented dispersed and afflicted Israel. He prophesied over them, and they came together, and articulated into skeletons, and were clothed with flesh. He prophesied to the Spirit: “Come from the four winds, O Spirit, and breathe on these slain that they may live.” And they lived. Thus, under the figure of a physical resurrection, he sets forth the spiritual resurrection of Israel in the day of their conversion.

The house of Israel had gone away to the nations in captivity and this is the promise of God that they shall be revived and restored, so that a very important question arises – what is the relation of the conversion of the Jews to the final advent of our Lord? Peter answers that question. He says to the Jews: “Ye crucified the Lord of glory. I know, brethren, that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers, and now repent ye and turn so that your sins may be blotted out, so that God may send Jesus, whom the heavens must receive until the time of the restoration of all things.”

There is not in the Bible one thought more clearly taught than this, viz.: The Jews must be converted before Messiah comes again. The salvation of the Jews in one day, as set forth in many prophecies, and many other events lasting at least a thousand years, will intervene between the end of the tribulation and the advent of our Lord, as is shown in his second great prophecy – Revelation.

We now take up the next question: When, then, will Messiah come? And here is Jesus’ answer to that. On page 164 of the Harmony, Matthew 24:29 says, “But immediately, [mark that comma] after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven.” Notice how Mark 13:24-25 puts it: “But in those days, after the tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall be falling from heaven.” Luke 21:25-26 says, “And there shall be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows: fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” Notice that word “immediately.” You see from the punctuation that it does not connect with tribulation, so as to make it read without comment, “immediately after the tribulation.” It does not connect with that. It connects with the darkening of the sun – “after the tribulation of those days” – how long after, he does not say: “the sun shall be immediately darkened.” That means not gradually, as in an eclipse, but instantly every light shall be put out. Is that the sign of his advent? He says, “No.”

The next verse says: “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” What, then, is the last event antecedent to the sign? It is this instant darkening of all the heavenly bodies. That is the background for the sign – total darkness, darker than Egypt, darker than the darkness of Byron’s dream, so dark it could be felt, the whole world dark ‘and not an eclipse – not a gradual and partial darkness, but immediately the sun shall be darkened and totally. Then, right in that darkness, shall appear the sign of the Son of man. What is that sign? He answers that question very plainly.

He says (Matthew 25:31), “When the Son of man shall come in his glory” – not in his humiliation, as he did the first time, but in his glory – “then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.” John says (Revelation 20:11), “And I saw a great white throne.” Now, that is the sign; a great white throne, right in the heart of that darkness. When he came the first time he said to the shepherds through the angels, “This shall be a sign unto you.” What was the sign the first time? “A babe in swaddling clothes and cradled in a manger;” that was the sign of the first advent, the sign of the coming of his humiliation, when he stooped, when he condescended, when he took upon himself human nature, when he came in the feebleness of infancy, exposed to hunger and cold and thirst and poverty – that was the sign then.

The next time he comes he does not come in his humiliation: he comes in his glory, and we must look for a sign as far distant from a baby in a horse trough as possible, and that sign is a throne, and it is a white throne of dazzling whiteness. From the manger to the throne! And mark well, it is not the throne of a continuing priesthood. It is not the throne of the inauguration of a king. The priest has left forever the most holy place of intercession, and kingship ends with the second coming. The King is just about to abdicate and turn the kingdom over to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24-28). It is the throne of the judge, the last office of our Lord. That is the sign of his coming, viz.: The appearance of a great white throne of judgment.

Picture the scene. Imagine that the expanse above the horizon and all around the world is as dark as the world was in its chaos, when darkness was upon the face of the deep, and right in the midst of that darkness a center spot of whiteness is seen, the whitest thing the eye ever looked at, coming, coming, coming, larger, whiter) until we can see him that is sitting on the throne. Now, that white throne is the sign of the final advent of our Lord. But we are not left to that identification alone. We are told in this very prophecy that at his coming he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet.

The trumpet and the throne come together. Earth never heard it but once before. When the law was given at Mount Sinai, when God came down and Sinai smoked and trembled and thundered, Moses says that there came a sound of a mighty trumpet that waxed louder and louder and louder, and the people fell at the sound of that terrible blast blown by no human lips. Now, that trumpet sound will come in connection with that white throne. But don’t make the mistake that this is Gabriel blowing his horn for the raising of the dead. That is Negro theology. Gabriel doesn’t blow that horn. Michael blows it. The object of it is not to raise the dead, but to marshal the angels that come.

He shall send forth his angels with this trumpet sound. It is their signal to fall into line and forward march: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.” Nor is that all. There is a signal to the saints on earth. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,” says Paul. He shall come with a great shout. The earth never heard that voice of the archangel (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Earth never heard that shout before, and we know just what it is.

Jesus tells us here in this prophecy. He says, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold the Bridegroom; go ye out to meet him.” There can be no mistaking in any of these things. We can’t mistake that darkness for any other darkness, that whiteness for any other whiteness, nor that trumpet for any other trumpet, nor that shout for any other shout.

To complete the intensely dramatic and artistic power of the application, imagine that whiteness to be fringed with fire – whiteness fire-fringed, outlined in darkness. His angels are flaming spirits, ministers of fire, and they come surrounding that white throne on which the Master, the Judge, is sitting. Darkness, white throne, fire-fringed, trumpet, and shout. Two men shall be out in the field that very day. They get their breakfast and start out to work, maybe plowing side by side, but there are two of them, and all at once they can’t see the plow handles nor each other. There is total darkness. Then that whiteness, that fire fringe, then that trumpet, then that shout comes. A part of that fire fringe separates itself.

It is an angel swooping down upon the earth and one of these men is taken, and the other is left. “He shall send his holy angels and gather up his elect from all the ends of the earth.” Now imagine the man whom the angel took and the man whom the angel left. But that man is not left long. Another angel swoops down and that man is taken. He (Jesus) says in the parable of the tares, “At the end of the world he shall send his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom everything that offends.” They shall pick up these tares and bind them for the burning. Notice again that he says, “Two women shall be grinding at the mill.” It is a handmill. They will be pounding their corn with a maul.

We see that in Mexico today, just as they did then, and these two women will be working together. They will be getting ready the material for dinner, pounding the grain.

All at once the darkness, the whiteness, the fire fringe, the trumpet, the shout, “Behold the Bridegroom; go ye out to meet him,” and an angel swoops and one woman is taken, and the other is left. Another angel swoops, and the second woman is taken. He then brings out another thought so intensely tremendous that it will stagger the credulity of some. He says that the kingdom of heaven at that time shall be likened unto ten virgins. These are all professing Christians, all church members, five of them are real Christians. They have oil in their lamps. Five of them are only nominal Christians. They took no oil with their lamps, and suddenly that cry was heard, “Behold, the Bridegroom!” and the five that were ready were caught away with the Lord.

The other five, what? Mark it. They tried then to get ready. They go out to buy oil, and what is the reply? “Too late, too late; ye cannot enter now.”

After Jesus comes in his final advent, the soul-saving time is ended forever. Whoever is not ready will then never be ready. The idea of Christ coming and thousands of years passing on after he comes and men living and dying, and the gospel being preached or men being saved by some other means, is wholly foreign to the teaching of our Lord. No one can get ready then. His coming is a windup.

The prodigies are not exhausted. One great tragedy remains, more momentous than Noah’s flood, its great prototype. We recall that when Noah was ark sheltered, then on the wicked came the deluge. As soon as the saints, soul and body, are caught into the clouds unto the Lord, another deluge comes, not of water, but of fire. The whole world, land and sea, is an ocean of flame. In this literal world the living wicked perish.

Their bodies are actually consumed in this fire. They cannot escape physical death as do the living saints. There is for them no transforming change as comes to the righteous (1 Corinthians 15:51-55). They must die by fire in the day of that fire. Carefully read in this connection the following scriptures: Malachi 4:1-3; 2 Peter 3:1-10; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; and especially the parable of the tares, Matthew 13:24-30; Matthew 13:36-43. While the foolish virgins vainly seek to get ready, vainly knock when it is forever too late, the fire comes, the deluge of fire, and their bodies are consumed.

Let us now proceed to his next question: What is the purpose of his coming, and in what capacity does he come? When he came the first time he came as a prophet teaching the way of life. He came as a sacrifice expiating sin. He ascended to heaven, assuming his kingdom and reigning in heaven for his people, and exercising his priesthood in heaven, ever living to make intercession for them, but when he comes the next time he does not come to teach; no gospel then; he does not come as a sin offering. Paul says, “When he comes the next time, he comes apart from a sin-offering unto salvation.” There is no salvation in his second coming. He does not come next time as a king, for when he comes, says Paul, he comes to turn over the kingdom to the Father, and then will be the end.

As he says further in 1 Corinthians 15, he reigns up yonder until the last enemy is put under his feet, and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, and then he turns over the kingdom to the Father, and God is all in all. Then, if he comes, not as prophet nor as’ sacrifice, nor as king, does he come as priest? Nay, verily. When he comes he vacates the high priesthood function in the court of heaven, for in the New Jerusalem that is seen, says John, “I saw no temple therein.” He does not come as a priest; he comes as a Judge: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all the nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then he says to those on the right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, and to those on his left hand, Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” These shall go into eternal life and those shall go into the place prepared for the devil and his angels.

There is no teaching about that; there is no explanation about that; there is no ruling about that; there is no high priesthood about that. That is the function of a judge. Now here is John’s statement of it: “I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away. . . . And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. . . . The sea gave up its dead, death and hell gave up their dead, and they were judged.” That is the purpose of his coming. You never can be a sound theologian until you master the purpose of Christ’s first coming and what he did; his ascent into heaven, why he went, how long he stays, and what he does while he is up there; then the purpose of his final advent. “The Lord said unto my lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” And he is going to stay up there until he does make his enemies his footstool. “We have left all to follow thee,” says Peter, “What shall we have?” “You who have followed me, when the regeneration comes,” that is, the regeneration of the earth, when the great fire sweeps the earth, and it is purified, “then you shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Those that are placed at his right hand aid him and voice his word when he pronounces the sentence of death upon the wicked and upon the lost angels: “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” says Paul, and “Know ye not that the saints shall judge angels?” What poetic justice is there in thinking that Peter and Job shall sit upon this throne at the right hand of Jesus Christ and judge the devil that worried them so much while they were here upon the earth I All Christians will participate in that judgment. They will take their place at the right hand of the Lord: “They shall sit with me upon my throne, as when I had overcome and took my seat on my Father’s throne, and they shall judge all nations.”

1. What was Jesus’ answer to the question, “What is the extent of the tribulation commencing with the destruction of Jerusalem”?

2. Was it a Gentile, Christian, or strictly Jewish tribulation?

3. How long was it to continue?

4. The elect for whose sake it is shortened, are they Jews, Gentiles, or Christians?

5. What is the description of this tribulation given by Moses?

6. What is the description given by Hosea? See Hosea 3:4.

7. How long has it already lasted and are there yet clear indications of its speedy cessation?

8. What event will terminate it?

9. What is Zechariah’s description of it?

10. What is Paul’s description of it?

11. What is Ezekiel’s description of it?

12. What is Isaiah’s description of it? Answer: Isaiah shows that the judgments of God upon Israel continue until their conversion, Isaiah 65:17-20; that this conversion introduces the millennium, Isaiah 65:25; that this national conversion shall be in one day, with glorious results to the Gentiles, Isaiah 66:8-10.

13. In what dispensation, by whom & what means will all this take place?

14. What is the relation this event to the final advent according to Peter?

15. What were the mighty attendant events according to Revelation? Answer: Revelation 11:19-19; Revelation 20:1-3.

16. What glorious world triumph of the gospel do these events introduce?

17. How does Christ answer the question, “When is the final advent and the end of the world?”

18. What great supernatural prodigy precedes the sign, and how do you connect and construe the “immediately” of Matthew 24:29?

19. What is not the sign?

20. When and what is the sign of the second advent?

21. What is the sign of the first advent?

22. What is the contrast of the signs of the two advents and what is the fitness of each to the event?

23. What sound accompanying the sign, who sounds it, when heard before, negatively and positively what is this sound for, what appearance of those summoned by this sound, and what their double office on this occasion?

24. What shout attending the sign?

25. What two other supernatural prodigies precede the gathering of the elect by the angels? Answer: The resurrection of the righteous dead and the transfiguration of the living saints.

26. Describe in the case of the two women grinding at mill, the two men in the field and the ten sleeping virgins, this rapture, or catching up of the elect.

27. In view of the universal darkness, the appearance of the great white throne in the darkness, the fire fringe of the angels around the throne, the loud sounding trumpet, the great shout, the resurrection of the righteous dead, the transfiguration of the living saints, the instant separation of people close together, as in the case of the two women – the two men – the ten virgins – is it possible, as some teach, that these stupendous events shall be secret, invisible, and inaudible to the wicked?

28. What convincing Scripture proof to the contrary?

29. What stupendous mistake was made by the foolish virgins, and what present-day teaching tends to perpetuate their mistake?

30. Instead of opportunity to then get ready, what overwhelming supernatural disaster befalls sinners and the world, and what office of the angels toward them is instantly executed?

31. What parable sets forth this angel office to the wicked?

32. Where according to this prophecy, do the angels in the double office of catching up the “elect” and the “tares” gather them?

33. How does our Lord in an earlier teaching concerning Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba show that good and bad are gathered together at one time and for one judgment? Answer: See Matthew 12:41-42.

34. How does his last Revelation to John show the same thing?

35. How does Paul show that when he comes to be glorified in his saints is the very time that the wicked are punished with everlasting destruction? Answer: See 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10.

36. What paragraph of this prophecy shows the purpose of final advent?

37. What are the Messiah’s several offices, when and where each exercised and in which does he come last?

38. Show from the Scriptures that in the final advent he does not come as a prophet, sacrifice, priest, or king, but only as a final, supreme judge, and that after this coming there can be no increase in the number of the saved.

39. What three things essential to know in order to be a sound theologian?

40. What part do the saints have with Christ in the judgment?