100 WITNESSES TO THE SECOND COMING

Part III

Dr. James M. Gray, Dean of the Moody Bible Institute, Author of several works.

            “There is a Coming of Christ for His saints, and a Coming of Christ with His saints. It is the Coming of Christ for His saints that is the Hope of the Church, an event for which the faithful are always looking. I know of nothing to intervene before He comes. He may come today, or certainly within our generation, when the Church will be caught up to meet Him in the air. Then there will be an interval, how long I do not know. And during that interval, while the Church is with her Lord in the air, most of these events apparently, of which the prophets speak are to transpire on the earth. It is then that the nations are federating, the man of sin developing, the Jew returning, and the crisis approaching. And when that crisis comes, then Christ comes, not for His Church as we have seen, but with His Church, and with His holy angels, “In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (II Thess. 1:6-10).”

 

F. W. Grant, Author of the “Numerical Bible,” the well-known book “Facts and Theories as to a Future State ,” and others.

            “Think of it, ‘in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.’ The last trump was that which in its military sense stood for departure. It was the signal to march, and that is the thought here. God is taking us into another place, and at the last trump, which sounds for this, we shall be changed into a condition corresponding with that which is implied in it. ‘The trumpet shall sound, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and the living shall be changed.’ The ‘corruptible must put on incorruption,’ there he is speaking of the dead; “the ‘mortal,’ here he speaks of the living, ‘must put on immortality.’ Here will be in every way the complete triumph over death. Everything here applied, as we see again, to the resurrection or transformation of the saints simply. There is no thought of anything besides.”

 

Henry Groves, well-known Teacher in Britain .

            “The Lord is Coming---‘Maranatha.’ I found this word the other day in an old Greek MS., and it show us how bright an object was the Coming of the Lord to the apostolic saints. It is not a Greek word, but a Syriac one; and while they had their ‘hosanna’ and their ‘hallelujah,’ they had also their ‘Maranatha’---the Lord is Coming. Maranatha hopes and Maranatha joys made martyrdom only half martyrdom; so would our troubles be shorn of half their weight if Maranatha were better known to us. May it be the watchword of the whole Church of God , and may the Maranatha glory be preserved in freshness on our hearts---‘The Lord is Coming.’”

 

Francis Ridley Havergal, the Sweet Singer in Israel , Authoress of numerous Hymns, sung world wide.

 

“Thou art Coming! Thou art Coming! We shall meet Thee on the way!

We shall see Thee, we shall know Thee! We shall bless Thee, we shall show Thee

            All our hearts could never say!

When an anthem that will be, ringing out our love to Thee!

Pouring out our rapture sweet to Thine own all-glorious feet!

O! the joy to see Thee reigning! Thee, my own beloved Lord!

Every tongue Thy Name confessing; worship, honour, power, blessing,

            Brought to Thee with one accord!

Thee, my Master and my Friend, vindicated and enthroned!

Unto earth’s remotest end, glorified, adored and owned!”

 

Dr. I. M. Haldeman,  American Teacher, writer of many valuable works.

            “The deceiving wonders in the world today performed in the Name of Christ, as they increase in emphasis, bear witness that the Coming of the Lord draweth nigh. He Himself has said so. He has said that when all these things begin to come to pass, we, as believers, may look up and know that our redemption draweth nigh; that the Lord is even at the door. It is a witness that this age, like the river that at last reaches the brink of the cataract, is about to sweep over and plunge to its fall. These very signs say to us in the loudest possible speech, ‘The Lord is Coming.’”

 

R. Wright Hay, Secretary of “The Bible League,” London ; Editor of the Bible League Quarterly, Author and Lecturer.

            “Soon after my conversion I saw in Holy Scripture that my Lord had promised to come from Heaven to receive His own unto Himself that they might be with Him in all His subsequent sovereign movements (John 14:2-3). I saw that He intimated the possibility of His Coming while John was still alive on the earth (John 21:22 ). I saw also that He enjoined His disciples to watch, because in such an hour as they thought not, he would come (Matt. 24:42, 44). I had impressed on my heart the motto, ‘Perhaps today,’ and this has been a daily benediction in all the years since. I see clearly that the Appearing of our Lord is a matter of time (I Tim. 6:15 ), and that the coming of the Day of God may be hastened by the holy living and service of saved sinners (2. Peter 3:11-12). I find it congenial to recall the Saviour’s word of love, ‘Surely I Come quickly,’ and to respond with John, ‘Amen, even so, Come, Lord Jesus’ (Rev. 22:20). . .”

 

Dr. J. Stuart Holden, of St. Paul ’s, Portman Square , London , well known in many branches of Christian work, Chairman of Keswick Convention.

            “I am often asked: ‘Do you think that all believers will be taken away when Christ Comes, or will some of them be left to go through the Tribulation? in any Divine recognition of a spiritual aristocracy. It is altogether contrary to the Word of God that merit should have place for one fraction of a second in regard to the translation of His people, any more than it has in regard to their earlier experiences of fellowship. It was the grace of God which brought salvation at the first. It is the grace of God which is sufficient for the lives of His own today. And it is the grace of God which will be revealed anew when Christ Comes for them (I Peter 1:13 ). I do not believe that any true believer will go through the great Tribulation. I cannot believe those who are exercising sincere faith in Christ will be shut out when He returns for His own.

            “Then will only those be taken whose lives are flawless, whose love is unfaltering, whose keenness has never fluctuated, whose consecration has never been denied, and who are actually subordinating every interest in life to the great interest of His Coming? There are some who affirm that it shall be a dramatic discrimination between, as it were, different grades of His followers. Let me say that I do not believe this, for I find no warrant for it in the Scriptures. I believe that as we are saved and kept by grace, so we shall be translated by grace.”

 

Wm. Hoste, B. A., Author of “Bishops, Priests, and Deacons,” “Visions of John the Divine,” “The Passion Song of Israel ,” etc.

            “The next event in the Divine Programme is the Return of Christ. It will be a personal return---‘The Lord Himself.’ It will be a sudden return---‘in a moment.’ It will be a secret return. Only those actually involved in it will know of it, for it will be ‘in the twinkling of an eye.’ Then will come in the heavenly sphere the judgment seat of Christ (II Cor. 5:10 ), and the marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7). On the earth the portentous events which we see already unfolding around us, will then reach maturity---the Roman Empire will be revived, Israel restored to her land, and partly to her place of testimony, the Man of Sin and Antichrist revealed, and Babylon the great whore judged.”

 

Dr. H. A. Ironside, Pastor, the Moody Memorial Church , Chicago , Illinois .

            “The Blessed Hope of the Lord’s imminent return to raise the dead and to change the living saints prior to His Coming in power and great glory to set up His Kingdom has been the joy and earnest expectation of my heart for over thirty-five years. While deeply interested in the significant movements occurring in connection with the Jews, the Gentile nations, and the professing Church, I have ever recognized the fact that Scripture gives no direct prophecy that must be fulfilled ere the rapture takes place. If called Home by death before this hope is realized, I shall have lost nothing, but gained immeasurably by looking for His Coming, and I shall still be waiting for the same blessed event. It has been to me a purifying and stimulating thing to realize that at any moment He might descend to call His own to meet Him in the air.”

 

Dr. J. H. Jowett, Minister of Westminister Church , one of the greatest preachers of his day.

            “Is it not the introduction of a jarring discord? Will it not be as when some stealthy terror appears upon the field of sight, and all the birds are hushed in fearful silence? Oh! no; that is one of the perversions of the years; but it was not the experience of the Apostolic days. When the apostles thought of the Lord’s Coming, and of ‘the Day of the Lord,’ their hearts rang out a merrier peal! It was not the gloomy eclipse, but the ‘daybreak, when all shadows should flee away!’ They thought of His Coming, and their joy was enriched. They thought of His Coming, and their gentleness became still more refined. It gave courage to their hearts and firmness to their steps, and out of that valorous strength there sprang all the softer graces of the consecrated life.”

 

Howard, A. Kelly, M.D., LL. D., American Writer, Author of “A Scientist’s Belief in the Bible.”

            “One master word covers the attitude of Christians in relation to this expectation of the Coming of the Bridegroom to claim His Bride, and that word is ‘imminent.’ Ever since our Lord passed beyond the confines of this earth into the Heavens, the hour of His return, all unknown, has been imminent; and our right attitude therefore, is one of constant expectancy, with hearts fully prepared to give our Lord His fitting, royal welcome, when He appears, no longer as sin-bearer, but with the holy angels and in His heavenly glory.”

 

Wm. Kelly, an able Teacher, and Author of many helpful Bible Works.

            “One important inference we ought to draw from this Scripture (I Thess. 1) is that the Christian hope is a fit and seasonable, and Divinely warranted expectation for a young convert’s soul. Whatever may be said about the propriety of prophetic study for such a one, the Coming of the Lord Jesus is certainly suitable. It is as clear as He can make it that the Thessalonian saints from their very conversion waited for His Son from Heaven. The Holy Ghost. . .mentions it to their praise as a component part and happy feature of their conversion, a result of God’s mighty power which wrought upon them from the very first. Thus we have it on the sure authority of God’s Word that it is never out of season to bring before the simplest soul that ‘Blessed Hope’ of the Lord Jesus Christ’s return.”

 

E. L. Langston, M. A., Rector of Sevenoaks, Chairman of the Advent Testimony Movement, Keswick Speaker, Author of several books, etc.

            “The heavens are going to be rent, it may be this year, it may be this week, it may be this day, but whenever that great event takes place, if you are a true Christian, you  have the inward consciousness that you are both of the Spirit, and that the Divine oil is burning in you. These are serious days. The signs indicate the near approach of the Lord Jesus. If we would be ready, then we must see that the oil is in the vessel, and that the lamp is trimmed.”

 

Clarence Larkin, Philadelphia , Author of “The Greatest Book on Dispensational Truth.”

            “Whilst we do not know the day or the hour of Christ’s Coming, we know that it will be Pre-Millennial, that is, before the period of the 1000 years spoken of in Revelation 20:1-6. The very structure of the New Testament demands that Christ shall return before the Millennium. . .If He is not Coming until after the Millennium, and the Millennium is not yet here, why command us to watch for an event that is 1000 years off?”

 

Robert Lee, of the “ Mildmay Bible School ,” Author of the “Outlined Bible” and other “Outline” Books.

            “For the first ten years of my Christian life, all that I was looking forward to was the Great White Throne and the general Judgment, though I was greatly puzzled over statements in Corinthians concerning the Judgment Seat, and references to the Lord’s Coming in the Thessalonian Epistles. I could not square these Scriptures with the ideas held of a general Judgment. During my pastorate in Bolton , Lancashire , in 1893, I came in touch with a retired evangelist and his wife, who kept a Bible shop. The lady in question was a real ‘Mother in Israel ,’ and discussing with me the Lord’s personal and Pre-Millennial Coming, she discovered my bewilderment, and then presented me with a copy of Walter Scott’s ‘Coming Glories.’ The prayerful reading of that book revolutionized my ideas and my life. I then bought Fry’s “God’s Plan in the Bible,” which confirmed the conviction received through Walter Scott’s ‘Coming Glories,’ and after most careful study of the Scriptures, I came to see that the great Hope of the Church was the Pre-Millennial and Personal Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a change it made in my outlook upon things, and upon my life! It led to purification and consecration of heart and life, and the Bible became an entirely new book. It has been my joy to pass on to others the truths that have become precious to me, and I have noted time and again, the same revolutionary change in outlook and living.”

 

Canon Liddon, of St. Paul ’s Cathedral, Author of the famous Bampton lectures on “The Divinity of our Lord.”

            “As the moments pass they bring us nearer one by one to the Second Advent. Christ’s Coming will be sudden when it does take place; but it will be the product of a lengthened preparation. ‘The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely Come, it will not tarry.’”

 

Wm. Lincoln, of Beresford Chapel, London , Author of “The Javelin of Phinehas,” and several books.

            “The suddenness with which the entire church, and all the Old Testament saints shall rise together into the presence of the Lord, is called in I Corinthians 15:51, a mystery, i.e., a secret revealed. First, the Son of God descends and gives the triumphant signal so long expected. It will bear on the destinies of earth, being the voice of the Archangel . It will be the consummation of the Heavenly call, and hence is termed ‘the trump of God.’ In instant and joyful obedience, rise from their graves all the dead in Christ; all those to whom death was only a ‘sleep through Jesus’ (I Thess. 4:14 ). Then a change equivalent to death and resurrection passes on the bodies of the living believers. Then the two companies rise simultaneously into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and to return and come down with Him. But though these two, the resurrection of the dead saints, and the change of the living, as also their rising all together into the Lord’s presence, will be done thus orderly and perfectly; yet the whole of this action is to occupy only a single moment, or even the twinkle of an eye, or even less time still. For a twinkle denotes the casting of the eyelid down and up too; but the Greek word denotes only the one or the other of these. What a moment! Here one second, at our daily work, and then, ere the clock has ticked once more, all this accomplished.”

 

Dr. W. P. Mackay, Minister of the Gospel, Hull ; Author of the world-renowned book “Grace and Truth”; For long Editor of “The British Evangelist.”

            “When the truth of His Second Coming and the glory to be revealed in connection with His Pre-Millennial Advent, dawned upon my soul, it was like a second conversion.”

 

Dr. F. E. Marsh, well-known as a Bible Teacher on both sides of the Atlantic , Author of many books.

            “One essential difference, and of primary importance, is to see that the Spirit plainly and unmistakably distinguishes between the presence of the Lord for His saints and His manifest glory with them to the world. We can easily discern the difference in the following words, where the former is spoken of as ‘the Blessed Hope’ and the latter as “The appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ’ (R.V.). The Lord’s private reception of His own called and chosen ones is like a king’s levee, and is exclusively for the redeemed ones of His grace; but the glorious appearing is like the king’s open and royal procession as he goes to open Parliament, and is manifest to all. Another thing to remember is that the Lord’s return for His saints is a matter of grace; therefore every member in the Body of Christ, (not every one in Christendom) will be taken; whereas His Coming with His saints is to execute judgment upon the ungodly and those who have not obeyed the Gospel of our Lord (Jude 14-15; II Thess. 1:7-10).”

 

Jas. E. Matheson, of Mildmay Conference Work.

            “What is the deeply solemn truth that all this urgency to obtain labourers for Christ pressed home? Surely this, i.e., the dispensation of grace is nearing its close; eleven o’clock has struck on the clock of the age; we may be beyond half-past eleven, yea, in the very closing year!”