Most Christians believe that Christ's second coming is near. That is good, for it is very true, more so than we think. But who loves the thought that it is near? Aside from some old or sick people, or prison inmates, who really want Him to come soon?
During the early part of the last century many humble Christians came to cherish such a desire. Members of different denominations, they discovered in the symbolism of Daniel and Revelation a prophetic road-map which had not previously been clearly understood.
All churches had assumed for many centuries that these books were "sealed." But to these discoverers of prophecy, Daniel and Revelation came alive to focus the conviction that mankind's weary journey in this world of sin was about at its end.
While a few individuals scattered through the centuries had always spoken of the second coming of Christ as possibly near, no significant movement had ever before risen which clearly understood how a connected series of coherent Bible prophecies demonstrated that it was near.
It was as though the church had been sleeping like Rip Van Winkle for nearly eighteen hundred years and suddenly awoke to a new experience—anticipating the imminent return of Jesus. This phenomenal new life followed the end of the prophetic period of 1260 years when "the time of the end" began in 1798. This was great good news, and now these Christians began to share it.
You can imagine how these lovers of the Bible rejoiced to trace the "waymarks" on the prophetic road-map. The thought of His return and the setting up of His kingdom was to them greater than the joy of winning the sweepstakes would be to us. The personal return of the beloved Saviour in their lifetime was spoken of as the "blessed hope."
The reason why the news that a sinful world's journey was almost over was thrilling to them was not because they longed for relief from nineteenth century physical toil and privation, hard as that was, but because their hearts were in union with Christ. They cared about Him as a Person. They deeply appreciated His character of unselfish love. He was dearer to them than any human relationship. This was worship.
For these people there was no self-centered concern to cloud the bright flame of that devotion. In the over-sweep of the centuries which the book of Revelation pictures, they can be identified as the movement symbolized by the first angel's message of chapter 14:6, 7. This world-wide movement called upon "those who dwell on the earth" to "fear God and give glory to Him and worship Him that made heaven and earth."
A "First" Since Apostolic Times
This 1840's movement was the first time since the era of the apostles that Jesus could find a community of believers on earth whose hearts were knit with His in joyful expectation of His soon return. It was something as special as a bride's feeling for the bridegroom differs from that of the flower girl. They were among those of whom Jesus said, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20:29)
Devotion similar to that of the early Christians at Pentecost marked these pioneers. It leaped across the centuries like fire blown by the wind. One sea captain spent his life savings in spreading the message so that he came to face old age nearly penniless. A college graduate gave up a promising career for the toil and privations of editing literature to spread the news. His sister prematurely burned out the strength of her youth. Others sold farms and gave the proceeds to the cause. Young people threw themselves wholeheartedly into what came to be known as the Advent Movement. Some travelled overseas to endure hardship as pioneer missionaries, never thinking of personal reward. The taste of "the blessed hope" was in their "mouth sweet as honey." (See Revelation 10:9. This chapter describes the Advent experience.)
The yellowed pages of their letters and journals testify to the joy they cherished in the "blessed hope." Revelation likens a bride's anticipation of union with her bridegroom to the thrill of the message that gave birth to the Great Second Advent Movement. The people who loved the message then were often ridiculed, but now many Christians profess to believe in the second advent. (See Revelation 19:6,7)
Cold theology and prosaic mathematics that unravelled Daniel's 2300 or 1290 "days" could never stir human hearts and emotions like that message did. They were about to welcome a Loved One who had been absent a long, long time. It was not superficial emotionalism, but a gripping experience that people in those days called "heart-work," the pure authentic joy of heart, the all-risking abandon, that some youth seek vainly in a drug-induced "high." Today's youth never attain it because they find only its jaded counterfeit. The Holy Spirit manifested His solemn presence in that Advent Movement, and the result was a sober, reasoned, lifelong "high" for those who saw the message in the Word.
All infatuation of illicit love, all idolatry even of valid human love, is a vain search for a reality that exists only in Christ. The mysterious charm that shines in an attractive human face is only a dim reflection of the light of His face. Romeo and Juliet die for a failure to see Him. Gilda sings her beautiful "Caro Nome" in Rigoletto to express her love for her Walter, not knowing that the only name that thrills forever is that of Jesus.
The youth who loved the thought of Christ's return needed no chemical dependency, no affaire de coeur, to relieve soul-boredom. They knew first-hand the thrill that inspired Charles Wesley to sing, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul." They had rediscovered what the youthful Saul of Tarsus found on his way to Damascus, when a glorious light blinded his eyes and illuminated his soul forever after. Paul was never disobedient to the heavenly vision even until that day when he glimpsed sunlight for the last time as the headsman's axe fell. He bequeathed his joy "unto all them also that love His appearing." (2 Timothy 4:8)
This Love Affair With Christ Is True Christianity
The all-too-common motivation of fear of judgment and hope of personal reward in heaven is a pathetic distortion of the gospel. These youthful pioneers knew something of the phenomenal faith that gripped the hearts of apostolic Christians. Long before his day, the martyrs in the Roman Empire could have sung Isaac Watts' hymn:
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were a tribute far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my heart, my life, my all.
For these sincere believers to be with Jesus was heaven enough because their hearts appreciated the love that led Him to His cross. No sacrifice in difficult economic conditions was too much to make for truth. No missionary service, no exile of ministry in lonely "dark" foreign land, was too arduous a deprivation. Calls to service elicited no questions about the pay, the perks, the climate, housing, or terms of service. Medical or retirement "benefits" never crossed their minds. Jesus said "Go ye!" and fellowship with Him was remuneration enough.
The thought of "the blessed hope" sustained them through trials that we find more difficult to endure as the nearness of the Lord's coming seems to recede from our late twentieth century vision. Our simplest conveniences and luxuries would have been unimaginable to them, yet the more we have, the less we seem to feel like consecrating to the Lord a portion of what we have.
Why are our human hearts so shriveled up, like an orange left on the shelf a long time? Are we losing the hope of Jesus' return? People everywhere are asking, "Can we continue forever saying that the coming of Christ is 'soon'?" Why has time continued for so many decades after people began to realize that it "is near," and that "time is short"? Is it because we do not really want Him to come?
Why Christ's Coming Has Been So Long Delayed
There is a widespread idea that God has predetermined the time for Christ's second coming as a fixed date. Heaven's time-clock has its peg firmly inserted in place, and all we can do is to exploit this world while we watch until the celestial mechanism triggers the time and here comes Christ in the clouds of heaven. This would mean that there is nothing those who follow Him by faith can do to hasten or to delay His coming. This idea is an outgrowth of Calvinism, the doctrine that emphasizes the sovereign predetermination of God's will.
There are statements from Jesus that seem to indicate that the time of the second coming is "conditional," that is, its fulfillment depends on the faithfulness of God's people. For example, Jesus told this parable:
And He said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." (Mark 4:26-29)
In telling this parable, Jesus obviously intended to comment on the time of His return, because the same symbol appears in the picture of His coming in Revelation. Something important happens that makes it possible for Him to come at last:
And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, "Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe." (Revelation 14:14,15)
According to these passages, the actual time of Christ's second coming depends on the "harvest" getting ripe, that is, on God's people being ready for His coming. Obviously, He loves them too much to come if they are not ready! If He came when they were not ready, they would only be consumed by the brightness of His coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:8). The issue hinges on that readiness.
This explains why His coming has been so long delayed beyond the time when His people have expected Him. It makes very good sense. But it can also widen still further the gap of prophetic credibility. If the prophecies that declare the end to be near are conditional on the faithfulness of God's people, what will happen if God's people forever go on being unfaithful? Suppose they never really want to get ready? Will that doom the second coming?
This explanation, if not understood, can convey terribly bad news. So far, God's people have indeed been unfaithful. The history of ancient Israel, continually backsliding, has been repeated in modern Christian history. Because of our unbelief, time has continued far beyond what it should have. Will the end therefore never be truly near? How near is "near"?
Although Jesus tells us that no "angels which are in heaven" know the actual time of His second coming, (Mark 13:32) the Bible does declare emphatically that when the prophetic scenario shall unfold as pictured in Daniel and Revelation, in those "days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets." There shall "be delay no longer" (Revelation 10:7,6). Time cannot drag on and on indefinitely, or the honor and credibility of God Himself will be ruined.
The factor that makes the difference is what the Bible speaks of as "the latter rain" outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Why the Latter Rain Differs From the Early Rain
That picture of the harvest getting ripe so that Christ can thrust in His sickle to reap is a beautifully expressive symbol. The One who went to the cross for us, who poured out His soul unto death, who suffered unspeakable agonies for our redemption, looks upon that ripened "grain" as the hard-won fruitage of all His sacrifice. He deserves a reward!
All of earth's thousands of years of history have been the growing season preparatory to this moment of harvest when He personally returns. Out of earth's billions of inhabitants of all ages there comes at last a remnant of precious souls who gladly receive the showers of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Only as that rain falls can the grain ripen. The mature faith of those who believe God's Word has at last produced in a community of believers a reflection of the beauty of Christ's character. That reproduction of His character is the fruit. Without fail, the great, grand work is to be accomplished of bringing out a people who will be able to stand in the day of the Lord.
This is the practical godliness aspect of that ripening grain. Nothing happening anywhere in the world today is as important as this! Out of earth's billions, there will be a remnant of faithful ones who will not be ashamed when they see Christ at His return, and who will genuinely welcome Him. Neither will He be ashamed of them. Tons of ore have at last yielded an ounce of purest gold. Heaven rejoices that the sacrifice of Christ is fully rewarded in a people whose mature faith has demonstrated that Christ came to save His people from, not in, their sins. At last, the pure gospel of righteousness by faith has come into its own. The sacrifice on the cross and His High Priestly ministry have guaranteed this result.
Note that no one prepares himself or herself for the harvest. No grain can ever ripen by itself without being watered. Our part is to welcome that blessing, and not to fight it off and resist it. The latter rain of the Holy Spirit's outpouring causes the grain to ripen.
The early rain fell at Pentecost, and has been received ever since through the past two thousand years as untold multitudes of human souls have prepared for death. The figure is drawn from the Palestinian barley crop where the annual early and latter rainy seasons were familiar to farmers. The early rain enables the grain to sprout and to grow, but not to ripen for the harvest. The ripening is a change that can only be produced by the latter rain.
There must also come a spiritual change before Christ's second coming. A people must be prepared, not for death, but for translation without seeing death, because the Bible differentiates between the multitudes who have died believing in Christ and those who are living when He comes:
I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope… We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up ... in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17)
I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father's name written on their foreheads… And they sang as it were a new song before the throne,.. . and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth… And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God. (Revelation 14:1-6)
The Lord says He is ready to work with each one on earth who is willing. A great outpouring of the Holy Spirit will accomplish a work that makes ready a worldwide community of believers for the coming of the Lord. It also empowers them to complete the great unfinished commission of proclaiming the everlasting gospel to all the world. Only those who are humble in heart, who feel a need, who "hunger and thirst for righteousness" by faith, can discern and receive this special gift of the Holy Spirit. (Cf. Matthew 5:6 and Revelation 3:14-19). All who feel arrogantly "rich and increased with goods" in their proud assumed possession of "salvation" will miss it. If you can imagine thirsty plants putting up umbrellas to keep off the rain, you can see the true attitude of Christians who don't want to receive Heaven's latter rain.
In the meantime, we can be sure that Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His true people who love Him. When His character shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.
Praying for Something While We Resist It
Ancient Israel failed time and again. The Old Testament tells how they complained of God's leadership in bringing them out of Egypt, how they refused to enter the land of Canaan when Joshua and Caleb urged them to go in, how they later coveted a king like the nations around them, how their kings repeatedly slid back into idolatry and apostasy, how rulers and people finally became so corrupt that Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Babylonians and the people were marched in bonds into captivity.
The supreme tragedy of unbelief came later when their descendants who had prayed for two thousand years for the coming of their Messiah rejected Him when He came. Christ's gospel commission could have been finished long before this if "modern Israel" had not resisted the latter rain gift of the Holy Spirit as our ancestors anciently rejected the Messiah. The gift is not emotionalism, but clearer truth.
Some today feel discouraged because they think that this syndrome of rejecting Heaven's blessing must continue on and on in the organized Christian church. But this is not, cannot be, true.
Because the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were unfaithful in ancient times and the Jews rejected Christ and the Christian church has done little better, they mournfully conclude that the church today has doomed itself to ultimate failure as well.
But there is a truth that these discouraged ones have overlooked. The Lord has staked His eternal honor on His word: "I will come again" (John 14:3). Since that promise cannot fail, neither can His people's preparation for His coming fail. That preparation is foretold in this prophecy: "Unto two thousand three hundred days [years ending in 1844] then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" (Daniel 8:14). The sanctuary is the center of God's saving activity in behalf of His people and the world. In the great cosmic struggle between Christ and Satan, the honor of God's throne is involved, and the sanctuary is where the issues must be resolved for victory.
Daniel's prophecy gives immense hope to Christians everywhere. Christ's honor will at last be fully vindicated through that heavenly sanctuary ministry. The plan of salvation will be demonstrated to be a success, and Satan will be forever defeated. There is bright hope ahead!
In the ancient Israelite sanctuary service, a symbol or type foreshadowed the true ministry of Christ as High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Part of that ancient symbolism was the Day of Atonement ministry of the high priest in the second apartment of the sanctuary.
Every faithful Jew regarded the annual Day of Atonement in the Most Holy Apartment as a miniature Day of Judgment. (Orthodox Jews still regard it so). Daniel's prophecy declares that an antitypical Day of Atonement is to begin at the end of the 2300 years. Something is to happen in this cosmic sanctuary cleansing that has never happened before. And here we come to the mysterious parting of the ways between faith and unbelief. Faith believes that prophecy of Daniel and cooperates with the great High Priest in His closing work in the cosmic Day of Atonement. Unbelief rejects that truth. It is a refusal to follow Christ all the way.
Christ is our Saviour; we cannot save ourselves even one percent. But we can cooperate with Him. We can stop resisting Him. We can let Him do His work for us and in us. Such faith will cease resisting the Holy Spirit's leading. It will motivate us to surrender to the cross whereon self is crucified "with Christ." Such a transformation is indeed a miracle, but such a miracle is what our great High Priest specializes in. Thus human selfishness is overcome.
God has chosen to exercise faith that His people will not fail Him (See Galatians 2:20; Romans 3:3,4). The previously unending syndrome of unbelief and unfaithfulness that has prevailed for so many millennia will at last be broken.
Getting ready while still alive to meet the Judge of all the earth face to face when He returns personally the second time—this strikes terror to many stout hearts. Those who blithely dismiss this experience as nothing serious just haven't given thought to it. But "the everlasting gospel" of Revelation 14 is Good News sent to dissipate this fear and to prepare a people for the harvest.
From the time of the apostles down through the centuries to our day many honest, sincere hearts rejoiced to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, but it was always that of the early rain. During that time, there was no latter rain. The early apostles of the Lord would welcome the latter rain if they were alive today. A distinct line of demarcation exists between the early rain and the latter rain, and that dividing line is in these last days.
These truths of the sanctuary help us tremendously to understand the mystery of the long delay in the return of Christ. The faith of sincere Christians in His soon coming is not rustic naivete. Holy Scripture does indeed support their convictions. The delay is not God's fault. True faith in Christ's closing work of atonement will resolve the confusion and make "soon" become soon.
Faith in Christ's Coming Is "Present Truth"
The apostle Peter reminds us that our understanding of the gospel must never become static but grow. We are to be "established in the present truth" (2 Peter 1:12). A preparation for the second coming of Christ is the movement that is to bring fruition to two thousand years of Christianity. It is to complete the arrested Protestant Reformation of the 16th century and recover the truths that even John and Charles Wesley in the 18th century could not quite fully perceive in their day, fervent as they were. The principle of God's leading is that He has reserved something better for us living in the last days. (See the principle expressed in Hebrews 11:40)
The world stage in the nineteenth century was set for the end of the reign of sin and suffering. Events in the political world, the lineup of Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, and paganism, were a perfect backdrop of the scenario of Daniel and Revelation. It is astounding but true that before the inventions of radio, TV, jet travel, and computers, it would have been easier and quicker to take "the everlasting gospel" to the whole world of that day than is our task now. Our most effective electronic presentations today are quickly drowned out by the never-ending flood of sophisticated entertainment often inspired by Satan. The proclamation of the gospel of Christ requires effective communication of one human heart to another, not merely visual or audio exposure to electronic stimuli.
To increase the difficulty, for many Christian people the entire prophetic picture of Daniel and Revelation has slipped out of focus. So vast and complex are the needs of world population for social betterment that many can now see only many years of "social gospel" work. For example, millions caught in chemical dependency and inadequate diet need physical deliverance before they can even begin to comprehend the gospel. Hundreds of millions, even billions, are so ground down by the economic struggle to survive in crowded urban and village existence that they can hardly "hear" the gospel message. But the Holy Spirit will provide the power to capture the attention of earth's billions. God's love requires it.
No one who is ready to welcome the Lord when He returns will be ashamed of himself in that day. As each one looks back on his life, he will be happy for the knowledge that he has devoted all he could of his time and strength to cooperating with Christ to help others get ready for that great event.
The Long Delay Intensifies Our Problem
To many of this generation, the Papacy no longer appears to be the "beast" of Daniel and Revelation, as Protestants of former generations understood. Now, they think, it must be some other world power. Prophetic certainties which were held by previous generations of Christians are meaningless to them. Discordant voices sometimes try to re-interpret Daniel and Revelation, usually contradicting each other, and all succeeding only in deepening the confusion.
Can we get the picture back into focus again?
Yes, by paying serious attention to what Jesus says. He urges us in these last days to be sure we "understand" those prophecies of Daniel (Matthew 24:15). In fact, Christ is the key to understanding them. Further, it is He Himself who equally urges us to give very special attention to Revelation: "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy" (Revelation 1:3). This is the "present truth" that is worth more than winning all the sweepstakes prizes in the world— understanding the gospel of the grace of Christ in the setting of His prophecies.
The reason why Jesus urged us to understand Daniel and the Revelation is that these prophecies reveal the truth about the great spiritual battle raging between Satan and Christ. The "fourth beast" of Daniel 7 and the "little horn" of chapter 8 aptly delineate the great world religious movement that professes to be Christian but in reality is baptized paganism. Revelation develops the same theme of that great cosmic controversy ending in a gigantic spiritual struggle in the last days. God's people will endure the final test of persecution and stand firm for Christ, "the Lamb," and prepare for His second coming. Only as we clearly distinguish between the true Christ and Satan's clever counterfeit, the false christ, can we be sure to avoid the most monstrous and fatal deception of all world history.
Could anything be more important than discovering that genuine Good News that unveils this deception and reveals the true Christ?