CHAPTER II.

CHRIST'S SECOND ADVENT.

THE New Testament teaches that Christ will come again to earth in a visible and glorious form, attended by angels, to raise the dead and judge mankind. Of the passages bearing on the subject some give his own words; others, those of apostles, evangelists, and early Christians. To the former belong these statements: "And then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together his elect

out of the four winds, from the ends of the heavens to the ends thereof."1 "But when the Son of man shall have come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then will he sit upon the throne of his glory and before him will be gathered together all the nations: and he will separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left."2 "Henceforth ye will see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven."8 "And ye will see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." 4 "For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and the Father's, and that of the holy angels." To the latter belong the follow

1 Matt. xxiv. 30, 31. 3 Matt. xxvi. 64.

2 Matt. xxv. 31-33.

+ Mark xiv. 62.

5 Luke ix. 26.

ing: "This Jesus, who was taken up from you into the heaven, will come in like manner as ye saw him go into the heaven." 1 "When Christ, your life, is manifested, then will ye also be manifested with him in glory." " "At the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints." 8 "Because the Lord himself will descend from heaven at a signal shout, at the voice of an archangel, and at the trump of God: and the Idead in Christ will rise first." 4 "At the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with angels of his power," etc. 5 "Christ will appear a

second time without sin to them that wait for

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him, unto salvation." "But the day of the

Lord will come as a thief,” etc."

"That we may

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not be ashamed before him at his coming."

This visible manifestation is expressed by two Greek words.9 The time of its occurrence is

the day, that day, the last day, the day of judgment, the day of the wrath, the day of redemption, the day of the Lord or of God, the great day. Since it is generally described as near, admonitions and comforting assurances are founded upon it. The expectation of its nearness among the first Christians contributed much to their steadfastness in the faith, amid the trying circumstances in which they were placed.

It will be convenient to consider the details chronologically, according to the times in which the writings referring to them appeared. Hence the Pauline view will come first, that of the Revelation and other intermediate works second, and the Gospels last. The post-Pauline may be appended to the Pauline productions, without occupying a position by themselves.

Paul looked upon the second advent as at

1 ἡ ἡμέρα, ἐκείνη ἡ ἡμέρα, ἡ ἐσχάτη ἡμέρα, ἡ ἡμέρα κρίσεως, ἡ ἡμέρα τῆς ὀργῆς, ἡ ἡμέρα ἀπολυτρώσεως, ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου or τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἡ ἡμέρα ἡ μεγάλη.

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hand, for he writes: "The night is far spent, and the day is at hand;" and, "The Lord is at hand.' It is also said, in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, "We the living who remain unto the coming of the Lord shall by no means go before them that slept; because the Lord himself will descend from heaven," etc., etc.3 The writer and his contemporaries expected to survive the second advent. The apostle also intimates his survival of the event, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for it will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." In the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, which is post-Pauline, the day of Christ is postponed till after the great apostasy and revelation of Antichrist.

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The