The Lord's Return a Practical Doctrine,

One more question of Scripture inquiry: Is this doctrine a practical one for today? (Titus 2:11-13; I Thessalonians 3:12, 13; 2 Timothy 4:1, 2; I Thessalonians 4:13-17; I John 3:2,3; 2 Timothy 4:7,8, are the Scripture passages in which we have already seen the importance of our theme, because of its effect on the believer's life. They also demonstrate the practicability of the doctrine of the Lord's return. But a few more citations: Hebrews 10:36, 37, "For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise, 'For yet a little while and He that shall come will come and will not tarry.' " Here is patience in view of the Lord's coming, I Thessalonians 5:6, "Therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober." The context shows that Paul is exhorting the church to watchfulness in view of Christ's return. James 5:1-8, "Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. . . . Behold, the hire of laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. . .  Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord, . . .  Be ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand" (R. V.). In the face of gigantic social and commercial injustice the believer is to be patient till, "the coming of the Lord." And is international peace a desire of many? Micah 4 describing the condition of human society after Christ shall come, says in verse 3, "And he shall judge among many peoples and rebuke strong nations afar off and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more/'

And all these Scriptures ably answer -the objection that the subject of the Lord's coming has no practical bearing on the problems of today.

Godly living is certainly a practical doctrine when there are so many dancing, card playing, worldly Christians. Brotherly love is assuredly a practical doctrine in a day of church splits and personal rancor. Preachers may well be charged, "Preach the Word/' when so many of them are preaching science, philosophy, politics and Christless morality instead of a crucified and risen Savior. Comfort for sorrowing hearts over the open grave is practical without doubt. A pure life amidst so many rotten ones is certainly practical. Patience in all the anxieties of this world of burdens is surely practical. The re-enthusing and requickening of hundreds of indifferent, ineffective, wordly churches, would be a blessedly practical consummation. And is not social justice a crying need when the blood of women and children is being squeezed into dollars by the cultured rich of this country and international peace an urgent necessity, seeing that a nation appropriates $400,000 for war on the same day that one man donates $10,000 for peace? And all of these eminently practical doctrines for this present day are indissolubly bound up with the doctrine of Christ's second coming.

Doctrines of Demons and the Lord's Return.

Before closing this paper I desire to say that not every one who deals with this great doctrine is to le accepted as a reliable representative of it. I refer to the erstwhile Miller Movement, Russellism (Jehovah Witnesses), Seventh Day Adventism, the Men of Israel or Shilohism, and other similar cults that specialize on escatalogical themes out of their own heads plus a few perverted Scriptures. These isms, though they may prate much of prophetic things, are no more to be identified with the Bible truth on the Lord's return than is an itinerant nostrum vender to be identified with the medical profession. The Bible doctrine of our Savior's premillennial return is as far apart from Russell's prophetic vagaries as is daylight from darkness. Furthermore, these isms serve a Satanic purpose when they lead Christian people into wrongly confusing the Bible teaching on the Lord's return with the perverted forms of the doctrine taught by themselves. The foolish teaching and yet more foolish practices of these prophecy pirates have prejudiced the minds of many Christian people against this Bible doctrine. But a prayerful, unbiased study of God's Word on this subject will readily reveal the wide difference between a sober, constant hope for the Lord's coming and the crass date-setting and ascension-robbing of the isms. Satan knows full well that when Christ comes then his head will be bruised and his plans of empire will be brought to naught. Therefore Satan is behind these isms to blind the people of God to the great doctrine which will finally mean his defeat. 'The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly" (Rom. 16:20).

Some Who Looked for Him.

But Satan's isms have not fooled all the Lord's people. The greatest names among God's servants for four hundred years are found with those who look for His coming again. Luther, Melancthan, Calvin, Zwingle, Knox, Bunyan, Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, Robert Hall, the two Bonars, Ellicott, Tregelles, Godet, Fausett,' Jamison, Lange, Dean Alfred, McCheyne, Murry,' Saphir, Spurgeon, Moody, J. H. Brookes, Moorehead' A. J. Gordon, Blackstone, Pierson, Morgan, Munhall, Chapman, Haldeman, Dixon, Torrey, Erdman, Scofield,' Stifler, Broughton, G. R. Cairns and many others. No greater men than these are to be found among the preachers, teachers, evangelists, expositors, translators and commentators of the Biblical world. They have been or are mighty defenders of the faith, won thousands of souls to Christ and believed and taught the premellennial coming of Christ.

Are You Watching for Him?

My closing word is to emphasize the fact that God wants us to be watching for Christ's coming. We need to be earnestly watching because there are so many who are denying His coming. 2 Peter 3:1-4 says, "This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance that he may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying. Where is the promise of His coming?" Many of the reputed religious leaders of today are doing this very thing. May God give us courage to stand by the Bible. "Blessed is the man that sitteth not in the seat of scoffers" (Psalm I R. V.) Again we ought to be watching because our absent Savior expects us thus to cherish His name until we enjoy His presence. The following incident told by Dean Grey in his valuable book, "Satan and the Saint/' illustrates well this point. 'T have a friend who was passing a summer vacation with his family in the country. One day he said to his little children, to their regret and his, 'I must go into the city today; but I will return again and I want you to keep watching for me.' As a result the children came to their mother several times a day to wash their faces and comb their hair, that they might go to the station to meet their father, expecting him on every train. Never had they shown such friendship for water and soap before nor given their mother such pains to keep them clean." So it is with our Savior and us. Like trusting children, we are to constantly watch for Him and be ready when he comes. Sweet and meaningful are the words of the Master to those who believe in "that blessed hope"— "I go to prepare a place for you. . .  and I will come again and receive you unto myself."

"Be ye also ready." 'The coming of the Lord draweth nigh."

The End