Words of Hope…
The promise of Christ’s second coming to complete the great work of redemption is the main theme of the Sacred Scriptures.
Since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, the children of faith
have waited for the coming of the Promised One to bring them to
the lost Paradise again.
Enoch, the seventh generation from those who lived in Eden,
who walked with God for three centuries, declared, “Behold, the
Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment
on all” (Jude 14, 15). In the night of his suffering Job exclaimed, “I
know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth;
… in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my
eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25-27). The poets and
prophets of the Bible have written about the coming of Christ in
words glowing with fire. “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth
be glad … before the Lord. For He is coming, for He is coming to
judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and
the people with His truth” (Psalm 96:11-13).
Isaiah said: “It will be said in that day: ‘Behold, this is our God;
we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we
have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation’”
(Isaiah 25:9).
The Savior comforted His disciples with the assurance that He
would come again: “In My Father’s house are many mansions…. I
go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, … I will come again and
receive you to Myself.” “When the Son of Man comes in His glory,
and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of
His glory. All the nations shall be gathered before Him.” (John 14:2,
3; Matthew 25:31, 32.)
Angels repeated to the disciples the promise of His return: “This
same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come
in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). And
Paul testified: “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God”
(1 Thessalonians 4:16). John, the prophet of Patmos, said: “Behold,
He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him” (Revelation
1:7).
Then the age-long rule of evil will be broken: “The kingdoms
of this world” will become “the kingdoms of our Lord and of His
Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Revelation 11:15).
“The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth
before all the nations” (Isaiah 61:11).
Then the peaceful kingdom of the Messiah will be established:
“The Lord will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden
of the Lord” (Isaiah 51:3).
In all ages the coming of the Lord has been the hope of His
true followers. In their suffering and persecution, the “appearing
of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” was the “blessed hope”
(Titus 2:13). Paul pointed to the resurrection that will happen at
the Savior’s advent, when the dead in Christ will rise and be caught
up together with the living to meet the Lord in the air. “And thus,”
he said, “we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one
another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:17, 18).
On Patmos John, the beloved disciple, heard the promise, “Surely
I am coming quickly,” and his response is the prayer of the church,
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).
From the dungeon, the stake, the scaffold, where faithful believers
and martyrs witnessed for the truth, comes down through the
centuries the expression of their faith and hope. Being “assured of
His personal resurrection, and consequently of their own resurrection
at His coming, for this reason,” says one of these Christians, “they
despised death, and were found to be above it.”1 The Waldenses cherished the same faith. Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Ridley, and Baxter* looked in faith for the Lord’s coming. This was the hope of the church in the apostles’ time, of the “church in the wilderness,” and of the Reformers.
Prophecy not only foretells the manner and purpose of Christ’s
second coming, but tells us how we may know when that day is near.
“There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars” (Luke
21:25). “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its
light; the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds
with great power and glory” (Mark 13:24-26). This is how John the
Revelator describes the first of the signs that come before the second
advent: “There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black
as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood” (Revelation
6:12).
The Savior predicted the low spiritual condition of believers that
would exist just before His second advent. Christ’s counsel to those
living at this time is: “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be
weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life,
and that Day come on you unexpectedly.” “Watch therefore, and
pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these
things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
(Luke 21:34, 36.)
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Source: Ellen G. White, The Great Hope, pp. 64-66.
1 See Daniel T. Taylor, The Reign of Christ on Earth: Or, The Voice of the Church in All Ages, p. 33.
*In the complete book, The Great Controversy, readers will find the story of the Waldenses and of these and other Protestant Reformers.