PART I.

The great resultant loss of unbelief is nowhere more evident than in its keeping its victims in complete ignorance of the future. Men will not believe the words of Scripture, reject its prophecies and warnings, and hence wander on in darkness until they enter eternity. There is not an error taught by the dupes of Satan that the Scriptures cannot deliver from. If there is in the heart of any person the least .desire to know what is true, what is real, what is God's purpose concerning the earth, this truth is in the Bible. To reject the Bible is to throw away chart, compass, guide, to refuse the most precious of gifts. The Bible is God's gift to man, given to teach, to guide to Himself, to lead into the light.

This wonderful Book says Christ is coming, and it tells why He is coming. It answers every legitimate question concerning this future coming, but does this in the very fewest possible words. In 1 Corinthians IS God has given information concerning the future of those who have received His truth, who have had faith in Christ. This long chapter of 58 verses presents these truths before mankind in words such as can be found nowhere else outside Scripture. Many other passages give additional light on this; here are found answers to the questions which have been asked for ages. Contrast with this long chapter the scant five verses (86 words in the Greek) foretelling the future of rejecters of Christ, of God's Word and Truth (Rev. 20:11-15). There are many other passages adding to what is given in these five verses, but at the very end of Scripture is given the end of those who have wrought for self through their lives. This judgment is twice over declared to be "according to their works."

Men cannot complain of this judgment. They live here on the earth, they do what they please, but they live for themselves; self is their god, but Christ is rejected, hated, disowned. There can be but one end to such a life, be it long or short; they are to be judged according to their works. There is no word of judgment in 1 Cor. IS. Why? Because it concerns the future of those that are christ's. He is coming for them alone at this time. 1 Corinthians 15 has not a word concerning those dealt with in Rev. 20:11-15. The chapter in 1 Corinthians is a resurrection passage; the verses in Revelation are a judgment passage. Those who belong to Christ,"they that are Christ's," are not mentioned here, because they are not "judged according to their works." Would it not be a strange dealing of Christ with His own to subject them to the same judgment as that of His enemies? The works of unbelief are judged by the Judge of all the earth. The works of faith do not call for judgment. Christ bore the sins of His own on the cross; they are blotted out, His own are cleansed from all sin, and how can He judge sins which He has forgiven? How can He judge those whose judgment He Himself has borne?

Heed what is written as to the resurrection of His own:

"It is sown in corruption;
It is raised in incorruption:
It is sown in dishonor;
It is raised in glory:
It is sown in weakness;
It is raised in power:
It is sown a natural body;
It is raised a spiritual body."

All the dead in Christ all down the ages are to be thus raised. This is what Scripture declares, and this is what faith receives. The very fact that any person is raised from among the dead at Christ's coming proves that the raised and changed one belongs to Christ. There can be no judgment for them. If they are Christ's, they are saved from sin and from judgment.

Note that there is not a word in Rev. 20:11-15 about any whose names are written in the book of life; the account is of those whose names are NOT written therein.

Christ's coming as described in 1 Cor. 15 is entirely for His own, but after this He has to "put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet" (vers. 24, 25). He begins this by taking His people from the earth; then He deals with those who are His enemies. All through the prophecies of the Old Testament are references to that time, the "Day of Wrath." First, there was wrath poured out upon the Jews because of their abominable sins and idolatries, all of which was foretold by the prophets. Then Christ came and was rejected in the most absolute manner, and there followed the utter destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. In both of these the predictions of God's prophets were fulfilled in the way of warning to the world in these days. The prophecies of the Old Testament have been fulfilled in three principal ways:1-By the coming of Christ as a Man, the most prominent event in the history of the world. 2-By the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. 3-By its destruction by Titus. In each of these cases there was prophecy and fulfilment.

Now we wait for Christ to come for His Church and all His saved ones, and thus to fulfil New Testament prophecy. Then there are the prophecies of His coming in power and glory to take possession of this earth for God. Now it is in revolt, and it will never yield to Christ until He comes in His might to completely overthrow His enemies.

Men hate the truth as to this; they do not want Christ to come in judgment; they want to be let alone to go on in their sins. But God gives them time to repent and believe in Christ as Saviour and Lord. This is to know and love the One whom now they fear and hate. What a mighty change the being saved, being "born again," makes in the thoughts, feelings, desires of those who believe in Christ as Saviour, and receive the salvation He gives. When any one is born again he sees the kingdom of God. Without new birth there is no real faith in God, no real obedience to God, no taking Christ as Lord and Master.

No one can really love the appearing of Christ unless he has been born again. It is the unsaved people in the churches who have no interest at heart in Christ's appearing. No Laodicean wants Christ to come, for His coming means the display of profession in its true character. The mask will then be stripped off; the enemies of Christ will be marked out, no matter what their profession.

But there is another part to His coming-His rule over the earth. First He takes His people to Himself out of the earth; then there is the coming in judgment, the coming with His saints. His coming for them was to take them to Himself out of the earth before the scenes in the book of Revelation were enacted. The attempt to fit the history in the body of Revelation to the past history of the Church and the world has always been so unreal, that no one can have the assurance that this book, after the third chapter, refers to the past, except in a very restricted way.

The pictures in Revelation are symbols of what is coming upon this earth after the Church is removed. It is the light of the New Testament thrown upon the future of the earth to illumine the words of the Old. They foretold judgment speedily coming upon the Jews, prophecies partially fulfilled by the attacks of the Assyrian and Babylonian kings, and later by the Romans. But the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the judgments of God upon the earth have never been fulfilled in full; they are awaiting the time described in Revelation.

God is back of all those calamities which now come upon the earth. He allows, guides, directs them. Unbelief questions the goodness of God, because He even permits such calamities, but Scripture reveals Him back of all, and acting in righteousness and goodness, as well as holiness and justice. Men are so blinded by sin that they cannot see their own deserts. It was ever so with the Jews, who imagined that because they had the promises, they would be delivered from their enemies. But those coming among them who had faith and true knowledge of prophecy knew that the prophets denounced the nation for their sins, while promising blessing in the far future. The curse has come upon them in the past; the promised blessing is still future. The blessings promised to the Jews in the prophets are earthly, and Christ comes to earth to execute judgment upon it, upon those who hate Him, and will not have Him to reign over them. But this also prepares the way for earthly blessing to be given at last to Israel. J. W. Newton

(To be continued in next number, D.V.)