2. The Believer on the Earth

The Scriptures plainly establish the fact that He is coming again. In point of time, if not of deepest concern, His coming will be for His Church. The concluding verses of Hebrews 9 positively assert three distinct appearings of our Lord. In verse 26 we are assured: “But now once in the end of the age hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Nobody can be a Christian who does not believe that. Then in verse 24: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” Hence He has once appeared on the earth to deal with sin, now He is in heaven as our Advocate. As John tells us in his first epistle: “We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Finally in verse 28 we have the promise: “Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time, apart from sin, unto salvation.” Very clearly then, He is to appear again from heaven to conclude the blessing of salvation by uniting the redeemed with Himself.

“Unto them that look for Him.” Some think that this suggests that He will come, certainly in the first instance, for such Christians as are watching for Him. I have some hesitation in reaching that rather dogmatic conclusion. The passage, however, as a whole, does give us some guidance as to what is the church. A parish priest described the Rye Lane fellowship to one who joined us as “a body of people (however good they may be) who have deliberately set themselves up in rivalry to the church.” Now that ecclesiastical brother ought to know that nobody could possibly be good who was guilty of such a crime as deliberately to set themselves up in rivalry to the elect church of Jesus Christ our Lord. But what is the church? It is not the church of Rome, it is not the Church of England, it is not the Methodist Church, nor is it the Baptist Church. The church, in the New Testament, is described at being “the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20.28). Paul also describes the members of the church In his epistle to the Ephesians. The church is “His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” 1 It is composed of those who “were dead in trespasses and sins” and who have been made alive 2 through the mercy of God Who has given to every member of the church “life together with Christ.” 3 So that this is the characteristic of the church. It is a redeemed company wherein every member acknowledges that he or she is redeemed out of sin by the blood of Jesus Christ, and who with equal joy believes and knows that new life has been received from Jesus the Lord in heaven. “He that hath the Son hath life” (I John 5.12). This is decisive for John adds: “He that hath not the Son hath not the life.” Therefore the church is not to be determined by any outward organisation, by any ecclesiastical system or by any outward forms or ceremonies. Here is the acid test of Scripture which is bound neither by catechisms nor prayer books nor any other tenet made by man. The church is composed of those who have received through redemption the life that Jesus now has in heaven. That life is not imparted by sprinkling as an infant, it is received through faith on the part of the recipient. A man may be a Baptist minister and yet not belong to the true church of the redeemed. He may equally be an Anglo-Catholic priest and be outside of THE church. He can be a bishop and be unsaved. He can be the Pope of Rome and yet his soul be lost. As far as we understand the Scriptures we are not ”a body of people,” good or bad, “who have deliberately set themselves up in rivalry to the church.” We desire to affirm that membership of our fellowship is confined to those who have confessed Jesus as Saviour and Lord. There may be on our Church Roll those who are unsaved but that is their responsibility. The true church consists only, exclusively and entirely of those who are trusting in the blood of Jesus Christ for redemption from sin, for forgiveness and for acceptance with God. There is absolutely no authority whatsoever for anybody, no matter how exalted his ecclesiastical position, to declare a person incorporated into the church of the Body of our Lord by the mere sprinkling of a few drops of water at a month old. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” 4 What parish priest reading those words from Scripture dare have the effrontery to tell a human being that he can only call upon the Lord through the Anglican priest or in an Anglican church? Let the poor sinner call out wherever he may be and let him know that when he calls out to God for mercy God hears and saves with or without a parish priest, with or without confirmation, with or without the sprinkling of water. The only issue with God is that he shall cry out for mercy. Paul the apostle, one supposes, would be recognised as being in the apostolic succession. What does he say to the Corinthians? “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth – the sanctified, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours.” 5 But my ecclesiastical neighbour would argue “Paul is wrong: you can call upon God in the parish church, but not in Rye Lane Chapel.” You do not wonder that sensible men of the world listening to such religious pedantry are turning away from religion.

Therefore when the Scriptures speak of His coming for His believing ones, the church, we understand he comes for those who have received His present life in heaven. John clearly tells us: “As He is so are we in this world.” All such who have been redeemed have been adopted as sons, and as sons “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into their hearts (Galatians 4, verses 4 to 6). Their infallible seal is therefore, no external ordinance or organisation, but the indwelling Spirit, God’s mark of redemption. They have identity of life with Jesus in heaven and this identity of life is the supreme fact in their salvation as it will be in their rapture to the Lord when He appears in the air.

From Pentecost onwards God’s purpose has been centred in calling out from the world a people who shall believe in His Beloved Son. When that company is complete it will form the Body of which He is the Head. It will be a company in vital union with the Lord as the Bride with the Bridegroom and it will be through this company that the Living Lord will express His purpose and activity through all eternity. For this company, the sons of the glory, God gave up His Only Begotten Son. 6 It is through this company that God will at last see His will done in the perfection which characterised His Beloved Son. If, therefore, we see the issue of time from God’s point of view we shall see that God requires a people of obedience first and foremost, a people of obedience in the fulness of life eternal. 7 For that reason, then, the supreme concern with God at this time is the completing of His Church of the redeemed Who shall be the Body of Christ of which Jesus is the Head. When the last one is gathered in and the church is actually complete then the greatest event that has so far happened will be brought to pass.

The Lord Jesus in all His glory will leave the throne to which He has been exalted as the God-Man. He will not this time come for the purpose of incarnation but for the demonstration of an incarnation that has overcome death and hades and has become the type of that new creation of the church. He will come, not to suffer for sin but to gather to Himself redeemed sinners that they may be transfigured into His likeness. It will be a wonderful moment in heaven when He arises from His throne to move down through the heavenlies. Angels rejoiced when He was born a babe in Bethlehem, but they will stand in breathless awe when they see Him moving to consummate His victory and to bring in the reign of God through the universe. The spectacles of men will be in tawdry contrast to such an occasion. Nothing that Hitler ever devised for Mussolini or Mussolini for Hitler will compare with it. The pomp of a Eucharistic Congress designed to beguile and bewitch the multitude will be a miserable sideshow contrasted with this unveiling of the heavenly majesty of our Beloved Lord. Up to that wonderful moment Jesus in heaven will be the Advocate for His believing people before the throne of God, but from that moment He will become their Vindicator before the eyes of demons and angels and men. It is the moment for which He died, it is the moment for which He longs and all who love Him must surely love His appearing.

His first movement will be into the air. That is important; because it is the present sphere from which Satan is influencing mankind. St. Paul tells us that before the believer is converted he is one of the children of disobedience and the children of disobedience are under the working of an evil spirit whom he calls “the prince of the power of the air.” 8 We shall be considering the coming of the Lord in relation to Satan later, but one or two observations are necessary here. The Church St. Paul tells us in the same letter to the Ephesians, is wrestling “not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in the heavenlies.” 9 These are the powers that have been so mighty against the Lord’s redeemed people. What a marvellous change will therefore be wrought when Jesus comes down to the sphere where Satan is. They have met before. In the wilderness they met: Satan was resisted and had to leave the field. There he had the impudence to offer the kingdoms of the world to Jesus on condition that Jesus fell down and worshipped him. The offer was refused because our Lord Who longed for the kingdoms of this world would not have them Satan’s way but God’s way. 10 He therefore took the way of the Cross and when He descends into the sphere of the air it will be the first step to the actual controlling of the kingdoms of this world.

The moment he comes to the air will be magnetic! There will be a shout, the voice of the archangel, the sound of the trumpets and at the last trump, the dead in Christ shall arise first, then those that are alive and remain on the earth will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 11 It will be magnetic; for all the dead and all the living who share the risen life of Jesus will answer as magnet to pole. His life will draw all who share it to Himself. What a marvellous change that will be when Satan is cast down to the earth and the Lord’s people are drawn up to meet Him in the air! It will be a marvellous change in many respects for the living saints. Christian life is very hard. So hard is it that but for the grace of God and the power of the Indwelling Spirit it would be impossible. John tells us in his epistle: “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” 12 He does not say that the believer himself is greater than he that is in the world because that would be far from the truth. The strength of the believer is in the Spirit Who dwells within and gives the overcoming grace. The believer little understands why prayer life is so hard until he knows that prayer is the life of the Spirit entering up through the heavenlies to the throne of God and therefore the most potent force against Satan in the world today. Hence Satan, who knows that all too well, will seek by every means to restrain prayer. How well he is doing his work! Let any Christian ask himself why it is that he is so ashamed to name the name of Jesus and why he never invites another to share the same faith as he possesses. If Jesus is so wonderful, as He undoubtedly is, then we ought to be fanatics proclaiming His Name, but we are not because Satan is concerned about that testimony. You can urge all the devices of politicians, leagues of nations, world peace and all the rest of the present expedients of humanity without a blush. They have failed but that need cause no alarm. But to urge the name of Jesus on the sinner is altogether different and the shame that lies in the heart and the blush on the cheek is there because the moment we name the name of Jesus the hosts of darkness, the hosts of the air press down upon us to blot out the witness if that be possible.

The living saints who are therefore translated will find it a marvellous moment when every pressure of Satan is removed and the one who has been pressing down upon them is now cast down beneath them. That will be an experience never to be forgotten and thereafter we shall never again know the old life in conflict with the enemy of our souls. It will have other far reaching effects. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed. This mortal shall put on immortality! 13 When He comes we shall not be losers for we shall put on incorruption. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God.” “And it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.” 14 We shall be like Him! His glorious body in heaven is the pattern on the mount for every believer. By powers known only to God this poor earthly body, marvellous indeed in many ways yet cursed by sin, will be changed, transformed, transfigured. Our redeemed spirits with longing desires after God and heaven have so often found that when we would do good evil is present with us, but then, in an instant of time, we shall be clothed upon with immortality. We shall be in the possession of a body that corresponds to His and will be likewise a perfect instrument through which our redeemed spirits will be able through all eternity perfectly to fulfil the will of God.

The Scriptures set forth this truth very clearly. Our Lord declared Himself to be “the Resurrection and the Life.” Resurrection to the dead in Christ, life to the living. “He that believeth in Me, though he were dead yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.” 15 Paul does not repeat the same thought in different words when he says “this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality.” He is speaking of two distinct subjects, the corruptible and the mortal. The corruptible is the body that has passed into death, but the mortal is the body that is liable to it. In the patriarchal age, Enoch was raptured, in the prophetic age, Elijah and in the Gospel age our Lord. Rapture, therefore, however remarkable and impossible it may seem to be is not merely prophecy, it is history as well. Something of the glorious day we are anticipating was set forth in the Transfiguration. There our Lord talked with Moses and Elijah. 16 Moses represented the dead saints, Elijah the raptured ones, and they both were drawn there by Jesus on the Mount and saw His glory. The Scriptures clearly teach that there shall be one generation of the church that will not see death.

Now there are several doctrines concerning the rapture. 17 There are very many believers who hold the view that the Scriptures teach that the Lord is coming for His people before the Jew enters into the tribulation. There are others who are equally convinced that He will come at the end of the tribulation. There are others who are of opinion that the rapture while immediate and instantaneous for the individual believer will be, as far as the company of believers on earth is concerned, over a period. The principle of rapture will be like the principle of the harvest field. The harvest is not reaped on a certain day by the calendar but as the field is ripe. In the same way as the saints are ripened and matured so they will be drawn up to meet the Lord when He comes in the air. My own view is for the first, but I should be less than just if I did not say that the more I am in contact with brethren who hold other views the more I am able to appreciate that there is much to be said for their views. If the period of the tribulation is confined to one “week” of seven years then these three interpretations may be summed up as follows. In the first case, the Lord will come to the air and receive His Beloved church to Himself. The judgment seat of Christ, which is for believers, will be set and His blessings and rewards apportioned, Then, having dealt with His own redeemed, He will proceed with them, from the air down to the earth to set up the Millennium. The post tribulation view is somewhat different for it holds that the Lord will descend to the air, gather His people to Himself and then at once proceed to the earth. The other view holds the coming to the air and then an interval as the Lord gradually reaps the harvest of His church over a period. When that is completed He will proceed to the earth to reign. Many important considerations are bound up with each view and each is held by men of God who love the Word and look for His appearing. While we are bound to move towards one position in preference to others we should do so with the greatest respect and esteem for those who differ from us, for we have all great need to be careful lest our dogmatism carry us too far.

It may be mere coincidence but if it is merely that and no more it is certainly interesting that all the eyes of men are turned now towards the air. Men rejoice in the Munich agreement with modified exultation, for its result has seemed to bring home to the government the need for accelerating all the necessary precautions against attack from the air. The sky today is a source of profound anxiety. Leading doctors have written to the press pointing out that there must be very extensive refuge accommodation underground if the population of London and other great cities is not to be completely demoralised by the onslaughts from above. Beautiful parks have been spoiled and steps taken in preparation for war which today seem normal and proper, but which even a year ago would have seemed strange. It reveals how adapted the public mind is becoming to impending catastrophe. I remember years ago a campaign by the “Daily Mail” drawing the attention of the public to the shortage of horses in this country and the grievous peril we should be in the emergency of war. How swiftly the times have changed! Today the issue for the world is in the air and every thinking man believes that the next war will mean destruction of our civilisation from the air. To the man who believes the Word of God this is awesome and marvellous, for the child of God too is looking up. “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.” 18 The crisis of the air for European civilisation is matched by a crisis of the air for God. The unrest in the hearts of men, the deep fears that beset statesmen as they see affairs sliding to the abyss are answered and countered by activity in heaven. Suddenly our Blessed Lord will arise in the issue of His sovereignty, the sovereignty of His passion and redemption. He will arise from His throne to break through the heavens to begin the work which is the fruit of His victory at Calvary. He will come into the aerial regions that He may there gather His believing church to Himself and cast Satan down to the earth.

Let it be confessed that at one time I found it very difficult to believe with certain conviction that the church was to meet the Lord in the air. It seemed so strange; almost the very last place that one would have chosen for such a glorious meeting At the same time there will be folk of my own generation and before it who will remember that when the Great War was on it was a point of patriotic fervour that when the time came to sign the terms of peace that peace should be signed in Berlin. There in the city whence the Kaiser sent forth the order to mobilise his army and fleet, there from the place whence the withering curse of war had proceeded, there the man whom we believed was primarily responsible for the war should sign the terms of a dictated peace. It seemed indeed that Berlin was the only place for such a ceremony. In the event the scene of the peace was Paris and the Kaiser was beyond the reach of his conquerors in Holland. So too when the time comes for dealing the death blow to all that is raising itself up against the will of God, it is fitting that the Lord should meet His church as the first manifestation of absolute victory in the realm whence Satan has for centuries pressed down with evil power upon the human race, and in particular upon all who love the Name of Jesus. As the prince of the power of the air he has been the arch enemy of the church of the redeemed on earth. In the air, therefore, the sphere of his activities, in the air whence he has directed the battalions of wicked spirits that afflict and molest the race and the saints of God, in the air whence his throne has been impudently established, shall our Blessed Lord come to gather His people to Himself and to cast down Satan to the earth. What a prospect the Word unfolds to our wondering gaze! How marvellous is the vista of faith as we thus see something of the purpose of God in His Beloved Son. There shall be one generation of the Christian church who shall be lifted to the skies to greet Him. In one second of time the tasks of this earth will be ended, the work of eternity begun. In the morning burdened and pressed with the enemy of our souls in the evening, victory in the presence of our Lord and of all He has redeemed. It is a hope on which to rest, a hope to be encouraged. Let us live in its power!

1

Ephesians 1:23 & 2:1

2

Colossians 2:13

3

Ephesians 2:5

4

Acts 2:21 & Romans 10:13 quoted from Joel 2:32

5

I Corinthians 1:2

6

John 3:16

7

Ephesians 3:19 & 4:13

8

Ephesians 2:2

9

Ephesians 6:12

10

Matthew 4:10

11

I Thessalonians 4:16-17

12

I John 4:4

13

I Corinthians 15:51-53

14

I John 3:1-2

15

John 11:25-26

16

Matthew 17:1-3

17

Footnote 11

18

Luke 21:28