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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About Our Lord's Return (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 50. When He Will Come
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When He Will Come
There is another question of great interest, and of practical help, too. It is this: What determines the time of our Lord's return? We are so accustomed to thinking of events being fixed by fixed dates, that it seems very difficult to get hold of the fact that this event is not fixed by a date. There has been quite a good deal of studying of dates, and of trying to fix a probable date at which He may come. And this sort of thing continues, undiscouraged by the long list of wrong dates. It is perfectly natural that there should be a curiosity to know. And yet that curiosity should be reverently suppressed. If some one does fix a day, there is one thing of which we can be sure;—it won't be that date, "for in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh." [Note: Luk_12:40.]
We want to get rid of the idea that there is a date fixed by our Lord for His coming. Without doubt God knows the exact time when it will happen. But the thing for us to mark is that it will not occur because a certain fixed date has arrived. That is the way we adjust all our human affairs, fixing dates, and then doing the things on those dates, unless it prove impossible. This is not the way here. And the more clearly this is fixed in our minds the better we shall understand God's plannings. The time of the Coming is fixed as the harvest is fixed, that is, it will come when things are ripe for it. This is the principle determining the time.
The Book is full of statements of this. A few may be taken as illustrations of many. The third chapter of Joel is taken up with events at the very end,—"Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehosaphat: for there I will sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; for the harvest or vintage is ripe; come, tread ye; for the wine press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great." [Note: Joe_3:12, Joe_3:13.] This points to the harvest of evil having come to the point of being dead ripe.
At the close of one of the views of the tribulation time in Revelation, [Note: Rev_14:14-20.] the closing scene represented is a harvest. The One coming in the white cloud has a sharp sickle. An angel calls to him, "Send forth thy sickle and reap; for the hour to reap is come; for the harvest of the earth is dead ripe." And the same is repeated in the verses following. This sort of language is frequent and familiar in this Book of God.
This is the principle underlying all of God's faithful, patient dealings with men. There will doubtless be a time of ripe harvest reached among God's true people on the earth at that time, and of the whole true Church body, those who have gone before, and those still remaining. But the thing that will immediately determine the time of our Lord's intervention in the affairs of men by coming in person, will be the dead ripeness of evil. Evil will have come to such a pitch as to endanger Christ's followers. For their sakes our Lord intervenes, and makes quick work of the harvest. [Note: Mat_24:22.] Evil is now under restraint. Some day that restraint will be withdrawn in answer to the tacit prayer of the outer Church. Then evil unloosed, unrestrained, will run riot, a horrible unspeakable riot. When things have come to the full pitch there will be intervention. Then our Lord will appear, and by His mere appearance put an end to the reign of unrestrained iniquity. The harvest of evil will have reached its reaping time.
Meanwhile every true life lived for God hastens the day, for it hastens the ripeness of the harvest of good. And it likewise hastens the harvest of evil. A true life lived truly for God always rouses and intensifies the opposition. So we may indeed hasten the glad day of His blessed appearing to put an end to evil.