The Return of the Lord in the General Epistles
The Epistle of James, addressed to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, is the earliest Epistle, having been written about the year 45 A. D.
It has partially a prophetic character, inasmuch as we find exhortations as to the last days. The believing Israelites to whom this Epistle was first of all addressed stand prophetically for the believing remnant of the end of the age. The conditions prevailing during this coming period of time are once more described.
Chapter v:1-6 “‘Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for
your miseries shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as tt were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth, and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you.’? One can easily see how these words are applicable to the very end of the age, when oppression rules, and the just are persecuted and killed. When that day comes the rich may well howl and weep.
Verses 7-8 ‘Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the husbandman waitteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be. ye also patient, stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
While this exhoration has a special meaning for those believing Jews living during the great tribulation, it also has a message for all true believers.
When we remember the coming day of our gathering together unto Him, the day in which all will be manifested in His presence, and the day when we shall appear with Him in glory, we toa shall be patient now in our tribulations and trials.
The First Epistle of Peter
This Epistle is addressed “to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.” They were not Gentiles, but the Jewish believers, who were scattered as strangers in those provinces among the Gentiles. In writing to them Peter carried out the commission given to him by the Lord to strengthen his brethren. They were passing through much suffering. ‘They had fiery trials and many persecutions. He reminds them at once of the better inheritance they had obtained, the inheritance which is to be revealed and possessed in the last time.
Chapter i:3-7 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotien us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through mantfold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much
eS a more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” As Jews they had the promise of an earthly inheritance. The godly in Israel looked for the day when the promise made to Abraham should be realized, and they would inherit, under the reign of the Messiah, the land. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, their Messiah and Saviour, they had received an inheritance reserved, not on earth, but in heaven. That inheritance is the Father’s house, the glory where He is. It is the future salvation, the complete redemption, the fulness of glory, to be revealed in the last time.
That time is the day of His manifestation. In that day of His appearing all their trials and persecutions would turn out unto praise and honour and glory. What an incentive to suffer in meekness and in patience!
In the next place Peter speaks of the testimony of the Old Testament prophets. The Spirit of Christ testified through them concerning the sufferings that are in Christ, and the glory that should follow. (Verse 11).
he things they announced which angels desired to look nto, the Gospel, is now preached with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. (Verse 12). Then follows in verse 13 another mention of the revelation of Christ.
“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and ope to the end for the grace that 1s to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The revelation, the 4 pokaiu.psis, is the full revelation of His glory in the day of His visibic manifestation. In that day when He appears we shall appear with Him in glory, and grace will be consummated.
Chapter 10:13 ‘*But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” ‘The Holy Spirit comforts those who suffered, being partakers of Christ’s suffering, with the coming glory, when His glory will be revealed. The more suffering now, the greater the joy in the day of His revelation.
Chapter 0:4 ‘And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” ‘The Lord Jesus spoke of Himself as the good shepherd, who gives His life for the sheep. Paul in the last chapter of Hebrews calls Him the great shepherd, risen from the dead. Peter speaks of Him as the chief shepherd. He will be manifested in this character at His return. Then the true servant will receive from His hands the crown of glory. Thus Peter witnesses, as Paul did, and as the Lord said, that there will be no rewards for service given, till He comes.
The Second Epistle of Peter
This second Epistle has a decided prophetic character. Peter was now an old man. The Lord had told him at the lake of Tiberias that he would be crucified, when an old man. (John xxi). He knew therefore that he must soon put off his tabernacle. Then he speaks first of all of the transfiguration as revealing the, power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (See comment on Matthew xvi:27-28). That glorious event, foreshadowing His return, makes the Old Testament prophetic Word more sure (i:19). After these statements Peter speaks of the importance of the prophetic Word and how it came into existence, “‘ holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
In the second chapter he bears a witness as to the conditions of professing Christendom when this present age closes. This chapter reads like the Epistle of Jude, though there are many differences. Peter did not copy from Jude, nor did Jude copy from Peter, but both bear an independent witness given by the Spirit of God as to the coming apostasy. All harmonizes with what the Lord said as to the close of the age and what the Holy Spirit witnessed through the Apostle Paul.
The third chapter is entirely prophetic and in its revelations leads us forward towards the new heaven and the new earth.
Chapter 111:3-4 ‘Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where 1s the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”” According to Peter’s prophecy the blessed hope will be ridiculed and scoffed at in the last days. It is so today. The Spirit of God evidently has in mind the evolution theory, which is so very prominent in these days. Things continue as they were and a catastrophic ending of this age is put down as unbelievable, and those who believe that there are such things coming, as predicted in connection with the Lord’s return, are branded as fanatics. Then the Spirit of God shows up their willing ignorance. Geology shows to them, who do not believe the Bible, that this globe had a catastrophic period in the past when “the earth that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.”
Then he continues:
Chapter 111:7-10 ‘‘But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, be not tgnorant of this one thing, that one day 1s with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord 1s not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but 15 long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
Peter predicts that the day will come when the earth will be burned up, when the heavens will be passing away with a great noise and all will melt with a fervent heat. Leading astronomers tell us that they have discovered that some of the stars in the heaven burn up now and then, and that such a conflagration is in store for our globe, and the surrounding heavens. Peter was not an astronomer; he had not a telescope nora spectroscope, yet he penned that which painstaking astronomy has but recently discovered. It is one of the evidences of supernatural inspiration and revelation.
But of what day does Peter speak here? The twelfth verse mentions the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. In the seventh verse we read of the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. It is not the day of the Lord, when He comes back to earth again to begin His kingly reign, but it is the end of that day, which lasts for a thousand years and which ushers in the day of God, when God will be all in all. (1 Cor. xv:28). That great coming “‘ Day of the Lord,”’ His reign upon and over the earth, when all things will be put under His feet, has a fiery beginning and a fiery ending. When His thousand year reign ends, the judgment of ungodly men will take place, recorded in Rev. xx:11-15. The great conflagration of which Peter speaks takes place then, when once more that day comes like a thief in the night, after the earth has had her great millennium. After that follows the new heavens and the new earth (verse 13), just as we read in Revelation xxi, following the passing away of the heaven and earth as they are now, and the great white throne judgment; ‘“‘And I saw a new heaven and a new earth.”
The First Epistle of John
The first Epistle of John has been called “a family letter.” It concerns only the children of God, those who enter the family of God by the new birth. The blessed hope is mentioned prominently in this Epistle. We quote the two passages.
Chapter 11:28 *‘And now little children, abide in Him, that when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”
The beloved disciple addresses the members of the family of God as little children and exhorts them to abide in Christ. The day is coming when He willappear, and John, as a teacher and Apostle, knows that in that day he and other servants of Christ will have confidence, joy and glory, in His presence, if those to whom they ministered abided faithfully; if not, they would be ashamed before Him at His coming. (See 1 Thess. ii:19).
Chapter iti:1-3 “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we 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. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifreth himself, even as He is pure.”
These are beautiful words. But those who do not believe in the literal return of the Lord cannot claim them, nor can they tell us how the promise given can ever be realized apart from His coming again.
In Christ, the unspeakable gift of the Father’s love, we are called the children of God. As Paul wrote in Romans (Chapter viii) “if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ.””> What we shall be has not yet appeared. It is still a blessed secret with the Father. But we know one thing “we shall be like Him.” This is the hope of the calling of God.
We shall be transformed into the same image; our bodies of humiliation will be changed and become like unto His own glorious body. But when?
When He shall appear. And if He does not appear we have no hope that such a glorious transformation will ever take place. This hope which we have has in it the power of purification. It is a separating hope. He who believes in it with his heart will not love the world and the things which are in the world, but will love Him and His appearing.
The Epistle of Jude
This Epistle, like the second chapter in Peter’s second Epistle, predicts the moral and religious conditions of Christendom at the close of this age. Jude writes of something which we do not find in the Epistle of Peter.
Verses 14 and 15.‘‘And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His Saints, to execute gudgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
From Genesis v we learn that Enoch walked with God for three hundred years. Then God took him. In what this consisted we find recorded in Hebrews xi. ‘‘ By faith was Enoch translated that he should not see death; and was not found because God had translated him, for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” And here we have additional information.
He was a prophet. He prophesied of the coming of the Lord in judgment.
It was at the close of an age, when darkness and violence began to spread over the human race, before the days of Noah, the end of that age, were reached. He heralded the coming of the Lord and as a result the ungodly spoke against him. Can we expect anything better from the ungodly world and the ungodly professing church, at the close of the present age?
Enoch is abruptly introduced in this little Epistle for a purpose. He is in his experience a prophecy. The true Church at the close of this age, is, like Enoch, surrounded by scoffers, while the world itself rapidly nears the days of Noah, for violence is in the earth. But before the days of Noah return, as our Lord predicted in His prophecy, the true Church will be removed in a supernatural way, as Enoch was taken. May all those who believe in the Lord’s return walk with God and bear witness to His coming to bring judgment upon the ungodly, as Enoch walked with God and witnessed for Him.