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redeemed, and the anointing would lead them so to live that they might not "be ashamed
before Him at His coming".
Chapter 3: continues the consideration of the effect of the hope of the Lord's coming
upon the present life of the believer:--
"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 on Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure"
(I John 3: 2, 3).
It would often help us if we could more readily conform to the principles of Scripture
concerning knowledge: "We know not"--"But we know." There is a fascination about
the unrevealed that often obscures the necessity for putting into practice the truth for the
present. The Corinthians were lacking in spirituality; and it is the Corinthian church that
raises the question, "With what body do they come?" (I Cor. 15: 35). They were more
concerned with the unrevealed future than with the necessity to walk worthy of their
calling:--
"We know not what WE SHALL BE, but WE KNOW . . . . . we shall be like Him"
(I John 3: 2).
There is, possibly, a reference to the second coming in the Second Epistle of John:--
"For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is
come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an anitchrist" (II John 7).
In the first epistle we have a similar passage:--
"Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God:
and this is that spirit of antichrist" (I John 4: 3).
In the originals of these two passages there is a difference in the verb, I John 4:
using eleluthota--the perfect participle--and II John 7, erchomenon--the present
participle. The intention of the writer in the use of these two participles seems to be to
refer to the first and the second comings. In the first epistles, the Lord "has come";
while in the second, He "is coming". Antichristian teaching denies both that the Lord has
come and that He will come again in the flesh.
There remains the book of the Revelation. The latter is so largely concerned with the
subject of the Lord's coming that we can do little more here than refer to the series of
articles concluded in Volume XV on that book. The coming of the Lord is the theme of
the book and is connected with the establishment of Israel as a kingdom of priests, and of
the Lord as "Prince of the kings of the earth". It is a fulfillment of the prophecy of
Zech. 12: 10, and has to do with "the tribes of the land", and "the day of the Lord". All
this is contained in the first chapter.
The actual revelation of the Lord is described in Rev. 19:, and is closely associated
with the destruction of Babylon, the marriage of the Lamb, the great slaughter which is
called the supper of the great God, and the millennial reign. He comes to "smite the