Page 36 - Watchman- What of the Night
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imminent.

                     To those of us who now live, the sense of the coming of Christ as impending is
                   stronger  than  ever,  because  the  concatenation  of  prophesied  events  and  scriptural
                   signs forces the conviction that the advent may well be within the expectancy of life
                   of those in  youth  or even middle age. This  writer wonders how it can exceed two

                   decades. It is overwhelmingly impending but still not immediately imminent.
                     The Apostle Paul certainly did not look for the coming of Christ at any moment, or
                   before his own death. The words, ―I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my
                   departure  is  at  hand,‖  show  beyond  peradventure  of  doubt  that  he  expected  to  be

                   martyred, not raptured. It is, moreover, deeply significant that he could at the same
                   time expect to die for Christ‘s sake and yet classify himself as one who loved Christ’s
                   appearing!   (II Tim. 4:6-8). Even though he knew he world die, he had the ―blessed
                   hope‖ of the ―appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ‖

                   (Titus  2:13).  The  word  ―epiphaneia‖  is  used  in  both  these  scriptures.  It  is  the
                   ―outshining of the glory of Christ‖ to which the devoted Christian looks primarily and
                   witch  constitutes  his  ―blessed  hope,‖  above  and  beyond  any  thought  of  his  own
                   participation in it, or his own escape from suffering.

                     How different was Paul from the modern hothouse plants, nurtured on the doctrine
                   of rapture – without suffering, whose ―blessed hope‖ is that their own physical frames
                   shall be snatched away from tribulation without any appearing or vindication of Christ
                   Himself, whatever. Never was an error so charmingly and thrillingly ―dressed up‖ and

                   dramatized as  in  Sidney Watson‘s  ―In the Twinkling of an Eye.‖  That  graphic  and
                   exciting romance of the rapture, has  probably had more to  do with  inculcating the
                   fiction of the pre-tribulation translation, than all other books written on it put together.
                     But not only Paul expected to die, but also Peter, who warned the saints to ―give

                   diligence to make their calling and election sure…knowing that shortly I must put off
                   this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover I will
                   endeavor  that  ye  may  be  able  after  my  decease,  to  have  these  things  always  in
                   remembrance.‖ Where upon he proceeds to set forth ―the power and coming of our

                   Lord Jesus Christ.‖ The knowledge of his own approaching death did not deter him
                   from affirming the fact of the parousia of Christ. (II Pet. 1:10-16). Again in chapter 3,
                   verse  12,  he  classifies  himself  with  the  other  saints  in  ―looking  for  and  earnestly
                   desiring the parousia of the Day of God…‖

                     With both of these great worthies, the most prominent men of the early church, the
                   certainty of their own physical death, did not prevent them in the least from ―loving‖
                   and  ―looking  for‖  the  coming  of  Christ.  It  was  a  sure  and  blessed  hope,  but  not
                   imminently expected.

                     There is another point to be noted about Paul and Peter in their writings. They both

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