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make use of the phrase ―in the last days,‖ in delineating events to precede the end of

the age. (II Tim. 3:1, II Per. 3:3). The ―last days‖ in which these things are to occur,
are shown to be future to the times in which these apostles lived and wrote. These
―last days‖ would lead up to ―the last day‖ upon which Christ would appear. Since
they were not even in the ―last days,‖ ―the last day‖ certainly could not be imminent

with them.
We are convinced then, that the Lord intended that His coming should appear as
impending through the whole course of the age, but that it never could be imminent,
until all the signs were fulfilled, because ―then (and then alone) shall appear the sign

of the Son of Man in heaven‖ (Matt. 24:30).
But, someone says, ―The rapture is the purifying hope.‖ We reply the appearing is
the purifying hope, whether He appears to us or whether we are called at death to
appear before Him. Why is not the uncertainty of life, in which we may be summoned

at a moment‘s notice to appear before Him, as purifying as the thought of His sudden
appearing to us and the world. Some one has said: ―The most certain thing in this
world is death, the most uncertain, when it will take place.‖ Death is not the coming
of Christ, but it is the solemn moment at which everyone must be ready to appear

before Him. That is perpetually imminent, and this awful reality should be for us a
constant incentive to purity and godliness of walk.
Let the reader note that we have said that the Sovereign God has so ordered the
course of history that any who were of a mind to ―watch‖ for the signs of His coming,

might reckon it to be impending in any generation from the beginning of the age until
the present moment.
In actual fact, there is little evidence in the writings of the saints, however wise and
godly, through the history of the church, that the personal coming of Christ was

prominent in their thoughts. There is no indication in most cases, even with the
reformers and their successors, that the second advent was impending, less still,
imminent. The case of Luther, as previously cited, may be regarded as an exception.
This unawareness can be largely attributed to the false doctrines of Roman

Catholicism, especially the false ecclesiology of the subjection of the state to the
church. The second reason we would assign for this apparent lack of
advent—consciousness, is simply that since the great event was neither imminent nor
impending, the Holy Spirit did not lay it upon the hearts of His saints. What human

guide-book for a pure and humble walk for the saint, written in our time, can remotely
compare with ―The Imitation of Christ‖ by the beloved Thomas a Kempis of the
th
Brethren of the Common Life of the 15 century? Yet there is scarcely a reference to
the second advent in this matchless manual of Christian discipleship. The facts of

eternity and their overwhelming importance, always imminent, and the solemn reality

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