The personal return of the Lord-His coming as the Son of God, into the air, to awake His sleeping saints, to change the living, and to gather both around Himself in resurrection glory-is the hope of the individual believer, and of the Church. This is the great event for which the Scriptures teach us to watch, and wait:
The conversion of the world by means of the preaching of the gospel, is not the Christian's hope; it is the Lord Himself (1 Tim. 1:11Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; (1 Timothy 1:1)). He does not look for signs, but for the fulfillment of the Lord's own promise-"I will come again, and receive you unto Myself." His heart and eyes are fixed on heaven, not on events transpiring on the earth. These events, however important in the fulfillment of prophecy, are not his hope, nor is the return of the Lord from heaven dependent upon them. There is nothing to be fulfilled-nothing intervening between the believer and the personal advent of his beloved Lord and Master. "Surely I come quickly" is His own promise. May the response ever rise from love-filled hearts, "Come, Lord Jesus."