THE DAY OF THE LORD IS COMING!

God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because He hath appointed a

day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath

ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised

Him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31).

This is a command from God, not to be lightly disregarded. It is universal,

for it includes all men, everywhere. It is a solemn warning that the day is

coming when every person will be judged by his personal relationship to

Christ. And the pledge of its fulfillment is the fact of His resurrection, for

Christ did not die in vain.

Salvation is personal and individual. Jesus did not die to save society, but

to save sinners. He was made in the likeness of man that He might take the

place of each one of us upon the cross and bear the penalty of our personal

guilt. "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might

be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21).

The historic fact that Jesus came once in accordance with prophecy is proof

that He will come again in accordance with prophecy, for both advents are

included in the same prophecy. Seven centuries before Jesus was born, Isaiah

Prophesied that He would come "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,

and the day of vengeance of our God" (Isaiah 61:2). Isaiah saw the two-advents

in line, like distant mountain peaks, and could not distinguish the time

interval between them. But when Jesus read His divine commission from this

prophesy in the synagogue at Nazareth, He stopped with the words: "the

acceptable year of the Lord," and closed the Book. The "day of vengeance"

awaits His second advent, when the world will be purged by fire.

At His second advent, Christ is coming for His own that they may escape God's

judgement on sin, for "our God is a consuming fire." The present interval

between these two advents is the day of grace in which we live, and choose our

eternal destiny. His first advent brought salvation to sinners; He is coming

again to take out of the world those who in their lifetime obeyed God's

command to repent, and received His beloved Son as their personal Saviour.

God's promise to believers in every age since Calvary is that: "The Lord

Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the

archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first;

then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in

the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the

Lord" (I Thessalonians 4:16-17).

There can never be world peace because men must first be reconciled to God

before they can be reconciled to one another. "There is no peace, saith my

God, to the wicked." The world system is essentially evil because Satan is the

prince of this world. Therefore it is written that: "If any man love the

world, the love of the Father is not in him" (I John 2:15). Christ is the

Prince of Peace, for we are reconciled to God through the blood of the cross

which covers our sin.

Salvation in Christ does not come by mental assent to His teaching or

acceptance of a creed, but by personal experience of His indwelling presence.

"Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed

away; behold, all things are become new" (II Corinthians 5:17). Jesus said:

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). We

are born into this world individually, one by one; we are likewise reborn

spiritually, one by one. It is a transforming experience, whereby we go to

Calvary with our Lord, and henceforth see life from the standpoint of the

Cross.

In His final prayer in the Garden on the night of His betrayal, Jesus said: "I

pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me for they are

Thine" (John 17:9). Christ is the Hope of the world in this age of grace,

while He tarries and the Comforter abides, for: "There is none other name

under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). When God

commands, and the appointed day is sure, in which all will be judged by their

relationship to Christ, the question of supreme importance for each of us is:

Will I be found on the victory side of the Cross when Christ returns for His

own?

Stephen E. Slocum

---------------

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