The Second Coming Versus
The Appearing




Most all of orthodox Christians recognize the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ will come again. Some see the fact that He will come to the Mount of Olives. Others see an added facet of His coming and that is His coming into the regions of the lower atmosphere at which time some saints will be "caught up..to meet the Lord in the air." Certain orthodoxy only sees the former; the more fundamental sees both the former and the latter. The latter referred to as the "rapture", which incidentally is not a Scriptural word. Nevertheless, there are two phases or aspects of the second coming of the Lord.
Both phases are related to the "coming of the Lord." It is the "coming" of the Lord that both aspects will be completed. When the Lord Jesus Christ was received up into heaven two angels stood by the disciples and said,

"...Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."

This definite statement links the prophecy of Zechariah 14:4 and the second "coming" of the Lord we read in Zechariah,
"And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south."

The Lord Jesus Christ will return again to this earth from the point that He left, the Mount of Olives (see Acts 1:12). It should be noted that throughout the Pentecostal dispensation this was in view. In the third chapter of Acts, Peter tells the men of Israel that if they would change their attitude concerning Jesus Christ of Nazareth God would send Him back from heaven and the long awaited Kingdom would be restored to Israel (see Acts 3:19-26).

For this Kingdom to be instituted Jesus Christ must of necessity return to this earth. So with the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles it is seen that the burden is the return of the Lord from heaven to earth. This is referred to as His "coming". That is, He leaves heaven and comes to earth. This is what the saints looked for during the Acts period.

It must be stated that the "coming" is intimately related to the Kingdom. This fact was in view all through the Acts. The Kingdom hope penetrated from Acts 2 clear through Acts 28. Along with the Kingdom hope goes the return of the Lord, which is His second "coming" All of the epistles written during the Acts period relate to His "coming".
However, after Acts 28:28, we find that the Apostle writes seven other epistles and there is a very obvious omission of the reference to the "coming of the Lord". This study purposes to show that if words have any meaning and are to be studied for the purpose of God making known to us His truth then we must recognize that in Paul's latter epistles he makes no reference to the "coming of the Lord". There seems to be an obvious omission of the words "come" and "coming" in the last seven letters written by Paul.

The last seven epistles make known present truth. They are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, 1Timothy, Titus, and 2 Timothy. In these letters the Apostle makes known the present calling of the Church of the One Body. It is here also we learn what is the One Hope (Eph.4:4) of our calling. It is not mentioned as being connected with any movement on the part of the Lord at all. But rather it is connected with His manifestation in Glory. The Scripture speaks of it as His "appearing".

Before Acts 28:28 the hope anticipated by believers was that of the "coming (i.e.back to earth) of the Lord." After Acts 28:28 the hope that the believers should anticipate is that of the Lord's "appearing" in the Glory "far above all heavens" (Eph.4:10). However, failure of Christians to rightly divide the Word of Truth has resulted in confusion as to what the real hope of the believer is in this dispensation of the grace of God. They seem to cling to the hope that was set aside that is not even available today. The Pentecostal believers were to look for the coming of the Lord. But when the dispensational crisis occurred and Israel became "Lo-ammi" (Hos.1:9 i.e.not God's people) at Acts 28:28, the return of the Lord became impossible. He is no longer waiting Israel's repentance, but now, after Acts 28:28, He is enthroned as the Highly Exalted One, who is Head over all things to the Church which is His Body, the fullness of Him Who filleth all in all (Eph.1:22-23). In the capacity as the Head of the Church which is His body, He remains as such until such time as the Church is received up into glory and there manifested with Him in the heavenly places.

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