The Second Coming of Christ—The Christian’s Hope—an “interview” with Ellen G. White

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What doctrine is the very keynote of the Scriptures?
“One of the most solemn and yet most glorious truths revealed in the Bible is that of Christ’s second coming, to complete the great work of redemption. To God’s pilgrim people, so long left to sojourn in ‘the region and shadow of death,’ a precious, joy-inspiring hope is given in the promise of His appearing, who is the ‘resurrection and the life,’ to bring home again His banished. The doctrine of the second advent is the very key note of the Sacred Scriptures.” —Great Controversy, p. 299.
For what have the children of faith long waited?
“From the day when the first pair turned their sorrowing steps from Eden, the children of faith have waited the coming of the Promised One to break the destroyer’s power and bring them again to the lost Paradise. Holy men of old looked forward to the advent of the Messiah in glory, as the consummation of their hope. Enoch, only the seventh in descent from them that dwelt in Eden, he who for three centuries on earth walked with his
God, was permitted to behold from afar the coming of the Deliverer. . . . The coming of Christ to usher in the reign of righteousness has inspired the most sublime and impassioned utterances of the sacred writers. The poets and prophets of the Bible have dwelt upon it in words glowing with celestial fire.”
—Great Controversy, p. 299, 300.
 

What promise did Jesus give that He would return?
“‘Let not your heart be troubled,’ He said, ‘ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.’ For your sake I came into the world. I am working in your behalf. When I go away, I shall still work earnestly for you. I came into the world to reveal Myself to you, that you might believe. I go to the Father to cooperate with Him in your behalf. The object of Christ’s departure was the opposite of what the disciples feared. It did not mean a final separation. He was going to prepare a
place for them, that He might come again, and receive them unto Himself. While He was building mansions for them, they were to build characters after the divine similitude.” —Desire of Ages, p. 663.
 

What further promise was given at the time of Christ’s ascension?
“The disciples were still looking earnestly toward heaven when, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; ‘which also 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.’ The promise of Christ’s second coming was ever to be kept fresh in the minds of His disciples. The same Jesus whom they had seen ascending into heaven, would come again, to take to Himself those who here below give themselves to His service. The same voice that had
said to them, ‘Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end,’ would bid them welcome to His presence in the
heavenly kingdom.” —Acts of the Apostles, p. 33.12
 

What dangers did Jesus say would precede His return?
“In unmistakable language, our Lord speaks of His second coming, and He gives warning of dangers to precede His advent to the world. ‘If any man
shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and
wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you,
Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.’ “As one of the signs of Jerusalem’s destruction, Christ had said, ‘Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.’ False prophets did rise, deceiving the people, and leading great numbers into the desert. Magicians and sorcerers, claiming miraculous power, drew the people after them into the mountain solitudes. But this prophecy was spoken also for the last days. This sign is given as a sign of the second advent. Even now false Christs and false prophets are showing signs and wonders to seduce His disciples. Do we not hear the cry, ‘Behold, He is in the desert’? Have not thousands gone forth into the desert, hoping to find Christ? And from thousands of gatherings where men profess to hold communion with departed spirits, is not the call now heard, ‘Behold, He is in the secret chambers’? This is the very claim that Spiritualism puts forth. But what says Christ? ‘Believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.’” —Desire of Ages, p. 631.
 

What signs did Christ give to show when His coming was drawing near?
“The Saviour gives signs of His coming, and more than this, He fixes the time when the first of these signs shall appear: ‘Immediately after the
tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they
shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet,
and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.’ At the close of the great papal persecution, Christ
declared, the sun should be darkened, and the moon should not give her light. Next, the stars should fall from heaven. And He says, ‘Learn a
parable of the fig tree: when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these
things, know that He is near, even at the doors.’ He says of those who see these signs, ‘This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.’ These signs have appeared. Now we know of a surety that the Lord’s coming is at hand. ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.’” —Desire of Ages, pp. 631, 632.
 

For what purpose is Christ returning?
“He will come to raise the dead, and to change the living saints from glory to glory. He will come to honour those who have loved Him, and kept His
commandments, and to take them to Himself. He has not forgotten them nor His promise. There will be a relinking of the family chain. When we look
upon our dead, we may think of the morning when the trump of God shall sound, when ‘the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.’ A little longer, and we shall see the King in His beauty. A little longer, and He will wipe all tears from our eyes. A little longer, and He will present us ‘faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.’ Wherefore, when He gave the signs of His coming He said, ‘When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.’” –Desire of Ages, p. 632. 13
 

What has always been the Christian’s hope?
“The coming of the Lord has been in all the ages the hope of His true followers. The Saviour’s parting promise upon Olivet, that He would come again, lighted up the future for His disciples, filling their hearts with joy and hope that sorrow could not quench nor trials dim. Amid suffering and persecution, the ‘appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ’ was the ‘blessed hope.’” –Great Controversy, p. 302.
 

What preparation must be made to meet the Lord?
“We are preparing to meet Him who, escorted by a retinue of holy angels, is to appear in the clouds of heaven to give the faithful and the just the finishing touch of immortality. When He comes, He is not to cleanse us of our sins, to remove from us the defects in our characters, or to cure us of the infirmities of our tempers and dispositions. If wrought for us at all, this work will all be accomplished before that time. When the Lord comes, those who are holy will be holy still. Those who have preserved their bodies and spirits in holiness, in sanctification and honour, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. But those who are unjust, unsanctified, and filthy, will remain so forever. No work will then be done for them to remove their defects, and give them holy characters. The Refiner does not then sit to pursue His refining process, and remove their sins and their corruption.
This is all to be done in these hours of probation. It is now that this work is to be accomplished for us.” -Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 2, p. 355.
 

What words of hope assure us that God will prevail?
“In all ages the Saviour’s chosen have been educated and disciplined in the school of trial. They walked in narrow paths on earth; they were purified in the furnace of affliction. For Jesus’ sake they endured opposition, hatred, calumny. They followed Him through conflicts sore; they endured self-denial and experienced bitter disappointments. By their own painful experience they learned the evil of sin, its power, its guilt, its woe; and they look upon it with abhorrence. A sense of the infinite sacrifice made for its cure humbles them in their own sight and fills their hearts with gratitude and praise
which those who have never fallen cannot appreciate. They love much because they have been forgiven much. Having been partakers of Christ’s sufferings, they are fitted to be partakers with Him of His glory. “The heirs of God have come from garrets, from hovels, from dungeons, from scaffolds, from mountains, from deserts, from the caves of the earth, from the caverns of the sea. On earth they were ‘destitute, afflicted, tormented.’ Millions went down to the grave loaded with infamy because they steadfastly refused to yield to the deceptive claims of Satan. By human tribunals they
were adjudged the vilest of criminals. But now ‘God is judge Himself.’ Psalm 50:6. Now the decisions of earth are reversed. ‘The rebuke of His people shall He take away.’ Isaiah 25:8. ‘They shall call them, The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord.’ He hath appointed ‘to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.’ Isaiah 62:12; 61:3. They are no longer feeble, afflicted, scattered, and oppressed. Henceforth they are to be ever with the Lord. They stand before the throne clad in richer robes than the most honored of the earth
have ever worn. They are crowned with diadems more glorious than were ever placed upon the brow of earthly monarchs. The days of pain and weeping are forever ended. The King of glory has wiped the tears from all faces; every cause of grief has been removed. Amid the waving of palm branches they pour forth a song of praise, clear, sweet, and harmonious; every voice takes up the strain, until the anthem swells through the vaults
of heaven: ‘Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.’ And all the inhabitants of heaven respond in the ascription: ‘Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever.’”
–Great Controversy, p. 646, 650.

“The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.”
–Great Controversy, p. 678.

—This “interview” was originally published in the Australasian Record in January 1918. Edith M. Graham compiled these precious and timely quotations.

This article comes from "Hope for you" magazine, October 2022. If you want to see the rest of the articles go to there website: https://www.hopeforhealthusa.com/news-letter/