Our Day

The time to reap has come, and the wheat is gathered at last into the
garner of the Lord:

"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed." 1 Cor. 15:51, 52.

"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." Matt. 24:31.

"This we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive
and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are
asleep. For 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. Wherefore comfort one another
with these words." 1 Thess. 4:15-18.

[Illustration: THE EMPTY TOMB

"Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His
coming." 1 Cor. 15:23.]

The righteous dead are raised to life as the trump of God sounds and the
voice of the Archangel calls to His sleeping saints, and the living
righteous are transformed from mortality to immortality. Then all
together, with the escort of the angels, they follow the Saviour to the
heavenly mansions that He has prepared in the city of God.


The Destruction of the Wicked

Before the glorious majesty of the coming King no sin can endure; for
true it is that "our God is a consuming fire"--now, in the day of His
mercy, consuming sin out of the heart that by faith approaches the
throne of grace, but in that day consuming the unrepentant sinner with
his sin.

    "Where will the sinner hide in that day, in that day?
    Where will the sinner hide in that day?
      It will be in vain to call,
      'Ye mountains on us fall!'
    For His hand will find out all in that day."

It is the great day long foretold by seer and prophet.

Again let us read the description of what it will mean to the unsaved to
see Christ coming in glory; for the terror of that day must warn us now
to keep within the refuge of the Saviour's loving grace:

"The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the
chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free
man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and
said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face
of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for
the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
Rev. 6:15-17.

The same glory that transforms the righteous is a consuming fire to
those who have rejected Christ's salvation:

"Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His
coming." 2 Thess. 2:8.

"When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty
angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the
glory of His power." 2 Thess. 1:7-9.


The Climax of Human History

Thus the second coming of Christ brings the resurrection and translation
of the righteous, the death of the wicked, and the end of the world. The
resurrection of the wicked does not then take place, but only that of
the just; save for some of the wicked dead who had a special part in
warring against Christ,--"they also which pierced Him" (Rev. 1:7). These
are raised to see His coming, necessarily to fall again before the
consuming glory of His presence.

The righteous are taken to reign with Christ in the heavenly city for a
thousand years, and during the same period the earth lies in desolation
and chaos, uninhabited by man, a dark abyss, the dreary prison house of
Satan. Of the two resurrections, first of the just and then of the
unjust, we are told:

"They [the righteous] lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were
finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that
hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no
power." Rev. 20:4-6.

It is at the end of the thousand years that the resurrection of the
wicked takes place. Then the city of God descends, "the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven," and the wicked come