2. The Apostles referred to the Redeemer’s Return in the language of Imminency.

“Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light” (Rom. 13:11, 12). The “salvation,” to which the apostle here refers is the completing and consummating of our salvation, when we shall, in spirit and soul and body, be fully conformed to the image of God’s Son. The time when this will be realized is the time of our Redeemer’s Return, for, “when He shall appear we shall be like Him”(1 John 3:2). That time will be the believer’s “day,” that “perfect day” unto which the path of the just “shineth more and more” (Prov. 4:18). The “night,” spoken of above, is the present period during which the Light of the world is absent. Observe that the apostle, under the Holy Spirit, regarded the night as “far spent,” and the day as “at hand!”

“And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly”(Rom. 16:20). The reference here is to Gen. 3:15 where we have recorded Jehovah’s promise to our first parents that the woman’s Seed should bruise the head of the Serpent. As believers will, in the coming day, rule and reign “with Christ” (see Rev. 3:21; 19:14, 20:4) it is here said “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet.” In the use of the word “shortly” we learn that the apostle did not regard the fulfillment of this promise as something which lay in the far distant future, but rather as that which was even then impending.

“I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; That in everything ye are enriched by Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you; So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”(1 Cor. 1:4–7). From this passage we learn: first, that these Corinthian saints were “waiting” for the Coming of the Lord Jesus, which proves they were looking for Him to return in their generation; second, that the apostle commanded them for their attitude, yea, “thanked God always on their behalf;” third, that this expectation on the part of these Corinthian believers was the very summum bonum of Christian experience, inasmuch as it is said, they “came behind in no gift,” and then as a climax it is added—“Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the Day approaching”(Heb. 10:24, 25). The coming “Day” with its glories and blessedness was that which filled the apostle’s vision. The promised “Day”—the Day of Christ—which was to follow this dark night of sorrow when the Bridegroom is absent, was the hope which stayed his heart. He could “see,” by faith, that day was approaching, and on the fact of its imminency he bases an exhortation to those who are partakers of the heavenly calling to conduct themselves in the present in a manner befitting those who are the children of light. Again, in this same chapter the apostle says, For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (vs. 37). How clear it is from these words that the Holy Spirit desired the first century believers to be “looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ”!

So real was the hope of the Redeemer’s Return to the heart of the apostle Paul and so imminent did this event appear to him that we find he included himself among those who might not fall asleep but be among the living saints when the Assembling Shout should be heard. Said he, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:51, 52). Again, “For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our(not “your”) vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Phil. 3:19, 20). Once more, “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(not “ye”) 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” (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). The enemies of the faith have seized upon these very statements to show that the apostle Paul was in error, that he wrote by unaided human wisdom, that he merely recorded in his Epistles his own beliefs, and that in some of these he was clearly mistaken. But such an objection is quite pointless to the saints who believe that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” We hope to show further on in this chapter why the Holy Spirit moved the apostles to write of the Second Advent of Christ as an event which might take place in their own day.

The apostle Paul was not alone in this regard: we find that the other apostles also regarded the Return of our Lord as something which might occur at any time. The apostle James wrote, “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”(Jas. 5:8). There is no ambiguity about this language: such a statement not only argued the pre-millennial Coming of Christ, inasmuch as His Coming could not be said to have “drawn nigh” if a whole Millennium intervened, but it also announced the imminency of His return—something which might be expected at any time. The apostle Peter declared, “But the end of all things (all things connected with this present regime) is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer” (1 Pet. 4:7). The apostle was expecting the speedy winding up of this present economy and the introduction of a new order of things when his Lord returned and took the government upon His shoulder. The apostle John said, “Little children it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time” (1 John 2:18). The “last time” or “last hour” (Greek hora) must be distinguished from “the last days” (2 Tim. 3:1) and “the last day” (Greek hemera—John 6:39). The “last days” refer to the closing decades of this present dispensation. The “last day” looks forward to the Millennium when the saints shall participate in the “first resurrection”—it is the last Day of God’s dispensational week, foreshadowed by the Sabbath. The “last hour” is connected with the Antichrist. It is the “last hour” of Satan’s freedom for, excepting the “little season” referred to in Rev. 20, after this dispensation Satan will be for ever banished from these scenes. This dispensation then is Satan’s “last hour” as the “Prince of this world” and it is during the closing moments of this “last hour” that the Antichrist shall be revealed. The force then of the apostle’s statement was to the effect that though the personal Antichrist had not appeared up to the time when he wrote this epistle, yet, the saints must not conclude from this that the Second Coming of Christ was necessarily a long way off. No; even then there were many Antichrists by which they were to know it was the “last time.” Thus we see that the testimony of the apostles was uniform and explicit. They were looking for their Lord to return at any time. Such ought to be our attitude too.