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complete the spiritual coming that He has begun, there will be no need of a visible advent to
make perfect His glory on the earth.”[Outline of Christian Theology, p. 444.] According to
William Adams Brown “Not through an abrupt catastrophe, it may be, as in the early Christian
hope, but by the slower and surer method of spiritual conquest, the ideal of Jesus shall yet win
the universal assent which it deserves, and His spirit dominate the world. This is the truth for
which the doctrine of the second advent stands.”[Christian Theology in Outline, p. 373.] Walter
Rauschenbusch and Shailer Mathews speak in similar terms of the second coming. One and all,
they interpret the glowing descriptions of the second coming of Christ as figurative
representations of the idea that the spirit of Christ will be an ever-increasing, pervasive
influence in the life of the world. But it goes without saying that such representations do not do
justice to the descriptions found in such passages as Acts 1:11; 3:20,21, Matt. 24:44; I Cor.
15:22; Phil. 3:20; Col. 3:4; I Thess. 2:19; 3:13; 4:15-17; II Tim. 4:8; Tit. 2:13; Heb. 9:28.
Modernists themselves admit this when they speak of these as representing the old Jewish way
of thinking. They have new and better light on the subject, but it is a light that grows rather dim
in view of the world events of the present day.
b. It will be a physical coming.
That the Lord’s return will be physical follows from such
passages as Acts 1:11; 3:20,21; Heb. 9:28; Rev. 1:7. Jesus will return to earth in the body. There
are some who identify the predicted coming of the Lord with His spiritual coming on the day of
Pentecost, and understand the parousia to mean the Lord’s spiritual presence in the Church.
According to their representation the Lord did return in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost,
and is now present (hence parousia) in the Church. They lay special emphasis on the fact that
the word parousia means presence.[This interpretation is found in Warren’s The Parousia of
Christ, and in J. M. Campbell’s The Second Coming of Christ.] Now it is quite evident that the
New Testament does speak of a spiritual coming of Christ, Matt. 16:28; John 14:18,23; Rev.
3:20; but this coming, whether to the Church on the day of Pentecost or to the individual in his
spiritual renewal, Gal. 1:16, cannot be identified with what the Bible represents as the second
coming of Christ. It is true that the word parousia means presence, but Dr. Vos correctly
pointed out that in its religious eschatological usage it also means arrival, and that in the New
Testament the idea of arrival is in the foreground. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that
there are other terms in the New Testament, which serve to designate the second coming,
namely apokalupsis, epiphaneia, and phanerosis, every one of which points to a coming that
can be seen. And, finally, it should not be forgotten that the Epistles refer to the second coming
repeatedly as an event that is still future, Phil. 3:20; I Thess. 3:13; 4:15,16; II Thess. 1:7-10; Tit.
2:13. This does not fit in with the idea that the coming was already an event of the past.
c. It will be a visible coming.
This is intimately connected with the preceding. It may be said
that, if the coming of the Lord will be physical, it will also be visible. This would seem to follow