“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For 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.”[132] This graphic account of the sublime scenes to be witnessed at the second coming of our Lord Jesus agitated the church in Thessalonica, as the Christians there supposed that the coming of Jesus was to be hourly expected. This led Paul to write another letter, in which he corrected that error. In this he wrote,―― “Now, we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering-together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come except there come a falling-away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”[133] Who the “man of sin” is remains an undecided question. The Protestants have generally applied the words to the Pope of Rome. It will be remembered, that when Jesus took his final departure from his disciples, ascending into the skies in bodily presence before them from Mount Olivet, two angels appeared to them, 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.”[134] The second coming of Christ, to reap the fruits of his humiliation and his atoning sacrifice in the establishment of his spiritual kingdom, was a prominent theme in the teaching both of Christ and his apostles. The language of Peter upon this subject unfolds, indeed, a scene of wonderful sublimity:―― “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance; that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for, since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.