Such use has been made of the parable recorded in Luke 12:42-48 as to make it appear that the servant was unfaithful, in that he said: “My Lord delayeth his coming.” But they miss the point. As a matter of fact, the Lord has delayed his coming far beyond the time they tell us the inspired apostles said he might come. There was certainly nothing sinful in what the servant said, when it was true that his lord had delayed his coming. There could be no unfaithfulness in his saying what was actually true. But his unfaithfulness consisted in his taking advantage of that delay to do wrong. His wrong doing was his unfaithfulness. Not what he said about that delay, but what he did during that delay, constituted his unfaithfulness. But their use of this parable illustrates the strained interpretations men will put upon the Scripture to propagate a theory. But another statement in that parable has some bearing on the matter under discussion: “The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the unfaithful.” This statement applies to all unfaithful servants, and not simply those who will be alive when the Lord comes again. To make this apply only to those who are alive at the Lord’s second coming would leave many unfaithful servants that would not suffer the fate that this one did, for more shall have died before the Lord comes again than will be alive when he does come. It can apply to all unfaithful servants only in the sense that the Lord comes to all at death. Pointed Paragraphs: Instead of being afraid of our enemies, let us trust in Jehovah. Why worry overmuch about the evils that we cannot possibly remedy? “Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious against them that work unrighteousness.” (Ps. 37:1.) THE “TWO STAGES” THEORY EXAMINED It would not be fair to myself nor to the reader to charge that any Christian does not believe that the Lord will come again. That event is so plainly taught in the Bible that no one who believes the Book thinks otherwise. But some have engaged in so much speculation about what will occur when the Lord does come that, so it seems to me, their theories virtually deny much of what has already taken place. In some respects the various angles of their theory fail to connect, or even to harmonize.