There are two views of our Lord’s coming. One is that the Church of Christ through the preaching of the Gospel and by co-operating with other agencies for righteousness, will Christianize the social order and bring in the period of righteousness which the Bible pictures as the Kingdom age. At the close of this period, the Lord Jesus will come to judge the world. This is called the post-millennial view, because the Kingdom age is known as the “millennium,” or the thousand years. The other view is that this thousand years of blessedness, or the Kingdom age, will not be inaugurated until Christ himself comes as King to set up the new order on earth. This is known as the pre-millennial view. A well known Christian leader who has been very active in the preaching and working for “social regeneration,” gave a message on the task of the Church in the present world crisis, and the problem of the Church in making the world what it ought to be. He announced as his text, “And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). One who heard the message remarked that the speaker after announcing his text, “with two swift kicks kicked the text out of the auditorium, and did not allow it to enter again during his discourse.” For the opening sentence of his message was this: “Can we, the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, make things over?” God’s Word does not say, “we, the followers of the Lord Jesus.” It says “I”; and the Son of God sitting on the throne of his glory is the speaker. The Word of God does not speak of making things over. It says, “Behold, I make all things _new_.” Discounting Christ’s Future Work Here is the fundamental error of the post-millennial view of the Lord’s coming: _it is a mixture of works and grace_. God’s plan for establishing righteousness in the universe is exactly the same as his plan for establishing righteousness in the human heart. It is all of grace, not of works. The pre-millennial view means the Kingdom age by grace, as the Victorious Life means the Kingdom principles in the individual heart by grace. Let each Christian earnestly face these two tests of his attitude toward the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Make the Blessed Hope a Vital Power! If his hope of the coming of the Lord is not an incentive of vital and present power in his life, there is something wrong with his theory. If a Christian believes that it is not possible for the Lord to come for at least a thousand years, or until the period during which Satan is bound has run its course (whether a thousand literal years or not), can he honestly say that the blessed hope of the personal appearing of his Lord is a vital power in the life?