The Harp of God: Proof Conclusive That Millions Now Living Will Never Die
John Stuart Mill · en
[370]Seeing, then, that Jesus Christ is a glorious spirit being with a
divine organism, and that as the wind cannot be seen, but comes and
goes, so a spirit can thus come and go without being discerned by human
eyes, could not our Lord be present and yet not observable by any
natural eyes? That is exactly according to the facts. Satan is a spirit
being. For many centuries Satan has been the god or invisible ruler of
the present evil world (2 Corinthians 4:3,4); yet no human eyes have
seen Satan, although men have felt his influence and still feel it.
Satan is not only the god of this world, but he is the chief one of his
wicked, invisible heaven; that is to say, the invisible ruling order of
things composed of Satan and the other fallen angels who exercise power
over human beings. The apostle Peter said: "We, according to his
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness". (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1-5) The coming kingdom of
the Lord is the new heavenly kingdom. This new ruling power, the
Messiah, is invisible, and will be invisible to human eyes, but will
establish in the earth visible agencies and representatives, namely, a
new social and political order of things. We should not, therefore,
expect the Lord's second coming to be in a body visible to human eyes,
but should expect that he would be present, exercising his power in his
own sovereign way.
[371]In many places in our Bible referring to the second coming of the
Lord the word translated into the English as "coming" is properly
translated _presence_. The proper meaning is distinguished by the Greek
word used, from which the English is translated. The Greek word
_parousia_ (pronounced par-oo-seé-ah) means presence, and refers to the
invisible presence of the Lord and is used in the following Scriptural
texts. We here quote the texts as they appear in the King James Version,
putting in brackets the proper word immediately following the word
"coming".
[372]"What shall be the sign of thy coming [presence]?"--Matthew 24:3.
[373]"As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming [presence] of
the Son of man be."--Matthew 24:37,39.
[374]"They that are Christ's at his coming [presence]."--1 Corinthians
15:23.
[375]"Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his
coming [presence]?"--1 Thessalonians 2:19.
[376]"To the end that he may establish your hearts unblameable in
holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming [presence] of our
Lord Jesus Christ."--1 Thessalonians 3:13.
[377]"We which are alive and remain unto the coming [presence] of the
Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep."--1 Thessalonians 4:15.
[378]"I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming [presence] of our Lord Jesus Christ."
--1 Thessalonians 5:23.
[379]"Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming [presence] of our
Lord Jesus Christ."--2 Thessalonians 2:1.